Here’s the best of 2018

As the year comes to a close, we want to say a special thank you to Brian Beitler and Mckeel Hagerty for their contributions to the Cult Branding blog. We also want to thank Tom Grimes, Marcus Thornton, and Tony Hsieh for many great discussions and insights throughout the year. And, we want to thank you for your readership. We look forward to bringing you insights on building brands that both employees and customers love in the coming year.

Below we curated the most popular, shared, and discussed articles from the Cult Branding blog in 2018. Please enjoy these three fantastic blog posts as a way to reflect as we enter the new year.

We wish you and your family a happy, healthy, and fantastic New Year.

Best,

BJ, Salim, and Aaron

How To Be MORE Creative

Being creative is essential to business: it provides the edge to beat the competition. In an increasingly competitive market, creative thinking is no longer solely the function of departments like advertising and product development; it is now necessary for everyone in the organization. Learn more about how to maximize your creative potential.

Don’t Differentiate, Create More Brand Desire!

The focus on differentiation as a driving discussion for a company or brand is flawed. The primary reason is that differentiation starts with a focus on what competitors are doing and not necessarily on what the customer wants, needs, or values in your brand. Read more about creating brand desire.

Lead With Purpose

What makes a good leader?
Great leaders focus on solving the problem, rather than being bogged down by focusing on the situation and how it applies to themselves. In the face of adversity, great leaders become outward-focused rather than inward-focused. Find out more about leading with purpose.

December 28, 2018 by

Authentic Branding:
How to Create a Brand Customers and Employees Love

Authentic Branding Diagram

While revolution must be led from the top, it rarely starts at the top. The spirit of revolution already exists in the hearts and minds of motivated employees and loyal customers. It shows up in the individual stories that employees tell about the work they do. And it shows up in the individual stories that customers tell about the products they love. Often a leader need only act as a kind of managing editor, shaping the stories to align with a shared vision.Marty Neumeier1

Despite what many agencies still claim, brands aren’t logos or taglines and they can’t be made or changed with a single ad campaign.

A brand is a living entity with three elements: vision, culture, and customer. These elements influence each other and collectively create a perception about the company. That perception is the brand.

There’s more than one way to create a brand. But, we think there’s only one way to create a brand that will be relevant now and in the future. And, that’s creating an Authentic Brand.

Continue Reading
December 21, 2018 by

3 Tips to Raise Team Morale

“The strength of the team is each member. The strength of each member is the team.” Phil Jackson

A healthy workplace boosts morale, lowers turnover, decreases absenteeism, and increases productivity. With the holidays upon us on and the finish line in sight, it is important to keep team morale high. Below are 3 Tips to improve morale as we approach the end of the year.

1. Confront Grievances Head-On

With the hectic schedule of the season, it’s easy to dismiss a team member’s frustrations as something that can wait until the new year. Although these problems are often minimal, without being addressed they can lead to more significant issues. Use these instances to confront the issues together with your team. Let them know you are sincerely interested in their well being and in finding solutions to the problem. When your team knows you have their back, it will boost morale.

2. Tie Team Efforts to the Vision

Give your associates a reason to believe. Remind your team why their work matters and how it ties to your company’s higher purpose. Sharing the deeper meaning and purpose of someone’s work can have a significant impact on their motivation. Use examples from associates success stories to illustrate how their efforts pushed the company closer to achieving its vision.

At The Life is good Company, they continually remind their customers and associates that 10% of profits go towards helping kids in need. So no matter what your job is at Life is good, you know your work positively impacts the quality of care delivered to vulnerable children.

3. Lead by Example

As a leader, It is essential to come to work with a good attitude. Your demeanor will set the tone for the rest of your team. A healthy attitude contributes to your team’s success and productivity. When you have high morale, your colleagues will: be more likely to collaborate with you and each other, be more creative and provide better customer service. Be consistent with your efforts. You can’t expect the team’s morale to be positive if your attitude towards work changes with the wind.

When teams are motivated and confident, they accomplish more, and they also have fun being a part of the brand.

Happy Holidays and Onward!

December 14, 2018 by

The State of Cult Branding

We are thrilled to tackle an opportunity-packed topic that impacts every industry.

