The 9 questions behind every cult brand

0:00Intro

So you think you can’t build a brand like Apple, Patagonia, or Harley-Davidson, but the part most people don’t realize is none of them got to where they are by chance. And when I teach you how to do exactly the same thing, it’ll feel like you cheated your way to the top because your competition who aren’t doing it, they’re forgettable. So in this video, we’re gonna cover nine brand questions that you need to answer to build a brand for your business that is worth obsessing over, and you’ll see why they’re all so important. But the thing that we need to understand first is, ultimately, we’re all in business to make money, right? But the problem with this goal is that your customers don’t care how much money you make. Your customers care what you stand for, what you’re doing for the world, and what buying from you says about them as a person. Take Stanley Cups and their rebrand the past few years. They went from functional to an aspirational brand with an identity attached to it for the user, and I can guarantee they started off by answering this one question first.

0:531. Purpose

So question one: Why does your business exist beyond making money? This is your purpose at your core. And like any good film, the best way to communicate it is to tell a story, one that people can follow and feel a part of themselves.

1:072. Your story

So question number two is, what moment led you to start, and what has changed since? With just these two answers, you’re starting to tap into who you are as a brand, which is what customers love. And then in bringing these answers through every part of your business, not just marketing, already your ideal customers are starting to paint a picture of why they should pick you over someone who is just in it for the money. But then the problem arises that you can’t just shout this stuff into the void. I mentioned your ideal customers there, so you need to answer question three.

1:343. Ideal customer

Who is the one customer you’d clone if you could, and who is definitely not for you? And for the love of God, do not write down demographics like their age, their gender, their job title, if they’ve got two kids. If you just started that, then rip that paper up and start again. Okay? We’re talking about psychographics. Who is this person? What drives them? What scares them? How do they like to buy? I can’t stress how important it is to know this so that you can then answer the next question, which is number four:

2:024. Before state

What is going on in their world right before they buy from you? This is their before state, and this is where you need to meet them. So a brand example, Harley-Davidson isn’t aimed just at the typical bikers that you would expect. A Harley’s expensive, so a huge part of their market is actually high-powered corporate workers, business owners, and doctors who crave freedom ’cause their before state is stress, it’s pressure, it’s confinement by their high-powered jobs and all of the responsibilities that they have. Harley knows this and connects with them in that state. So what does that look like for your ideal customer? ’Cause once you’ve defined that, then you can answer question five:

2:405. Transformation

What exactly does life look like for them once you’ve solved that problem? This is the transformation that is going to make you money. Because customers buy results, they don’t buy features. Taking Harley-Davidson again, it’s not just buying a motorbike, it’s Sundays out on the road with their spouse or their friends, hitting that throttle and literally riding away from the stress of their day-to-day life. That feeling is what their business encompasses in everything that they do. They would bottle that feeling if they could, and you need to do exactly the same. So once you’ve done that, next up is question six:

3:176. Differentiation

What can you say that no competitor can? This is your differentiation, and it’s so, so important to be able to define this because if a competitor can say it, you blend in, you’re forgettable, and customers don’t buy forgettable. Let’s stick with our same example. Harley-Davidson can credibly say that no motorbike sounds like a Harley. Even if you’re like me and you know nothing about bikes, once you know that sound, you can hear one coming a mile off. You know when someone is starting up a bike like that versus another brand. And get this, the uneven firing that makes the sound has had no engineering purpose since electronic ignitions came in years ago. Harley has kept it on purpose all of this time purely for brand. And details like this that touch every part of your business are all driven by your answer to the next question.

4:087. Values

So question number seven: What are your values, and what would you keep even if it cost you money? This test separates real values that your company lives by from nice words that you throw on your website because customers don’t connect with your fancy words, they connect with your actions. Let’s look at another great example, and that’s Patagonia. On Black Friday in 2011, the biggest sale day of the year, Patagonia ran a full-page ad in The New York Times where they told people not to buy their jacket unless they really needed it. That is a prime example of their brand values in action. They could have made a killing that day by throwing up a discount and advertising it everywhere, but it went against their values of sustainability, so they didn’t do it that way. That is truly how much your brand values need to mean to you. So once you’ve defined those, then we go to the next question, which is number eight: If your brand walked into a party, who would it be?

5:008. Personality and voice

How would it sound? And importantly, how would it never sound? This is your brand personality and voice. It’s how your business communicates, the language choices that you make, and it reflects everything in those seven questions that preceded this. Pause here and describe that personality like it’s a person with examples of what to say and what not to say so that everyone in your business can follow suit.

5:259. Reputation

Now, all eight of these questions culminate into one thing, the single most important question that you can answer. So number nine: When a customer describes your business to a friend, what do you want them to say? Because this, this is your reputation, and it’s the whole point of building a brand. Because your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what people say about your business when you are not in the room. And when multiple people say the same thing, you’ve got yourself a brand. So you need to make sure you’re clear on what it is you want those people to be saying.

5:56Your brand book

Now, when you have those nine answers clear and written down in a shareable way for your entire team, that’s your brand book. That, that really simple exercise is how you have the foundation that cult brands like Apple, Harley, and Patagonia are founded on. That brand, that feeling is the cheat code that they’ve used to get to the top of their industry and the top of their ideal customer’s wish list. So now that you have the answers, if you want to know exactly what to do with them, I break it down in this video here.