What is Marketing?

Marketing is the practice of allocating resources to gain awareness and consideration from future customers for the purchase of a product or service. Marketing satisfies the need for the company to create customers and build relationships that will bring the business sustainable growth. Marketing also communicates the value of a product or service to the marketplace. Because marketing communicates the value of the organization even shareholders benefit from having marketing programs that are effective at creating profitable customers for the business enterprise.

Definition of Marketing

1: the process of allocating resources for the purpose of attracting a customers to purchase a product or service.

2: the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.

3: a system of communicating the value of a service or product to customers, for the purpose of attracting customers.

4: the science of consumer buying behavior and providing customer value.

What is Marketing Concept & Meaning

The theory of business was forever changed after the 1930s when the Age of Marketing was born:  Supply for a product is greater than demand, creating intense competition among suppliers. In the marketing approach to business, the company first determines what the consumer wants, then produces what the consumer wants, and then sells the consumer what it wants.

Leon Leonwood Bean, who founded retailer L.L. Bean in 1912, expounded on the marketing concept in his first circular: “I do not consider a sale complete until goods are worn out and the customer still satisfied. We will thank anyone to return goods that are not perfectly satisfactory … Above all things we wish to avoid having a dissatisfied customer.”

In 1954, management guru Peter Drucker said: “If we want to know what business is we must first start with its purpose…There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. What business thinks it produces is not of first importance-especially not to the future of the business or to its success. What the customer thinks he/she is buying, what he/she considers “value” is decisive determines what a business is, what it produces, and whether it will prosper.” (The Practice of Management, 1954, P.37)

Cult Branding Company Explains Marketing

Marketing originated in the earliest societies and continues today in our largest and most remote cities around the world. Some of the top marketing efforts in the world include companies that sell soft drinks, cars, music, airplanes, and airplane tickets even software has been marketed widely in today’s techno culture.

Each day more and more choices for products are available to consumers around the globe. This rise in choices for consumers means the importance of marketing continues to grow. Without a solid marketing strategy, most products and services will go unnoticed. With the rise of customers having more choices of products and services to choose from marketing will continue to be an important part of any successful business plan.

There are companies that have used marketing to create customer loyalty. Companies that do this exceedingly well are known as Cult Brands and have emerged in different markets and business categories around the globe.

Cult Branding examples using marketing

Some very special companies have mastered the art of marketing their products and services to attract loyal customers.

Here are 21 of the most powerful Cult Brands and how marketing has shaped their relationship with their best customers.

21 Brands That Have Fanatics and Cult Followers

Cult Branding is the art and science of creating human experiences that lead to a feeling of belonging. This feeling provides a sense of shared consciousness with others, supported by ritualistic behavior.

Cult Branding is so effective that many loyal customers convince their friends and family to choose one company over another based on their deep love and connection to the these brands. Companies with cult branding strategies enjoy additional purchases from friends and family that are excited and ready to get into the group and share the ritual of the brand.

There are many ways to create a Cult Brand, from giving consumers a sense of belonging to simple acts of kindness that create long-term bonds with the consumer. Cult Branding is the the result of a superior understanding of the customer where consumer insights (big data) and humanities (human needs) come together.

There are many weak brands and Average Joe brands in the marketplace. There are even numerous iconic brands in the world, which most other companies aspire to emulate. 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 Seven Rules of Cult Brands that produce unfettered customer loyalty.

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

Amazon.com

Starting in 1994, Amazon.com focused on creating an online shopping experience that anyone could fall in love with. Allowing customer feedback in reviews, fast shipping with free returns, and letting the customer know they are always right, helped Amazon slowly grow into the largest online retailer. Over the last decade, Amazon has developed a customer base of around 30 million people and they are more focused on their customer than ever before. CEO Jeff Bezos, consistently ranked as the #1 outperforming CEO by Harvard Business Review, is the quintessential customer-obsessed business leader.

Bezos examples, “If you’re customer-focused, you’re always waking up wondering, how can we make that customer say, wow? We want to impress our customers—we want them to say, wow. That kind of divine discontent comes from observing customers and noticing that things can always be better.”

