The Painted Face in the Crowd: A Story of Belonging in B2B

Pull up a chintz armchair, pour something restorative, and lend an ear to a tale of two ICPs. Firstly, we have the polished “ideal customer profile,” an acronym wearing sensible shoes and a button-down. The second is the Insane Clown Posse, maestros of merriment whose followers, the Juggalos, have built a community so devoted that cults could learn from it. 

In a moment of ecstatic clarity, I realized that between these two ICPs lies a deep wisdom for the B2B marketer. Ready for it? Then take my hand and let us wander into the fabled “Gathering of the Juggalos.”

Scene: We’re hunched over our computers as we meticulously deconstruct our go-to-market strategy when a voice pipes up, “Wait, who is our ICP?” A hush descends, broken only by the soft whirr of the AC, or maybe the white noise of your Zoom meeting room. 

Familiar question. Still a difficult answer.

So I say, “Perhaps begin by noticing what that other ICP, the Insane Clown Posse, notice.” Because the core proposition from one ICP to another is more similar than you think: Community first. Everything else follows.

What the Insane Clown Posse gets right

Instead of just accumulating a community of listeners over the last 30 years, the Insane Clown Posse cultivated comrades. Face paint as luminous as a coral reef, symbols that could be identified on the side of a truck on some midwestern highway, rituals so consistent you could set your watch by them. In B2B terms, those are the unignorable markers of identity, Jenni Romaniuk’s distinctive assets, and the reason an in-market buyer says, “Ah! These are my people,” and pulls up a chair to listen. 

If your ICP can’t be recognized from across the conference floor (by problem language, shared stories, or visible badges), then you have a tribe in theory only. Community building is a process of creating unique connections that can be shared, but that are unimaginable without you.

“Very good,” you say, “but how would I bottle such lightning without drenching the office?” And good for you! That’s a fun metaphor.

Vocabulary

You need to codify belonging. Juggalos call each other “family.” That single word collapses the marketing funnel. Awareness? Redundant. Family knows where to find each other. 

So, what single, resonant phrase encapsulates the fate you and your customers share? Not a tagline that has been combed through until it lies flat and lifeless, but a vow—short enough for a lanyard, strong enough for a lifetime. When you identify that phrase, you have not just a profile but a pledge, and prospects stop feeling prospected and start feeling expected.

Choreography

Community is also choreography, and the Insane Clown Posse knows this. Call-and-response. Shared beverages launched with gusto. Seasonal gatherings that function as both homecoming and onboarding.

Translate this to B2B: recurring ceremonies where customers are co-authors, not seat-fillers. Quarterly business reviews that are less dentist, more fête. Slack channels where newcomers are greeted not by the yawning void but by elders bearing links, lore, and well-placed gifs. When you diagram your ICP, include the dance steps. Where do they meet? How do they greet? Which rites make rookies feel fluent in a fortnight?

Common enemies

Next, while a community is unified in what it stands for, it’s also well aware of what it stands against. Juggalos’ embrace of their own is only matched by their exclusion of those who won’t don the face paint or spray the ol’ Faygo soda. 

Great community building excludes as artfully as it includes. Many marketers fear sharp edges; Juggalos use edges for definition. In B2B, edges are your qualifying criteria: the pains you emphatically solve, the stages of maturity you serve, the industries where your similes map cleanly. Broadcast those edges without apology. A good ICP says, “If you are here, this is your feast; if not, we’ll help you find the right restaurant.” Clarity is kindness.

Mythos

Then there’s mythos; the narrative spine. The Insane Clown Posse built a world with recurring characters and themes, a serial story rewarding attention with belonging. Your ICP deserves the same. 

Map your buyer’s journey as a saga of installments: the early episode (chaos and duct tape), the mid-season twist (growth outpaces governance), the finale (scale without entropy). Give names to the beasts they battle and the rewards you provide. A myth memorable enough to retell in an elevator is the sort people actually retell in an elevator.

Evidence

Hush. I hear the analytics inclined among you murmur, well, “What of metrics? One can’t measure success with vibes.” 

This is true! The Juggalo miracle is retention and advocacy, two numbers to make any finance chief smile. In your ICP work, instrument the community motions. When the community is healthy, marketing spend shifts from acquisition to retention (less peacock, more gardener), and your CAC takes a graceful bow.

Product

Ah, but what of product? The Insane Clown Posse’s artifacts—think albums, shows, gatherings—are not merely consumed; they are commemorated. Each becomes a memento, a chapter marker. 

Craft B2B equivalents: launch rituals that feel like holidays, features christened by the community, release notes that read like postcards from an expedition you all took together. Your ICP should be able to place themselves in time by your milestones, as one would remember summers by the seaside.

Hospitality

Finally, hospitality. At Juggalo gatherings, the first-timer is shepherded with care. In your world, the warmest energy should go to the newest hands. 

Pair rookies with seasoned guides. Encourage face-paint moments—figuratively, unless your compliance team is unusually accommodating—where members adopt visible signals of belonging. Send welcome boxes that teach the secret handshake. Publish a “field manual” written by customers, for customers, in the language they speak when no marketer is listening.

Now bring it all together

We return to our double I.C.P. If you take away anything from me, let it be this: the ideal customer profile is real, it’s alive, it’s not spending its days stuck on a presentation slide, and it’s ready to be welcomed at the door. The Insane Clown Posse proves that when you build a hearth, the right people bring the wood, the stories, and the friends. Granted, it’s one of the more colorful comparisons out there, but the point stands, and it got you reading.

Your job, fellow B2B marketer, is to trade the chill of segmentation for the warmth of communion. To specify boldly, ritualize kindly, measure wisely, and host lavishly.