S1 E4: Douglas Atkin

You’re in for a treat because Douglas Atkin is the OG of cult branding. He literally wrote the book on the subject. Back in 2005 he published a book called The Culting of Brands and he was first the first person I know who compared the beliefs and behaviors of actual cults - the creepy kind - with enviable organizations, like fraternities, fast growing religions, and brands. Douglas’ work led him to interesting marketing roles within professional service firms and the social gathering site MeetUp, but his career went to a whole new level when he was hired in the early days of AirBNB and deployed his thinking on cult brands to that business and contributed to their meteoric rise. Learn more at CultBrandSecrets.com