Not All Cults Are Created Equal

For some people, the word “Cult” is enough to make the hair on the back of their neck stand up. Thoughts of Jim Jones and David Koresh spring easily to mind. These renowned cult leaders certainly had their followers, but they didn’t lead them anywhere good.

It’s important to understand that there are both benign and destructive cults: benign cults don’t harm their followers; destructive cults do. The fanatical devotion exhibited by Apple aficionados and Harley owners exhibit behavior that is certainly cult-like, but no one is harmed as a result of their affections.

Benign cults build their members up; destructive cults tear their members down.

We turn to Rick Ross , one of the nation’s leading experts on cults, for a more in-depth explanation. For over twenty years, Rick Ross has studied cult groups and has helped rescue family members trapped inside cult compounds.

Destructive Cults

Ross describes destructive cults as “groups with an absolute authoritarian figure at the top of a pyramid scheme of authority where there is virtually no accountability for that leader.” This is where you see the Jim Jones type of dynamic at play: the leader is a super-star who has absolute control.

Cult Brands are different because it’s not at all necessary for people to know who’s in charge for them to form a relationship with the brand. Lots of people know Steve Jobs was at the core of Apple’s success, but the average customer doesn’t know who is at the helm of IKEA, Whole Foods, or even Harley-Davidson.

Destructive cults hurt, harm, manipulate, and often brainwash their members. The leader of a destructive cult really doesn’t care about the well being of its members. In fact, such leaders openly exploit and abuse their members, usually for their own personal benefit.

Benign Cults

Benign cults have one trait in common with their negative counterparts: the intensity with which the cult members are attached to the object of their affection. Ross describes a benign cult as “any group of people that are intensely devoted to a person, place, or thing,” but where the relationship between the follower and the cult is harmless, benign, or even positive.

Benign cults are never destructive. They don’t harm or injure their followers either physically or mentally. Benign cults have leaders who are accountable to the group, and the leaders value the feedback of their followers.

Benign cults are inclusive. They welcome anyone who wants to belong. There’s no price of admission—you don’t need to live in Key West to be a Parrothead: simply being enthusiastic about the brand is enough. This is an important point of differentiation from destructive cults, which are exclusive, shutting out anyone who doesn’t fit a specific set of criteria.

The important thing about benign cults is that they help fill the emotional wants and needs of their followers in a positive way. There are clear, easily identifiable, objectively observable benefits that are derived from membership in a benign cult.

Why People Join Brand Cults

Watch this presentation to get a better understanding of why loyal customers often gather together:

No one wants to own a mediocre brand, but few businesses take the steps necessary to become a dominant brand. Brands that don’t actively work to differentiate are generally defined and controlled by their competitors. In a cluttered marketplace of indistinguishable brands, developing a strong position in the heart of the customer is extremely challenging.

In the world of retail brands, you either grow or die—there’s no in-between. In most cases, the winner of this game for the customer’s heart takes all, leaving the rest of the competition struggling for minor market share.

In order to develop a strong position in the marketplace,  brands have to understand three key ingredients for developing a strong retail marketing strategy: relevance, growth potential, and category leadership.

Retail Marketing Strategy #1: Be Relevant To Your Customers

Key Question: How important is your brand’s promise to its customer?

Everything (including your advertising) must create value for your customer. Anything that does not create value weakens your relevance in the customer’s life. When the customer no longer finds value in your promise, the relevance dies and the customer does business with your competitor.

This is what happened to K-Mart as Walmart became more relevant by having what the customer wanted (deep inventory), when the customer wanted it (open 24-hours a day), at the price the customer wanted to pay (low price always, always). Combining these merchant-champion qualities with “real people” advertising of their associates and customers, and the resulting relevance factor was beyond anyone in their category.

Even today it is hard for other retailers to be as relevant in the customer’s life as Walmart is for the general public. This is simple to see when you consider the fact that 35 million people choose to shop at Walmart every day. Many studies showed that customers drove right past K-Mart in order to get to Walmart.  The power of a relevant brand!

Retail Marketing Strategy #2: Capitalize on Growth Potential

Key Question: How does your brand help customers grow?

