What do you make people feel?

I love the BMW Joy advert.  From a branding perspective they’ve summarised what they believe they’re about.

What I really like is the bit where they say… ‘we realised what you make people feel is as important as the thing you make’ or words to that effect. I even spoke back to the TV, saying how true that statement was – and it is rare I am moved to talk back to the tele.

Now of course comes the challenge of getting that feeling of Joy into their dealerships.   Yes the cars when you drive them bring a feeling of Joy (I’ve had one and did enjoy driving it).   The dealership staff though never left me even close to Joy; unless you count when they handed me my keys back and I found that this time they hadn’t damaged the car.  Fortunately the fourth dealership and a commute later and I found one that didn’t think damaging your car was a normal side effect of a car service.

Having been this clear about their corporate statement then it has to be felt at every touch point.  Let’s hope they’re working on this so that something this powerful doesn’t just become a gimmick.

As a leader can you articulate your brand ethos so succinctly, your purpose, do you know how people feel when they’re with you and when you’ve just walked out of the room?

In a nutshell…Who you are, what you stand for and how you make people feel, are as important as the ‘thing’ you sell.

Shoes, handbags and gladrags (or ties)…

We were out with friends at the weekend, and having already done a bit of light shoe appreciation, a little later in the night we indulged ourselves discussing our shoes in more detail and swapping favourite shoe shops. 

We all have ways of expressing our self image, be it a tie, socks, jewellery, handbags etc.  There are always little signs detailing an aspect of our personality, or something that just makes us feel fantastic.  For me footwear is more than something that keeps your feet dry.  In fact there have been times when a favourite pair of boots has been glued and better glued, was still letting in water when it rained and my response was to carry a spare pair of dry socks with me – yes my mum rolled her eyes. 

And so last Saturday night we purred about Poste Mistress shoes (especially the winter ranges) and drooled over boots we’d like to own.  [I am hopeful that this winter I'll find a pair of fuchsia pink or lime green boots, preferably mock crock with a great looking heel.]  Then, as conversations do, we bequeathed our shoe collection to each other when we die – it is important that they go to a good home.  Now hopefully this won’t be for a very long time as a) I’m sure we’d like to get some more personal pleasure from our shoes and b) we’d like to see each other live very long and happy lives.   

I can see it now, age 97 (minimum) at the funereal tea party reminding people that we have first pick over the other one’s shoe collection, because this was promised to us nearly 60 years ago.  Let’s hope our excellent taste in footwear remains and neither of us gets bunions.