This brand is your brand
EVER BEEN IN a cafe where everybody is pecking away on Mac laptops and then somebody walks in carrying a PC? Suddenly you're in the first scene of a spaghetti Western: The conversation stops abruptly and everyone turns to glare at the unsuspecting newcomer.Is there something twisted about a commercial enterprise inspiring such devotion? No, claims Douglas Atkin, director of strategy at the New York-based ad agency Merkley and Partners: "The human race demands and needs communities and shared belief-systems," he says. "And not satisfying a basic need with a commercial answer would be the shame of most businesspeople.
"Atkin's new book, "The Culting of Brands: When Customers Become True Believers" (Portfolio), offers businesses tips on borrowing successful techniques from groups like the Moonies, Falun Gong, even the Marines. (He defines "cult" broadly.) Many Americans are dissatisfied with traditional social and religious institutions, Atkin argues, so commercial brands from Apple to
IDEAS: We tend to think of cults as sinister outfits intent on manipulating and exploiting the gullible. So why did you decide to study them?
ATKIN: Several years ago, people in my business were complaining that brand loyalty was a thing of the past, but it seemed to me that the human need and capacity to buy into something larger than oneself hadn't died. So I began interviewing people who'd bought into Hare Krishna, the Mormons, the Marines -- as well as some cults I'm too nervous to mention. There are destructive cults, of course, but throughout history there have been innumerable "new religious movements," as a lot of academics now call them, that gave people a healthy sense of belonging, meaningfulness, and purpose.
IDEAS: You also interviewed the adherents of so-called cult brands.
ATKIN: Mac users, Harley riders, people who fly on Virgin Atlantic -- they can be more fanatical than many religious cult members. They've bought into an ideology -- Apple stands for being creative and nonconformist, Harley-Davidson for being rebellious, Virgin for being almost piratical -- and whether or not they actually spend time with fellow brand devotees, they feel very close to one another and mutually responsible. BMW riders, for example, independently publish a massive directory that tells you how to get help from other BMW riders if you break down somewhere in America. It's insulting to suggest that these people have been hoodwinked by clever, even psychopathic marketers -- it's more of a consensual dance.
IDEAS: Don't you find the idea that consumerism is replacing traditional forms of community a depressing one?
ATKIN: Whether we like it or not, established institutions are proving to be increasingly inadequate sources of meaning and community. And human beings need these things to function. Commercialism and consumerism are undeniable forces in our lives -- and no matter what anti-brand types like Naomi Klein [author of "No Logo"] may believe, most consumers are tough to bamboozle. So if people today pay for meaning more than they pray for it, who's to say they aren't finding authentic satisfaction?
