From Issue N°03: Cult Brands & How to Build Them.
Brands that keep people coming back, earn raving referrals to friends, and build a lively community around an experience unlike any other. Cult status, or becoming a brand with a devoted following and press-worthy reputation, is a much talked about enigma. But how can we actually build a cult experience?
Here’s how our studio approaches this challenge—and how you can integrate brand experience techniques as a business owner or designer, no matter your size!
A Powerful Hero Concept
At the heart of every cult brand is an incredibly strong force that drives everything they do: they know exactly who they are, what they stand for, and what they give to the world. This is where vision + values come in handy (read more on this here) because they give you a clear direction to identify these three pillars, and begin shaping a hero concept unique to your business.
A powerful brand concept often has very little to do with the actual products or services. It has everything to do with the dreams or frustrations of your people. Let’s look at Unyoked: an Aussie cabin brand with a devoted cult following. Instead of advertising as ‘luxury holiday cabins’ or ‘relaxing escapes’ (because there are thousands of those), they tap into the frazzled, over-worked 9-5 grind to create an entirely unique brand that is a beautiful antidote to this issue.
Cultigraphy dives beyond archetypes and target audience, gets right to the heart of the business, and identifies the seed of the vision. Often clients will have many things they want to do with their business or organisation—sometimes pointing in different directions—and it’s our job as a brand strategist to weave the directions into a single, powerful, catalysing force. It’s a process that requires hefty thinking and research, depending on the complexity of the business goals, but is an integral element of standout brands.
Non-Profit Initiative, The Climate Action Conference: A successful 2 day experience propelled by comprehensive branding.
A Three-Dimensional Experience
Once the hero concept has been created and focused into a single direction, an experience is built upon it. The brand visuals are just one aspect of this; copywriting, internal business strategy, marketing approach, adjacent business activities, and customer journey from touchpoint to touchpoint are equally as important. An unforgettable, glowing-review experience configures every single element of the journey, and overarching presence, to increasingly strengthen the hero concept.
You can discover more about the actual techniques Cultigraphy harnesses to build a three-dimensional experience in our upcoming newsletter!
Jewellery Brand, Linzie Smith: A temporal, poetic experience built on the discovery of ancient treasures.
An Agile Brand Ecosystem
Here’s where the visuals finally come into play! New, breakthrough, high-profit brands (note: this is different from individual viral products) typically share this characteristic in their visual design: a cohesive, flexible, dynamic system. This includes design elements such as colour, typography, and iconography. An ecosystem enables the brand to retain the strength of their presence across all touchpoints; while keeping it fresh, responsive to change, and always interesting.
Cultigraphy designs agile ecosystems that cut out the waste. No matter your size, we create powerful brand experiences that strike a real chord—for local businesses and national organisations alike.
Cult Concept, Major Aoraki: An organic coffee brand drawing from the wonders of the Southern night skies.
