02 Oct What Nine Cult Brands Taught Me About Loyalty and What I See Differently Now
When I wrote The Power of Cult Branding with Matt Ragas, Ph.D., now Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in DePaul University’s College of Communication, we were trying to understand a remarkable kind of loyalty. Why would people gather around a brand, make it part of their lives, and enthusiastically invite others in?
We studied nine very different examples: Star Trek, Harley-Davidson, Oprah Winfrey, World Wrestling Entertainment, Apple, the Volkswagen Beetle, Jimmy Buffett, Vans, and Linux. We conducted scores of interviews with creators, founders, CEOs, and senior leaders across these brands, including Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, and Jimmy Buffett. They told us their origin stories: how they began, the choices that helped them grow, and how they got to where they were when we spoke. Hearing those stories firsthand made the work deeply personal.
Then we examined the interviews alongside the data. Across nine very different worlds, the same patterns kept surfacing. We distilled those patterns into the Seven Golden Rules of Cult Branding.
I look back on that work with real affection. We saw that the strongest brands give people more than a product to buy. They give people something to belong to, talk about, and help shape. That insight still guides my work.
Nearly a quarter century later, I am struck by what has endured. Margaritaville continues to carry Jimmy’s world forward. The Volkswagen Beetle’s production ended in 2019, yet people still cherish the cars and the community around them. The brands and communities we studied have taken different paths, but their place in people’s lives has proved remarkably durable.
Companies can lose relevance quickly. What fascinates me about these stories is the role of customers who loved them: people who returned, brought friends, shared their experiences, and made these brands part of their identities. That is the secret: customers who love a brand can carry its story into the future.
After years of working with leadership teams and studying what makes people feel connected, I see a deeper question underneath the original one: What human need does this brand honor, and does the company live up to that promise?
The customer is looking for meaning, too
Our thinking has grown through the work of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Abraham Maslow. I don’t see their ideas as a formula for making people loyal. I see them as lenses that help us listen more carefully.
Jung draws my attention to symbols and identity. The things people choose can say something about their values and the person they aspire to be. Campbell helps me see the stories customers are already living. The company has a role in those stories, but the customer is the one making choices and moving forward. Maslow reminds me that people seek belonging, esteem, and growth alongside practical benefits.
Together, these ideas changed the questions I ask. I want to know what customers are trying to become, where they feel they belong, and what a company does to make that connection real.
Think of a Harley-Davidson rally, a Star Trek convention, or a Jimmy Buffett concert. The purchase matters, but so does what happens around it: the shared language, the friendships, the rituals, and the chance to say, “These are my people.” Our book helped describe those visible signs of devotion. I now spend more time looking for the human needs and company behaviors beneath them.
The company must earn the feeling
This is why I often describe our work with a simple equation:
Culture + Customer Love = Cult Brand.
Culture is what a company believes, practices, rewards, and makes visible every day. Customer love is what people feel, repeat, defend, share, and use to express who they are. When the two reinforce each other, loyalty has something solid to stand on.
A beautiful story can attract someone. The experience has to give them a reason to stay. Employees need to understand the promise and have the freedom to deliver it. Customers need to feel recognized as people, not counted only as transactions.
For a CEO, this means the path to stronger loyalty runs through the whole business. It is in the product decisions, the service recovery, the people you hire, the behaviors you reward, and the way you respond when customers tell you something you didn’t expect to hear.
A better question for leaders
If I could put one question from this journey on every leadership team’s agenda, it would be this:
What do our customers love about being part of our world, and what are we doing to deserve that love?
Matt and I set out to understand why nine brands inspired extraordinary devotion. I’m grateful we asked. The years since have taught me that the most useful answer begins with curiosity about people and honesty about the company serving them.
That is still the work I love: helping businesses build something customers are proud to choose, eager to share, and glad to return to.
P.S. Want our 2026 Cult Brand Report for CEOs and CMOs? Just reply to this email with “Cult Report,” and I’ll personally send you a copy.