Artista’s and their fans (Don’t get customers, get raving fans!)

One thing that amazes me with Celebrities, is their fans – some would call them ‘groupies’
I have seen such loyal fans. Whenever I invite a celebrity at He Cares Foundation, there would always be this group of 20-30 people who would be at the venue 2 hours before the celebrity arrives, all of them wearing the same t-shirt (with the celeb’s name and face on it.)

I saw this on Facebook: “VhongAnne HoneyBabe fans club”
Guess what? 12k++ fans. But here’s the funny thing, Vhong and Anne are not even together.

Most celebrities have their own “Fans Club” – others even have ____ official fans club and _____ fanatics.

I’m sure that most of you, like me, think they are people who doesn’t do anything in life but follow their “Idols.”
They are no ordinary “fans” of their celebrity idols. They are RAVING FANS. They buy what their idol endorses, they do what their idol tells them to do and so on. Loyalty.

Behind me, Yexel Sebastian Beside me, Jam Sebastian & Mich Liggayu

Last year, I was fortunate enough to meet these awesome people:

The guy behind me is Yexel Sebastian.
Yexel is part of the hit dance group “Streetboys” – the same group where Vhong Navarro started.

Yexel is an entrepreneur himself, His business is one-of -a-kind.

How many Toy Museums is there in the Philippines?
There’s Yexel’s Toy Museum, then the rest are breadcrumbs.
(He’s opening a second branch! Click that link to find out!)

Yexel’s followers on his Facebook? 344,000 lang naman.

This power couple beside me produces youtube videos – they trended on twitter worldwide, they have a few followers on Facebook (835,000 lang) – Jam Sebastian & Mich Liggayu are known as the couple, JAMICH. If you haven’t heard of them, then you barely use the internet.

Are they celebrities? Definitely. Do they have fans/fansclub/etc. Yes of course they do.

Being friends with Yexel and the JAMICH power couple has it perks.

– I feel gwapo (good-looking) when I talk/chat with them.
Look at that photo? Pwede ng celebrity!!! Haha. Kidding aside, I really do feel like a celebrity when I’m with them. Harhar. I shouldn’t write that but I guess they’ll find out soon din naman. I feel good-looking when I am with good-looking people, makes sense right? Kaya kayo, hangout with me always. Haha. 🙂

Here’s the thing, ever since I became friends with them, (they would occasionally “tag” me in facebook)
I suddenly had an increase in “friend requests” in my Facebook Account.

Random people we’re sending me friend requests, random people were following me.
And these are people that I have never met in my life.

Sure my advocacy business daddy is being recognized left and right. But usually the people who add me are people who have heard me in a talk that I gave, or people who I have helped in their business.

But these flock of people who adds me every now and then?
They’re YEXEL and JAMICH loyalists.

There’s this one person who messaged:
“Pwede po mahingi number ni Jamvhille? Close po kayo diba? Pag-ppray ko lang po siya”
It was so tempting to reply:
“Pwede mo naman siya pag-pray na wala kang number niya. Ano ba ate.”
Of course I never said that. 🙂

Stepping back and looking at that whole situation, It dawned on me:
These people are RAVING FANS of JAMICH.
These people would stop at nothing in supporting their idols.

So how exactly can RAVING FANS relate to your business?

Here’s my message for you today:

Don’t gather customers, Get Raving Fans!

Customer Loyalty. The life and blood of the survival of your business.
Since you started your business, how many customers have you had?

How many of them are Raving Fans?

Your business’ raving fans are the most loyal customers.
They are the people who loves your company. They love you. They love your story.
They are the people who will ignore your competition and go straight to you. They are the most loyal customers, they are the ones who will tell all their friends about you, they will share you to anyone they meet, they will fight for you when you have bashers, they are _(your business here) FANATICS.

How many of you have eaten Jollibee’s Chickenjoy?
Jolly hotdog? Yum? Champ? Oh and my favorote! Peach mango pie!

We all had our share of Jollibee’s awesome treats. We all come back for their great food. We all had attended a children’s party in Jollibee once in our lives.

Everytime Jollibee launches a new product, we all would try it one way or another.

Being called “Jollibee’s raving fans” maybe too much for us to handle. But the man who created Jollibee knows that you and me are raving fans.

Just imagine waking up one day without Jollibee – sucks right?

That’s no temporary henna tattoo, that’s permanent ink the size of a cartolina on the man’s back.
That’s permanent tattoo on the side of Mr.Clean’s head.

The “bar & shield” logo of Harley-Davidson Motorcycles is the most tattooed logo in the world.

Harley-Davidson is one of the companies with the most customer loyalty record.
Besides these crazy tattoos, do you know how long do you have to wait before you can buy a Harley? 6 months.

Their raving fans would wait that long to get their rides. I bought a Toyota Van last month, I waited 2 days.

Would you be willing to wait 6 months for a Toyota? (No offense to Toyota, I love you guys. I just needed something to compare to.)

See the difference of a customer and a raving fan?

I wrote in an another article how loyal I am to the car brand VOLVO (Read here)

Another perfect example of a company with raving fans:

One of the World’s power brands, Apple.

Their customer loyalty has been admired in the business world.

Remember the iPhone launching stories? Record of the longest “camp-out” waiting for an iPhone was 240 hours. Now tell me about loyalty.

People love Apple. People love the company, the story behind the company, the products, and everything the company stands for.

Everytime they come out with something new, people CAMP OUT waiting for the new product.

Imagine a bigas vendor, coming out with a new breed of bigas. Then people will line-up to buy bigas.

Or a sari-sari store and people are lining up outside waiting for the store to open.

Crazy right? Turn your customers into raving fans.

How? Watch out for my next post! 🙂

Badaboom!
For Comments/Questions/Tips & Advice/Mentoring – Anything about business, marketing, sales or kahit pa love life. Harhar.
You can write them here as a comment, OR
Email: abelardomarco@gmail.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marcovictoria
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/businessdaddy
Mobile: +639176274550

PS.
I would like to congratulate my friends Jam & Mich on their engagement! (May 11, 2014 Sunday, The Feast PICC)

“Jamich” is one of the most inspiring love stories ever. Click here to watch their videos

It’s not everyday a girl proposes to a guy… After weeks of planning with Mich, She finally proposed to Jam! She did it! Mich Liggayu and Jam Sebastian are now engaged! Jamich engaged!!!! Photo on left is me with Mich, minutes before the proposal!!! Let’s all pray for Jam’s battle against cancer, Amen. 🙂