The Four Levels of a Cult-Like Following

If we want create a cult-like following around our brands and business then it helps to have some way to assess the qualities of our followers and fans. Here’s four levels of cult-like behaviour to give you a few clues as to what to look and strive for.

1 Use

The first level is someone that uses your product. If you’re a hardware store, a customer may come in occasionally and buy a hammer or a nail, and that’s about it. This is low level of cult-like behaviour.

2 Repeat

The next level of following that you might get around your business is a repeat offender, or a repeat customer. This is someone who comes back more than once. For instance, on the Ideas Marketing webinar that I run, several people turn up almost every session.

3 Defend

The next level of your cult-like following are the people who defend your brand in the market place. This often happens around Mac users and PC users. To test this out go onto Twitter and type – my Mac is not working. Watch the responses you get. Then on the next day type in – my PC is not working. More common examples are people discussing their football teams, favourite restaurants or choice of outrageous clothes.

4 Refer

And then finally, the referrers… Or, in cult terms, recruiters. And, back to our previous example: Apple versus PC. You’ll often hear Mac people talking to their PC counterparts and they’ll be cajoling them and inviting them to come over to the bright side. And, if you did the exercise in the previous section you may have already experienced this first hand.

Which of these levels of cult-like following do you have in your business? Do you get people referring clients to you? For personal and professional service firms this is often how work is acquired. Do you get people defending your brand or your business? Discussed a great movie or book with others? Usually this will spark a wide range of opinions and some defence on points of view. And repeat customers? Hopefully you have a few of these because as they say in the classics it’s cheaper and easier to sell again to an existing customer than find a new one.

To use these levels in your business, do a quick analysis of your customers. What percentage are single purchasers, return buyers, defenders of your brand and active referrers?