I'm looking for cases/examples of brands, which for some consumers has
turned into almost a religious belief. Take Apple, Harley Davison or
Manchester United as an example. All three brands have extremely
devoted fans, some even wearing tattoos. My questions is:

1. Cases where consumers are devoted to a brand as was it a religion?
(All brand cases except Apple cases are accepted). Each case should
describe the devotion and give examples of why or how this has turned
into a brand religion.

This is the first out of two inquires related to this topic - please
see QUESTION 2 if you are interested in answering more questions
related to this topic.

Good luck,

Martin

Hi! Thanks for the question.

I have found a sample of a book discussing 9 examples of such brands.
Apple is included here but there are eight others that are very
interesting. The author calls it as Cult Branding and the theory is
based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Due to copyright reasons, I can
only provide some highlights on some of the brands mentioned. In order
to start reading the texts for such brands, you can start on page 20
of the document.

Brands:

Oprah Winfrey - "How loyal are Oprah?s followers? So loyal that Oprah has
hosted the highest rated television talk show in TV history for
over a decade. Her ratings longevity and dominance is virtually
unheard of in the TV world?let alone the talk show business!"

Volkswagen Beetle - "Rallies and meets for classic Beetles regularly
still attract hundreds of enthusiasts, even though VW stopped
importing the original Bug into the U.S. back in 1977. Today, Mexico
is one of only four countries
that still make the original Bug."

Star Trek - "None of this success would have happened without the
undying support of the Trekkers, the legions of loyal Star Trek
fans that consistently scoop up both new and old merchandise,
watch the TV shows, go to the movies, and attend hundreds of
Star Trek conventions held around the world each year. The loy-alty
of the Trekker nation truly amazes us... NASA even named its first
space shuttle The Enter-prise after receiving 400,000 requests from
Star Trek fans!"

World Wrestling Entertainment - "... unbeknownst to many, the WWE is
the largest and most successful Pay-Per-View provider in the world.
WWE also has two monthly magazines with a combined circulation of
roughly 7.5 million."

Other Brands described in the book sample:

Jimmy Buffet  
Vans Shoes
Linux
Harley Davidson

"THE POWER OF CULT BRANDING"
http://www.powerofcultbranding.com/CultBrandingPDFlinks.pdf

Search terms used:                           
cult branding as religion
                 
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Easterangel-ga                         
Google Answers Researcher

Well done - almost perfect answer :-)

It's not quite a brand, but the open-source software movement (and
Linux, which is part of it) has become like a religion to some people.
I'm a big fan of open source, but I'm surprised at the intensity of
the devotion to the concept I often see.

Also, the devotion (now there's a religious-sounding word) that many
fans give to their sports teams approaches religiosity in many cases.

Thanks for your feedback - I do agree with you on Linux. Keep up the
good work and please feel free to keep me posted if you find more high
quality cases and I'll secure a seperate payment for you.

All the best,

martin