Cult brands enjoy sitting atop the mountain, “printing money”, and otherwise get to actually enjoy doing what they love to do.

What exactly is a cult brand and how can you help your company reach cult brand status?

Cult brands have developed a devoted following of people. These customers don’t just like the brand, they are dedicated to and love the brand. They follow it. They live it.

Cult brands have a unique connection with customers because they are able to tap into the deep-seated desire for belonging to a group, community, a clique. These brands have created a consumer culture that people want to be a part of.

Benefits

When customers are this loyal to your brand, you will reap several key benefits.

• Minimal Price Sensitivity – You’ll be able to charge more than your competitors without losing customers. Customers are willing to spend more with to which they are loyal.

• Influencer Advertising – Loyal customers will promote and share your product with their friends and family. Word-of-mouth is powerful.

• Increase sales – Loyal customers spend 67% more, on average, than new customers.

Take 5 - How To Build A Cult Following

1. Lifestyle & Community

   Brands with cult followings always tell great stories about the lifestyle they are promoting. The focus is on how their products make you feel and the desired lifestyle. You have to decide on the focus. Whether it’s beauty, status, love, or even lots of friends (collaboration). Build a community around this focus. If you nail this everything else will fall into place but miss this one and it’s game over.

   
   

2. Personalize the Experience

   Dedicating time and effort to the customer experience has been all the rave since Omnichannel commerce was introduced. And this focus has remained at the top of the list even as Unified Commerce has more recently been pushed. The underlying premise is to truly focus on being customer-obsessed. Customer-obsessed companies personalize everything. It’s all about building an exclusive relationship with each customer. By touching your customers in unique ways, brands can increase loyalty. Dramatically.

   
   

3. Be Authentic

   Be true to who you are and your mission. Don’t try to appeal to everyone as this will actually work against you. The consumer of today expects you to have an ‘opinion’ on current events and they expect you to have a style. A Brand. A personality. When you vacillate between stances, tones, etc. savvy consumers smell the desperation a mile away.

   Don’t try to force your customers one way or another. Instead, nurture them. Ask for and most importantly, follow the feedback given by customers. This also increases audience engagement, which is always a goal.

   
   

4. Be Selective and Love Your customers

   Use Pareto's Principle and focus on the top 20% of customers. Why? Because these customers account for 80% of your revenue! This doesn’t mean treat them terribly. The idea here is to reward your customers. Show them some love and respect because, after all, they are spending their hard-earned cash with you. A great loyalty program is an excellent way to reward and love your customers.

   
   

5. Be Different

   Being different, just for the sake of being different yields nothing. And different doesn’t always mean better. Instead, dig in and find out what you can do differently from your competitors as a way to distinguish your brand. If you are going to go against the established norms, have a solid reason why and make sure you can beat the status quo. Long story short, think outside of the proverbial box.
   
   

To create a cult brand, you’ve got to build a strong foundation. If you’re ready to build onto an existing brand our Living Brand principle can help.

A Special Note from the Author

It’s with a tip of the hat that I’ve titled this article as Take 5. The jazz heads know exactly where this name came from. For those who aren’t into Jazz, Take 5 is a jazz standard composed by saxophonist Paul Desmond and originally recorded by Dave Brubek in 1959.

This article has absolutely nothing to do with Jazz or Dave Brubek. However, anyone who knows Jazz, knows Take 5.

Take 5 eventually became the best-selling jazz single ever. The single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1996. This song is important to me and was instrumental in forming my love for Jazz. Plus, it was composed by a sax player!

Everyone knows, Saxes Rule!