7 Questions Leaders of Cult Brands Constantly Ask

Are you on the pulse of your customers? Are you able to take their perspective?

The status of your business today is a direct consequence of the questions company leaders have been asking for the last several years.

Questions direct the future. Better quality questions produce better quality results.

Knowing what questions to ask, and when, is a skill. The more you practice this skill, the more proficient you become.

Leaders of Cult Brands ask different questions than most other business executives. These questions move their enterprise closer to their customers—toward trust, loyalty, differentiation, and the promise of a better tomorrow.

Here are seven questions customer-focused leaders regularly ask:

1) Why do our customers buy from us instead of our competitors?

Harley-Davidson couldn’t help notice that their customers enjoyed coming together to go for rides; this was the genesis of the Harley Owners Group. Lots of people love to ride motorcycles, but HOG members feel like they’re part of a special community (with over one million members). It’s what makes Harley different.

In an industry notorious for focusing on the less redeeming qualities in human nature, Oprah made her talk show a celebration of hope, empowerment, and self-improvement. It’s what made Oprah different.

It’s vital that you clearly understand how your brand differentiates itself from your competitors in a way that’s meaningful to your customers. Only then can you reinforce that differentiation in ways that better serve your customers.

2) How can we break the rules that run our category?

Who would want to buy eyeglass frames online when you need to try on many glasses to find one that fits? Warby Parker solved this problem by offering free shipping and allowing customers to order multiple frames before deciding which ones they want to keep without putting any money down.

Dollar Shave Club took the stale razor-blade category and made it fun and quirky. Their monthly subscription model is convenient and cheaper for customers while building repeat business.

Every market category has rules—standards of how the business operates. List all the rules that run your category and continually look for ways to disrupt the status quo.

3) How can our business help fulfill our customers’ passions and dreams?

IKEA customers are passionate about their home space. IKEA’s affordable furniture and accessories help its customers create aesthetically appealing spaces on a tight budget.

MINI customers are passionate about their vehicles. They want their cars to be an expression of their individuality. MINI helps them do that with their You-ification option that offers unlimited customization to the car’s design.

To answer this question, you first need to uncover the passions and dreams of your customers. What drives them? What tensions are they seeking to resolve? Who do they aspire to become? Then, determine how your business can best help them find fulfillment.

4) What are our customers telling us?

Who wants to pay an additional fee for checking in luggage for a flight you’ve already paid for? Southwest Airlines knew their customers expect more from them. While other airlines are charging up to $120 for passenger luggage, Southwest established their Bags Fly Free policy.

Amazon.com’s customers told them they didn’t want to wait to receive their packages or pay for shipping every time they ordered something. Amazon created their Prime program that now has over 112 million members in the US who enjoy free two-day shipping, free movies, and other perks for a moderate annual fee.

Are you on the pulse of your customers? Are you able to take their perspective? Do you know their tensions and what they want? Do you know where you’re excelling and falling short?

5) What else can we do to build a sense of community around our brand?

Hundreds of IKEA customers make family road trips and spend the weekend camping out in front of a new IKEA store. IKEA uses their grand openings to build a community for their customers with music, street performers, and BBQs.

Jimmy Buffet actively supports Parrothead clubs that champion his island-vibes and carefree living message.

What opportunities are you providing for your customers to connect with each other? Milestone events, such as store openings, the launch of a new product line, or holidays can serve as the focus for community building.

6) Who is our business especially for?

The Ritz-Carlton is a hotel chain for ladies and gentlemen served by ladies and gentlemen.

Vans shoes are especially for the skateboarding and snowboarding community.

Your business will attract many types of customers, but only a minority are tailored made for who you are and what you do. We call these special few Brand Lovers. If you know who they are and what drives them, you can create evangelists that will help you grow your business.

7) How is our business helping our customers experience freedom?

Linux, Vans, Google, Amazon.com, IKEA, Star Trek, Harley-Davidson, Apple, Oprah, and MINI all help their customers feel freer. It is one of the defining characteristics of Cult Brands.

Freedom is a powerful human need. As free as your customers may be, there are areas where they feel repressed. Who would they be if they were free to be their best selves? How can you help your customers move past the shackles and constraints placed on them by society and tradition?

