Want a Cult Following for Your Business? Here’s How.

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0:33I can't wait to see you there. After a lot of studying and breaking down of what makes people and businesses have cult-like followings, a common characteristic list has been created. And I'm going to share that with you today. Welcome to the Jasmine Star Show, where we talk about business, we talk about marketing, we talk about mindset. And today we're going to be talking about creating a cult for your business. I know it sounds a little bit crazy, but I had a conversation with my mentor recently, very successful business owner, has sold businesses, started off her career rather Young at Procter & Gamble, rose up through the ranks, became a leader, got into a lot of consultancy and big picture thinking.

1:09And as we were there, we were talking about other projects that she had worked on while she was at Procter & Gamble and while she was at other consultancy arms of her career. And what she was talking about is how companies will strategically model themselves after other companies who have created a cult-like following. Now, I know, we hear the word cult and we're like, oh, boogeyman, scary. Like, no, no, no. A cult-like following, actually, let me just save us all some time. Let me read a definition of a cult brand. A brand for which a group of customers exhibit a great dedication. Its ideology is distinctive and has other well-defined and a committed community.

1:50It enjoys exclusive devotion, not shared with any other brand in the category and its members are often voluntary advocates. Okay, I don't know about you, but as I'm building a business, I want that. I want people who show a great amount of dedication. I want to have an ideology that's distinctive. I want to have a committed community. I want to have exclusive devotion that's incomparable to anybody else that's doing what I'm doing. And I want people to be voluntary advocates. If you want the same thing in your business, now is the conversation that you should be listening to. Because after a lot of studying and breaking down of what makes people and businesses have cult-like followings, a common characteristic list has been created.

2:33And I'm going to share that with you today. So I want to get back a little bit into the backstory. This consultancy arm of what my mentor was doing with her and a group of people, that they were actually taking Pete's Coffee as Pete's Coffee. Now, Pete's Coffee started off in Northern California, and then they went into a national expansion. But they had a small cult-like following where they were in Northern California. And they asked themselves, how do we take this nationwide? In order for them to understand how they could take it nationwide and deploy against these strategies, they actually had to see other companies in this space that did it.

3:06So they created case studies for food and beverage cult brands by interviewing key players. They went to other cult brands and interviewed people in sales, marketing, and the agency. And they conducted a lot of reviews. More than 15 brands with cult-like followings were interviewed. Now, I'm going to share a few of the sources that were cited in this document because I don't want anybody to think that I somehow magically came up with this. I just did some synthesis for you and I as business owners that don't have perhaps brands as big as Celestial Tea, as big as Red Bull, as big as Snapple, Rolling Rock, all these brands that we're looking at and studying as cult-like brands.

3:44Number one, the culting of brands when customers become true believers by Douglas Atkins. Number two, finding a lot of this information on corporate websites. And number three, 23 interviews with key executives from two to six of each of these brands. Let me just tell you, I'm literally sharing a ton of data in an easy to comprehend way because I am trying to do this in my business. Have I hit the mark? No, no, no. But I would rather take a lot of misses and eventually bring my arrow to hit a target. But let's talk about the things that I find very interesting and the common elements. Number one, in order to build a cult-like brand business and following, you want to have a bigger purpose and consistent core narrative.

4:28So what does this mean? Is that people want to be part of a transformation. A group of people want to identify as part of a transformation. So what I'm going to do is I looked at this data and broken it down. And I said, what company embodies all of these cult-like brands and identities? and then I want to use it as an example for you and I today so that we can see it and understand it and ask ourselves, can we do the same thing in our business? So a bigger purpose and a consistent core narrative, aka we're focusing on the transformation. The business that I want to dive into and use as a consistent example, something that we're all pretty familiar with is Apple.

5:04Apple phones, computers, iPads, the whole nine. The brand that is Apple. In fact, when you think of Apple, most commonly people identify it with thinking different. So what's the transformation that Apple wants people to have? To think different. When I am looking at my business, I'm really trying to understand what is the transformation that people want to be a part of when they follow content, when they consume content. That's the thing I'm thinking about. Number two, showcase values through storytelling. Showcase how people overcame obstacles. How did they have life-changing outcomes? I could not think of a better company to show this than an advertisement from 1997, which I will read, and you will know what I'm talking about.

5:52Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs and square holes, the ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy ones, we see genius because the ones who are crazy are crazy enough to think that they can change the world and they are the ones that do. Who does not want to be called a crazy one with that as a definition? That is how they started to create a cult-like following.

6:31Number three, offer tangible, symbolic artifacts. Create a ritual for a sense of belonging. Now, when I was sitting here and being like, okay, how does Apple create a sense of belonging with ritual? Have you ever seen a new phone drop and there's lines of people waiting outside of a building? Do you know that's a ritual? In fact, I started doing some digging and studying and I pulled up a few things that people who wait in line actually said. In order for me to understand a cult, I needed to understand the people who were actually in the cult. So a gentleman by the name of Nicholas said, it's fun.

7:07Ever line up for an eagerly awaited movie with like-minded fans? It's fun to hang out with other people. If you've never tried it, it's worth doing. What are they saying? I'm doing something out of the ordinary. Garrett had said, Because Apple has one of the biggest and largest and most loyal fan base, it's been said for ages, but if Apple sold a brick for$100, people would buy it. What are they saying? We're a part of the cult. We will buy the brick. Explorer News defined it as, It's self-signaling. People wait in line. they show themselves that they are the people who really like Apple products.

7:38It's proving commitment. They want to show how much they love Apple by spending a lot of time waiting outside. Trend association. They want to be part of the latest fashion or trend when it comes to those devices. Here's another person, Jason. He said, I stood in line for every iPhone launch and it's entirely driven by two factors. First, I want the product now. If I wasn't the first in line, I wouldn't have the latest, fastest, thinnest, magical, whatever. Secondly, it's really quite social. I've met new people, including CEOs of large companies, all waiting in line for the new magical device.

