One of the Coolest Outcomes of Advertising: Pricing Power

Most marketers think of advertising only in terms of awareness or short-term sales. But one of the most overlooked and most powerful outcomes of advertising is pricing power.

A fascinating study called Advertising’s Long-Term Impact on Brand Price Elasticity Across Brands and Categories by Berk Ataman, Prof. Koen Pauwels, Shuba Srinivasan, and Marc Vanhuele looked at 350 brands across seven years. The finding was clear: advertising significantly reduces price sensitivity.

This effect was strongest for premium and niche brands in complex categories. In other words, when the stakes are high and the choices are overwhelming, great advertising doesn’t just sell, it helps consumers navigate. By clarifying value and meaning, advertising makes people more willing to pay for a brand they trust.

Kantar and Oxford research reinforces this: brands that cultivate emotional perceptions see far greater resilience and pricing strength. When multiple brand effects are built, willingness to pay grows dramatically, up to 11% firmer pricing for brands with four or more strong brand associations.

Here’s my favorite finding from the Ataman study: competitive ads can help your brand, too. When competitors advertise, they often shine a spotlight on the entire category. That lifts awareness for everyone, making consumers less price-sensitive across the board.

The lesson for leaders? 

Strong brands can hold their ground on price. The more your advertising connects emotionally by telling stories, clarifying your purpose, and creating meaning, the less you have to rely on discounting to win business.

That’s the hidden magic of advertising: not just selling more, but giving you the confidence and resilience to charge what you’re truly worth.

October 28, 2025 by

Why Storytelling Is the Key to Building Loyalty in the Disruption Era

From cave paintings to TikTok, storytelling has always been the way humans make sense of the world. Stories are how we connect, remember, and decide what matters. In today’s disruption era—marked by rapid technological change, economic volatility, and shifting consumer expectations—storytelling isn’t a creative luxury. It’s a survival strategy.

Storytelling is the most powerful tool leaders have to build trust, connection, and loyalty. It bridges the gap between logic and emotion, between data and meaning. Neuroscience shows us why: stories release oxytocin, the “trust hormone,” and dopamine, which strengthens memory and motivation. Most importantly, stories synchronize the storyteller’s brain with the listener’s, creating a connection at the deepest human level.

Consumers are drowning in choices and skepticism. What cuts through isn’t another feature, coupon, or claim; it’s a meaningful narrative. Nike reminds us that greatness lives inside all of us. Apple urges us to “think different.” Patagonia calls us to protect the planet. These aren’t product pitches. They are movements.

Employees, too, need stories. Facts and strategies don’t unite a team; stories do. They make vision tangible, culture coherent, and purpose actionable. Harley-Davidson’s story isn’t about motorcycles—it’s about freedom on the open road. That narrative binds employees, dealers, and riders into one community, resilient through every market cycle.

Even investors lean on the story. Numbers may prove, but they don’t inspire. In turbulent times, confidence comes from a clear, credible narrative about where a brand is headed and why it matters. LEGO’s turnaround is a perfect example: by returning to its core purpose—sparking creativity through play—it reassured stakeholders and reignited global growth.

Here’s the truth: in disruption, clarity is scarce, but connection is priceless. Storytelling is how brands create that connection. It transforms transactions into relationships and audiences into communities.

The tools will evolve AI, VR, immersive media, but the principle will endure: great stories inspire trust, drive connection, and build lasting loyalty.

Storytelling isn’t just how we communicate. It’s how we lead. It’s how we build Cult Brands.

October 26, 2025 by

Our Work With TradeStation

TradeStation has long been known as a platform built for serious traders. With powerful tools, a tech-first mindset, and a deep commitment to enabling active investors, it stood apart in a competitive and often noisy financial services market. Yet, as the fintech space rapidly expanded and new platforms flooded the landscape, TradeStation faced a familiar challenge. While the product was strong and the customer base loyal, the brand lacked clarity. What truly sets it apart in the minds of customers? And how could that clarity translate into deeper loyalty and smarter growth?

That’s where Cult Branding came in.

Our work began with a mission to help TradeStation better understand its audience, refine its messaging, and align its entire brand around what customers valued most. We started by building a statistically valid brand model, rooted in both quantitative research and deep qualitative insight. This wasn’t about guesswork or focus group feedback. It was about getting to the emotional and behavioral core of TradeStation’s most engaged users.

Through this work, we uncovered what we call “brand attractors.” These are the key factors that actually drive customer preference and loyalty. For TradeStation, these attractors included advanced trading tools, transparency, and exceptional customer support. These weren’t simply features on a spec sheet. They were emotional and functional anchors—reasons customers chose to stay, to recommend, and to deepen their relationship with the brand.

