Book 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 Hell’s 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 aren’t emotionally unstable—they’re 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 & Jerry’s make their customers feel unique, important, and part of an exclusive group—and 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.

From Publishers Weekly

Atkin, a strategy director for a New York ad agency, believes the process through which consumer brands build customer loyalty is equivalent to the way religious cults recruit members—and, he says, that's a good thing. To him, cults are little more than well-defined affinity groups engaging in a few activities outsiders find unusual because they believe something different. Yet his superficial consideration of groups like the Unification Church and the Landmark Forum rarely gets into the specifics of those belief systems, instead presenting a fuzzy image of people bonding together to give their lives meaning. (Obvious negative examples, like Waco and Jonestown, are cursorily dismissed as badly managed.) Atkin then takes this broad definition and applies it to the commercial realm, making a reasonable case that Harley riders and Apple users, among others, follow similar behavioral patterns. But he overuses the term "cult" to the point of meaninglessness: it's one thing to compare Marine Corps training to an initiatory ritual, quite another to label eBay or JetBlue customers cult members just because they use the product repeatedly. While little argument can be raised against Atkin's proposition that "few stronger emotions exist than the need to belong and make meaning," more conservative readers may balk at his notion that the decreasing power of our culture's traditional institutions is an opportunity to exploit those emotional drives for profit. Perhaps would-be cult leaders will be able to use Atkin's marketing strategies to repackage themselves for broader mainstream appeal.

From Booklist

Atkin, an advertising executive, examines the techniques to develop extreme buyer loyalty and discusses cults and cult-brand members' motivations, desires, and attitudes. The elements common to brand definition (used by companies such as Harley Davidson and Saturn) and to cult definition are ideas of community and belonging, ideology, devotion, and advocacy. Atkin researched many cults, including established religions, fan clubs, current and ex-marines, AA, and numerous CEOs of cult-brand companies and cult leaders. With the growth of sophisticated consumerism and the reality that institutions are increasingly inadequate sources of meaning and community, Atkin believes that alternative religion and brands that offer these benefits will flourish. His advice for establishing a cult brand includes understanding that people "buy" people and not things and ideas alone and investing at least as much into developing a cult brand as your members do in emotional and financial commitment, energy, and creativity. This is an insightful and challenging perspective on marketing for everyone, even those who may not agree with the author.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Mary Whaley

Book Dimension

length: (cm)21.3 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)14