Apple

Apple is the epitome of self-empowerment and self-fulfillment combined into one brand. How else to describe a Cult Brand whose original slogan for the Macintosh was, “the computer for the rest of us”?

Apple doesn’t just build products, they build products that their faithful fans want. And, they have a variety of interesting ways of preaching and listening to the choir. For starters, Apple hosts a User Group University at Macworld expo where leaders from Mac User Groups—those essentially independent clubs started by Apple aficionados—meet with each other for a full day of workshops and conversations about Apple’s latest products. Apple showers all attendees with free logo merchandise, as well as employee discounts at the company store. Not only does Apple come away with invaluable feedback from a great group of customers, but it re-energizes its faithfuls.

Apple also asks individuals who run successful Mac User Groups in their communities to participate and to help Apple work with less successful user groups in the region. They continually gather feedback for Apple and look for Mac success stories to share. By following this game plan, Apple is able to give its customers the product enhancements they really want and a community to which they want to belong.

Visit the official Cult Brand profile for Apple.

Oprah

It’s hardly an accident that Oprah Winfrey has maintained such a fervently steadfast and devoted fan base during her career. She has used her talk show as a daily platform for holding heart-to-heart discussions with her audience. Some TV personalities seem distant and removed from the general public, but Oprah has never shied away from sharing intimate, personal details about her life with her audience. Oprah shows her viewers that when the lights and cameras are off, she faces many of the same problems as they do. She is indeed an ordinary person with ordinary problems to overcome. It’s her seeming vulnerability and fragility that make her that much more inclusive of a brand.

Whether you like or dislike Oprah, you can’t argue with the fact that she really does care for people that are, “improving the lives of others.” The halo effect the Oprah brand receives from these community activities is very real. We all feel a certain warmth and quiet joy from helping others. Brands that bring about these feelings in us will almost always hold a special place in our hearts.

Visit the official Cult Brand profile for Oprah.

Harley Davidson

Given financial constraints, Harley couldn’t engage in a traditional advertising campaign to win over customers. In 1983, CEO Vaughn Beals announced the launch of the Harley Owners Group (H.O.G.), which he saw as a grassroots way to reconnect Harley’s brand and lifestyle with its most faithful customers.

The spread of these groups was guerilla marketing at its best: membership was generated primarily from inexpensive promotions at dealerships and word-of-mouth. H.O.G. groups gave enthusiasts a structured way to meet, swap stories, and schedule rides with other evangelists.

They didn’t stop with creating members groups. They started sponsoring rallies around the country. In doing so, not only did they solidify their communities, but they also used the rallies as a killer sales tool. They bring motorcycles to the rallies for people to tryout. This concept reaches its apex each year at Bike Week in Daytona Beach and the Sturgis Rally and Races in South Dakota. Collectively, the events attract over half a million Harley enthusiasts.

In creating these events, and paying attention to its customers, what Harley is ultimately selling through its motorcycles is the opportunity to experience the feelings of raw freedom and empowerment that one receives from strapping on some leather and riding a bike down the open road. These are feelings common to Americans of all ages, races, and backgrounds.

Visit the official Cult Brand profile for Harley-Davidson.

Jimmy Buffett

When an unknown Jimmy Buffett moved to Nashville in 1969 to take his shot at making it in the music business, success didn’t come quickly.

It wasn’t until 1977 and the release of “Margaritaville” that he enjoyed his first, and only, Top Ten hit. But the wait was worth it: almost twenty-five years later, anything even remotely sounding like “Margaritaville” is still referred to as “Jimmy Buffett music.” Buffett owns his category of music in the minds of millions. Whether or not you like Buffett’s music, it’s hard not to break into a big smile and have a heck of a good time at a Buffett concert.

Most musicians focus their attention on making and selling albums and videos, but Buffett aims higher, selling his fan the opportunity for a temporary escape into the land of fun. This lifestyle is what Parrot Heads around the world are really buying. They are purchasing the opportunity to fulfill their passions with like-minded individuals through various activities, be it a road trip to a Buffett concert, meeting with local Parrot Heads for drinks at happy hour, or volunteering with other Parrot Heads to help a nonprofit organization.