The Seven Rules of Cult Brands

These seven questions mirror the Seven Golden Rules of Cult Brands. Asking these questions often and committing to finding better quality answers will put you on the fast track to fostering undying customer loyalty.

December 22, 2020 by

The Key to Unlocking the Hearts and Minds of Your Customers

Activating an archetype is like opening an app on your smartphone. Tap it and the archetype starts running.

Our culture, and every modern culture since the Age of Enlightenment, praises reason above all else.

Reason and logic became the salvation of mankind and ushered in the industrial, technological, and information ages.

When humans praise one thing, they have a tendency of doing so at the expense of something else.

In this case, the rise of reason brought a bias against its supposed opposite: emotion.

The Emotional Life of Your Customer

In praising reason, we forgot that human beings are, first and foremost, emotional creatures.

Our reasoning strategies evolved within a vast network of emotions and feelings.

This cultural bias towards reason can keep us from understanding our customers (as well as our employees and ourselves). It gives us a false picture of who we’re trying to serve, for our customers are predominantly emotional, not rational, beings.

In the final analysis, we’re all more alike than we are different. Our emotional lives are what bind humanity together.

Tools for Exploring Your Customer’s Psyche

Unconscious processes operate millions of times faster than does our conscious mind. As much as 95% of our brain processes that result in decisions, behavior, and the motivations behind that behavior, are not conscious.

To get to better know ourselves and to get on pulse of what truly drives our customers to make decisions, we need to go below the surface. We need to somehow access and uncover the motivations in the subconscious and the unconscious mind.

Archetypes, images, symbols, and stories are gateways into these deeper realms.

Used consciously and correctly, this group of tools can provide penetrating insights into our customers’ lives that transcend even the most technologically-advanced research-gathering methods.

Archetypes are the Roots of the Soul

Psychiatrist Carl Jung observed that the psyche consists mainly of images. Many of these images are universal, found throughout the earth in our myths, dreams, and fairy tales. He called these universal mental images archetypes.

Archetypes are deep patterns embedded within each psyche.

We don’t create these archaic images or the patterns of behavior they embody. They come pre-installed in our operating systems; we inherit these images within our brain structure. They lay dormant within us until activated.

Activating an archetype is like opening an app on your smartphone. Tap it and the archetype starts running.

Symbols are the Building Blocks of Thought

Symbols are triggers of archetypal images. A symbol is a visual image that represents an idea. Water, for example, symbolizes the feminine life-force and the unconscious. The sun symbolizes the masculine life-force that surrounds us as well as our conscious mind.

Jung saw symbols as the building blocks of thought itself. Symbols, then, are shortcuts to reaching deeper levels of your customer’s psyche.

Every image—everything you can see with your eyes and in your mind’s eye—has symbolic counterparts.

When you see a ladder, your conscious mind sees a tool for climbing to higher places. Symbolically, the image of a ladder serves as a reminder of a psychological climb toward self-awareness or a spiritual climb to a higher truth.

A triangle represents a hierarchy.  The eagle is a dominant bird of prey. Both the triangle and the eagle are age-old symbols of power.

Symbols can come in the form of visual images like in a logo or product packaging. But they can also come in the form of metaphorical language.

Symbols can be used as a signal to your customer of what your brand represents.

Stories Bring Archetypal Patterns to Life

Story is perhaps the most powerful way to express archetypal patterns. Every story has a cast of characters that represents expressions of various archetypes.

The hero, the villain, the friend, the wise old man/woman, the trickster all represent characters within each of us. They each possess certain behavioral patterns, values, and perspectives that carry their own truth.

Each of us is faced with a series of challenges in life designed to help us grow. The hero’s journey, for example, represents the journey to mature adulthood—the path to personal transformation.

When we listen to a story, we enter the story. When we watch a movie, neurons fire in our brain as if the story is happening to us. Stories, then, awaken and speak to the archetypes within us.

Brands that tap into the power of story can connect and influence their customers in ways their competitors can only dream of.

Emotions Give Images Life

A symbolic image alone doesn’t evoke any meaning in your customer. An image alone is lifeless.

Emotion is what gives the image life. When an image combines with emotion, the archetypal force is activated within your customer’s psyche.

It is this living archetype that defines a brand. It’s what drives a customer’s choice of which brand to associate with.

