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The Culting of Brands Turn Your Customers into True Believers
A fresh and original look at the phenomenon of “cult branding” — how companies cultivate fanatical customer loyalty.
At first glance, companies like Apple and Nike have little in common with organizations like the Hell’s Angels and the Unification Church. But in reality, they all fulfill the main definition of a cult: They attract people who see themselves as different from the masses in some fundamental way. Contrary to stereotypes, most cult members aren’t emotionally unstable—they’re just normal folks searching for a sense of belonging.
Marketing expert Douglas Atkin has spent years researching both full-blown cults and companies that use cult-branding techniques. He interviewed countless cult members to find out what makes them tick. And he explains exactly how brands like Harley- Davidson, Saturn, JetBlue, and Ben & Jerry’s make their customers feel unique, important, and part of an exclusive group—and how that leads to solid, long-term relationships between a company and its customers.
In addition to describing a fascinating phenomenom, The Culting of Brands will be of enormous value to business leaders. It will teach marketers how to align themselves with a specific segment of the population, how to attract and keep new “members,” how to establish a mythology about the company, and how to manage a workforce filled with true believers.
Once a brand achieves cult status, it becomes almost impossible for a competitor to dethrone it. The Culting of Brands will reveal the secrets of fierce customer identification and, most important, unbreakable loyalty.
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Meh…
This book is out of print. I don’t even recall where I heard about it. As a whole it’s an interesting look at brand loyalty. Saturn, Nike, Harley — they have cult followings that rival few others. It was interesting to read the interviews with Marines and religious cult members to see how similar the sentiments are from faith to brand loyalty. But, I didn’t get much of an education from it on building cult status for a brand. If you can find it, maybe it’s worth the read. But don’t go out of your way for it.
4 Stars Better as a set of case studies than a “how-to,” but good overall.
The title of this book makes it sound creepier and more duplicitous than it is. First of all, forget all the negative connotations you have when you hear the word “cult.” Atkins broadly defines a cult as a “group exhibiting a great devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing.” A cult brand, then is when the group or community is built around a brand.
This, of course, is not a new idea. Marketers have always tried to get people to love their products with religious devotion. But Atkins articulates the similarity between brand cults and traditional cults and does extensive research into both, with the end goal being that marketers can apply the techniques of traditional cults to build brand cults. The traditional cults he uses (again, remember he has a broad definition) include the Catholic Church, Mormon Church, Unification Church, Hell’s Angels, and a few more. On the brand side of things are the usual suspects: Apple, Ebay, JetBlue, Mary Kay, Saturn, Harley-Davidson–brands that have communities built around them.
The comparisons are interesting, but there is nothing shocking in his findings. People gain some of their identity from the groups, social or otherwise, to which they belong. Groups are formed around shared causes, interests, or philosophies. Therefore, it is only natural that as brands have come to create their own stories, characters, and philosophy (oftentimes independent of the functional benefit of their products), groups start to form around them.
I always find the case studies to be the most interesting part of these kinds of books. There’s a lot to learn from brands that have done it right. Where the book falls a little short for me is when Atkins tries to define the rules for creating a cult brand. Sure, there are some guidelines to follow (e.g. don’t alienate your consumer, don’t lie to people, etc.), but most of them are just guidelines for creating good brands in general. I would argue that not every brand in every category can become a cult brand. And even a brand that has existing cultural cache and follows all the “how to cult your brand” rules is not guaranteed to become a cult brand. There are too many factors, too many stars that must line up. Sure you can try to encourage a cult brand (who wouldn’t want to), but the implication that you can control the factors that lead to a brand becoming “culted” seems a bit of a stretch.
That all aside, this is a good read, and a deeper examination of a concept that first piqued my interest when I read Alex Wipperfurth’s book, BRAND HIJACK.
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