Proposed social effects of cult brand communities

Abstract

While it is mandatory, today, for brand managers to cultivate high customer loyalty towards their brand, the formation of very strong brand communities modeling religious cult-like devotion might not be the wisest route for the brand to take and would manifest some important social effects. This paper theoretically proposes eighteen social effects of cult brands on customer attitudes and behaviors towards the cult brand, towards other customers of the brand, and towards non-customers of the brand. A customer-centric model of cult brand communities is presented.