And so it is the emotional life of your customers you must turn to if you are committed to understanding them so that you can serve them better than anyone else.

December 14, 2020 by

Four Strategies for Increasing Happiness in the Workplace (and Within Yourself )

Fostering a happy workplace starts by cultivating optimism within yourself.

Do you notice that setbacks tend to occupy your mind more than victories?

Do you sometimes struggle to stay positive about your business?

Employees expect their leaders to be enthusiastic, energetic, and positive about the future. But on a day-to-day basis, maintaining a positive outlook and inspiring others can be challenging.

Even if everything in your business is going smoothly, a problematic issue in your personal life—with your spouse, child, friend, or relative—can throw you off your game.

Leaders must inspire their people amidst professional and personal challenges. Research-based methods for counteracting negativity and fostering optimism give leaders the resources to inspire themselves and uplift others.

How can you inspire others if you don’t feel inspired?

Continue Reading
December 7, 2020 by

Core Values, Passion, and Happiness

Happiness is really just about four things: perceived control, perceived progress, connectedness, and vision/meaning. —Tony Hsieh

This reminds me of a (possibly apocryphal) story I heard about a shoe company back in the 1800s that sent a couple of their employees to a distant land for a month to scout the region and determine the market opportunity there. One of the employees came back and said, “Nobody there wears shoes! There’s no opportunity there!” The other employee came back a week later and said, “Nobody there wears shoes! There’s so much opportunity there!”Tony Hsieh1

Like many people in the business world, I was saddened to hear of the passing of Tony Hsieh last week. Not only did I have a lot of respect for Tony, but I was fortunate to call him a friend.

If you ever met Tony, you’d know he was definitely like the second employee in the story he recounted. Tony saw potential everywhere, not just in businesses, but also in people. Whether it was empowering Zappos employees to pursue their passion projects or listening to an artist friend around a campfire in the yard near his airstream, Tony saw possibility where others would just see half-baked ideas. 

Continue Reading
December 1, 2020 by

Eight Steps to Build Brand Loyalty

Relentlessly serve your best customers better than anyone else.
To build brand loyalty, serve your best customers better than your competitors do.

Here are eight steps you can take to begin building brand loyalty.

Step 1: Focus on your best customers

Build your business around your best customers—what we call Brand Lovers—instead of trying to aimlessly drive sales. Over time, your return on marketing and innovation efforts will rise.

Continue Reading
November 23, 2020 by

Putting the Cult Back into Culture

supportive cultures facilitate personal freedom and foster positive growth.

If someone told you your company is a cult, how would you take it?

Instead of getting offended, you may want to feel a sense of pride. It all depends on how you look at cults and the role they play in creating your corporate culture.

Continue Reading
November 16, 2020 by

Finding the Heart in Leadership

The better you understand yourself, the better you can understand your customers and employees.

Your customers are human beings. Your employees are human beings. And yes, you are human too.

But what does it mean to be human?

As humans, we are conscious of certain names, dates, memories, beliefs, concepts, and aspects of our identity.

This collection of details are all above the surface. They are available to our conscious minds, retrievable by our thinking brains.

Below the surface, however, a vast reservoir of energy and instincts exists of which humans are not aware. Psychology calls this subterranean the subconscious mind and the unconscious mind.

Continue Reading
November 9, 2020 by

Harness The Power of Story

Harnessing the power of story can transform both your corporate culture and your brand.

“Good morning city!”

Emmet Brickowski was a construction worker, your everyday guy. He followed printed instructions on how to fit in, have everyone like him, and always be happy.

But Emmet had a greater destiny: to become a Master Builder. Master Builders don’t have to follow instructions. Inspired by others, they create from what’s inside of them.

If you don’t know Emmet, you may have heard of The Lego Movie. The Lego Movie premiered in February 2014, grossing $468 million worldwide at the box office.

Continue Reading
October 26, 2020 by

How to Hook Your Customers

Your job isn’t to create needs for your customers. Your job is to make your customers aware of their existing needs.

Your job isn’t to create needs for your customers. Customers—humans—do a fine job of that on their own.

Your job is to make your customers aware of their existing needs. When you do this successfully, you trigger motivation in your customers. This motivation leads your customers to take action.

Continue Reading
October 19, 2020 by