A powerful brand helps its customers achieve growth. As people are always evolving, they tend to favor those who help them along their life’s journey to grow and gain what they want. This is a crucial point: your brand has to give your customers a potential to grow from the interaction with the brand in a personal way. If the individual does not derive any growth from the interaction with the brand, the business enterprise failed at all levels—they didn’t have the foresight to think through the problem all the way to the customer.

It is important to remember that each of your customers is attracted to your brand for their own reason, not yours. Most marketing managers start by looking at their business rather than the customer who is growing from this interaction.

The successful retailer Build-a-Bear is a clear example of how to offer growth potential to each customer. By designing the experience of building a bear as a workshop, each customer is able to create his or her own unique teddy bear, giving it a name, a birth certificate and registering it to the creator’s name. Customers describe the experience as “personally enriching,” as they are allowed to create their new best friend.  Build-A-Bear earns twice the national average per square foot of mall retail space. It pays to help your customer grow.

Retail Marketing Strategy #3: Go For Category Leadership

Key Question: How dominant is your brand’s position in its given category?

Southwest Airlines summarizes this idea best when their former leader, Herb Kelleher, said, “I will tell your our strategic plan, its called doing something.” As crazy as this sounds, most companies don’t do anything to establish category leadership.

Most brands, by default, choose the tried-and-true path and take their place in the rankings by simply doing what they have always done. In order to develop brand leadership, you have to own your category. There is no way around it; there can’t be anyone else that serve your specific customers better than you do. Great brands always stand alone.

Leading the pack is not easy, and it’s not for every business. Creating market dominance means constant attention to the customer by taking meaningful action. Great brands are in a constant conversation with their customers, associates, and partners.  At each point in the chain they strive to add value and stand apart from their competitors with a strong retail marketing strategy.

Definition of ‘Cult’

1: great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work

2: a system of religious beliefs and ritual

3: In the 1930s cults became the object of sociological study in the context of the study of religious behavior.

The Meaning of the Term

For some people, the word “Cult” is enough to make the hair on the back of their neck stand up. Thoughts of Jim Jones and David Koresh spring easily to mind. These renowned cult leaders certainly had their followers, but they didn’t lead them anywhere good.

It’s important to understand that there are both benign and negative cults. Benign cults don’t harm their followers, while negative cults do. The fanatical devotion exhibited by Apple aficionados and Harley owners exhibit behavior that is certainly cult-like, but no one is harmed as a result of their affections. Benign social groups build their members up; negative cults tear their members down.

We turn to Rick Ross, one of the nation’s leading experts on cults, for a more in-depth explanation. For over twenty years, Rick Ross has studied these groups and helped rescue family members trapped inside their compounds.

Cult Branding Company explains ‘Cult’

Destructive Cults

Ross describes destructive cults as “groups with an absolute authoritarian figure at the top of a pyramid scheme of authority where there is virtually no accountability for that leader.” This is where you see the Jim Jones type of dynamic at play. The leader is a super-star who has absolute control. Cult Brands are different because it’s not at all necessary for people to know who’s in charge for them to form a relationship with the brand. Lots of people know Steve Jobs was at the core of Apple’s success, but the average customers doesn’t know who is at the helm of IKEA, Whole Foods, or even Harley-Davidson.

Destructive cults hurt, harm, manipulate, and often brainwash their members. The leader of a destructive group really doesn’t care about the well being of its members. In fact, such leaders openly exploit and abuse their members, usually for their own personal benefit.

Benign Cults

Benign cults have one trait in common with their negative counterparts. That’s the intensity with which the  members are attached to the object of their affection. Ross describes a benign cult as “any group of people that are intensely devoted to a person, place, or thing,” but where the relationship between the follower and the leader or group is harmless, benign, or even positive.

Benign cults are never destructive. They don’t harm or injure their followers either physically or mentally. Benign social groups have leaders who are accountable to the group, and the leaders value the feedback of their followers.

Benign cults are inclusive. They welcome anyone who wants to belong. There’s no price of admission—you don’t need to buy a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to be part of the Harley community: simply being enthusiastic about the brand is enough. This is an important point of differentiation from negative cults, which are exclusive, shutting out anyone who doesn’t fit a specific set of criteria.

