What is Cult Branding?

by BJ Bueno
About this author

Brands fail for one primary reason: instead of building a brand some people love, companies build brands no one hates.

Most marketers live in a world where they are constantly searching for the flashy, the instant—in short, the trivial.

We must recognize that brands don't belong to marketers. Brands belong to the customer. The customer's embrace is the only vote that counts, yet it is constantly ignored by strategies that place our products and services as the “goal” rather than the means to satisfy our customer’s needs, wishes, and fantasies.

Successful brands embrace their customers by anticipating basic and spiritual human needs.

Success creates magnetic brands—Cult Brands.

Why Cult Branding Works

Cult Brands aren't just companies with products or services to sell. To many of their followers, they are a living, breathing surrogate family filled with like-minded individuals. They are a support group that just happens to sell products and services. Picture a Cult Brand in this context, and you'll have a much better understanding of why these brands all have such high customer loyalty and devoted followers.

That's how Cult Branding works.

Society only helps to accelerate the drivers behind its success.