In Cult Brands, leadership isn’t just about strategy, operations, or profit.
It’s about creating clarity, especially when it comes to the customer.
As the Cult Branding Workbook puts it:
“Each team member must clearly understand how he or she contributes to the customer’s experience.”
This one sentence captures what most organizations miss:
Great brands aren’t built by marketing. They’re built by people who know why they matter.
The Invisible Work That Shapes Loyalty
It’s easy to focus on the flashy aspects, such as campaigns, launches, and events. But your customer’s experience is shaped by countless unseen moments:
- A cashier who remembers your name
- A bakery associate offering a cookie to a shy child
- A bagger walking you to your car in the rain
Those moments don’t belong to the CMO. They belong to the entire team.
Leadership That Connects the Dots
Great leadership means helping every employee connect their daily work to the customer’s emotional journey.
It means:
- Sharing the Brand Lover’s mindset, not just performance metrics
- Making the purpose of the brand part of onboarding, meetings, and recognition
- Turning core values into decisions, not just posters
At Publix, every associate, from the deli counter to the loading dock, understands they’re part of something bigger. “Where shopping is a pleasure” isn’t a slogan; it’s a shared mission. Leadership reinforces this not through speeches, but through systems that train, trust, and reward customer-focused behavior.
Brands Customers Love Start With Teams That Care
If your team doesn’t feel connected to the customer, the customer won’t feel connected to the brand.
So the question isn’t “What does marketing need to do?”
It’s: “Does every person on our team know how they create brand love?”
If not, leadership still has work to do.