The important thing about benign cults is that they help fill the emotional wants and needs of their followers in a positive way. There are clear, easily identifiable, objectively observable benefits that are derived from membership in a benign brand group.

Cult Brand Examples

There are many weak brands and Average Joe brands out there. There are even numerous iconic brands in the world, which most other companies aspire to be. But few brands ever develop a deep, penetrating relationship with their customers. Few brands truly win the heart’s of their customers, which breeds authentic customer loyalty. Few brands ever adhere to the rules – knowingly or not — that define a Cult Brand.

Here are 21 of the most powerful Cult Brands and how this powerful form of marketing has shaped their relationship with their customers and Brand Lovers.

Definition of Retail Marketing

Retail is the sale of goods and services from businesses to an end user (called a customer). Retail marketing is the process by which retailers promote awareness and interest of their goods and services in an effort to generate sales from their consumers. There are many different approaches and strategies retailers can use to market their goods and services (see below).

Retail Marketing Mix: The Four Ps of Retail Marketing

Retailers use various advertising and communication tools to grow awareness and consideration with future customers. Finding the right marketing mix can lead to profitable growth and a higher return on investment. By considering the right advertising strategy retailers can persuade consumers to choose to do business with their retail brand. The fundamental approach used by modern retailers in marketing their products is the Four Ps of Retail Marketing.

Product: There are two primary types of merchandise. Hard or durable goods like appliances, electronics, and sporting equipment. And soft goods like clothing, household items, cosmetics, and paper products. Some retailers carry a range of hard and soft items like a supermarket or a major retail chain while many smaller retailers only carry one category of goods, like a boutique clothing store.

Price: Pricing is a key element of any retail strategy. The retail price needs to cover the cost of goods as well as additional overhead costs. There are four primary pricing strategies used by retailers:

1. Everyday low pricing: The retailer operates on thin margins and attracts customers interested in the lowest possible price. This strategy is used by big box retailers like Wal-Mart and Target.

2. High/low pricing: The retailer starts with a high price and later reduces the price when the item’s popularity fades. This strategy is mainly used by small to mid-sized retailers.

3. Competitive pricing: The retailer bases the price on what their competition is charging. This strategy is often used after the retailer has exhausted the higher pricing strategy (high/low pricing).

4. Psychological pricing: The retailer sets the price of items with odd numbers that consumers perceive as being lower than they are. For example, a list price of $1.95 is associated with spending $1 rather than $2 in the customer’s mind. This strategy is also called pricing ending or charm pricing.

Place: The place is where the retailer conducts business with its customers. The place can be a physical retail location or a non-physical space like a catalog company or an e-store. While most retailers are small, independently owned operations (over 90%), over 50% of retail sales are generated by major retailers often called “big box retailers” (see the list of the top 20 big box retailers below).

Promotion: Promotion is the final marketing mix element. Promotions include personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, and publicity. A promotional mix specifies how much attention to pay to each tactic, and how much money to budget for each. A promotion can have a wide range of objectives, including increasing sales, new product acceptance, creation of brand equity, positioning, competitive retaliations, or the creation of a corporate image.

The Four Ps Revisited: Customer-Oriented Retail Marketing

In recent years, to address the need to take a more customer-oriented approach to marketing, the 4 Ps of Retail Marketing have been revised and replaced by the 4 Cs: Consumer, Cost, Communication, and Convenience.

Consumer (versus Product): Instead of focusing on the product the retailer wants to sell, a smart retailer studies the wants and needs of its consumers before going to market. The more clearly a retailer understands the wants and needs of its customer base, the greater chance it will have of attracting customers and increasing sales.

Cost (versus Price): In retail, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something. Factors that influence cost include the customer’s cost to change to a new product and the customer’s cost for not selecting a competitor’s product.

Convenience (versus Place): The Internet has made Place less of a factor in consumer purchasing decisions. Convenience addresses the ease of completing a transaction including the ease of finding information about a product, finding the right product, and purchasing a product.

