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.
“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.
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?
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!
“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.
How often do you daydream or even allow yourself to get bored?
It turns out there’s a lot of value in letting our minds wander. Daniel Goleman calls this “open awareness” and says when our minds wander we’re free to constructively envision our future—essential for planning and goal setting, and we can reflect on our thoughts and actions—central in making new and creative associations between ideas.
Our brains aren’t designed to go nonstop. When we drop into neutral, ideas flow on their own, memories sort themselves out, and we give ourselves a chance to rejuvenate. If we eliminate this natural rhythm, we won’t be more productive. And we won’t get ahead. We’ll start falling behind.
What could happen to your creativity, energy, and attitude if you took the time to wonder?
“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” Albert Einstein
Continuously learning is how you will stay relevant at any level of an organization. Consider stepping outside of your comfort zone, diversifying your areas of knowledge and establishing rituals and habits that support learning.
Lifelong learning has long been understood to be a critical success factor. But today, it’s taken on even greater importance. The pace of change continues to accelerate, and the level of complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty means that what you knew yesterday may be irrelevant today. The half-life of technical skills continues to shrink.
Try the following actions to enhance your growth mindset:
Curiosity is a spirit, intention, and skill we can bring to our work, interactions with others and the world in general. It involves a genuine inquisitiveness, desire to understand, and willingness to step into a void with nothing more than questions and a receptive mind.
Traditional learning models rooted in the educational system rely heavily on individual research and study. A growth mindset, however, is based in large part on learning through and with others. Intentional connections offer a range of benefits, including the sharing of knowledge, insights, and experience. Consider the power of dialogue in your business to uncover new ideas.
While deliberate, scheduled efforts to learn are essential, it’s equally important to recognize that learning frequently doesn’t occur on a schedule. Life offers a range of moment-by-moment opportunities to gain experience, tap wisdom, push boundaries and try new approaches. A learning mindset means being open to and ready for these ad-hoc possibilities. It means mining the routine for richness.
Investing in learning today can help address current day-to-day pressures while building long-term, a sustainable capacity that will contribute to future effectiveness and satisfaction — at work and beyond.
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
William James, Philosopher, and Psychologist.
Stress in the workplace can have damaging effects, such as stifling creativity and risk aversion.
When we operate under pressure, we shift into survival mode and in this mode of perception, we can have a much harder time thinking creatively and seeing things with a broader, longer-term lens.
Similarly, when your associates are stressed, they tend to avoid taking risks and have a hard time thinking creatively, which ultimately affects their potential.
Magic has long held a special place in the nation’s history. American magicians perform in arenas, theaters, and even backyards. No matter how big or small, a magic show will always inspire wonder.
Today as a member of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, I am honored that the United States Postal Service delivered these Forever stamps.
Brands are a unique combination of a set of ideas and inanimate objects that serve as an ideal platform for relationships. When people feel bound to a group or community of shared beliefs around a brand where at least part of their identity is tied to the group, it’s a phenomenon known as participation mystique.
These brands spark magical participation with their customers; they embrace a particular way of being, aligned to a specific set of beliefs.
When brands attract customers to come together something magical happens, now let’s make that happen for you and your team.
To help you think more magical thoughts try these juxtapositions:
If my company was Zappos how would we WOW our customers?
If our company was Disney how would we give our customers a magical day?
If our brand was Houdini what problems can I help my customers escape?
By thinking like other great magical brands, you will discover magic of your own.
In Alexander the Great’s conquest of Persia, the Macedonian King upset his military compatriots and childhood friends by marrying Roxana.
Roxana was the daughter of a minor Persian baron. That is, she was not from Macedonia; she was not of Greek blood.
This outraged Alexander’s men who felt that he was disrespecting his homeland. But Alexander didn’t identify himself exclusively as Macedonian or Greek. This great military strategist had a grand vision to create an empire that united the world as one people.
Alexander understood one of the Seven Rules of Cult Brands: Be open and inclusive.
The ideals of Vans shoes, for example, probably aren’t going to speak to you if you’re not in the skateboard community. IKEA isn’t going to draw your attention if you aren’t in the market for affordable furniture that gives your home a sense of style.
The annual, week-long, Burning Man event now attracts over 65,000 attendees to the Black Rock Desert each August. Anyone can participate. As written in their ten guiding principles, “Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.”
And the full range of attendees from artists to billionaires, to Silicon Valley CEOs, demonstrate that the not-for-profit is true to its word.
The more inclusive you are, the more customer groups you open your business to and the larger your market potential becomes.
To become a more inclusive brand requires diligence. Being inclusive means gaining insights into new customer groups and then collaborating with your teams to discover ways of relating these new customers to your business, and serving them with respect.
How inclusive is your business today?
How inclusive do you want your business to be tomorrow?
THE BIG IDEA: Certain businesses excel at fostering undying, cult-like following among their customers. Our study of Cult Brands reveals seven rules any business can follow to attract loyal customers.
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Some customers have a religious devotion to a particular brand. They may go so far as to permanently scorch their skin with the logo or image of the brand they love.
While this may appear extreme to you, fifteen years of research into Cult Brands has shown us that the psychological reasons behind cult followings illuminate the drivers behind customer loyalty in any business.
So even if you don’t aspire to have customers tattoo your logo onto their heads, if you’re interested in creating loyal, profitable customers, there’s a lot to learn from Cult Brands.
Cult Brands create emotional experiences that lead to feelings of belonging, a sense of shared consciousness with a group of people. The customers of Cult Brands often feel like part of a family instead of consumers of a business. This is a powerful, emotional connection.
Apple, Harley, IKEA, Star Trek, Zappos, MINI, and The Motley Fool all invite their customers into their clan.
So how do they do it?