Because the topic of Cult Branding is so humanistic, we tried something new:

We built a Google Slides version of the insights so you can present it to your team along with a worksheet to jumpstart your next 30-minute brainstorm.

Click on through to see The 7 Rules of Cult Branding and gain actionable insights from Apple to Ikea to SouthWest Airlines. Discover how Cult Brands are already changing what your customers think is possible.

Remember, these insights are opportunities waiting to happen. Read, and then act!

P.S.
Feel free to download the presentation and make it your own.

December 7, 2018 by

Have We Forgotten How to Say Thank You?

Google “How to Say Thank You” and you’ll get 2.18 billion results. Most are instructional. It’s surprising that something we learned to do as children has that many search results.

Somewhere in between childhood and adulthood, we forgot how to say thank you and, most importantly, mean it.

This is especially true in business where the market often forces companies to focus on short-term transactions rather than long-term relationships. When customers hear a “thank you” in business, it’s usually the result of a company policy instead of something genuine.

Saying something and meaning it comes across a lot differently than when you just go through the motions of saying it.If you don’t mean it: it’s just words. When you mean it, the words carry emotion. It’s the difference between someone faking a smile and a child opening up that gift they’ve wanted for months on Christmas morning.

Over a decade ago, a sales associate at Cole Haan sent me a handwritten thank you note. Thousands of transactions between then and now, and I’ve yet to receive another personal letter from any company that wasn’t mailed with a purchase. To this day, when I’m looking for something new, I check to see if Cole Haan has something I like first. And, guess what: my last clothing purchase was from Cole Haan.

All it took to make me consider Cole Haan first was a handwritten letter that took no longer than a couple of minutes to write. But, it was genuine. And, the sales associate had to look online to figure out how to thank me.

At its heart, saying “thank you” is about caring for customers. Customers want to matter and they want to engage with brands.

Yet, most companies are missing the chance to engage with their customers beyond trite responses to happy customers and copy-and-paste legalese for angry customers.

This is a big missed opportunity. But, it’s not an opportunity that can be feigned. It can only be done with caring. And, a good start is creating a culture that cares enough to genuinely say, “Thank you.”

November 30, 2018 by

Where Are You Headed?

Quickly and with haste.

But what happens when you get there?

Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday. It gives us an opportunity to connect with the power of gratitude. Dr. Andrew Weil recommends considering each day what went well and why as an antidote to our chaotic world and as an opportunity to uplift our mood.

We are thankful for each of you, and so many other leaders who work towards making the world a better place.

Stay thankful.

November 23, 2018 by

The Mall Isn’t Dead

The mall isn’t dead, but it needs a makeover.

The current model of the mall is broken. It no longer serves the purpose it once did: for adults, it’s no longer convenient; for teens, it seems too much like something uncool from their parents’ generation to make them want to hang out there.

Inconvenience

Decades ago, having an Athlete’s Foot a few doors down from a Foot Locker wasn’t a bad thing: it gave people more options. Now, with a culture that feels time-starved and that has been taught that you shouldn’t have to go to more than one place to find what you want, having to go to two stores that are interchangeable from a customer-perspective seems like an unnecessary burden and turns the mall into a poor customer experience.

And, when you multiply that by all the cases in the mall where that’s the same–stores selling seemingly the same things–and the mall becomes a beacon of wasted time and a symbol of inconvenience. It’s like a big box retailer putting half the black dresses on the first floor and the other half on the second floor, at the opposite end of the building.

Uncoolness

With teens increasingly turning away from malls, malls are becoming places that no longer contain positive memories of childhood. This will become an increasing issue if nothing changes: there won’t be any nostalgia to bring them back.

The model of the mall hasn’t changed in a long time: it was dated before most teenagers were born–in two years no teenager will have been born before there was an iPhone. It’s a remnant of their parents’ childhood that isn’t even relevant for most of their parents anymore. The mall has become horribly uncool.

Resurrecting The Mall

To become relevant again, the mall as a whole needs to focus on serving the customer, it has to be destination-worthy, and the mall itself has to be a brand.

The mall can no longer allow retailers in based on whether or not they can pay rent. Instead, the mall needs a curator that selects stores based on whether or not they contribute to the overall mall serving the customer better.

