Cult brand means _________.

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following question.

The customer of today is different from the one of yesteryears. Today’s customer knows how to avoid marketing efforts directed at him. He has a caller ID on his telephone to block unwanted calls, a spam and popup blocker on his Internet. He even has a TiVo which records his favorite TV programs, minus the advertisements. Traditional branding models using traditional media will no longer work. As someone once said, “How do you become a millionaire?” "Become a billionaire and then buy an airline !” Then someone modified it and said, “buy a newspaper!” With advertising revenues dwindling steadily, traditional media like newspapers, magazines are singing their swan song too, making brand building more challenging.

When Wieden + Kennedy created the ”Just Do It” campaign for Nike, TV and print helped spread the magic of ‘swoosh’ the world over. Today, Nike is finding itself out -of -sync with its target consumers, for they are now tuning into different forms of media . It's more the digital and interactive ones that have got them hooked . Almost all top brands today have started spending less and less on advertising . MacDonald’s has cut its TV ads from 80% to 50%. Samsung, unlike Sony, advertises on TV only during the last six months of the year when sales peak.

Like most cult brands, Ikea too spends very less money on advertising. They prefer to generate a word- of- mouth. Johnson and Johnson, which traditionally spent a lot on TV and print, changed its media spending pattern last year. Plain advertising is no longer working and marketers need to look beyond the comfort of 30-second TV spots . The new generation is, in fact, averse to “in- your- face –marketing” efforts. One needs to think of novel ways of reaching out to today’s customers.