We’ve identified seven core rules that all Cult Brands tend to share. These rules are the fundamental tenets that all Cult Brands consciously or instinctively follow as they do business.
Keeping these rules in mind makes it easier to decide how to grow your business and foster loyalty.
The Seven Rules of Cult Brands provide a framework for ongoing business success. As you read through each rule, think about ways you can apply it to your organization.
Cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead summed up the challenge facing today’s marketers: “Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”
Your customers are driven by two simultaneous desires that appear to be diametrically opposed to each other. They want to stand out from the crowd and be a unique individual while simultaneously wanting (and needing) to be part of the crowd, receiving the social support and approval of like-minded individuals.
How do people meet these opposing needs? By belonging to a group they identify as being unique, often outside of mainstream society.
If you’ve got a home, you need furniture. The community of people who need furniture is considerable. But the community of people who need furniture with minimalist charm and serious organizational capacity (and enjoy quirky Swedish names) is smaller and distinct—just different enough to make IKEA irresistible to legions of their fans.
Your customers want to be part of a group that’s different. It’s that simple.
Even in the face of doubters and critics, Cult Brands dare to be different—and succeed. Cult Brands are successful because they are wholly unlike every other company in the marketplace.
Cult Brands believe in themselves, their products and services, and their customers. They want to challenge conventional wisdom and transform it when given the chance. Willing to take significant risks, the people behind Cult Brands are fighters and leaders, not quitters or followers.
When Whole Foods started in 1980, there were less than six natural foods supermarkets in the United States. Today, the natural and organic foods market is estimated at more than $28.6 billion.
Cult Brands, however, don’t waste their time or energy worrying about who is following them. Their attention is focused on how to better serve their customers.
Cult Brands sell more than a product or a service. Customers want more than just things; they are seeking experiences.
Experiential purchases are more meaningful than material purchases. As such, all Cult Brands sell lifestyles. They develop and sell “the tools” that help their customers pursue their dreams and celebrate distinct lifestyles.
Cult Brands remove barriers for their customers. The would-be musician no longer needs to shell out thousands of dollars for expensive instruments and equipment. They just need to download the right apps onto their iPad, and they’re ready to rock.
Apple promotes a creative lifestyle that facilitates self-expression. Jimmy Buffett celebrates life as a party. The Life is good Company promotes a laid-back weekend BBQ with friends.
Your customers have aspirations. Those aspirations are powered by emotions. If you can support your customers in the realization of their aspirations, they will associate their positive emotions with your business.
Cult Brands focus on serving the wants and needs of the customers they have. They have the ability to listen to their customers’ discontent and create solutions that build strong, enduring loyalty.
By listening, Amazon.com discovered that the high cost of shipping interfered with how often their customers made purchases. In response, they launched Amazon Prime in 2005, a program in which members enjoy unlimited free two-day shipping in exchange for a yearly fee.
It’s an initiative that has been more successful than anyone could have ever imagined. Over 20 million people are Amazon Prime members. The typical Amazon Prime member buys as much as 150 percent more than non-Prime members. It’s a powerful example of the results of listening.
Respect your choir. Listen to them. Value their opinions. Reward them. Never ignore an enthusiastic follower of your business. Remember that all core followers want to believe, but first, they need to see miracles in the form of unexpected gifts and surprises.
Do extraordinary things for your choir and they’ll become incredible brand evangelists.
Cult Brands know how to build strong, ongoing relationships with their customers by developing and supporting customer communities.
Cult Brands aren’t afraid to use today’s profits to support customer communities to generate powerful, long-term goodwill for their businesses and their brands.
When possible, they establish social events that reflect their missions. MINI created their annual Take the State tour. Life Is Beautiful puts on their popular Music Festival each year. Harley supports HOG Rallies worldwide. (We attended their 105th Anniversary event in Milwaukee and recorded the magic.)
You don’t have to earn your way into a Cult Brand by proving you’re cool enough. Cult Brands take it as a given that you’re already cool enough.
Cult Brands welcome customers of all ages, races, creeds, and socioeconomic backgrounds with open arms. They don’t discriminate against anyone who doesn’t fit into an idealized customer profile. Everyone is welcome.
Cult Brands prove to their customers that they are indeed open and inclusive by helping to fulfill the deep human needs that we all share, including belonging and self-esteem.
Deep inside every human being on this planet is a need for freedom.
According to Abraham Maslow, the feeling of freedom is a bridge to self-actualization: we want to be able to grow and express our own unique identity and worldview without fear of consequences.
Harley promotes freedom on the open road. Vans promotes freedom from convention. Linux promotes freedom of information. Apple promotes creativity and self-expression.
Cult Brands are empowering and expansive. When customers engage with a Cult Brand, they come away feeling like they can do more, and do it more effectively.
Integrating the Seven Rules of Cult Brands into your operations expands the number of ways you can tap into the forces of customer loyalty.
Consistent application of these principles will strengthen the bond you have with your existing all-star customers, while simultaneously creating new customers.
As your customers deepen their emotional connection with you, their loyalty will grow. Your organization will become stronger, more resilient, and more differentiated.
Oh, you’ll probably become more profitable too.
How do you put archetypes to work?
Start at the center.
The center is unique for each organization.
Your strengths hint at it.
Your organization’s passions point you in the right direction.
The forces that drive your customers to do business with you provide invaluable clues.
This center should be expressed in your ultimate vision, your core values, and the language of your corporate culture.
How will you know when you’ve found your center?
Your heart will awaken.
Your employees will come together as teams. Innovation will increase by the passions of the men and women guided by archetypal forces deep within them. Your stakeholders will observe it. Your customers will hear the call to adventure.
Remember: the more archetypal, the more essential, and the more human your center is, the more cohesive your organization will become. And, the more easily you’ll attract customers who want to join forces with you.
Onward!