Jamie Laing, the British television personality who founded the vegan confectionery brand Candy Kittens, mentioned to The Times last week that he would love to bring McVitie's back into the family — Mr. Laing being the great-great-grandson of the man who invented the digestive biscuit. Given that McVitie's parent company, Pladis, generates more than £3 billion in annual revenue, the reporter noted, with admirable restraint, that he might have been joking.

But the remark, jest or otherwise, has prompted a certain amount of reflection in marketing circles about what Mr. Laing has actually built with his own brand, and whether the considerable attention it receives in the lifestyle press has been measuring the right thing.

The distinction, according to one analysis making the rounds, is between a "cult following" — which is to say, an enthusiastic customer base that tracks nicely with Instagram penetration and founder visibility — and "cult brand status," which is something more structural and, presumably, more durable.

The difference, the argument goes, is behavioral. A cult following depends on the founder being in the room. A cult brand outlasts the founder entirely. One is a marketing outcome; the other is a commercial asset. (The two are easy to confuse, particularly in a pitch deck.)

The case study offered for the latter category is Purdy & Figg, a cleaning spray subscription service — yes, a cleaning spray subscription service — whose customers reportedly discuss the scent the way others discuss perfume and post unboxing videos of what is, at the end of the day, a kitchen product. The brand has installed itself into a daily ritual, the analysis notes, and built "identity fit strong enough to turn ordinary buyers into unpaid distribution."

Candy Kittens, by these standards, has the origin story, the B Corp certification, the gourmet vegan positioning and a design system built around a distinctive cat motif. What it may lack, the argument suggests, is a worldview thick enough to make switching brands feel like self-betrayal.

Whether Mr. Laing's customers feel existential distress at the thought of buying a competitor's gummy sweet remains, for now, an open question.

Original story published in The Drum: "Sian Conway-Wood: What Candy Kittens can learn from the cult of Percy Pig | The Drum"