We then helped TradeStation put this insight into action. Product development began to focus more deliberately on the attractors, prioritizing what customers cared about most. Marketing messaging became clearer, more authentic, and more targeted. Customer support was aligned to reinforce trust and transparency at every touchpoint. Rather than trying to be all things to all traders, TradeStation doubled down on what made it unique and valuable to its best customers.

The impact of this work is best understood in the broader context of TradeStation’s public performance. Around the time these branding initiatives were in motion, TradeStation was growing rapidly. According to their public filings, the company reported 178,863 total customer accounts at the end of 2021—a 36 percent increase year over year. Gross new accounts reached 27,412 during the same period, an 81 percent jump from the year prior. Customer assets climbed to 12.3 billion dollars, with about 3 billion held in cash. These numbers demonstrate how TradeStation was scaling and investing in growth, even while navigating a complex market environment.

While we cannot isolate branding as the sole cause behind this growth, the alignment between customer insight, brand messaging, and operational execution helped the company maximize the value of every new relationship. Internally, teams were more focused. Externally, customers felt more understood.

Salomon Sredni, then CEO of TradeStation, reflected on the experience this way:

“Working with this team was an exceptional experience. They helped us build a statistically valid brand model that provided invaluable insights into our customer base. The outstanding results led to a more organized and effective marketing strategy that truly resonates with our audience. We couldn’t be happier with this impact on our business.”

TradeStation’s journey is a lesson in how even high-performing companies can benefit from deeper clarity. Features are important, but they are not enough. What matters most is knowing who your customers are, what they value, and how your brand can show up in ways that feel credible and compelling.

If your brand has strong assets but lacks alignment and emotional resonance, we can help. By uncovering your brand attractors and translating them into strategy, we create the conditions for deeper loyalty, more effective marketing, and long-term growth.

October 24, 2025 by

The Difference Between an Insight and a Strategy

People often confuse insights with strategies, but they’re not the same thing. Knowing the difference is what separates breakthrough thinking from wasted effort.

An insight is a revelation. It’s the “aha” moment that makes you look at the problem in a new way. Think of it as the key—it unlocks the door.

A strategy is a plan of action. It’s how you use your limited resources to reach a specific goal. Think of it as the house—it’s where you live once the door is unlocked.

An insight without a strategy is just a clever observation. A strategy without insight is just guesswork. Together, they give you the clarity and direction to actually move the needle.

Take Adidas, for example. The insight was that people don’t just buy athletic wear to perform better—they buy it to express identity and belonging. Sportswear is fashion as much as function. The strategy was to position Adidas not just as a performance brand but as a cultural brand by partnering with creators, musicians, and streetwear influencers. Adidas shifted from “athletic gear” to “lifestyle statement.”

The insight unlocked the door, but it took the strategy to build the house.

October 21, 2025 by

The Hidden Cost of Bidding on Your Own Brand

Here’s an uncomfortable truth I’ve seen too many established brands overlook: bidding on branded keywords might be a waste of money.

Back in 2012, eBay ran a fascinating experiment with economists Tom Blake, Chris Nosko, and Steve Tadelis. They shut off paid search ads in certain regions while keeping them active in others. What they discovered was eye-opening. When brand keyword ads like “eBay shoes” were turned off, sales didn’t go down. Customers found eBay anyway through organic search. In other words, the ads were redundant.

Non-brand keywords performed a little better and brought in some new or infrequent users, but even then, the return on investment was negative. When all the numbers were tallied, eBay’s overall ROI on paid search was -63%. They were essentially paying for clicks they would have gotten regardless.

This experiment validated something I’ve been teaching for years: strong brands don’t need to buy their way back into their customers’ minds. If your customers already love you, they’ll find you. They’ll type your name directly into their browser. They’ll recommend you to others because you’ve earned a place in their identity. As I wrote in Customers First, the customer creates the brand. 

Now, that doesn’t mean paid search is useless. It can be valuable for reaching new audiences with non-brand keywords, protecting your brand from competitors, or helping younger brands gain recognition. But for established brands, I believe the smarter play is to redirect that spend into strengthening your culture, building your customer community, and creating the kinds of experiences that get people talking about you.

That’s money you’ll never regret investing.

