I recently read an article on Mashable about a Facebook member named Crazzy Eve, who after seeing a T-Mobile commercial with people dancing at the Liverpool Street Station, decided to organize a similar event through a Facebook group.  The group quickly grew as friends invited friends and on Friday night (Feb 6th), the group took over Liverpool Street Station and did a little dance of their own.

How were they able to accomplish this and why were so many people willing to join the group so quickly?  It was a movement and people are willing to participate in, share, talk about and join a movement that they believe in.  And while sometimes a movement is serious, other times it can be as simple as wanting to be a part of something bigger, even if that’s just a group of people meeting at a Train Station.

Some of the greatest brands have taken this to heart and have made a movement part of their brand.  Because lets face it, Starbucks is not the best tasting coffe and Red Bull is not the best tasting energy drink.   But their customers are loyal to those brands because they feel like they are part of a movement, something bigger.  Its what drives loyal fans to spend their own time and money to build a crazy contraption and push it off the end of a pier to see if it will fly in Red Bull’s Flugtag.

Starbucks understands this and when they advertise, they don’t sell coffee, they sell the movement.  Too often people get bogged down trying to sell a product and forget about selling something people can believe in.  They list all its features and tell everyone how cool it is, but fail to inspire.

If a brand can inspire, it will be talked about, forwarded, joined, engaged and people will want to be a part of it.  Don’t sell coffee, sell a movement.