, author Bernadette Jiwa tells of a visit to a restaurant.
Everything was clean. It was easy to overlook the peeling corners of the laminated menu. The food was fine, the coffee was fine. As the bill was paid, the server asked “Was everything okay?”
Yes, everything was okay.
And if “just okay” is the bar you measure your performance by, then you can call that meal – that experience – a success.
But when was the last time you heard anyone go on and on about an experience that was just “okay”?
When was the last time anyone sang the praises of an experience that was executed with technical proficiency in a supremely adequate but otherwise uninspired manner?
Wow, that was the most average and consistently reliable hour of radio I’ve ever heard!
Apple has a secret packaging room where designers test which box designs evoke an emotional response.
Yes, they have a room built to test packaging, to make sure it’s extraordinary.
Packaging.
Jiwa has a friend, an entrepreneur and gifted app developer, who says that what differentiates a great app from a good one is the feeling that a level of love has been put into it.
Love. In and around the product, service, and experience.
We know it when we feel it.
“Okay” is not good enough anymore. As Jiwa writes, “we want to feel the love.”
As you evaluate your own brands, ask yourself if your audience can feel the love. Ask yourself if you baked in love in the first place.
Because the tightest playlist, the most expertly engineered music strategy, the shortest breaks, the zip-lipped air talent, the clearest music position, the most uninterrupted music, the freshest jingles, and the hottest production – a brand with all the technical boxes checked off – may still add up to “just okay.”
Without love.