How to Build a Cult-Like Ecommerce Brand (Full Playbook) transcript

The most valuable asset you can build today is building a cult-like brand on the internet. >> Get a puppy. Get a copy. >> If you market a brand online, building a stronger brand should be your number one priority. >> This is for all the Stanley girls so obsessed with the Stanley Cup. >> So, the billiondollar question is, can anyone do it? And is there a blueprint for building a cult-like brand today? Well, the answer may surprise you.

Yes. Now, I've helped grow some of the fastest growing cultlike brands on the internet and studied the biggest ones out there, and I noticed there's a lot of similarities and patterns across all of the biggest cultlike brands. So, in today's video, I'm going to walk you through a simple four-step playbook for how you can create your own cultlike brand on the internet. And if you care about scaling your brand, this will be the most valuable video you'll ever watch.

By the way, I'm Chase Chapel. Over 650,000 marketers follow me across socials. I've generated my clients a little over a billion dollars in combined revenue, and I've grown a lot of the brands and creators you shop with online every single day. Now, before we go through my four-step playbook for how to transform your brand into a cult-like brand, first we need to define what is cultlike in the first place. Because before we can build something great, we need to understand and have total clarity on where we are headed.

So, this is how I break it down to my clients. There are three differences between a regular brand you see online versus a cult-like brand that has raving fans. And the difference really comes down to behavioral patterns. And understanding these behavioral patterns is why cultlike brands grow so fast and literally take massive market share from giant corporate brands out there. So let's look at these behaviors of cultlike fans and understand them.

So then we can create our ads, messaging, and brand around that. Difference number one is what I call identity alignment. With a cultlike fan, the brand becomes part of their identity. They wear it, they post about it, and use the products as a signal of who they are. An example of this would be, "I'm just a Stanley girl. >> This is for all the Stanley girls." >> Or Finty just understands my personality. >> This is insane, you guys. >> Or I shop with Nike over Adidas any day.

They feel belonging in the community around that specific brand. Whereas a regular fan, they might just enjoy the product, but it's just one of many brands that they may use. Their sense of identity doesn't really depend on it. Difference number two is watching versus advocating. A colike fan, they actually recruit others, convincing their friends, their family, even strangers to try out the product. >> Look how adorable these are. >> They post UGC videos, defend the brand and comments, and treat advocacy as a duty.

A regular fan, if asked, they might recommend a product, but they don't go out of their way to push it. fans sharing the brand experience is the number one reason cultlike brands grow so fast compared to regular ones. And difference number three is product versus status. A colike fan owning the product gives them status in their social circles. They show it off. They're proud of it. Like car collector showing off their supercars.

You understand? A regular fan, it's just another product out there. Maybe it's in their closet, fridge, or house. They maybe bought it once from an ad because they thought it was cool, but it's really up in the air if they'll buy again or even tell somebody about it. So, to recap this, we have identity alignment, watching versus advocating, and product versus status. Now that we understand these behaviors, we can begin to build our four-step playbook for building your cultlike brand.

So, let's take a look at the four tactical shifts you can implement into your brand today to transform it into a cult-like brand and turn your customers into cultlike fans. It all starts with your story. positioning your world and advocates. Now, let me break down each of these tactically and how you can engineer them into your brand. So, remember to do this. All we got to do is center our brand around these three behaviors of a cult-like fan.

Make our product a part of their identity and make them a brand advocate that wants to share our product and give them status when they become a part of our brand. The first step in this playbook is a strong founder story. That's the messaging, the foundation, the vibe, the purpose, and the reason, and the movement behind the brand. >> It's embracing gratitude, the beauty. So, every time you put on a pair of Kiora sunglasses, you see life through a new lens. >> This is at the core center of everything you're going to build.

And without this, you have just another brand on the internet that may or may not be bought from. So, to create a co-like audience, you have to give them something to connect with beyond just another product. If you look at any one of the brands and creators that I've helped grow online today, a strong founder story is at the heart of almost all of them. Because a strong founder story connects the pain that you once lived, the solution you created, and the mission you believe in, and the struggles that you overcame, and how that transformation now delivers to every customer out there.

When you create the story with five key pillars, the first one is the origin problem. Every great founder story starts with a painoint you personally experience. So, what you're going to do is you're going to show the exact moment you felt that frustration or gap in the market. This will make your story instantly relatable because your customers will see themselves in your struggle. An example of this was, "I was tired of X problem, so I built X brand to fix it." >> A little bit too much about our hair, but we noticed a huge gap in the hair care space.

Every product was unhealthy and unsustainable. >> Number two is the transformation. Show how you solved the problem for yourself first before turning it into a business. >> We ordered a ton of natural ingredients. but became a mad scientist on our Denver apartment stove top. That's actually how it started. >> This helps build authenticity, proves it's not a cash grab, but a solution that worked. Customers will resonate when they see the founder walk that very path before selling the product.