Today, Jimmy Buffett earns $100 million each year with his tours, restaurant sales, and albums. The key to his success? Creating and embracing a lifestyle a legion of loyal fans love.

Visit the official Jimmy Buffet Cult Brand profile.

IKEA

People are camping outside. Traffic jams are so severe that highway exits must be shut down. Traffic lights are rendered useless requiring police to direct traffic. Is it a new Star Wars film? No, it’s the opening of a new Ikea store.

Functionality differs between regions, and IKEA takes it into account when designing their products. They don’t just have people complete surveys to figure out what they want. They go into their homes and see the ways they live. Visiting people’s houses in Italy and the United States led to the understanding that Americans store more clothing in drawers. The result: deeper drawers for their American products. This attention to incorporating what their customers want is not lost on the customers. In one forum message, a user identified as bcbaird commented, “I like the IKEA cabinets because the money you spend goes towards the things that count … and not the things that don’t.” And, the attention has paid off: from 1997 to 2005 IKEA doubled its market share and tripled its sales from $600 million to $1.7 billion to become the seventh largest furniture store in the United States.

Visit the official IKEA Cult Brand profile.

Linux

In 1991, Linus Torvalds, a twenty-one-year-old college student, set out to change this picture and develop a “cheap alternative” to UNIX.

By 1996, lively discussion had begun among open-source developers that the new operating system clearly needed to have its own mascot and logo. Ferocious animals like sharks, eagles, hawks, and foxes came up, but Torvalds hopped into the discussion and casually said to the open source community that he was rather fond of penguins. A fun-loving penguin was the antithesis of the logos of other tech products: they were cold and corporate. The penguin screamed: We’re different! But Torvalds didn’t want just any penguin for the logo, he wanted one that “looked happy, as if it had just polished off a pitcher of beer and then had the best sex of its life.”

Today, Linux has millions of users around the world, and Torvalds is treated as a near-religious figure responsible for freeing a nation of engineers from their chains to sub-par operating systems. The open source development process doesn’t discriminate. The best code always wins in the Linux nation, whether it comes from a fourteen-year-old kid in Buenos Aires or a fifty-year-old veteran programmer working for a major corporation. They know they will be judged by their peers by the quality of their work and their ideas, and not by their age, job title, background, or work experience.

The Linux Penguin now appears in everything from IBM’s high profile campaigns to Linux T-Shirts, toys, and product packaging. The open source community has given the plump penguin its own name, Tux. The imaginary penguin is truly a star.

Visit the official Linux Cult Brand profile.

Southwest Airlines

Southwest’s company is built on the idea that loyalty begins with the employees. In fact, their ability to be profitable depends entirely on them. Flying short distance flights is, according to conventional wisdom, an unprofitable approach, as planes are forced to spend a greater portion of time on the ground than the air. Rather than cutting labor costs and buying cheap equipment, Southwest relies on their employees to create profit by putting more planes in the air through quick turnarounds.

Everyone who is working for Southwest really wants to work at Southwest Airlines. There’s no hierarchy between pilots and baggage handlers. Everyone is working together to best serve the customer and they’re happy to do it. Not only does their state of mind create a positive atmosphere for the customers, but their efficient, communication-focused approach has resulted in fewer lost bags, fewer delays, and, inevitably, fewer complaints.

Herb Kelleher, ex-CEO of Southwest, demonstrated the understanding that customer loyalty began with the employees, when he claimed profit to be a byproduct of customer service. This driving concept has led Southwest to 33 years of profitability without any layoffs, figures that seem impossible in the airline industry.

Visit the official Southwest Airlines Cult Brand profile.

Star Trek

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry couldn’t have been further away from fitting the mold of the typical Hollywood director. He wasn’t born into a Hollywood family, and he didn’t have any connections in the film industry.

