How to Create Raving Fans and Zealots For Your Brand Why do some brands succeed beyond all reasonable expectation, while other brands that are just as good or even better wind up failing within a few months? How is it that an Oprah becomes an icon, while dozens of other talk show hosts quickly fall into oblivion? Why does Nike inspire such loyalty, while other brands of shoes struggle for market share? In the book Primal Branding, Patrick Hanlon explains his theory for “Creating zealots for your brand, your company and your future.” He explains how the powerful brands become that way by carefully (and sometimes accidentally) creating a community of believers by employing seven different marketing tactics. All seven of these components are found behind every supersuccessful brand, product, service, personality, social cause, religion or movement. Imagine if your product inspired the same level of loyalty that Apple, Disney and Starbucks receive from their customers. Now imagine you can actually engineer that 1
loyalty right into your brand – it makes your head spin a bit, doesn't it? According to Patrick, these are the 7 key ingredients that you or your product, service or brand must have to inspire zealous loyalty. 1. The Creation Story – This is the back story that sets the stage. Think of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in their parents' garage building the first personal computer, Jeff Bezos writing Amazon's business plan in the backseat of his car, or pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton concocting Coca-cola. You need a back story for your product, service or business. This might be how you got the idea, your struggle to solve a problem, your inspiration, etc. Storytelling is as old as language itself and touches people on a very deep, primal level. Do you want to foster a real, unifying connection on a subconscious level with your prospect? Then you need a story. 2. The Creed – This is what you believe in, your core principle, your mission statement. A creed differentiates and motivates. According to Sidney Pollack, “It's the spine that supports the entire enterprise.” See if you can recognize these creeds:
2
“It's the real thing” “Save the whales” “All men are created equal” “Just do it” So what's your creed? Invest some time to get this right. And if you have more than one product and the products are wildly different, know that you'll want a different creed for each one. For example, you won't have the same creed for an info product on traffic generation as an info product on building your abs. 3. The Icons – These are best defined as a quick concentration of meaning. This could be a logo like the Nike swoosh, the smell of Cinnabons in the mall, a country's flag, a national anthem, Alice Cooper's eye make-up, Kiss's face make-up, the Budweiser Clydesdales, Disney's castle as well as Disney's 2 black mouse ears, McDonald's arches, the 2 notes Law and Order plays just before the show appears, the opening music to any television show or the 5 signature notes of Intel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEDpqFHTSVM Choose your icon carefully, and then use it in all of your marketing. Update it when needed, being
3