October 19, 2025 by

Our Work With Turner Classic Movies

Turner Classic Movies has always been more than just a television channel. For millions of devoted fans, it’s a trusted curator of cinematic history, a warm companion, and a symbol of timeless storytelling. But even the most beloved brands must evolve. TCM faced a challenge familiar to many established brands: they had an incredibly loyal audience, but most of that passion existed passively. The opportunity was clear. How could TCM turn deep emotional connection into active engagement and sustainable business growth, without compromising the soul of the brand?

That’s when they partnered with Cult Branding.

When we began working with the TCM team, our first focus was understanding the fans. Not just their viewing habits, but their identity, their rituals, and their emotional bond with classic films. We traveled across the country, interviewing viewers, listening to their stories, and uncovering the deeper human needs that TCM fulfilled. For many, TCM wasn’t just entertainment. It was a lifeline to the past, a connection to loved ones, and a way to feel part of something bigger. These insights became the foundation for everything that followed.

With a richer understanding of their Brand Lovers, we began translating that knowledge into action. Together, we mapped out opportunities to bring the TCM experience to life in new, meaningful ways. This wasn’t about merchandising or gimmicks. It was about creating experiences and products that deepened the relationship fans already had with the brand.

One of the first ideas to take flight was the TCM Classic Film Festival. Far more than a series of screenings, the festival became a pilgrimage for classic movie lovers—a place where they could celebrate their passion in person, surrounded by others who felt the same. It wasn’t long before the TCM Classic Cruise set sail, offering another immersive fan experience that extended the brand beyond the screen. We also supported the creation of a robust book publishing partnership with Running Press, resulting in over 40 titles that gave fans tangible, collectible extensions of the TCM universe.

The initiatives didn’t stop there. A national screening series in partnership with Fathom Events brought classic films to movie theaters across the country. A TCM Wine Club added a layer of lifestyle branding to the mix. Even auctions of entertainment memorabilia found a natural place in the TCM brand world. Each new venture was rooted in the emotional insights uncovered in our work together, ensuring they felt authentic, valuable, and on-mission.

Genevieve McGillicuddy, Vice President of Enterprises and Strategic Partnerships at TCM, described it best when she reflected on our collaboration:

 “The ideas we worked on with you and your team took off like a rocket ship once we launched the festival. I got to grow a team of 7 people who did the following: produce the annual TCM Festival, produce an annual TCM Classic Cruise, produce a publishing partnership of film books with Running Press, launch a fan club, build a profitable national screening series, launch the TCM Wine Club, and partner with auction houses to present auctions of entertainment memorabilia. I am so glad to tell you this and what came of the seeds of that work with you so many years ago. Thank you!”

This case shows what’s possible when a brand takes the time to listen to its audience, understand their emotional world, and co-create experiences that align with their values. TCM didn’t change who they were. They extended what made them great into new formats and platforms. The result was not only a more vibrant brand but a more profitable one.

For executives navigating how to grow in mature markets, the TCM story offers an important lesson. Sustainable growth often lies not in chasing new audiences, but in deepening the relationship with the audience you already have. The secret is knowing how to turn fan passion into purpose, and purpose into action.

If your brand has untapped emotional equity and you’re ready to turn love into loyalty and loyalty into growth, let’s talk.

October 17, 2025 by

Discover How Attending a Cult Branding Workshop Can Transform Your Team’s Communication, Collaboration, and Culture

Did you know The Cult Branding Company offers group workshops designed to align your team around what matters most: your customers?

Sometimes, stepping outside the daily grind is exactly what leaders and their teams need to recharge, reconnect, and reimagine the future together. Our workshops immerse teams in the principles that transformed Harley-Davidson, Apple, and Southwest Airlines into Cult Brands. When you bring your people together to learn, reflect, and co-create, the payoff goes far beyond skills; it strengthens culture, trust, and belonging.

Here are 5 Reasons Your Team Should Experience a Cult Branding Workshop:

1. Team Alignment Around What Truly Matters

When everyone is busy chasing deadlines, it’s easy to lose sight of your north star: the customer. In our workshops, your team steps away from daily routines to focus on aligning culture, purpose, and performance. Through guided exercises, you’ll reconnect with your “Brand Lovers,” the passionate few customers who drive the majority of your growth, and learn how to serve them in ways that inspire loyalty and advocacy.

2. Real-Time Application of Cult Branding Principles

Theory alone doesn’t stick. That’s why our sessions combine powerful frameworks with hands-on exercises that simulate real-world business challenges. Teams explore the Seven Golden Rules of Cult Branding, like the Rule of Courage and the Rule of the Tribal Imperative, and then practice applying them to your brand. The result? A new playbook of actionable strategies that spark creativity and problem-solving.