In 1960, he began pitching the idea of Star Trek to the major studios. As wacky as it sounds today, it took Roddenberry six years of hustling and pitching before NBC finally bit on Star Trek. Even then, Roddenberry’s real challenges were only beginning. The original Star Trek pulled only mediocre ratings and lasted only three short seasons before NBC cancelled it in 1969. In fact, the show barely made it into a third season. In 1967, when the cancellation after a second season seemed highly likely, word quickly spread among sci-fi fans that Star Trek was being cancelled. That’s when the husband and wife team of Bjo and John Trimble entered the picture. The two buffs quickly reacted to the news by developing a “Save Star Trek” letter-writing campaign. Gene Roddenberry got down in the trenches with the Trimbles and helped drum up support. The result of their tireless efforts was that NBC received a barrage of letters from fans begging the network to bring the show back. NBC agreed and Trekkers got to see a third season of their beloved series.

Nine motion pictures, five television series, dozens of books, and endless amounts of merchandise later, Star Trek has grossed hundreds of millions of dollars for Paramount. None of this would ever have come to fruition if it had not been for Roddenberry pleading for support from his fans, and the Trek nation’s wholehearted response. When Roddenberry passed away in 1991, he died knowing that his crazy idea had evolved into an important and lasting mainstay of American pop culture.

Visit the official Star Trek Cult Brand profile.

Vans

While Vans is today known as a symbol of alternative sports like skateboarding and snowboarding, the company didn’t start out this way.

In the mid-seventies, Southern California skateboarders started wearing Vans shoes. Unlike any other shoe manufacturer at the time, Vans accepted these customers and began catering to the desires and needs of the, then, renegade skateboarding crowd. In fact, Vans was the first shoe company to start paying well-known skateboarders to wear its shoes. Vans took skateboarders—consumers that in the seventies were treated like lepers by the rest of corporate America—and celebrated them as champions. Vans preached to the choir and listened to the response.

It’s no accident that Vans sponsors and organizes dozens of extreme sports events each year. It knows that this is the best way to connect with customers. For many teenagers and young adults, an activity like skateboarding is their passion.

In addition to developing high-profile events for its customers like the Vans Triple Crown and the Vans Warped Tour, Vans has also begun building and operating its own skateboard parks, each filled with thousands of square feet of space for both skateboards and BMX bikers of all skill levels. Vans uses the parks to continue to build an environment of collaboration and openness: Vans takes input from its customers about what it’s doing right, what it’s doing wrong, and how it can improve. Of course, each Vans-branded park also includes a retail shop with Vans shoes and merchandise. These parks give the people at Vans a unique way to weave their products into the regular activities of their customers.

Visit the official Vans Cult Brand profile.

Volkswagen Beetle

Today the Beetle is regarded as arguably the best-selling car of all time, but back in 1948 it was unknown in the U.S., and many sales types believed no one would ever buy, partly because of its association with Nazi Germany.

Despite initial failures at introducing the Beetle into America, Volkswagen remained undeterred. They brought twenty Beetles to the U.S. to a private showing in New York City and then to the First U.S. International Trade Fair in Chicago. It wasn’t an overnight success, but it started to get attention from the press and generated word-of-mouth buzz.

In addition to developing a unique design (the look), Volkswagen focused on developing a unique marketing message (the say and the feel) for the Beetle. In contrast to the advertising of the Detroit automakers of the 1950s and 1960s, which was full of slick copy and boastful claims, Volkswagen’s ads for the Beetle were frank, direct, and honest. Some of the more memorable early print ads included “Think small,” “Some shapes are hard to improve on,” and the cult-branding clincher, “Do you earn too much to afford one?”

The combination of unique design elements and honest advertising became a killer combination. By the early 1960s, the Beetle became a magnet for legions of Americans who saw themselves as being different. As Bug Talesauthor Paul Klebahn summed up: “The Beetle tended to appeal to freethinkers. This was the thinking person’s car. Instead of saying, look how much I paid for my car, it was look how much I didn’t pay!”

When Volkswagen launched the New Beetle in 1998, they made a conscious decision not to show any drivers in its ads. They wanted their funky-shaped and lovable car to be the center of attention, not an actor or actress. “In the New Beetle’s initial advertising, we never included people in the ads because we didn’t want a person to say, ‘Oh, that’s who drives a Beetle,’” explained Steve Keys, Director of Corporate Communications. “We wanted you to be able to say, ‘I can see myself in that car.’” It was a good move: everyone from teenagers buying their first car to aging baby boomers hoping to recapture their youth purchased the car. Volkswagen benefited from not shrinking its potential audience of buyers: No one had trouble seeing themselves behind the wheel of a New Beetle.

