What do cheese, parrots, cravers and swifties all have in common?
They are all rabidly loyal fans to their respective brand.
- Parrot Heads: Jimmy Buffett
- Cravers: White Castle burgers
- Deadheads: The Grateful Dead
- Beliebers: Justin Bieber fans
- Swifties: Taylor Swift fans
- Cheeseheads: Green Bay Packer fans
And rabidly loyal fans are the kind that you want.
They will follow you, traveling great distances just to get a glimpse of you. (Parrot & Dead heads are notorious for traveling the world following Jimmy and The Dead)
They will do what you say. (Use this super power for good not evil a la Charles Manson, Reverend Jim, etc.)
And most importantly, they spend so much money that it would make Scrooge McDuck blush.
But today, we are going to focus on White Castle, the maker of mini burgers called Sliders.
Aside from Chik Fil A, White Castle has the most rabid fans called Cravers.
White Castle knows its fans always crave more Sliders. They have a whole part of their marketing devoted to turning their Sliders into social media share-worthy recipes like Bunny Sliders and Brunch Cravers Benedict. (Just google it)
Recipe swapping has been part of its fan adoration for years. In addition to Thanksgiving stuffing, for example, it showcases Slider Robots and Slider Spiders at Halloween.
White Castle has a "Hall of Fame" for its' most devoted fans, getting their customers to write in a tell them why they should be in the HOF.
They have even come out with a Cravey boat. Just like a gravy boat (ask your grandmother if your don't know a gravy boat).
For $25 you can be the owner of a White Castle Cravey boat.
It’s versatile, too! Once you’ve met your recommended daily gravy allowance, you can fill your Cravey Boat with soup, fondue, meal-replacement shakes... if you can dream it, you can chug it.
Besides the Craver fan base, it also prides itself on keeping employees longer than other chains and says one in four has worked for White Castle for 10 or more years. The other fast food chains have 130%-150% turnover EVERY year.
Sounds like White Castle has been following my program Systematic Magic!
Let me bring this around full circle and tell you what burger sliders have to do with your business...
EVERYTHING!
Engaged, rabid fans. They got 'em, you want 'em. Can you imagine what your client retention and referrals would be like if you had fans like this?
White Castle has been very intentional about creating and exploiting their customers. It is self perpetuating.
- A fan submits a recipe,
- White Castle starts a recipe board,
- more customers write in their recipes,
- and then White Castle just adds fuel to the fire, blitzing social media with the new recipes.
I have done the same thing in my carpet cleaning business with our World Famous Spot Remover.
- A client told me they used our carpet spot remover on her husbands "ring-around-the-collar" in her laundry.
- I started a list of all the things my spot remover was good for.
- More clients contributed
- I added fuel to the fire by blitzing social media and emailing my clients, generating more spot remover uses.
Voila! Engaged clients
What can you do in your business to create a rabid fan base that will do anything for you, most importantly, buy from you?