The Quiet Science of Cult Brands

Stop Trying to Be Seen... Start Being Felt. Why the world's most desirable brands don’t chase visibility, they engineer obsession.

Welcome to The Business of Luxury, where we break down the world’s most desirable brands—the branding, the marketing, and the psychology that makes them impossible to ignore.

Today, we’re talking about why high-value brands shouldn’t beg for attention—and how the most iconic ones create obsession by doing less, not more.

Because obsession isn’t just an art. It’s a science.

How do you build a brand people obsess over—without offering up your dignity as daily content sacrifice?

You’re excellent at what you do, but somehow your brand still feels... forgettable 😯 You've “shown up,” you’ve dabbled in carousels and Canva, you’ve shoe horned yourself into trends with pointy elbows. And yet—crickets.

Meanwhile, luxury brands are out here saying almost nothing and selling out in advance. Why? Because they don’t chase attention—they craft obsession. With psychology, with precision, with a dash of mystery.

If you’re the kind of expert who delivers elite results, has the receipts but still feels like a best-kept secret, let’s fix that. Quiet luxury isn’t just for handbags. Your brand can have that same magnetic pull—if you know how to build it.

And no, you don’t need to yell. You just need to know exactly what to whisper—and where.

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What Actually Makes a Brand “Cult” Today

A cult brand isn’t just liked or even loved—it’s lived.

It becomes part of someone’s personality and identity. It’s the thing they recommend like a secret, then immediately regret telling you about.

Forget going viral. The most powerful brands today? They don’t beg for attention—they reward discernment. They create a feeling that burrows into your brain and quietly refuses to leave. And it’s not just about aesthetic. It’s identity. It’s taste. It’s “if you know, you know.”

Cult brands don’t make noise. They make meaning. And that’s what makes people fight to be part of them.

At the heart of cult branding is exclusivity without exclusion. It’s not about being unreachable. It’s about being resonant.

Think of Aesop’s hyper-considered stores, or Loro Piana’s whisper-level luxury. They never scream “Look at me.” They give nothing away and yet say everything about the wearer. You barely see a logo on anything they do. Instead, they signal, “You get it. You belong. Welcome.” And that hits a completely different part of the brain—the one that craves identity, safety, and being in on something.

So how do you engineer that kind of brand?

You don’t start with the market or even the product—you start with the mirror. The brand isn’t about broadcasting "look at us". It’s about reflecting your ideal client’s values and deepest desires so precisely that they feel seen in a way they can’t explain.

Example? Dries Van Noten. People don’t wear him to be seen—they wear him because it’s a personal signal to the few who understand.

And this is why going viral is actually a bad idea for luxury positioning. Real fans discover you slowly... deliberately. They want to feel like they’ve found something rare—and they protect it. Viral brands, by contrast, become trends. Cool for a moment, instant death for luxury brands. Easily discarded when attention moves on.

The cult brands? They’re not trying to be everywhere. That’s what makes them last.

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Now back to the article…

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The Invisible Architecture of Obsession

Obsession isn’t random—it’s carefully conjured through precision, emotional tension, and a whisper of the dark arts.
👠 It’s the science of seduction dressed as strategy.

There’s a reason you can’t stop thinking about certain brands, even when they barely show up. It’s not luck—it’s psychology. Cult luxury brands know how to build emotional architecture that creates tension, desire, and identification. They make you feel like the brand was made just for you—and that access to it is a privilege.

Here’s the truth: people become obsessed when their identity is reflected and slightly challenged. Luxury brands create this tension using three psychological triggers:

1. Scarcity: The fewer people who can have it, the more valuable it feels. Couture isn’t just about fabric or fit—it’s access. Dior might sell Miss Dior to the masses, but couture? That’s a world you don’t buy into. You earn your way in. It’s Dior’s way of saying, “Sure, you can have a Lady Dior bag. But couture? You’ll have to be someone.”