Visit the official VW Beetle Cult Brand profile.

World Wrestling Entertainment

World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) Vince and Linda McMahon are both masters at challenging and shattering conventional wisdom. They prove that anyone can build a Cult Brand.

Despite the current size of WWE, the McMahons still understand the importance of listening to the choir. “You really have to be listening and providing them with what they want to see,” says Lind McMahon.

WWE’s live matches give the company a unique opportunity to see what its most loyal fans like or dislike about a show on any given night. Introduce a new wrestler or storyline twist the crowd doesn’t like, and chants of, “Booring! Booring!” will soon follow. By the same token, if WWE hits upon a great new gimmick or introduces a cool new wrestler, their always vocal fans will let them know about it. Scripts aren’t fully set until the day of the show, and WWE will sometimes even change a script in mid-show based upon a positive or negative reaction. Today, WWE is the only international brand of any consequence in professional wrestling. Taking huge risks and always keeping the fans alive allowed Vince and Lind McMahon to build from scratch an entertainment empire that generates over $400 million in sales annually.

Visit the official WWE Cult Brand profile.

MINI

Like the Volkswagen beetle, MINI embraced the Golden Rule of Courage and stood out as something different. In the heyday of the gas-guzzling SUVs, the roads were congested with Escalades, Navigators, and the almighty Hummer. With bigger is better sensibility, drivers could preen their feathers and strut their egos by way of their vehicles. Yet when all of the cars were getting bigger, MINI prided itself on being smaller, much smaller. When MINI wiggled its way onto the scene, it became the little engine that could.

It has been more than fuel efficiency that makes MINI a smart choice. Like other Cult Brands that follow the Golden Rule of Freedom, MINI celebrates each individual driver and encourages him or her to “you-ify your MINI.” MINI explains, “Everybody wants their car to say something different about them. Fortunately, the MINI can say anything.”

MINI proudly fosters a solid network of customer communities—the MINI Family, as it’s called—connected throughout the world. MINI explains, “Dating back to its birth in the UK, there’s a long-standing tradition of MINI owners acknowledging each other when they pass on the streets … So when you pass another MINI, don’t be shy. Give them a wave. It could be as subtle as raising an index finger off the steering wheel or as enthusiastic as two hands out the sunroof (although it would probably be best if these were passenger hands).” You’ll also hear MINI drivers acknowledging one another by flicking their headlights, and even giving high-fives out the window while passing each other by.

Visit the official MINI Cult Brand profile.

Zappos

Founded in 1999, Zappos.com was the product of Internet entrepreneur Tony Hsieh’s Venture Frogs venture capital firm. In 2003 seeing that the only reason the company made it this far was the direct result of customer satisfaction, through repeat business and word-of-mouth, Hsieh focused every aspect of the company on delivering great service and WOWing the current customers.

Hsiesh’s long-term, customer-based strategy paid out, bringing Zappos to $1 billion in sales in 2008, two years ahead of schedule. Zappos now operates as an independent entity and maintains its unique culture. Rather than focus on buzz and major marketing schemes, Zappos continues to focus their efforts on what made them successful and made their customers love them: building long term customer relationships by continuing to WOW them with every interaction.

Visit the Official Zappos Cult Brand profile.

The Motley Fool

Brothers Tom and David Gardner started writing a 16-page investment newsletter for their family and parents’ friends. In August of 1993, The Motley Fool was born. Embracing the power of the Web to harness a community, the Fools quickly established the largest financial community—first on AOL in 1994 and then on their own website in 1997.

One of the best qualities of The Motley Fool is that they’ve found a way to make investing and other financial matters fun. In fact, it’s part of their mission and even their tagline: to educate, amuse and enrich. Through witty commentary, playful jabs at each other, and comical writing, The Motley Fools is committed to helping their Brand Lovers save for retirement and entertaining them in the process. And, of course, the The Motley Fool internal culture propagates a similar level of freedom and fun: In a land of political bureaucracy, the Virginia-based headquarters was listed as one of the “Great Places to Work” by Washingtonian magazine.

