How I discovered the black art of cult branding | Rob Howard | TEDxStLawrenceCollege

[Music] thank you to remote look out how many of you are brave enough to admit that you belong to a cult show of hands it's a few wild people in the audience all right very good well you know but not many of us are and you know it's not something that most of us would readily admit to why is it because that cults employ sinister methods of getting us to believe things and follow them seemingly against our will or in doing so that we're admitting to some kind of lack of self control or inability to resist their persuasive power well we're here encased in Canada tonight we're about halfway between Toronto and Montreal so let me ask this who here is a Montreal Canadiens hockey fan nice all right well let me ask this there needs tronto maple leafs fans in the audience name speaking of a cult but nobody would admit to belonging to a cult yet everyone was very quick to express their fanaticism for a pro sports DMA and in certain social situations we often find ourselves on taneous ly evangelizing to others about a favorite product or service that we've purchased or an amazing destination that we've been to well just like sports teams these products and services and destinations are all brands that we love brands whose power and control whose spell and charm we've helplessly fallen under we certainly don't love all the brands that we choose but some of the brands are drastically more meaningful to us we're proud to associate with them we advocate for them with that incentive we rise up to defend them against others who criticize them we give them the benefit of the doubt and we forgive them when they mess up the world's most coveted brands have somehow succeeded in getting us just not just to buy but to buy in to them to belong in fact these brands are a lot like cults if you think about it they command irrational levels of allegiance and diehard devotion over us so we choose them time and again without second thought they evoke fanaticism in the form of the positive word-of-mouth that we spread as in our effort to recruit others they make us feel a sense of community and a sense of belonging like insiders we proudly display their religious symbols on our apparel and sometimes even permanently tattooed on our bodies they somehow brainwashes to mindlessly ignore the very rational appeals of competing brands or cheaper alternatives so that they can reap the benefit of maximum profit margins you know we all have our own personal brand allegiances the most successful brands are really just kind of like modern day cults in disguise and we all belong to at least one but we don't often think about why we're so fanatical about these brands we so slavishly adore these cults that we belong to but six years ago I'd become fascinated with the subject see that was the time when my colleagues and I were busy reinventing our marketing firm we're just coming out the other side of the economic meltdown and we were troubled by a few things that we'd taken notice of we saw how the average lifespan of a publicly traded company a decrease from over 50 years in the 1900s - now just 15 years to us clearly the rules of sustainable commerce weren't working like they used to we saw that the cost of broadcast advertising had increased seven to nine times since the 90s despite the fact that consumers attention ads had decreased from ninety percent to less than 20 percent by 2012 brands were spending more than ever just to get noticed by consumers who were trying harder than ever to ignore them we saw how respected industry publications were professing that advertising no longer works anymore you know when magazines like Advertising Age said it alarm bells should have rung out in marketing departments around the world but they didn't but as we observe these negative things we also noticed something very encouraging we discovered that there were handfuls of brands who hadn't just survived economic adversity but they've thrived in spite of it we also noted that these brands who were were spending comparatively little on traditional forms of marketing like advertising you know that was heresy to us marketers and these brands weren't discounting these brands weren't couponing these brands weren't buying consumers attention in business the way that most brands do yet they had somehow won the allegiance of diehard fanatical customers that advocate on their behalf and spread the word without incentive these brands didn't just have customers these brands had believers these brands had cult followers you know as marketers we were really intrigued by the power that these brands had over customers and we became obsessed with the brands you know if you're a business leader we're a marketer you might think that being labeled a cult isn't a desirable achievement but the profit that a cult brand enjoys from a rationally loyal fans with excessively high customer lifetime value is something that's extremely desirable if only we can unlock that secret then we could teach that secret to other brands brands that had the same as aspiration to to acquire staunchly loyal customers brands that wanted cult followings of their own so we investigated didn't take us longer we found a research firm out of New York that had been studying brands like this for many years and they'd concluded that brands with the highest level of customer loyalty brands that dominated their categories we're all brands that enjoy incredibly high levels of customer engagement now engagement is a consumers willingness to spend not just their