In the new model, having two stores selling the same brands of sneakers or two stores selling similar styles of clothing wouldn’t make the cut: they inconvenience the customer.

And, shopping must be easy: a woman’s shoe store shouldn’t be at the opposite end of the mall as a store selling dresses.

The stores must be selected to make the whole experience convenient for the customer and inspire them.

Food courts passing out samples of Bourbon chicken are outdated. With a culture that’s becoming increasingly obsessed with food, the same care in selecting stores must be applied to selecting food vendors: they must be places people want to eat instead of just being there.

Malls must also provide more than a shopping experience: they must be cool to teenagers. They need to be built to be shared in an online, social world.

The mall should be like a mini-neighborhood where people can get all their shopping done, go to a favorite restaurant, and hang out.

The power of the mall of the future is in its curation. Without curation, the mall is just clutter to today’s consumer. With curation, the mall can regain its identity and again become an essential part of culture.

November 16, 2018 by

Why You Should Play at Work

 

In a society that values goals and results, it’s easy to see why play isn’t valued by adults.

Play is a state more than it is a thing. Play involves doing something enjoyable for its own sake. There is no goal aside from enjoying the experience.

But, play is not a trivial activity: play makes people happier, it helps develop empathy, it reduces stress, and it strengthens resolve.
Continue Reading

November 9, 2018 by

How to Create Powerful Brand Rituals

“Before I can tell you the story, you have to try the shot.” – Fred Mossler Co-Founder Zappos.

You mean the one with the scorpion in it?

“Yeah and you should shoot it together, you definitely don’t want to eat the scorpion alone.” – Fred

“BJ, The Scorpion Shot is so popular, that we are now vertically integrating scorpions into our business model.” – Tony Hsieh Zappos CEO

We are celebrating Nacho Daddy’s 5 Year Anniversary in Las Vegas.

Fascinated by all things culture, I am naturally intrigued by the story and the sense of community that taking this shot provides.

Gulp! It’s gone, scorpion and all.

Soon after we are sitting in the middle of T-Mobile Arena where the biggest show in Vegas is about to go off, the Knights take the ice, and the crowd goes wild. Maybe it’s the tequila or the scorpion, but I am vibrating even though I have no clue about the game of hockey, but I understand people can feel the energy and it is electric.

Brand Rituals are All Around Us

Separating Oreo’s and dunking it in milk, or Breaking a KitKat into halves and eating it on a break, Popping the cap of the Pringles tube or if you want to get fancy The Stella Artois’ 9-step pouring ritual. These brand rituals play a crucial role in building a sense of belonging and community around the brands.

Rituals offer consumers the chance to interact with a brand. Because people want more than just consumption – they appreciate experiences.

Over the years I have observed different strategies that work towards creating powerful and emotional experiences. Here are a few questions to consider when building your plan:

Can you create and experience specific to your audience?

How can it be specific to your brand?

Ritualize Your Brand

Our job is to explore the elements of your brand that lend themselves to becoming ritualized. How might you make your product or service part of the daily lives of your customers? Is it even possible?

How might you use brand rituals to create a greater sense of “team” and “family” with your employees, and to fuel their passions for supporting the brand?

Creating a ritual around your brand, whether it’s focused internally or externally, is one of the most useful tools you have to engage people and it’s one of the critical components necessary for building a successful cult brand.

Onward!

November 2, 2018 by

How Mindfulness Improves the Workplace

“The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.”
Jon Kabat-Zinn

The truth is that many of us spend most of our time in the office. Think about how you can transform the lives of those around you by becoming more aware.

This shift toward more humanistic management practices doesn’t merely improve productivity, creativity, collaboration, loyalty, and profitability; it can also help the people around you become better spouses, better parents, and better citizens.

You can invite your employees to grow by finding ways to make the workplace more engaging (less static), more inspiring (less mundane), and more open (less fixed). As Abraham Maslow put it, “We must try to make a particular kind of people, of personality, of character, of soul one might say, rather than try to create directly particular kinds of behavior.”

When we practice mindfulness, we are training our brains to examine internal and external cues rather than react to them, so we can better manage emotions and develop into our full humanity.

October 26, 2018 by