Hi I'm Graeme Newell.
Powerhouse brands like Google, McDonalds and
Coke have incredibly loyal fans, but they
have yet to achieve the pinnacle of brand
dominance...the cult brand.
"All the way down, and that's another one!
It's Sherrah Abiobi"
Newcastle football doesn't spend a lot of
time marketing their product, instead their
primary marketing focus is recruiting brand
advocates who will do all the marketing for
them.
"Fourty thousand jumpin' around like total
lunatics.
Jumpin into people you don't know, huggin'
people who you don't know.
It's just...mayhem.
The most important thing to me all year, is
renewin' me season ticket.
It's all about Newcastle and football, that's,
that's about it.
I think me heart's black and white.
I had, I couldn't put it any other way.
When you're in that stadium and there's fifty
two thousand people there, and you feelin'
so (explicative deleted)ing good, and that
ball hits the back of the net.
(cheering) It's like winnin' the lottery."
Brand researchers tested just how intense
this loyalty can be.
"Each was given two voodoo dolls.
One representing his partner, and the other
representing his favorite player.
The subjects had to make a choice.
Either stick pins into the player, and take
him out for the next game, or into his partner,
and put her in bed for a week.
Ahhhhh, I gotta do it then.
Best player of the season lad.
Ho ho ho ho, he he he, ohhhh."
Lego is another cult brand.
Community building is the marketing priority
for cult brands.
"The club puts down tables and the train track
and there all the members bring in the various
buildings and creations that they've invented
to populate the space."
They create a grassroots infrastructure where
brand advocates can connect and recruit new
loyalists.
"Two hundred and fifty members, about half
of them are kids, and about half of them still
think they are."
SAP, the enterprise accounting software giant,
is a cult brand for businesses.
Their users geek out at huge conferences run
completely by members and not SAP.
Scion has an entire underground of young owners
who flock together and inspire each other
"I love to trick out my Scion X-8.
We're all trying to something to make it,
wonderful.
We have racing seats, carbon-fiber hood, and
the boost-controller and the turbo-timer.
But one of my favorite cult brands (rumbling)
is Harley.
They built HOG, the Harley Owner's Group.
"HOG Dubai is a, is a chapter of um, of a
world-wide motorcycling group.
It's the largest motorcycling group that exists
on this planet."
More than a million members who come together
to play dress-up and bask in a shared love
of the brand.
But Harley takes it one step further, they
don't just provide a way for members to connect,
they provide an attitude for living.
"We believe that the world is going soft,
but we're not going along with it.
We believe in motorcycle rallies that last
a week.
WE believe in roadside attractions, gas station
hotdogs, and finding out what's over the next
hill."
The product is almost an afterthought.
This cult brand is solidly built around how
this community wants to feel about itself.
It's all about respect, not just motorcycles.
Brands like Harley build their cult following
the old-fashioned way, face-to-face.
But now social media offers brands an even
more powerful way to empower brand evangelists.
So take a lesson from the cult branders.
Take the focus off yourself and build the
glory of your biggest fans.
The most powerful way to build a brand is
to get other people to do it for you.
I'm Graeme Newell and that's emotional marketing.
There's lots more free training videos, white
papers, and great emotional marketing examples
on our website.
Visit us at 602communications.com/freestuff.