3. Immersive Brand Experiences

Like Disney uses its parks as a “living laboratory,” we use your brand and customer data as the laboratory for transformation. Your team will see firsthand how companies like Patagonia and Apple designed communities, rituals, and customer experiences that generate resilience and loyalty. Then, together, we translate these lessons into field-ready strategies for your business.

4. Expert Guidance from Cult Branding Strategists

Our facilitators are not just trainers; they are brand anthropologists who have studied and advised some of the world’s most beloved companies. We don’t hand you generic solutions; we help your team uncover the unique DNA of your brand and translate it into experiences that make customers feel seen, understood, and loved.

5. The Learning Continues Beyond the Workshop

The real magic happens when your team takes the insights back into your culture. Our follow-up frameworks and coaching ensure your people don’t just learn about Cult Branding, they live it. From designing rituals that surprise and delight customers to embedding customer-first thinking in every department, the workshop becomes the catalyst for long-term cultural transformation.

Ready to Elevate Your Team?

If you want to strengthen communication, collaboration, and culture while building unbreakable loyalty, let’s talk.

Contact us to learn more about group workshops, executive retreats, and custom Cult Branding experiences designed to help your organization thrive in today’s volatile marketplace.

📩 [email protected] | 🌐 www.cultbranding.com

October 14, 2025 by

Bring The Cult Branding Company to Your Next Professional Event

Discover How Cult Branding Can Transform Your Next Gathering

Did you know you can bring The Cult Branding Company directly into your next leadership summit, association gathering, or corporate retreat? Whether you’re convening executives, managers, or cross-functional teams, we deliver unforgettable learning experiences designed to spark growth, strengthen culture, and create loyal communities.

Our sessions are more than talks; they’re catalysts for transformation. By blending psychology, anthropology, and real-world case studies from brands like Apple, Harley-Davidson, Patagonia, and Liquid Death, we turn your event into an opportunity for deep cultural alignment and inspiration.

Why Choose Cult Branding for Your Event?

It’s all about The Cult Branding Difference.

For over two decades, we’ve helped leaders across industries uncover the hidden drivers of human loyalty and belonging. We bring that expertise to your stage with keynotes, workshops, and immersive experiences that inspire teams to:

  • Align around a shared purpose and vision
  • Discover the emotional DNA of their customers
  • Design communities, rituals, and experiences that spark advocacy
  • Transform culture from the inside out

Elevate Your Next Meeting with Immersive Experiences

When you invite The Cult Branding Company to your event, you get the same depth, creativity, and attention to human needs that have guided the world’s most beloved brands. Our facilitators and speakers don’t just deliver insights; they immerse participants in frameworks and exercises that create immediate “aha” moments.

Whether it’s uncovering your Brand Lovers, exploring the Seven Golden Rules of Cult Branding, or learning how to turn customers into lifelong advocates, every session is designed to deliver practical takeaways and long-term inspiration.

Bring Professional Development That Sticks

Our programs elevate professional gatherings by providing a firsthand look at how modern loyalty is built not through gimmicks, but by aligning identity, purpose, and belonging. Attendees walk away with tools to:

  • Strengthen leadership and communication
  • Build employee engagement and culture
  • Design consistent, high-quality customer experiences
  • Foster resilience and loyalty, even in volatile markets

Ready to Transform Your Next Event?

If you’re planning a conference, retreat, or summit and want to spark cultural transformation, let’s talk.📩 [email protected] | 🌐 www.cultbranding.com

October 12, 2025 by

Our Work With The Life is Good Company

The Life is Good Company started with a t-shirt and a smile. Founded by brothers Bert and John Jacobs, this American lifestyle brand built a loyal following with simple, optimistic messages and their iconic stick figure, Jake. But even beloved brands can lose momentum.

Despite a strong mission and widespread recognition, Life is Good reached a point where growth had stalled. The message of optimism remained powerful, but inside the company, inspiration was waning. They needed a way to reconnect with what made them great—not just in the eyes of consumers, but within their own team.

That’s where we came in.

When we began working with Life is Good, their leadership was looking for more than a marketing refresh. They needed clarity. The brand was at a crossroads, stuck in a cycle of incremental innovation and unsure of where to go next. They wanted to deepen their relationship with their customers and uncover new creative energy. Their goals were clear: identify their core values—what we call their “Super Powers”—understand their most devoted customers at a deeper level, and build a comprehensive brand and marketing playbook to guide the company forward.

