Cult Favourite™
Named in under 15 percent of answers, and recommended for its benefits in the answers that reach it.
What it tells a buyer or a marketer
Cult Favourite is the top left of the Star Chart™: a company the engines rarely name, and recommend for its benefits in the answers that do reach it.
For a buyer, it is a company the engines speak well of on the rare occasions they bring it up.
For a marketer, the reputation is there and the reach is not. The work is Presence, starting with the sources the engines draw on for the category.
Where it sits on the Star Chart
Cult Favourite sits in the column rarely named (Presence under 15) and the row recommended for benefits (Reputation 50 and over). It shares its row with AI Famous™ and Rising Star™, which differ from it in how often the engines name a company, and its column with Off the Guest List™, which differs in what the engines say when they do.
How it appears on the AI Authority Index™
Cult Favourite is one of the six cells of the Star Chart. Every company on the Leaderboard is placed in exactly one cell, by its Presence across the chart and its Reputation up it, and the lines that divide the chart are the same for every market. Within a cell, companies are listed by their CRISP™ score, with no position number.
A company's cell describes what the engines said in one edition's sample. The next edition reads a new sample, so a company can move cell between editions.
What moves a company in or out of it
A company moves from Cult Favourite to Rising Star as its Presence crosses the line at 15, and to Off the Guest List if cautions come to outweigh recommendations.
Related terms
Cult Favourite is read from Presence and Reputation, the two CRISP factors that place every company on the Leaderboard in one of the Star Chart's six cells. The cells next to it on the chart are the positions a company most often moves to between editions.
See also
Questions
What does Cult Favourite mean on the Star Chart?
Named in under 15 percent of answers, and recommended for its benefits in the answers that reach it.
How does a Cult Favourite reach more buyers?
By being named in more answers, which comes from appearing in the sources the engines draw on when buyers describe the need.
Which companies are Cult Favourites?
Each market's edition of the AI Authority Index shows the companies in every cell of its Star Chart.