discretionary money but their discretionary time with a brand for some kind of a mutual benefit and it's because they they feel an emotional attachment or a bond with the brand we also discovers those brands with the high levels of customer engagement were in turn substantially more profitable than their peers and competitors and they they weathered economic adversity better they were almost recession-proof you know more and more to us engagement was looking like the holy grail of marketing but what was the secret what did cult brands do to foster such high levels of engagement their customers there's no mention of this in any of the textbooks that we had in our library there were volumes written about brand loyalty theory but relatively little on the subject of engagement clearly these brands were employing some mysterious tactics that had eluded most of us other marketers there had to be some kind of cover-up almost I mean so little information existed that we knew we must be onto something so we identified several hundred cult brands from around the world and we began to examine their behaviors we looked for anomalies things that they were doing that their peers and competitors were not we started connecting the dots and fitting the pieces together we saw patterns of behavior emerging these were commonalities that you know exposed where these brands were investing the majority of their resources as opposed to where other brands were then we began grouping these attributes together and slowly six major areas reveal themselves to us we realized that we'd inadvertently uncovered the black art that the world's most coveted brands practiced daily to forge deep affinity and devotion these were the secret brand building tactics that mattered most and we concluded that their success had more to do with their brand culture and the courage of their leadership than with their marketing prowess clearly to us these were principles that could be learned and applied so we made it our mission made it our mission to not just expose these principles but to teach them teach them that other brands and other organizations who are brave enough and forward-thinking enough to radically reorient themselves around these six areas and I'm gonna share them with you now called brands endeavor to be remarkable in everything that they do or sell and I use the term remarkable in its truest sense it's the ability to evoke a verbal response or a remark from consumers because here's the thing that caught brands understand mediocrity does not win fans and loyal customers cult brands exploit the human desire to share by intentionally creating social currency they know that doing something or providing something that's truly exceptional is guaranteed to get people talking and what better form of marketing is there you know when Apple released the first iPod back in 2001 they knew that a thousand songs in your pocket as a tagline was guaranteed to make music lovers gasp and astonishment if they hadn't already done so at the product design itself and the rest is history you ever been watching the hockey game on TV and been interrupted by a commercial for Tesla cars I've never even seen a Tesla add no idea if they even exist yet everyone everyone is talking about how amazing their electric cars are that's probably why four hundred thousand customers have paid a thousand dollars each to reserve a Tesla Model 3 that's a car that doesn't even exist yet and one that they probably won't even get into late 2018 see count brands command consumers notice and attention so they don't have to waste money on expensive advertising trying to fool people into convincing that they're worthy the most successful brands stand for something bigger than they make or sell these are brands driven by a powerful ethos a higher purpose a study by havez media showed that purposeful grant brands outperform the stock market by a hundred and twenty percent it's kind of funny because that same study also showed that 73% of brands wouldn't be missed by consumers at all if they disappeared entirely Collbran succeed in getting customers to buy them again and again because they first get them to buy in to their noble cause they espouse a shared purpose with consumers that inspires them to choose them over completely acceptable alternatives and this is how dove through their campaign for real beauty grew from a 200 million dollar brand in the 1990s to a cult brand that's worth over four billion dollars today that's why Patagonia enjoys a cult following not because of the amazing outdoor gear but it's because they've tapped into their customers desire to cause no harm to the planet call brands like Patagonia spend way more time explaining their reason for being and way less time explaining the features and benefits of their products and services they don't just give consumers cause to buy they give consumers cause to care care enough to buy from them over anyone else call brands focus on being inspiring to their internal audience first you know contrary to popular belief cult followings don't spontaneously materialize amongst a group of extreme consumers call brands focused their marketing efforts as much on their employees as they do on consumers and it's been proven to pay off a 2013 study showed that brands who increase employee engagement levels also increased profit speaking of profit at WestJet has anyone ever flown West yet all employees at WestJet share in the company's profits which makes them genuinely interested in contributing the brand success the internal mantra at WestJet is we succeed because