The doors at The Motley Fools are always open: Anyone is welcome to join the Foolish Community. The only criterion is the desire to take control of your own finances and to have some fun in the process. Over 50 The Motley Fool staffers monitor the forums, offerings insights and data not just as financial “experts,” but as additional members of the community.

Dos Equis

Dos Equis beer has created a fictional character that all men envy and strive to emulate, a modern day James Bond, if you will.

The Most Interesting Man in the World commercials are inspirational.

The agency describes the Dos Equis spokesperson “He is a man rich in stories and experiences, much the way the audience hopes to be in the future. Rather than an embodiment of the brand, The Most Interesting Man is a voluntary brand spokesperson: he and Dos Equis share a point of view on life that it should be lived interestingly.”

“Stay thirsty, my friends”

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a leading its loyal fans into making the world a happier place. This give fans a place to belong to something more than just a product.

“Throughout its history Coca-Cola has always had a role in bringing simple moments of happiness to people around the world every day,” said Joe Tripodi, chief marketing and commercial leadership officer, The Coca-Cola Company. “Today we have an engaged global community more than 50 million strong connected through Facebook. This provides an opportunity to engage our most supportive and enthusiastic fans in a quest to find ways to make the world a happier place.”

Chick-Fil-A

In 1995, a renegade cow, paintbrush in mouth, painted the three words “EAT MOR CHIKIN” on a billboard. From that day forward, the burger-eating landscape would forever be changed. These fearless cows, acting in enlightened self-interest, realized that when people eat chicken, they don’t eat them. Today, the cows’ herds have increased and their message reaches millions – on television, radio, the internet, and the occasional water tower. Needless to say, Chick-fil-A fully endorses and appreciates the monumental efforts made by our most beloved bovine friends.

Ritz-Carlton

The history of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, originates with The Ritz-Carlton, Boston. The standards of service, dining and facilities of this Boston landmark serve as a benchmark for all Ritz-Carlton hotels and resorts worldwide.

The legacy of The Ritz-Carlton, Boston begins with the celebrated hotelier Cesar Ritz, the “king of hoteliers and hotelier to kings.” His philosophy of service and innovations redefined the luxury hotel experience in Europe through his management of The Ritz Paris and The Carlton in London.
The Ritz-Carlton, Boston revolutionized hospitality in America by creating luxury in a hotel setting:

• Private bath in each guest room

• Lighter fabrics in the guest room to allow for more thorough washing

• White tie and apron uniforms for the waitstaff, black tie for the Maitre d’ and morning suits for all other staff, conducive to a formal, professional appearance

• Extensive fresh flowers throughout the public areas

• A la carte dining, providing choices for diners

• Gourmet cuisine, utilizing the genius and cooking methods of Auguste Escoffier

• Intimate, smaller lobbies for a more personalized guest experience

Cesar Ritz died in 1918 but his wife Marie continued the expansion of hotels bearing his name. In the United States, The Ritz-Carlton Investing Company was established by Albert Keller who bought and franchised the name. In 1927 The Ritz-Carlton, Boston, opened and other hotels followed in New York (at Madison and 54th), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlantic City and Boca Raton. However, by 1940 none of the hotels were operating except The Ritz-Carlton, Boston. The hotel embodies the vision of Cesar Ritz, Yankee ingenuity and Boston social sensibilities.

Ben & Jerry’s

From a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont, to far-off places with names we sometimes mispronounce, what began over 30 years ago with 2 guys creating otherworldly ice cream flavors has turned into a tastebud-boggling odyssey of Ben & Jerry’s desserts served around the world.

Using an old-fashioned ice cream freezer, they began churning out all the rich & creamy, fun & chunky ice cream flavors they’d always dreamed about, flavors loaded with all their favorite chunks of fruits, nuts, candies, and cookies.

Soon there were long lines stretching out the door of the old gas station, as more and more folks clamored for a taste of Ben & Jerry’s flavor creations. Their ice cream was such a hit, it wasn’t long before they began selling it to local restaurants, then grocery stores and supermarkets throughout Vermont and beyond. Way beyond.

