I think this problem is specific to today's web: I don't think slashdot and yahoo (or google) had a tribe.

That is, another approach to marketing is to build something that is just really good - much better than the alternatives. But this is extraordinarily hard to do, and it's much easier if you're in early, before it's mined out.

That said, whenever it seems that a market is stable and everything that can be invented has been invented, that's the very time that is ripe for something unexpected, perhaps coming out of left-of-field (eg. a disruptive tech).

Hey. What happened to good old fashioned "make something people want" - the tribe will build itself, as long as you're solving someone's problem! :)

someone had to write it down. brilliant. perfect question to ask is if you can't build the tribe, then what?

-social proof your service, so it looks like you already have a tribe (reddit)

-make something so useful that a tribal following is inevitable (duckduckgo)

-make a viral app that caters to human vices (hotornot)

Well, they build Las Vegas out of an Oasis.

It is true that a lot of startups underestimate the value of marketing ("creating a sale for tomorrow"). It seems that most people's idea of marketing is to contact bloggers back to back.

It's not only buzz-creation. Website copy and usabilty is often overlooked or bad executed.