Your third is the mission and belief system. A founder story without a mission is just a biography. You need to state the why behind what you're building and tie your mission into a bigger movement so that way customers will want to be a part of it. An example of this is health, empowerment, self-exression, and freedom. The struggles and sacrifices. Don't polish the story too much. Share the obstacles, the failed attempts, the limited money that you have, the long nights.

This vulnerability builds trust and shows you fought for the outcome, not just stumbled into it. It makes the brand feel human, not manufactured. The transformation for others, proof of impact. Close the loop by showing how your product now transforms customers lives the way it transformed yours. Use real results, community stories or cultural movements to do this. This shifts the story from me the founder to we the brand and customer story.

Just look at Steve Jobs with Apple, Phil Knight with Nike, and Elon Musk with Tesla. Even at the highest level, a strong founder story is at the heart of these brands. So, here's how to position your brand against industry giants. Giants in your space have deep pockets, mass distribution, and brand equity built over decades of time. And if you play their game, trying to outspend or out discount or out retail them, you'll burn cash and ultimately just fade away.

Positioning differently is the only way to make sure you're not just another forgotten meto brand. You're probably not the first to sell a hydration product like my clients Water Boy or Hydro Power or Red Salt supplements. Big titans like Gatorade, Liquid IV, LMNT have historically dominated this space. Yet, my clients can still break through and grow in what some would call a dominated market. And this is all because of what I'm about to show you, the US verse them framework.

It isn't just about marketing. It's your advantage. You're not just selling another product. You're selling a rebellion against generic mass market options. >> Probioxin has some prebiotics, natural flavors in it, plus also has apple cider vinegar in it. >> We do that in five simple steps. Number one, we're going to call out the giant's problem. They cut corners on ingredients. We use premium. They chase mass appeal.

We go deep on one category. They move slow. We move at internet speed. Number two, position your brand as the human alternative. They are faceless corporations. We are founderled and transparent. They make commercials. We make content with our own community at scale. They push a product. We build a lifestyle and culture and belonging. Number three is show the customers transformation. They'll sell you soda that wrecks your gut.

We'll fuel your body with something that makes you feel good. In number four, we're going to lean into the underdog energy. People love rooting for David over Goliath based stories. >> This is the story of how waking up hung over and a trip to Whole Foods led me to starting one of the world's largest hard kombucha companies. >> They spend millions on ads. We spend it on ingredients. Number five, bake it into your marketing flywheel.

Ads, landing pages, content, community. Spread this messaging everywhere. Comparison charts, founder stories, UGC, celebrating wins. And a great way of seeing what is working for other founders is using a tool like Foreplay, which I've left in the description below for you to literally spy on your competitor's ads. So now, let's talk about how you're going to create your brand world. You don't build a brand. You build a world people want to step into.

The product is just the door. The lifestyle, the culture, and the ecosystem. Well, that's the actual house. Look at how brands like Aloe do this. They sell the lifestyle first. You don't lead with leggings. You lead with identity. Aloe sells mindful movement. wellness and community before they sell just fabric. The product is just the uniform. You need to create an ecosystem of touch points between your studios, events, content, and collabs because every touch point is another layer of immersion.

Community equals belonging. People want to fit in with others in the Aloe world. Your job is to create signals, rituals, and spaces. Content is culture distribution. Ads aren't buy now. They're aspirational living. Content sells the world, not the skew. Premium access psychology, exclusivity creates FOMO, events, collabs, and drops. If everyone can touch it, no one values it. The brand world thrives when access feels scarce, premium, and limited.

So, let's talk about how to create repeat buyers. If you follow this playbook, repeat buyers will naturally happen. People believe in your brand. They make it part of their identity. They advocate for you in their communities and you can turn a single purchase into a long-term relationship. Instead of treating a first purchase like the end goal, we treat it as the entry point. That first sale immediately plugs people into your post-purchase flows on email and SMS with value and educationbased emails going out.

Community invitations, brand world immersion. The goal is to make the buyer feel like they just joined something bigger, not just ordered another product. and emotional loyalty loops, exclusivity, identity and status. This ensures the customers buy again to protect their identity inside the brand world. In the retention engine, systems overg guessing, personalized upsells, subscriptions and replenishment, offers that stack urgency and community, blending paid and organic touch points together because paid retargeting layered with UGC and organic socials that educate and entertain. and then creator partnerships.

Everywhere the customer scrolls, your brand is there. Reinforcing that trust and reminding them to buy again. So, let's recap our four steps here to building a cult-like brand. The first one is create a strong founder story. The second is position your brand as the human alternative. The third is use a single purchase as an entry point into something bigger. And number four, establish strong repeat buying frameworks.

This is single-handedly the greatest asset you can build if you're building your brand on the internet today. And I got into business 10 years ago to help brands and creators do exactly this. And if you like this video, make sure to subscribe. And I picked out this next video for you right here, showing you exactly what type of ads you need to flow into your cultlike brand. So check out this video here, and I'll see you on the inside in the next one.