Last year MINI Cooper celebrated their 50th birthday in Great Britain. The event featured live concerts, unique classic Mini’s, and 25,000 fans from around the world. The film “Rebel without Pause” was created by MINI to celebrate their brand lovers from around the world and the passion they have for their MINI. You will find that MINI customers are more alike than they are different.
Most brands are focused on constantly creating new customers instead of retaining the ones they already have. These brands change their message, products and events often and they worry little about those customers who already chose them. These brands attract transactional customers and rarely form a loyal following.
Cult brands understand that retaining a customer is more profitable than constantly making new ones. But loyal customers don’t appear over night, a brand has to be consistent over years to attract these customers. Customers who engage in a relationship with a brand have done it because they know what they can expect from the brand. To create a loyal following a brand must have traditions that brand lovers can rely on. Traditions give customers a sense of being part of something bigger than themselves, a feeling of being part of a family.
World Wrestling Entertainment are masters of creating and keeping traditions alive. For the past 25 years WWE has given their fans Wrestle Mania. This super bowl of wrestling is the climax of an entire year of brawls. The event was first produced in 1985 and 25 editions have been produced as of 2009. All of the events produced have been sold out within a short period of time, with recent editions being sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale.
To keep traditions alive a brand must spend time with their brand lovers. The WWE Fan Axxess Tour is three-months of parties, rallies, and autograph signings for fans across 14 cities in North America. The event energized more than 237,000 fans in the lead up to Wrestle Mania 23.
Keeping the tradition alive paid off for WWE. in 2007 Wrestle Mania 23 achieved 1.2 million pay-per-view buys, achieving global revenues in excess of $24.3 million. “Once again, the WWE fans have responded and made Wrestle Mania 23 a record-setting success,” said Geof Rochester, Senior Vice President, Marketing.
When you rally around your customers you keep traditions alive. Those traditions become memories in your customers minds and your brand becomes part of their life.
“A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear.”
-Herb Kelleher
Great brands understand the importance of culture and aren’t afraid to take risks to build them. At Southwest Airlines, former Chairman and CEO Herb Kelleher made it a personal trait to hug and kiss his employees. With fears of harassment lawsuits lurking in the shadows, it’s all too easy for a company to dissuade public displays of affection.
But to Herb and other executives at Southwest, being openly demonstrative and affectionate could not come more naturally. It’s a simple yet powerful way of expressing respect, friendship, gratitude, and most of all, love.
Like Southwest Airlines, love abounds at the offices of online retailer Zappos.com. As an employee, you might visit the office of personal coach Dr. Vik, not just for career advice, but also for a hug to help you get through the day. At Zappos, employees connect to one another, first and foremost, as people.
When companies are constrained by fear, culture building is thwarted. When companies foster an environment bound by love, the culture thrives and prospers. No two companies live by this principle better than Southwest Airlines and Zappos.
When a person first hears the term Cult Branding, there are two basic responses. Understandably, some might be put off by the term “cult” which rightly has negative connotations. Second, if they are a marketer, they often get excited about the idea.
Who is a Cult Brand? Sure, there are some easy answers that might come to mind: Apple, Oprah, Harley-Davidson, and Star Trek, to name to a few. (Review a list of Cult Branding profiles here.) But these appear to be anomalies more than anything else.
The small business owner might say, “Yeah, that’s great for them, but I’m a little shop. I can’t create that kind of a customer loyalty.” A valid concern, but not necessarily true.
The chief-level marketer of a Fortune 500 company might say, “We’re a global brand with mass market appeal. We can’t just cater to a small group. We’ll lose market share.” A valid point, but again, not necessarily true.
The important take-away from Cult Branding, as the concept’s originator BJ Bueno often notes is that great brands serve their customers better than anyone else. Any business can learn the principles that Cult Brands live by and adopt whatever principles seem appropriate in their context.
As BJ explains, “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.”
Cult Brands actually uphold a higher level of integrity by focusing on the needs of those who support and grow their business: their best customers (or what we call, Brand Lovers).
The Internet is saturated with social networking sites. Facebook alone has over 200 million members. It’s no wonder that companies are using these mediums to reach their customers. The problem is that most companies don’t use this tool correctly—instead of listening to the customer, they use it to speak to themselves.
Southwest Airlines is an example of a company who understands the value of listening to their customers. On their Facebook page, Southwest might announce that they are giving their coffee a new lift or alert people about low fares, but customers write the majority of posts. And Southwest listens to what they have to say.
Ever wonder why some companies have brands that attract raving fans? It doesn’t happen by accident. These businesses understand who their best customers are (their Brand Lovers) and figure out how to serve them better than anyone else.
Last year our team put together this deck to illustrate the seven steps to cultivating customer loyalty:
If you’d like step-by-step instructions on how to apply the seven steps, you can download a free ebook version of BJ Bueno’s Cult Branding Workbookhere.
Brands that treat customers with love and respect create Brand Lovers. Brand Lovers are the most valuable customers because they buy from the brand more often and create new customers through positive word of mouth.
Brands like Southwest Airlines embrace their Brand Lovers and take every opportunity to show them respect and Love. By not following the airline industry trend of baggage fees Southwest Airlines demonstrated respect for their customers. Southwest let their brand lovers know they were not going to get nickel and dimed.
But not all brands have Brand Lovers. In fact some brands treat their customers so bad they create Brand Haters. Brand Haters are not afraid to talk negatively about your brand. In fact if you upset your customers enough they will go out of their way to rally against your brand.
Recently in a meeting with Salomon Sredni, Chief Executive Officer of TradeStation Group the topic of Brand Lovers and Brand Haters came up. He shared with the group an awesome example of what happens when you treat your customers with no love or respect.
Dave Carroll has every right to be angry. As a musician his guitar is not only his livelihood but his love. When United Airlines decided to throw around guitars and other bags they stopped treating their customers with love and respect. Dave Carroll’s song “United Breaks Guitars” has gain popularity not only because it is a catchy tune but because other people have had a bad experience with United Airlines.
The song has been viewed more than 7.5 million times in the past month on YouTube. Web2.0 has given customers a bigger bullhorn and they aren’t afraid to use it. There are over 25,000 comments on the video with customers who also feel like Dave Carroll about United Airlines. Here are some of my favorite comments.
Comments on United Breaks Guitars
Customers take note of how you treat them and they will speak up against you. If you break their heart they will break yours.
