Successful brands need to be consistent. Cult Brands need to be consistently excellent. Cult Brands understand that their brands belong to the customers and only the customer’s voice counts. Rather than making a meaningless attempt to dictate to the customer what they should want, a successful Cult Brand embraces its customers by anticipating their basic human and spiritual needs. As a consequence, Cult Brands achieve a level of customer loyalty unprecedented in traditional business.
The Benefits of Being A Cult Brand Being a Cult Brand gives businesses significant competitive advantages:
- Cult Brands perceived as being the high-value option within their industry; generally, they are the standard that their competitors judged.
- Cult Brands tend to command premium prices, which has a positive impact on profitability.
- Cult Brands attract new customers at a higher rate than their competitors, and they keep those customers for a more extended period.
- Customers tend to do more business, more frequently, with Cult Brands, and they enthusiastically recommend the brand to their family and friends.
- Cult Brands are the brand’s customers buy “automatically”: in many cases, they are not only the default option; they are the only option in the minds of their customers.
- Cult Brands command such fanatical loyalty that when, for whatever reason, they are not available, a customer might wait rather than switch to another brand.
The Seven Golden Rules of Cult Brands
- Differentiation – Consumers want to be part of a group that’s different.
- Courage – Cult brand inventors show daring and determination.
- Fun – Cult brands sell lifestyles.
- Listening – Listen to the choir and create Cult-Brand evangelists.
- Tribal Imperative – Cult brands always create customer communities
- Openness – Cult brands are inclusive
- Freedom – Cult Brands promote personal liberty and draw power from their enemies.
