The Culting of Brands: Turn Your Customers into True Believers |  | Author: Douglas Atkin
Publisher: Portfolio Trade
Category: Book
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Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 857710
Media: Paperback
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5
ISBN: 1591840961
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.6324
EAN: 9781591840961
ASIN: 1591840961
Publication Date: May 31, 2005
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Product Description
A fresh and original look at the phenomenon of "cult branding" -- how companies cultivate fanatical customer loyalty. At first glance, companies like Apple and Nike have little in common with organizations like the Hells Angels and the Unification Church. But in reality, they all fulfill the main definition of a cult: They attract people who see themselves as different from the masses in some fundamental way. Contrary to stereotypes, most cult members arent emotionally unstabletheyre just normal folks searching for a sense of belonging. Marketing expert Douglas Atkin has spent years researching both full-blown cults and companies that use cult-branding techniques. He interviewed countless cult members to find out what makes them tick. And he explains exactly how brands like Harley- Davidson, Saturn, JetBlue, and Ben & Jerrys make their customers feel unique, important, and part of an exclusive groupand how that leads to solid, long-term relationships between a company and its customers. In addition to describing a fascinating phenomenom, The Culting of Brands will be of enormous value to business leaders. It will teach marketers how to align themselves with a specific segment of the population, how to attract and keep new "members," how to establish a mythology about the company, and how to manage a workforce filled with true believers. Once a brand achieves cult status, it becomes almost impossible for a competitor to dethrone it. The Culting of Brands will reveal the secrets of fierce customer identification and, most important, unbreakable loyalty.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
 Core Values Which Affirm "The Primacy of the Person" September 10, 2004
Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas)
22 out of 24 found this review helpful
Atkin is quite correct when suggesting that a cult brand is one "for which a group of customers exhibit a great devotion or dedication. Its ideology is distinctive and it has a well-defined and committed community. It enjoys exclusive devotion (that is, not shared with another brand in the same category), and its members often become voluntary advocates." A cult brand attracts certain customers for a variety of reasons and rewards them in a variety of ways but it is important to keep in mind that few brands possess the power to do so. Also, that a cult brand is not necessarily a consumer product nor even a physical object. It can also be a uniquely enjoyable experience (e.g. Starbucks) or even a way of life (Harley-Davidson). Atkin is convinced (and I agree) that the same dynamics are at play behind the attraction to brands and cults: Both offer membership in a community of shared values and interests, both give unique and satisfying personal identify, and both inspire uncommon loyalty.
According to Atkin, what he characterizes as the "cult paradox dynamic" is best understood in terms of a four-step process:
"1. An individual might have a feeling of [in italics] difference, even [in italics] alienation from the world around them.
2. This leads to [in italics] openness or to [in italics] searching for a more compatible environment.
3. They are likely to feel a sense of [in italics] or [in italics] safety in a place where one's difference from the outside world is seen as a virtue, not a handicap.
4. This presents the circumstances for [in italics] self-actualization within a group of like-minded others who celebrate the individual for being himself."
Atkin asserts that the same paradox can be found at the heart of cult brands. Rather than joining others inorder to conform, people do so to express, indeed to affirm their individuality. Apple is only one of several companies which have cleverly leveraged the feelings associated with the cult paradox to elevate its brand to cult status: alienation and rejection, followed by validation that in turn sets the stage for self-actualization.
If your organization does not now have a cult brand or one which has the potential to become one, why read this book? Good question. Here are three reasons which I presume to offer. First, Atkin can help you to increase your understanding of human motivation. Who among those (non-customers) who purchase what you sell now feel alienated? Why? To which of their unmet needs can you respond? Second, Atkin can help you to develop a marketing plan which creates or increases market demand for what you offer. How can you position your brand so as to differentiate it from its competition? Of equal importance, how can you differentiate a customer's relationship with you from relationships with your competitors? Third and finally, Atkin can help you to formulate and then implement a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective plan by which to develop a sense of evangelism throughout as well as beyond your organization.
