How Brands Can Create a Cult-Like Following and Generate Brand Devotion

Staying away from cults is an excellent life practice, but what if that cult creates your all-time favorite taco? Or the best possible fitness routine for your body? Or some other kind of product that changes your life? Brands that create this kind of atmosphere that customers can’t seem to get enough of are those most capable of developing fan bases are quite devoted at the very least and almost cult-like at best. In some cases, the fandom can even get quite extreme—need we remind you of the Popeyes fried chicken sandwich mayhem of 2019? This is when a brand knows it has truly created something special. 

Generating the level of brand devotion that gives way to a cult-like following cannot be done overnight, but it is quite possible for brands who stick to their values and, of course, create a consistently amazing product. 

Take fitness brand Burn Boot Camp, for example. Burn does many things to maintain a positive image and generate brand devotion among its loyal members, including referring to its members individually as Burn Sisters (its member base is predominantly women) and collectively as Burn Nation, creating a sense of community that runs deep. 

“I do think that when a brand has a strong culture, it trickles down all the way from the top to the bottom,” Burn Boot Camp Director of Marketing Jaimie Myers said. “Our culture is embedded in our members and into every employee. It starts at the top and works its way down to every member of our Burn Nation. It’s definitely important to set that bar high.” 

Burn Boot Camp is able to maintain such an enthusiastic feeling among the Burn Nation thanks to being a value-first organization that puts its members’ success above all, Myers said. 

“We’re focused on adding value to people’s lives,” Myers said. 

One of the ways in which the brand excels at adding this value and attracting and retaining members, or “getting them addicted,” as many members-turned-franchisees put it, is through a focus on creating content that will entice newcomers to become official Burn Boot Camp members. 

“A big part of what we do is we make a lot of content for people to digest and for them to really look at before we ask them to become a member,” Myers said. “We make workout videos that share everything for free. That storytelling is a big value-add for our brand. We’re asking people to become part of our Burn Nation before they even set foot in our gym.” 

Another brand known for its cult-like following is the fast casual chain Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, which prides itself on serving high-quality food in a laid-back atmosphere, proudly using the slogan “Welcome to Your New Addiction!” Like Burn Boot Camp, many of the brand’s franchisees come from its customer base. 

“We don’t like to say ‘culture’ in our world,” Fuzzy’s Taco Shop Vice President of Marketing Laura Purser said. “We just say ‘This is who Fuzzy’s Taco Shop is.’ We are a fun brand. We are casual. We are a little irreverent and we have a really great vibe in our restaurants. The guests feel it, the employees feel it and the management team feels it, and that’s what makes people want to come in and spend their time here.”

Ultimately, generating mega devotion among brand followers comes down to having that human connection. Myers noted how Burn Boot Camp members, affectionately referred to as “raving fans,” are so enthusiastic about the brand that they’d be willing to scream their devotion to it from the rooftop. Part of that devotion stems from the fact that, as members are working out, they receive consistent high-fives and encouragement from teachers who call them by their first names. “We’re really connecting with people on a human level,” Myers said. 

For Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, it’s all about maintaining its trademark attitude. 

“Our fans really like the fact that we don’t take ourselves too seriously,” Purser said. “We have that little edge to us that people really respond to. That’s been with the brand since day one and it’s something we never want to change.” 

Purser pointed to a recent fundraising effort as an example. In September of 2019, Fuzzy’s Taco Shop did a fundraiser system-wide for the charity No Kid Hungry and one of the T-shirts made for it said: “Ask me if I care.”

“Of course we care,” Purser said. “We have that sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek tone and our guests love it and our regulars kind of live for it.” 

So what should brands avoid doing if they want to create a cult-like following and generate brand devotion?

“The first is to avoid channeling all of your energy into one single marketing channel or going all-in on one digital platform,” Myers said, emphasizing the need for brand-centric content to further your own platforms and voice. “That could be really dangerous because you don’t own that platform. A lot of brands are just focusing on social media and they find themselves stuck when it’s not working. Your brand is what you own and it’s what people think of you.” 

Brands also need to pay attention to both national and local marketing efforts, including community-based marketing and partnerships, and above all, avoid inauthenticity if they want to generate genuine devotion among brand enthusiasts. 

“Don’t try to make yourself be something you're not,” Myers said. “Embrace whatever it is that’s different about you and that makes you special. Don’t force something that’s not there. Love and embrace who you are, because that’s when you’re going to get the best reaction from your employees and your guests.” 

Purser echoed this. 

“As a brand, you need to put a legitimate feeling out there,” Purser said. “You can’t force it. You can’t make your guests feel something that’s not really there. Don’t try to be something you’re not. Play up the best things you do, both at the employee level and at the leadership level.”