{"id":1163,"slug":"rule-reweight-marketing-portfolio-toward-in-group-accrual","title":"R2 — Reweight marketing portfolio toward in-group reputation accrual; reduce reliance on homeowner-targeted lead-gen and agency-directory listings","kind":"rule","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["psychology-aversion","social-network-theory","signalling-theory"],"reference_body":"**Rule:** More hours into BILD / WRHBA / OHBA event attendance, more named-byline writing in *Canadian Contractor* / *Ontario Home Builder* / *Better Builder Magazine* / BTA-adjacent media, more sponsorship of HBA dinners and certification cohorts, more deliberate cultivation of supplier-rep and subcontractor-broker relationships. **Reduce reliance on lead-gen ads aimed at homeowners** (which is not the buyer anyway) and on agency-directory listings.\n\n**Why:** In-group reputation dominates market reputation for high-ticket residential/ICI vendor selection ([[rindova-2005-being-good-vs-being-known]], [[in-group-vs-market-reputation-trades-distinction]], [[why-in-group-dominates-three-compounding-mechanisms]]). The buyer is operating in a credence-good regime ([[dulleck-kerschbamer-sutter-2011-liability-verifiability-credence-goods]]) where market signals carry little independent weight.\n\n**How to apply:**\n- Quarterly portfolio review: list the channels in which Candid currently invests time and money. Mark each as in-group accrual vs market accrual. Target a deliberate rebalance over four quarters.\n- Allocate at least one named team member to in-group presence (HBA membership, event attendance, named-byline placement) as a primary KPI, not a side activity.\n- For homeowner-targeted homeowner-targeted ad spend: keep only what is producing actual qualified leads in the contractor channel, not the homeowner channel. Most of it should be reallocated.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"research-brief-trust-networks-in-group-reputation-may-2026","title":"Research brief: trust, referral networks, and in-group reputation in Ontario's trades economy (May 2026 — Foundation Brief #3)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rindova-2005-being-good-vs-being-known","title":"Rindova, Williamson, Petkova, Sever 2005 (AMJ) — reputation is bidimensional: perceived quality (\"being good\") vs prominence (\"being known\"); prominence drove price premium","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"in-group-vs-market-reputation-trades-distinction","title":"In-group vs market reputation — for trades, in-group (\"being good\") dominates market (\"being known\"); applied translation of Rindova et al.","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"why-in-group-dominates-three-compounding-mechanisms","title":"Why in-group reputation dominates market reputation for trades — credence-good + loss-aversion + low-frequency selection compound","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"rule-hba-chba-peer-channels-as-primary-distribution","title":"Rule: treat HBA / CHBA / RenoMark / peer channels as primary distribution, not soft-marketing tactics","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[]},"created_at":"2026-05-25T13:34:11.248Z","updated_at":"2026-05-25T13:34:11.248Z"}