To this third point, Atkin identifies and then rigorously examines what he calls "Principles of the Primacy of the Person" in Chapter Three. In this context, I am reminded of what Herb Kelleher once said during a conversation with David Neeleman, then working for Southwest Airlines and currently CEO of JetBlue. "I don't care about my shareholders." Neeleman was shocked. What did he mean? Was Kelleher really serious? "Because I just take care of my employees. I know if I take care of my employees, they'll take care of my customers, and my customers will take care of my shareholders." Long before Neeleman went to work for Southwest Airlines, Kelleher once observed "You can get the same airplane. You can get the same ticket counters. You can get the same computers. But the hardest thing for a competitor to match is your culture and the spirit of your people and their focus on customer service because that isn't something you can do overnight and it isn't something you can do without a great deal of attention every day in a thousand different ways. That is why I say that our employees are our competitive protection." This is precisely what Atkin has in mind when explaining each of the "Principles of the Primacy of the Person."
In the final chapter of this book, he reviews the most important principles of cult formation which, in my opinion, are relevant to literally any human community, whatever its size and nature may be. I conclude these brief remarks with a few observations of my own. Warren Buffet once said that price is what you charge for what you sell but value is what the customer thinks it's worth. Only the marketplace can determine which are cult brands and which are not. Beware of the "Field of Dreams Syndrome." Be prepared to accept and (yes) celebrate the fact that your organization -- rather than any product or service it offers -- may well prove to be your most powerful brand. Finally, if you are not a "true believer" in the integrity of your own enterprise, find another.
The "new" marketing takes on an intriguing face. November 3, 2006
Craig Jennings (Port Washington, NY United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Doug Atkin reveals what "cultism" really is (not funny Kool-aid for the mind-numbed) and why we should aspire to having our customers "cult our brand."
He points out the massive changes which have taken place since the Attraction Principle replaced a lot of Spot TV, and helps us evaluate lower-cost options which get big results.
The point of view is valuable and well-presented, the supporting evidence and other argumants are equally well-handled.
If you have customers, and are anything from a sole propriator on up, this book is challenging and valuable.
not just another brand book August 13, 2004
GSRider (NYC)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
first an admission: i not only know the author, but bear a striking similarity to a certain "shaved-head (bald) mid (late) thirties (motorcycle) rider in the media business" mentioned on p. 91.
what i love about the book, having read tons of them over the years, is 1) it talks to you, not at you and 2) it's not just an idea, it's evidence based. on the first point, so many latter day brand experts are brilliant but also have brilliant egos. they write dogmatically as if they love their own ideas more than their readers. this book is written in almost a conversational style that makes you part of the dialogue not a prisoner to it.
to the second point, this book is based in research, not just a new paradigm or metaphor for much of the same old thinking. the author spent several years studying and interviewing his subjects. hearing (reading) cult members talk in their own words, makes them less scary and more relevant than i could have thought.
Getting underneath brands October 13, 2007
David Vinjamuri (New York, NY)
Douglas Atkin is revered as a brilliant account planner for a reason - he is one of the sharpest minds in marketing. I teach this book in my branding class at NYU because I believe Douglas is onto something - in an age where most Americans have been uprooted and lack communal identity, consumers are latching onto brands as a means of self-identification. Sometimes this leads them into classic cult behavior. The nice thing about this book is that Douglas has really done his homework - he's gone inside classic cults like the Moonies as well as religions (the Mormons), the armed forces (the Marines) all the way into brand cults like Apple, Harley Davidson and JetBlue.
imitation is the most sincere form of flattery... October 8, 2004
RipcurlNYNY
15 out of 23 found this review helpful
the truth be told, author Atkin began his research on cults and brands more than seven years ago. then his premise was discovered by Forbes about four years ago and eventually became the COVER STORY (in which he is cited) of Forbes on April 16, 2001.
Then later, a grad student did a thesis on the same topic and published it as a book.
Stick to the real deal: The Culting of Brands: When Customers Become True Believers by Douglas Atkin
Not a diluted, "borrowed" grad student thesis.
"My Professors would failed me for plagiarism." ?? Your professors should have failed you for more than just that...diction, grammar, etc.
Perhaps this is one reason Atkin's book was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal and the grad student thesis was not.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
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