Howdy, marketer!
People who go to SoulCycle and people who ride Harley Davidson have one thing in common: they just won’t shut up about it!
And there’s an interesting reason why.
They got convinced to join a “community” because of esoteric language and clever marketing tactics.
In simpler words, both of these brands are, in some form, a cult.
SoulCycle markets itself as a fitness company.
Harley Davidson markets itself as an American-made motorcycle.
Yet both of them use tactics right out of the cult playbook: tribal bonding, inspirational leadership, insider community, and a rebel ethos that taps into powerful emotions of freedom and identity.
Though we may cringe at cults, as marketers, we also want people to not shut up about our brands.
So, there are a few things you can adopt to build a “cult-like” brand.
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1. Polarize on purpose. Stop trying to be liked by everyone.
Brands are increasingly forgettable because their brand guidelines say something like "tone: friendly, approachable, inclusive."
The brands that build cult followings pick a side instead.
Cult brands have opinions, tastes, and lines they won't cross.
They're willing to polarize because the flip side of polarization is passion.
Think about Patagonia. In 2011, they ran a Black Friday ad that said "Don't Buy This Jacket." That's a brand telling its own customers not to spend money.
(Source)
Instead of hurting sales, revenue increased 30% the following year. Because the people who agreed with that message started evangelizing.
They felt like they belonged to something with a spine.
When a brand stands against something, it gives people something to stand against together, and that shared enemy is the glue that holds communities tight.
Harley Davidson made this famous.
Their ads were designed to position Harley riders - who had developed a reputation as wild, anti-establishment rebels - as the polar opposite of the Honda rider.
They sold an identity.
2. Create insider rituals that make people feel like they've been let in on something
A ritual is a repeatable shared experience that makes someone feel like a member.
It has its own language, its own timing, its own sense of belonging.
To achieve this, every brand world needs four things:
language (words or phrases that feel native to insiders)
symbols (visual or physical cues that signal belonging instantly)
rituals (repeatable actions that reinforce membership)
myths (origin stories, iconic failures, legendary moments, inside jokes)
SoulCycle does this brilliantly in fitness.
They deliberately foster a tight-knit community vibe through touches like personalized shout-outs from instructors, themed dress-up rides, and post-class smoothies. Riders feel they're part of a special shared experience. You become loyal to an instructor, and through them, to the brand.
Supreme has managed to turn their Thursday "drop" into a can't-miss event with loyal fans.
The product is almost secondary. The experience of showing up and being part of the in-group is what people are really buying.
The goal is to make someone feel like they've been let into something, not sold something.
3. Build lore that helps people connect to your story.
Cult brands also build lore around their founders - not polished LinkedIn bios, but the messy, human, can't-believe-it's-true kind of stories that fans retell like campfire legends.
People don't share press releases. They share stories with stakes.
They repeat the moments that feel too strange to be invented.
What's important here is the difference between lore and marketing copy.
Lore lives in the retelling. Marketing copy lives in the brochure.
If your brand story is only on your website's About page, it's not lore yet. Lore is what your customers say when someone asks, "wait, why do you love that brand?"
Emily Weiss, the founder of Glossier, spent years going through comment sections, talking to people, and writing down what people actually wanted from beauty, before she ever made a product.
That origin of genuine curiosity before commerce became a crucial part of the brand's identity. And the result was a product development process where community comments became cult bestsellers, and 70% of sales came through peer referral.
4. Go narrow. The more specific you are, the more universal it feels.
The instinct often is to be broad - to appeal to "everyone who wants quality" or "anyone who cares about wellness." Big mistake.
The brands with the most devoted followings are the ones that went absurdly specific at the start.
YETI is the perfect case study.
The company was founded by two brothers who wanted a hardworking cooler for fishing - and building for very specific outdoor pursuits was foundational to their early success.
They sold to hunters and fishermen who needed a cooler that could take a beating, keep ice for days, and survive being dragged through swamps.
They went so deep into one tribe that the tribe brought them everywhere else. In FY 2025, they did a revenue of 1.9 billion.
5. Make your brand a mirror to people’s inner desires
The most underrated thing about cult brands is that they reflect people back to themselves - only slightly better, slightly more interesting, and more aligned with who they want to be.
According to Douglas Atkin, author of The Culting of Brands, cults and brands want people to feel the same thing: "With us, you become more you." (Source)
For instance, Red Bull sells the identity of someone who pushes limits. In 2012, they sent Felix Baumgartner 127,852 feet into the air in a helium balloon and filmed him breaking the sound barrier.
The whole thing had nothing to do with energy drinks. But it had everything to do with the identity Red Bull was selling: boundless human potential.
The implication for your brand is this: stop asking "how do we get people to buy this?" and start asking "what do people want to believe about themselves that our brand makes true?"
The answer to that second question is your cult brief.
Wrap Up
Being polarizing means accepting that some people will actively dislike you. And that’s the point.
Building lore means being vulnerable about where you came from. Creating rituals means investing in experiences that don't show up cleanly in an attribution report. Going narrow means turning away revenue that feels safe.
But brands that lean into distinctiveness earn a fanatic following that drives growth.
Stop looking at your audience as a monolith of data points to be converted through a funnel.
Find your niche, give them an enemy to fight, arm them with a distinct vocabulary, and protect the unique stories that brought them to you in the first place.
That is how you stop competing on price and start building a cult.
✌️,
Tom from Marketer Gems