8:10In order for me to understand how a business has built a cult, I have to understand the people who identify in the cult. As a business owner, I am asking who in a tribe might wait to be a part of something bigger that I'm creating. Am I there yet? No. Could I actively work and strategically build towards that? Maybe. And I hope so. Four, a personal touch or a cult leader versus just a brand. I have to say no more than two words. Steve Jobs. People began to believe in the product because he was at the helm. Adopt strong symbols and visual identity. Choose distinct icons, colors, or motifs. Apple did this in terms of when you think of like a sports team, will you think of probably their logo or an image?

8:59What is Apple known for on t-shirts? An apple, visual identity. Next up, develop exclusive language or terminology. Cults often have in-group phrases or terms, including insider lingo or ways that they call themselves. It is very common to hear people say, well, I'm an Apple lover. I'm an Apple lover. That terminology is signaling to somebody else that they belong in the Apple crew. Another element of building out a cult is offer insider or backstage access. Give your most committed followers early access to new products, private Q &A sessions, invite-only events, exclusive perks that reinforces the idea that, hey, you, inside of this group, you're special, you're different.

9:43We see this on a large scale when Apple has their events. Those are so coveted. The Apple developer event, as much as the Apple events that they host to debut the products for the year or what's going into the following year, those are very coveted tickets. The insiders are most likely to get those tickets. Another element of creating a cult for your business is create symbolic initiation. Have a rite of passage, whether it's a formal pledge, a challenge, or a small ceremony, having a structured ritual can deepen bonding. Have you ever bought something from the Apple store? When you unpack it there, the Apple associates are instructed to not open the package for you, that you have to open the package.

10:26Why? They want you to lift the top of the box and hear the psst. They want you to peel back the packaging of a psst. All that is an initiation for an experience. Recognize and celebrate individual contributors. This is another thing. If you want to build a cult, identify individual contributors, praise members who exemplify your values or achieve milestones. Do you remember when the iPhone camera was upgraded and they started putting billboards of photos that people had taken with the iPhone, commercials that people had taken with the iPhone, movies that were produced with the iPhone? They were celebrating members for using their devices.

11:10And what did those members do? They became elevated within the other people in that cult. Another tip is to host regular gatherings and encourage member-led generated content. Have you ever been on TikTok or Instagram and somebody is sharing yet another iPhone hack? Another thing you didn't know about your phone? These are people who love this so much, they are creating their own tutorials for other people. Why? They want to be elevated. They want to be seen as, that person has the best iPhone hacks. Crazy. but true. Another component for building a cult-like following for your business is to use us versus them.

11:47And maybe not in like a negative way, like, oh, we're so polarizing, but Apple has disrupted a lot of industries. They have disrupted things including to health, digital payments, transportation. And when you are using something like Apple Pay, you are disrupting the way that things are done and you are saying, I do it differently. And I will say that when I started using Apple Pay, there were a few vendors who actually accepted it, and now it's so common. And how did it become so common? Well, more people kept on asking, do you use Apple Pay? Do you use Apple Pay? Do you use Apple Pay? That is members of the cult asking and putting pressure on other people to say, hey, if you're not part of the cult, let's go.

12:30Crazy. They're building out a cult by people who are advocating for the cult. Now, if I'm using the word cult and it's making you uncomfortable, Ask yourself why. Ask yourself why. There's nothing wrong with that. Another tip is to encourage a strong sense of mutual support. If you have never visited an Apple support forum, this is a for us by us, right? There are some people from Apple who are in the technical sport. And then there are other people who, hand to heaven, spend their own time, not paid by Apple, giving their advice and feedback to other people's commonly asked questions. Come on.

13:04You love a product that much? you want to help other people fall in love with the product? Oof, give me some of that, please. Another point, be transparent and accessible. Cult followings often need trust from a leader. Encourage a culture of openness. Now, I want to be very careful here. Apple controls their narrative. At the time of this recording, I think that there are very few other companies that are rivaled as closed-lipped as they are. They are fierce in their narrative. However, once they have their narrative out there, they push it heavily. And I think that when you talk about transparency and accessibility, we will see at the time of this recording, Apple isn't necessarily leading the AI revolution.

13:42They've been very, very tight lipped about how they're pursuing it. But for most people who are in the industry, Apple being software and hardware, they're watching to see who the significant players are going to be in the market and then they're going to go. So we need a trusted leader at the top of Apple saying, wait, wait, wait, we're taking our time and here's why. And once that narrative goes out, we have to trust that that leader and communication is being distilled down to people in the cult and saying, we like it, we agree, great job. Lastly, to build a cult-like following for your business is continuously surprise and delight.

14:15You can offer gestures, Easter eggs, or spontaneous rewards to keep people active and engaged. If you have never found an Easter egg on your Apple iPhone, y 'all need to do a little bit more working in those Apple apps. So I came in to talk about how you might create a cult-like following in your business. Am I anywhere close to doing this? No. Has this set the bar because my mentor had said, listen, this is learnable. We can reverse engineer, aka we can work backwards from the greatest brands and ask ourselves, how do we implement these things in our business so that we create a group of people who are for the business, about the business, who tell people other about the business, who want to be seen and included and known within that business.

15:04It is possible. It is not easy, but it is possible. I hope that these tips helped you and served you well. I want to say thank you for watching and listening to The Jasmine Starr Show. And as you build your brand, may you get sprinkles of cult-like followers in it, not because of you, but because of the mission and the transformation that you are the largest proponent of. Thank you.