THE LINKING VALUE OF TOUGH MUDDER
The Tough Mudder experience is primarily a collective performance and the events are specifically designed to test the strength, stamina, mental grit and above all camaraderie and team spirit of participants as emphasized by the claim “There is no ‘I’ in Mudder”.
Mudders cannot complete a course on their own; they need teammates to get through mud, fire, ice-water and 10,000 volts of electricity and to encourage them when their spirits plunge. Due to the types of obstacles, the Tough Mudder event is more about teamwork than trying to finish within a specific time. Tough Mudders are team players and must ensure no one gets left behind. To this end, all Mudders are expected to uphold the brand ideals and demonstrate teamwork and camaraderie both on and off the course. On joining the event, all Mudders are asked to recite the Tough Mudder pledge before starting each event, which includes a sentence on the need to help fellow Mudders to complete the course. Helping is therefore a main collective practice initiated by the company to foster the co-creation of the Tough Mudder experience.
The collective dimension is not only in the reciprocal assistance that participants offer each other during the three hours of the race. Tough Mudders would not exist without volunteering: by joining the Mudder Volunteer Program (MVP), Mudders help make Tough Mudder. Volunteers are given a significant amount of responsibility and a variety of roles.They help register participants and spectators and manage the flow of start groups. They encourage and motivate participants as they barrel through 10-12 miles of hardcore challenges. They cheer on Mudders while they tackle a dumpster full of ice. They keep Mudders hydrated. They put hard-earned headbands on Mudders as they cross the finishing line and hand out post-event food and goods. Tough Mudder volunteers are thus at the heart of the event, creating collective experiences for everyone (including themselves).
Indeed Tough Mudder exemplifies the notion of linking value of an offering. The linking value refers to the offering’s contribution to the construction, development or maintenance of interpersonal links – even ephemeral ones. In today’s hyper-individualized world, goods and services that are valued are mainly those which, through their linking value, permit and support social interaction of the communal type. To satisfy their desire for communities, people seek products and services less for their use value than for their linking value. Interestingly in the case of Tough Mudder, this linking value is not provided solely by the company but also by the consumers when they help each other during the event as when they volunteer.
As such Tough Mudder is a very exciting case of experiential marketing in which consumers make relationships and gather into communities; they live authentic experiences on the basis of suffering in the wilderness; and they are ready to collaborate between each other and with company’s members. This is the result of the careful cultural branding approach that Will Dean has crafted.
July 25th 2015
