I admit....Apple's quite the cult brand

I guess I stand corrected.

Apple's iPhone has actually delivered on a superior customer experience. A mobile phone customer survey conducted by ChangeWave Research in late 2007 showed that the iPhone led the pack in terms of customer satisfaction among its US customer base. An unprecedented 82 per cent of iPhone owners reported being 'Very Satisfied' with their purchase, which was by far the highest rating of any mobile manufacturer.

A user friend of mine based in the US swears and stands by her experience with the iPhone. Sandy too bats for the iPhone. I admit, the feeling's pretty strong among the 'Apple legion'. And it couldn't have been for no reason. There are even people like Chuck Neistat who protest Apple's failings by making a movie, 'cos (surprise, surprise) they are so much in love with the brand.

As the Businessweek article, 'Cult Brands', points out, Cult brand loyalty 'flies in the face of conventional marketing wisdom. Consumers demand more from the brands they love than simple reliability; passionate consumers want their brands to become a form of self-expression.'

As revealed at the student-run Harvard Business School Marketing Conference , you know you've got a cult brand when customers do the following:

1. Name babies after your brand. This happened to the sports channel ESPN. Three babies, born to different sets of parents were named Espen, Espn, and Espn (again!), respectively.


2. Become highly emotional when you change the color of your logo. This happened to Apple Computer after it changed the color of its multicolored apple logo to solid red. Some of the original Apple logos, were bought and sold on the online auction site eBay.


3. Drink a six-pack of your beverage every day: a high-sugar, high-caffeine beverage. This is the happy situation that played out for Mountain Dew.