👋 Hi, I’m Dan and I’m obsessed with building cult brands.

I’ve spent years tracking what I consider to be shining examples of cult brands – which is not easy, as there aren’t that many. But if you start digging deeper there are certain key traits these brands all share.

Every brand that inspires a cult like following, every one of them that has a line out the door every day, they’re doing most of these. Many of you want to build more of a community and wish people engaged more with your story. But you don’t often don’t have the time or knowledge to make it happen.

So I’m going to make this simple for you. In this two-part series, we’re going to dive in to the CULT BRAND TEN COMMANDMENTS (here →) 

Cult [n] – someone or something that a particular  group of people are very enthusiastic about but that most people do not like or know about. A group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.

In its purest form, a cult brand is one that inspires a fanatical devotion among its followers. They take a lot of work to set up and then a lot of work to maintain because if your followers think you’re being fake or selling out, you’ve lost them forever.

But the rewards can be huge, building a customer base who will support you through the good times and bad and buy anything you put out whilst screaming about you to the world.

Let’s break down those commandments!

1. You’ve got a great origins story 

Behind every cult brand there is a great story born out of obsession. ALWAYS. The best branding people in the world can’t invent that.

It’s more than just a story though – it’s not just something to fill up social media posts and website ‘about’ pages. A story born out of obsession starts with your ‘why’ – everyone has one, sometimes you just need to spend some time digging to find it.

Why you started should be the base that all your principles and values come from (you have documented those, right??)

It’s the first step to show you’re not a faceless brand but humans trying to make good in the world. This is what shapes who you are, and makes your people, your tribe, think ‘they sound like my people’

ACTION PLAN:

Go through your story again and at every juncture ask yourself ‘why’ A LOT.

Why did you make that choice, why does it make you happy, why are you attracted to that market, why do you like the results it gets – what vision does that allow you to carry out?

Want to go deeper? Also ask what you don’t like, what you stand against and why. Then put that back into your story – I promise you it will read so much better and make your people connect with you that much more.

No one else has made the same choices as you which makes your business unique. Celebrate that, don’t hide it.

One final thing – the more you can bring drama to your story, the highs and the lows, the more people will connect.

2.  You’re obsessional about your product or service

All the best cult brands never stop at improving the experience for their customers. No matter the cost, no matter what other great opportunities you have to say no to

People don’t buy your product, they buy your never-ending process to perfection of both your product and service.What might seem the boring, mundane thing you do day in day out is fascinating to your tribe so don’t be afraid to share your processes

ACTION PLAN:

Are you sure you’re creating the best experience possible right now? Set some time, get a focus group of customers on Zoom in return for free food, listen to their feedback, test some ideas out on them and see if you can make one tweak or improvement based on the feedback. You get the bonus of doing some solid community building too.

THEN SHARE THE CRAP OUT OF IT

EXAMPLE:

 

I’m going to dive into my work for Flat Iron here, who are known for their incredible chips. They could say “Our triple fried chips are great”. OR…

 

“It took 128 batches before we finally found the right process to make our chips and we had to create our own dedicated chip kitchen for this. We found there was too much inconsistency using a variety of potatoes so we use a single variety potato from a single farm. Each portion of chips goes through an hour long process – peel, hand cut, wash 4 times, soak, steam, blast chill, fry, blast chill again, package, freeze, fry and season. These give an incredible texture and taste that is worth every minute of the hard work.”

 

What sounds better to you? Now think about how your customers will share your story when you give them the tools like that.

3. You have a fanatical tribe of superfans

If there is one thing that separates a cult brand from the rest, this is the one: ask a cult brand what’s important to them and “building a community around our values” is normally the result they seek from their efforts.

If you can build a community who then go on to build connections with each other based around your product/service, there is no higher place for a cult brand. Your mission is to give them the tools to facilitate that.

ACTION PLAN:

Have a think what you can do to make your customers feel part of a tribe and a stronger emotional connection with you. Pick a few of your best customers or biggest commenters on social media and give them something.

If you’re thinking of launching a new product or service – break your process down on IG stories and ask people what they think and make sure you share their feedback and your thoughts on that. If you can the implement that feedback and share it you’ll be ticking a lot of cult brand boxes.

Or just do a random act of kindness and drop some food off for some people that need or deserve it.

4. You do things, you don’t just chat on social media

It’s one thing to talk on social media. Anyone can do that. It’s another thing to DO. All cult brands do things. They put their money where their mouth is. Sometimes it won’t be visible, and often it won’t directly be something that generates profit. It also may have nothing directly to do with the product/service but it should always be something that advances their principles and values.

It always comes back to ‘are you more than just a product/service?’ and ‘am I living my purpose beyond my website about page?’ Your tribe will respond in turn.

ACTION PLAN:

Go through your list of values and principles. Pick one thing you can do to demonstrate them beyond your product/service.

Don’t do random or shocking just for the sake of it – if it’s not connected to your values it’s ultimately going nowhere, no matter how many times people share it. It could be launching a book, giving % to charity, feeding the NHS, giving a free burger to a random customer each month. Want to keep it simple? Do something charitable or volunteer your time.

If you do something like that once every 6 months it’s better than nothing but won’t really make much difference. If you’re doing something fun and showing appreciation to your customers every week, that will get you noticed.

5. You take a strong position on issues

If you have a purpose, you stand for things and you stand against things. All cult brands do what they do because they have a purpose. They’re not afraid to share what they’re for and what they’re against.

99% of all social media is noise. Narcissistic, zero value, ‘I’m doing this because I feel I have to but have no idea what I’m doing” noise. If you try and be all things to all people you stand for nothing and nobody. Once you start confidently asserting your position you’ll find engagement starts growing as the people that are with you, they’re REALLY with you. Your tribe are you looking to you to stand up for their beliefs.

ACTION PLAN:

Make a list of 1-3 things you passionately believe in. Now make a list of 1-3 things you’re passionately against (industry bad practices, negative customer assumptions, or just an issue) etc.

Now do a social media post for two of those and state what they are, why they’re important to you and how you live those values through your brand.

STAY TUNED

In part 2 we’ll be diving in to points 6 to 10 –  that’s RADICAL TRANSPARENCY // LIFESTYLE // FUN and RISK // BREAKING FROM NORMS // EXCLUSIVITY and HYPE!

DAN NASH is a  Brand Strategist & Founder of SixEight.

 

For 5 years Dan has helped food brands like Tonkotsu, Dishoom and Flat Iron turn customers into a cult of superfans through his unique 3 step Cult Brand System, creating a human personality for brands to attract their tribe and create more sales. He says: “The system makes it easy to tell a never-ending story that stands out from the noise and build a tribe for life”.

 

It’s his mission to make food brands become a force for good, behave more like humans and generate the same intense love as the best brands in the world.

 

That’s how he’s smashed restaurant launches, built engaged communities and turned customers into passionate fans who keep coming back whilst shouting about it to the world.

 

We are thrilled to have Dan’s incredible insight and expertise at our upcoming BRAND STORYTELLING event – link to tickets here.