2. Status: Wearing, using, or hiring a luxury brand signals something silently powerful. Someone pulling out a Smythson notebook or a MontBlanc pen in a client meeting—quiet indicators that whisper, “I have taste. I choose carefully. I’m not here to impress you... but you’re impressed anyway.”

3. Story: A deep, resonant narrative taps into personal meaning—and elevates the brand from a product to a symbol. Think of Agent Provocateur—it’s not just “we make beautiful lingerie.” It’s “we know your deepest desires—and we make them a wearable fantasy.”

The brands that engineer obsession use a technique I call Identity Mirroring. This is when your brand and your offerings become a reflection of your ideal client’s aspirational self. Not who they are now—but who they’re stepping into. And when your visual design, language, and tone all reflect that version of them? It hits different. They don’t just want your brand—they need it to become who they’re becoming.

→ Start with the internal architecture: Who does your brand help people become? Then drip that into everything—your copy, your visuals, even your onboarding experience.

→ For personal brands, this is the energy of not just "what do you offer" but "who do I become when I work with you?" Think of how The Row makes their customer feel like a modern-day minimalist oracle. Or how Studio Nicholson’s entire site reads like a luxury philosophy journal. As a service provider, you're not just selling a session, a program, or a solution—you're creating a world someone wants to step into, identify with, and be transformed by. One that reflects back their future self, fully realised.

When done right, your brand becomes a kind of mirror with magic. And obsession? That’s just the side effect.

Powerful brands don’t hustle for attention. They radiate inevitability.

You don’t need to be loud to be powerful. You need to be intentional.

There’s a lie that high-end service providers are constantly fed: “If you’re not posting every day, you’ll disappear.” But here’s the truth—luxury brands don’t beg for attention. They create curiosity. And that curiosity becomes desire.

This is what I call Obsession Engineering—the art of making your brand quietly unforgettable, without ever needing to compete for attention. It’s the art of being seen and felt just enough to be remembered, but not so much that you become common. The brands that whisper online tend to have deeper magnetism offline i.e. in the memories of customers. Because they don’t chase attention—they design intrigue.

Think: The Row’s bare Instagram grid. Mauli Rituals’ sacred, sensual imagery. Or even high-end consultants with private-feeling websites and low-frequency, major depth content that still feels like an event when it drops.

Here’s the magic: When you whisper online, your presence becomes a filter. You repel the wrong people (the ones who need convincing) and attract the ones who are already aligned. Your strategic posting actually makes your presence feel more rare—and therefore, more valuable.

How do you do it? Keep your digital presence intentional and intimate. Drop fewer but more potent posts. Use your content to point inward—to your blog, your email list, your brand world, your ecosystem. Choose long-form depth over short-form chaos. And show up like someone who’s already chosen. (Because real clients? They’ll lean in. Not scroll past.)

→ Eugene Schwartz talked about the five stages of awareness—and this strategy is built to seduce the solution-aware client: the one who knows what they want, but hasn’t seen it done quite like you yet.

When you stop performing and start whispering, the right people don’t just follow you—they feel you.

Building an Ecosystem, Not Just a Brand

You're not creating a logo. You're crafting a world people want to step into and stay in.

Luxury isn’t about having one perfect touchpoint—it’s about creating a universe that feels cohesive, intentional, and immersive. The best cult brands don’t stop at a polished website or a slick Instagram feed. They build an ecosystem—a collection of spaces that let people orbit around the brand in different ways, each one deepening the connection.

DMs from folks that say they're low-key stalking me on multiple platforms is when I know my ecosystem is working.

Your brand universe should feel like a secret garden with many gates: a moodboardy Pinterest presence, a Substack that reads like a private journal, a slow-burn blog, a quiet but razor-sharp LinkedIn voice. This is what I call structured discovery—when people land in one corner of your world, and slowly start uncovering more. Each layer feels like an invitation to go deeper.