N.F.L.

Football has become the most popular sport in the United States.

Millions tune in on Super Bowl Sunday to watch the big game. Whether they are diehard fans or people who only watch one football game a year, NFL has a huge fan base from coast to coast.

Every Sunday, an average of 65,000 people attend each game, and even more watch on television. Cities close down and people stop whatever it is they are doing to cheer on their favorite team.

The NFL has 32 teams spread out across the country, each with their own rituals, stadiums, chants, and fans. Through good times and bad, there are certain fan bases who continue to show their loyalty.

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‘Cult Brand’ Defined

1: A product or service that is in a class of their own as they have mastered the art of building lasting and meaningful relationships with their customers. In the world of Cult Brands, the customer is not only king, but is part of the family. When you buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle, you are not just getting a bike—you’re getting a membership into The Club.

These brands have no competition. They rule their customer-defined category. There are no substitutes for Oprah, Vans, Linux, Southwest Airlines, IKEA, Harley-Davidson, Apple, Star Trek, Jimmy Buffett, and Volkswagen Beetle. (Read profiles of these Cult Brands here.) These brands are profitable even in the most adverse market conditions because of the powerful relationships they’ve forged with their customers.

2: Cult Brands understand that their brands belong to the customers. Only the customer’s voice counts. A successful Cult Brand embraces its customers by anticipating their basic human and spiritual needs. As a consequence, Cult Brands achieve a level of customer loyalty unprecedented in traditional business.

3: A cult following is a term used to refer to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base.

4: A product or service that has an energetic and loyal customer base. A cult brand, unlike others, has customers who can be described as near-fanatical, true believers in the brand and may feel a sense of ownership or vested interest in the brand’s popularity and success. Cult brands have achieved a unique connection with customers, and are able to create a consumer culture that people want to be a part of.

Cult Brand Meaning

Cult Brands always give back. They are adamant about continually finding new ways to show love and appreciation for the passion and devotion of their customers. Unlike faceless corporations, Cult Brands are humble and personable. They never take their customers for granted.

Cult Brands build strong, ongoing relationships with their customers by developing and supporting customer communities.Cult Brands aren’t afraid to use today’s profits to create customer communities for generating powerful long-term goodwill for their business and their brands.

Cult Branding Company explains ‘Cult Brand’

Cult Branding is the art and science of creating human experiences that lead to feelings of belonging, a sense of shared consciousness with others and engagement in ritualistic behavior.

Cult Branding is so effective that many loyal customers convince their friends and family to choose one company over another based on their deep love and connection to the these brands. Companies with cult branding strategies enjoy additional purchases from friends and family that are excited and ready to get into the group and share the ritual of the brand.

There are many ways to create a Cult Brand. From giving consumers a sense of belonging to simple acts of kindness that create long term bonds with the consumer. Cult Branding is the the result of a superior understanding of the customer where consumer insights (Big Data) and humanities (Human Needs) come together.

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 20 of the most powerful Cult Brands and how Cult Branding has shaped their relationship with their customers and Brand Lovers.

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.

Marketing used to be fairly straightforward: Throw money at advertising in order to influence people to buy your products and services. If your advertising campaign was decent, the resulting sales outweighed the cost of advertising. If your campaign was excellent, your business grew like a wildflower.

Fast forward to today: The customer is now in control. Media fragmentation from hundreds of cable networks, millions of websites, social media, and mobile applications make it more difficult to reach the general market. And even if you do reach your potential customers, they don’t have to listen, and probably won’t. What’s an intelligent marketer to do?

Savvy businesses from successful boutique businesses to major retailers utilize what we call the Brand Lover Marketing Strategy, a powerful go to market strategy that seeks to build long-term profitability and sales growth.

Understand What Branding Is Really All About

Management guru Peter Drucker explained that the purpose of business is to create a customer. In contemporary marketing, your job is to create a repeat customer who is likely to build a relationship with you and buy from you year after year. (This approach is sometimes called relational marketing in contrast to transactional marketing, which is exclusively focused on selling the next product.)

