Douglas Atkin; The Culting of Brands: Turn Your Customers Into True Believers, Portfolio, Penguin, New York, 2004.
We all crave ‘meaning’ and ‘belonging’. Cult-like brands have become the new religion because they provide these two basic human needs.
People queue overnight to be the first into the new Apple temples, I mean, retail stores. Cult-like brands inspire extreme religious-like customer loyalty – and fanatical behaviour. Customers are no longer satisfied with mere product. They’re buying into an ideology with meaning, purpose and value; an identity with personality; and a community of like-minded, mutually interested souls. The two most important elements of a cult-like brand are the ideology and the interaction between your customers. Your ideology provides vision, meaning and desire. The contact with you and fellow customers builds a community. This provides meaning in a chaotic world and a place of belonging.
Start a cult today. Cult your brand and build a devoted following of loyal customers. Be different, take a stand and build a meaning engine and a community that lets your customers be more of themselves.
If you've been increasing your visibility and still feel unseen in a deeper way, this…
Most experienced professionals eventually move from producing insight to designing the structure behind their work.…
A lot of experienced professionals make important decisions at exactly the wrong moment. Not when…
Most people think scale means more people. More clients. More reach. More visibility. More output. And for a…
Most experienced professionals think they have an offer problem. They tweak pricing. They debate formats. And…
Most experienced professionals don’t think they have intellectual property. They think IP is something you…