Communication (versus Promotion): Communications includes a range of efforts including advertising, public relations, grassroots efforts, social media, and any other form of communication between the company and the consumer.

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The Top 20 Retailers in 2022

In some parts of the world, the retail industry is still dominated by small family-run stores, but this market is increasingly being taken over by large retail chains. The retail landscape continues to evolve, with e-commerce giants and discount chains playing an increasingly prominent role. Here’s a look at the top 20 retailers in 2022 based on total company revenues according to the National Retail Federation [NRF]:

Contact us to discuss how you can better prepare for what’s ahead. We can help you identify ways for your organization to tap into the power of cult branding, create value, and ultimately thrust your performance.

The reason that Apple and other industry-dominating organizations, like Harley-Davidson and IKEA, consistently beat out their competition is that they have a deep, comprehensive understanding of who their best customers are.

Truly knowing your customers requires moving beyond demographic data into the nuanced realm of human nature, a zone where imagery, color, and emotional tone are more powerful than logic or price. Up to 90 percent of all customer behavior is unconscious.  We come hard-wired with deep seated wants, needs, and desires that play a critical role in every decision we make—whether or not we’re aware of them.

It is by delving into the unconscious motivators that guide an organization’s best customer’s decision making process that a dominant organization can realize an unbeatable competitive advantage: predictability.  When you understand what causes your customers to act the way they do, you can predict, with a high degree of certainty, how they’ll react to any change in the customer-brand relationship. That could mean a new product, a new marketing message, or the way you set up your physical retail space or website. Knowing customer reactions ahead of time allows you to pick the most profitable endeavors and side-step the mistakes—before you make them.

What does this look like in the real world? Here are four ways dominant organizations have leveraged their superior customer understanding:

#1 – Wendy’s Is Winning

Once upon a time, Burger King had the #2 position in the fast food market sewn up tight.  Lately, however, it’s not so good to be the king.  An inability to correctly identify, understand, and connect with their target market has resulted in lackluster performance at home and overseas, while an ill-advised marketing campaign featuring a creepy, cartoonish King alienated more customers than it attracted. Meanwhile, Wendy’s is winning by honing in on the profitable upscale end of the fast food marketplace and determining, in great detail, what those customers want and continually evolving their menu to delight those customers.  The recipe works: today Wendy’s is very close to capturing the #2 position.

#2 – Volkswagen’s Victory

It is no coincidence that Volkswagen is highlighting their car’s safety record at the exact point when the majority of their most loyal customers are starting their families.  We all come equipped (standard issue!) with the need to nurture; this is one of those biologically drivers humanity relies upon to ensure the continuation of the species. There is no point at which this drive is stronger than when one is in the presence of a small infant. The marketing campaign for the Jetta is aimed directly at the unconscious, with strong, nurturing men—at times holding actual babies—discussing the safety and security the brand offers.  Sales of the Jetta have been record breaking.

#3 – Snickers Gets Satisfaction

Snickers was struggling to find their place in a crowded market. One big problem was they were attempting to sell candy bars to people who didn’t particularly want candy bars. The company analyzed their sales patterns, hoping to discern who was buying their candy. This research revealed that peak purchasing times happened mid-afternoon; construction workers on break and kids on their way to basketball practice valued the role Snicker’s plentiful peanuts played in quieting rumbling stomachs. This was a pivotal insight. Snicker rebranded itself not as another type of candy, but as a hunger buster. The tag line, “Hungry? Why wait?” helped emphasize the primary value that was already causing people to choose Snickers, an approach that was so effective that today, Snickers is the world’s leading candy bar.

#4 – Rolls Royce Wins Big

As the Chinese marketplace continues to evolve, dominant organizations are already taking steps to establish their presence efficiently and effectively.  Rolls Royce delved deeply into the culture of China, immersing itself in the country’s metaphorical language and powerful symbology before designing their Special Edition Year of the Dragon Phantom.

The maroon car, which comes with custom embroidery and gold painted dragons, does an admirable job embodying luxury for consider a consumer base that has been raised with markedly different experiences, iconography, cultural narratives, values, and mores than that of the maker.  Each one cost $1.2 million.  The entire production run sold out in less than 2 months.