We started by getting back to the basics: human nature. Using our proprietary Cult Branding framework, we helped the team rediscover the emotional foundation of their brand. Through a series of workshops and internal strategy sessions, we surfaced the core values that had fueled their early success. These values weren’t chosen from a list—they were uncovered from within. Optimism, courage, simplicity, and fun rose to the surface. These became the brand’s Super Powers. They reminded the team why they existed in the first place and gave the creative team a new lens through which to build the future.

Next, we turned outward and engaged directly with Life is Good’s most passionate customers—their Brand Lovers. Through in-depth interviews and story-driven research, we explored what Life is Good really meant to them. These were not just fans of the brand’s products. They were living embodiments of its values. We listened to their stories, their struggles, and their joys, uncovering a profound emotional connection that went far beyond cotton and ink.

These insights laid the foundation for a new strategy. We translated the findings into a clear, actionable brand playbook. This wasn’t a document meant to sit on a shelf. It was a living guide that inspired everything from new product lines to partnership opportunities. One of the most successful outcomes of the playbook was the creation of the Life is Good Festival, a real-world expression of the brand’s optimistic spirit. The festival didn’t just draw crowds—it created a shared experience for the brand’s community and deepened the emotional bond between Life is Good and its customers.

The results were immediate and lasting. The brand’s creative teams found new inspiration. Product development had a clearer purpose. Co-branding opportunities aligned more naturally with their mission. Most importantly, the brand’s connection with its audience grew stronger than ever. Life is Good didn’t just find its way forward. It rediscovered its soul.

As Bert Jacobs, Chief Executive Optimist of The Life is Good Company, put it:


“BJ Bueno and his team at The Cult Branding Company respect and understand what so many strategists miss: before we can be experts on products, sales, or the market, we must first be experts on human nature. They have a proven track record of building healthy, sustainable businesses for some of the best brands in the world.”

In the end, the path to renewed growth wasn’t about chasing trends or reinventing the wheel. It was about going inward, reconnecting with their purpose, and listening to the people who already loved them most. That’s the power of Cult Branding.

October 10, 2025 by

Ignite Creativity and Innovation with The Cult Branding Company

Unlock the Creative Power Within Your Organization Through Our New Program: “The Cult Branding Approach to Creativity and Innovation”

The world’s most beloved brands, Apple, Patagonia, Harley-Davidson, LEGO don’t just sell products. They continually reimagine themselves, fueling communities through creativity and innovation. At The Cult Branding Company, we’ve spent decades studying how these brands unleash imagination, transform culture, and create loyalty that lasts for life.

Reflecting on this commitment, we’re proud to introduce The Cult Branding Approach to Creativity and Innovation, a dynamic, experiential program designed to help leaders operationalize creativity as a strategic advantage.

Why Creativity and Innovation Matter

In today’s volatile marketplace, creativity is not optional—it’s the lifeblood of relevance and resilience. Studies show creativity ranks among the most important skills for leaders, while innovation is consistently a top global priority.

“Creativity is the engine that drives progress in every great brand,” says BJ Bueno, Founder of The Cult Branding Company. “In times of uncertainty, the organizations that ask better questions, spark imagination, and innovate with purpose are the ones that build unbreakable loyalty.”

Our new program gives leaders a proven roadmap to harness creativity—not as random inspiration, but as a repeatable, cultural practice.

What Awaits You

Participants will immerse themselves in the Seven Golden Rules of Cult Branding, applying them as tools to unlock new possibilities. You’ll learn:

  • The “What If?” mindset to generate bold, original ideas.
  • The “Yes, If…” philosophy to advance concepts into actionable strategies.
  • How to design rituals, communities, and experiences that transform customer relationships.
  • Ways to evaluate your leadership style to better orchestrate team dynamics and spark collective imagination.

Experiential Learning in Action

The Cult Branding Approach goes far beyond theory. Each session is designed as an interactive journey with hands-on simulations, case studies, and immersive exercises that ensure practical takeaways.

Highlights include:

  • Case studies of iconic Cult Brands like Apple, Harley-Davidson, and Patagonia revealing how they operationalize creativity.
  • Collaborative simulations that show how to foster psychological safety, encourage idea flow, and turn creativity into impact.
  • Live brand audits where your team applies Cult Branding tools to uncover hidden opportunities in your business.

Through vibrant discussions and guided practice, leaders will leave with actionable strategies to:

  • Facilitate breakthrough brainstorming sessions.
  • Spot and seize untapped opportunities.
  • Align creativity with organizational strategy for measurable results.

Ready to Ignite Creativity Within Your Team?

If you want to fuel innovation, elevate culture, and unlock new pathways for growth, this program is for you.

📩[email protected] | 🌐 www.cultbranding.com

October 7, 2025 by