I care and that's probably why 49% of Canadians choose WestJet as the preferred airline and only 35% choose Air Canada this here is Tony Shea Tony Shea is the founder and CEO of Zappos Tony's empowered every employee in the entire organization at Zappos to do whatever it takes to WoW customers in fact they celebrate call center staff who keep customers on the phone for hours instead of minutes as a result Zappos not only reaps the benefit of delighted customers but they reap the benefit of maximum profit margins because they never ever sell anything at a discount their customers are willing to pay full price every time cult brands know that creating believers begins on the inside with employees especially frontline staff who interact with customers on a daily basis comrades exploit a fundamental aspect of human psychology see we humans are hard-wired through evolution to instantly assess the intentions and abilities of others to do us harm or do us good and we perceive brands the same way that we perceive other people in 2010 a group of social psychologists found that the human traits that brands exhibit influence 50% of all purchase intent of all loyalty and the likelihood to recommend that's extremely significant and that's why instead of advertising or discount discounting Lululemon employs community ambassadors to recruit their customers these are local yoga or fitness instructors who have great influence over their own followings followings who represent target Lulu customers in Lululemon's personified their brand as this you know super positive life coach who cheers you on towards your goals and that's how they've grown from that's how they've grown to a brand that has 200 stores and two continents that's probably why we also forgive them when they imply that we're too fat for wearing their see-through yoga pants who owns a pair of these obviously everyone probably right I mean who doesn't own a pair of these you know converse doesn't sell millions of all-star shoes because consumers aspire to be a basketball player like Chuck Taylor people love them because they fulfill a deep desire to express the same independence and rebellious nests as John Lennon or Joey Ramone or Kurt Cobain did when they wore them figures that they not only know and recognize but figures that they idolize the brands that we consumers bond with are those that we most easily relate to and evaluate based on their human characteristics cult brands just don't treat their customers as passive buyers they treat them as active participants in the ongoing development and improvement of their offerings because they know that their biggest ideas are gonna come from their fans not from their employees so they build and nurture communities of fans as forums for generating and testing new ideas and that's why half the Fortune 500 have made co-creation an integral part of their innovation strategy that's also why zero percent of Legos product development happens in-house zero Legos head of community of business says that 99% of their brand talent doesn't even work for the company it's all in the community now it hazard a guess that most average brands don't even have a head of community business mountain dew runs an online community of avid fans that they call the green room they use it to test every single idea that they have you even have to apply to get in last year they let the fans of the green room decide which one of two flavors would live or die and six million votes were cast six million Mountain Dew customers cared enough to talk to the company and tell them which flavor you know in a declining category Mountain Dew has had twenty straight quarters of growth not only that but Mountain Dew is actually the number one product purchased at u.s. gas stations by a longshot it's because coal brands prioritize listening over telling right they empower customers to feel a sense of ownership over the brand that cements their loyalty cult brands become so highly relevant that they can't be ignored the weave themselves into the fabric of pop culture they pervade their customers lives through a multitude of touch points that surrounds them that envelops them cult brands intercept customers rather than interrupt them with irrelevant communications you know I have two kids and let me tell you Disney has been ubiquitous in our household since the baby showers the movies the toys the clothes the books the apps the games the food even seriously my three-year-old daughter eats frozen Cheerios for breakfast that's no joke you know it's inevitable that one day we'll be making the holy pilgrimage to Disney World remember when redbull dropped Felix Baumgartner from the edge of space anyone here tuned in to see that pretty amazing you know instead of ads Red Bull invests in creating experiences or sponsoring events or sponsoring athletes or creating documentary films that challenge consumers to dream of what they can achieve when they're energized in 2014 Red Bull made over six billion dollars Cult brands like Red Bull know that actions speak louder than words they don't buy impressions they make them by shifting investment away from traditional tactics into these six areas I believe that any organization can become a cult brand and we all belong to at least one I'm Rob Howard that's my idea we're spreading [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 71,209

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Canada, Business, Advertising, Brand, Communication, Culture

Id: JRLYyAQTfOI

Length: 19min 45sec (1185 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 21 2017