In order to accomplish this magnificent feat, you must develop what’s called a brand. A brand is an association that a customer has with certain feelings and images represented by a company, not simply a company name or a logo. You cannot create a brand by yourself because branding is a co-authored experience between you and your customers.

When a group of customers has strong associations between your brand and a desired feeling, the brand has “equity” it can leverage in order to grow. Southwest Airlines offers warm, friendly service to its passengers in an industry notorious for a ubiquitous subpar customer experience. Southwest Airlines’ brand has become the “heart of the sky,” symbolized by a heart on the belly of its airplanes. In an industry where most airlines go bankrupt, Southwest remained profitable for over 30 years.

Focus On Your Best Customers

The secret ingredient to Southwest’s profitability and that of any sustainable enterprise is called Brand Lovers: The customers who love you the most. Brand Lovers emotionally connect with what you do and want to celebrate who you are. Their connection with your brand is so strong that they often don’t consider doing business with anyone else. Apple’s Mac users, for example, don’t consider purchasing a PC. To them, there is no alternative.

At the very least, your Brand Lovers choose you more often than your competitors. For many companies, the best customers drive over 80 percent of the business’s profitability and yet, the business generally knows very little about them. Basic market research does not offer you insights into your best customers. The true drivers of choice for your best customers are emotional connections to your brand.

Certain brands have a legion of Brand Lovers—we call them Cult Brands. In a Cult Brand like Apple, Steve Jobs always knew he was selling a unique way of life that’s intelligent, creative and special—Apple never not just sold computers, digital music players, and smartphones. The executives of Harley-Davidson know they are selling freedom of the open road and a special kind of family, not just a motorcycle. Oprah is far more than just another talk show host: Real, honest and loving, Oprah radiates hope and promise for a better tomorrow.

Identify Your Brand Lovers

Perhaps your business doesn’t have Brand Lovers like Apple, Harley or Oprah, but you do have your best customers—customers who give you repeat business and who may tell their friends and colleagues about your brand.

So how do you find your best customers? Actually, they often find you. They congregate at your stores. They send you e-mails and call from time to time to tell you how great you’re doing. Some customers might even blog about your products or services, or create videos and post them on YouTube. These special customers might mention you on their personal Web pages on Facebook or Twitter.

On the financial side, if you maintain a customer database, you can sift through and determine who purchases from you with the greatest frequency and for the longest time span.

What if none of the above helps you locate them? Then get creative. Carefully crafted surveys might point you in the right direction or you may need to hire a firm to help you identify who your best customers are.

Get To Know Your Brand Lovers

Talk to them. Find out why they keep doing business with you. Don’t be afraid to ask. But listen carefully.

Conducting online surveys can be helpful, but if you have a physical storefront, meet your customers face to face. Sam Walton would often tell his executives: “If you don’t know what to do, go ask the customer. If it’s not happening in the store, it is not important.”

Look for the intangible clues that make you unique in your customers’ eyes. Uncover the emotional effect you have on them.

The Key To This Powerful Go To Market Strategy

There are always ways to grow your business by embracing your best customers. Once you understand why your best customers enjoy doing business with you, you will be better prepared to serve them. The answers don’t have to be complex.

How can you recognize your Brand Lovers—and show them that you honestly care about them? For World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), offering free meatball subs before the show increased the love among participants.

What problem are you helping your best customers solve? What need are you helping them fill? Skaters were ostracized by most businesses, but Vans listened to its customers and developed products aligned with the skaters’ lifestyle.

What are meaningful ways to celebrate their loyalty? Harley-Davidson developed leather jackets for its riders. Apple, listening to its Mac User Groups, through a long string of failures and innovations, created the iPhone specifically for its customers.

Are you grateful for your best customers? Do they know it? What are some ways to acknowledge your appreciation for their business? You don’t necessarily have to give them a gift; sometimes a simple “Thank you” will work wonders.

The role of marketing is to create the future today, which requires you to know what your customers will want tomorrow. The only way to anticipate the future needs of your customers is to understand who they are, talk to them and listen. Then, you can create the future together with this unbeatable go to market strategy.

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.