How does a person join a cult brand?
How does someone join a cult or a cult brand? Because the process is exactly the same. Priests will tell you that people become converted because they see the truth of God’s word. Marketers and advertisers will say that people buy a brand because they like its image or its product function. I would argue that true commitment is not based on either of those things. True commitment is made by committing to the person or the community that presents the brand or the cult to the individual. In other words, people buy the medium, not the thing; in this case, the agency of human relationships. And if you think about it, it’s true. If you trusted me, if I was a close friend of yours, and I said, “You must, must, must buy a Saturn car,” you feel incredibly predisposed to buy a Saturn car. You’ll then go to the showroom and have a great experience there and buy the Saturn car, as millions of people did, even though the car was very, very ordinary. It was a very ordinary small car, but it is one
