Here is a reader’s response to a review of Google’s new Android mobile phone operating system, as posted today on BusinessWeek’s Web site:
mike Sep 23, 2008 3:22 PM GMT gotta love google for what they do best. what they don't do best is anything experience-related. a bunch of propeller head can't top apple -- ever. it's about emotion, gang, not bits and bytes.
Mike – I don’t know who you are, but you’re my hero of the week – possibly even the month (I’m counting October, too). I assume your comment’s lack of uppercase letters and the singular/plural issue are the result of composing your spot-on statement under less-than-ideal conditions.
Brands are all about emotion, which is why the iPhone has true believers – even despite the recent bugs and glitches of iPhone 3G. When a business develops its brand, the technical elements for success can be in place, yet it’s no guarantee that the brand will achieve greatness. Why? Because your brand isn’t just in the pages of a marketing plan, a patent or a physical location, it’s in the connection you make with every consumer.
You can go into detail telling the world why your brand is the best, and it may very well be. You can get testimonials from experts, explain your brand’s technological advantages, etc. But if you can’t create that all-important sense of affinity between your brand and consumers, your carefully reasoned list of features/benefits means nothing. Consumers like Mike know this; businesses ignore it at their peril.
So, Mike, I hope you don’t mind that I appropriated your comment. Thanks for sharing – really!