And here’s the kicker: that slight friction—having to look around, click, explore—actually makes people value it more. Psychologically, it’s called the IKEA effect: people feel more invested in what they’ve discovered or worked for. So when someone finds your brand organically and starts piecing the story together, they’re building emotional equity. They didn’t just see an ad. They found you.

This layered approach also aligns with Daniel Priestley’s 7/11/4 rule: people need on average 7 hours of content (not necessarily video!), 11 touchpoints, and 4 locations before they truly trust a brand.

❌ Most personal brands try to do that with one social media page. But you? You’re designing a subtle constellation—one that invites exploration and builds intimacy with every click.

Think about brands like Flamingo Estate or Officine Universelle Buly (dreamy😍). Their sites feel like secret experiences. You browse not because you have to, but because you want to feel the world they’ve created. Every word, every image, every gap—even the absence of aggressive selling—is part of the spell. Your brand can do that too. Restraint in 2025 is so chic!

When you build an ecosystem instead of just a brand with a funnel, you don’t have to push people through a pipeline. You simply create a world they want to keep returning to.

→ So how do you get them to come back and for you to be remembered?

Email Is Where the Cult Converts

Curiosity gets them in the door. But email? Email is where the real obsession takes root.

Think of your email list as the private VIP room of your brand. This is where you stop signalling and start speaking. Done right, it’s the most intimate space in your brand ecosystem—a place where your client feels seen, understood, and invited into something deeper.

Let’s take Rhode. Love them or loathe them, they’ve nailed this principle. Their emails aren’t just updates—they’re experiences. They show up like a wise older sister with her make-up routine on lock, dropping insight, routine rituals, and a sense of belonging. They built trust, not by offering more, but by being intentional. Fewer products. Stronger narrative.

And it worked—they’re being acquired for $1 billion 💁🏼‍♀️

The takeaway? Your email is not a channel. It’s a ritual. Every send should feel like a continuation of the brand story—subtle, consistent, and emotionally resonant. Build it to be the place where someone feels like they’ve been invited to stay, not sold to.

You don’t need to be everywhere. You just need to show up with meaning—and email is where that meaning lands with weight.

How to Start Quietly Engineering Obsession Today

Obsession isn’t loud. It’s layered, deliberate, and deeply felt. Start building it today—without selling your soul to the algorithm gods.

Building a cult luxury brand doesn’t require a big team or viral launch. What it does require is an emotional lens and a softly, softly strategy. You’re not trying to please everyone. You’re designing for the right people to find you and feel like they’ve found something made just for them.

Here’s the method I use with my clients: Define, Distill, Drip.

This is how you move from “just another brand” to one they obsess over quietly for weeks before buying (and then never shut up about after).

• Define your ideal client’s aspirational identity. Who are they becoming? What do they want to feel when they interact with you? Name it. Every piece of your brand must reflect that.

• Distill your message down to its purest essence. One signature offer. One brand promise. One key emotional trigger. This clarity becomes your magnet.

• Drip it slowly and intentionally across your ecosystem. No over-explaining. No firehose of content. Just small, potent signals that build intrigue and deepen emotional buy-in over time.

Let’s make it real: Say you’re a transformational coach working with high-achieving clients.

• Instead of churning out daily affirmations and looping stories of your matcha morning ritual on Instagram, you craft a cinematic 3-page site that feels like entering a private sanctuary.

• Your opt-in? A beautifully written manifesto, not a 33-page guide to something they'll never finish.

• You send one potent email a week that reads like a letter from a mentor who sees them.

• Your LinkedIn? Minimal but magnetic. Authority building.

• Your Substack? A slow, deep unraveling of your philosophy.

  This is your ecosystem—and when someone discovers it, they don’t just browse… they enter and become obsessed.

Obsession doesn’t come from yelling louder. It comes from making someone feel like your brand already knows them. And when you build it right, that energy echoes long after they close the app.

Before you go…

This article first appeared on my blog. Reworked and issued on Substack for those wanting to read in-app 🤍