{
"HubID": "2541",
"Date": "5/3/2023",
"HubTags": [
"External Platform Posts"
],
"Contacts": "",
"Companies": "",
"File": "",
"Image": "",
"Summary": "I've collected over the years tools to help me think about creating \"WOW\" #consumerbrands products that capture attention. I published one here: https://lnkd.in/gmR83pd9? Here's another one.",
"Notes": "I've collected over the years tools to help me think about creating \"WOW\" #consumerbrands products that capture attention. I published one here: https://lnkd.in/gmR83pd9? Here's another one.
1. Surprise. A wow experience always exceeds our expectations. It creates delight, amazement, wonder, or awe. For Christmas one year, one of my friends bought me a copy of the illustrated edition of 1776 by David McCullough.3 Honestly, it blew my socks off. I have never seen a more beautiful book. As the advertising copy says, “Packed with striking replicas of letters, maps, and portraits, this updated version of David McCullough’s 2005 best seller provides readers with unedited firsthand accounts of America’s initial steps toward sovereignty.” This product definitely created a wow experience.
2. Anticipation. Anticipating a wow experience is almost as good as the experience itself. As you think about it, you begin to live it in advance. For example, as I am writing this, Gail and I are planning a trip to the beach. We are beginning to think about it daily. I am making a mental list of the things I want to do. I can almost feel the breeze blowing in from the ocean. With each new day, the anticipation builds.
3. Resonance. A wow experience touches the heart. It resonates at a deep level. It sometimes causes goose bumps or even tears. I remember watching my two granddaughters play on the beach for the first time. They were joy personified as they chased the waves and the waves chased them. I thought to myself, Oh, to be that young!
4. Transcendence. A wow experience connects you to something transcendent. In that moment, you experience purpose, meaning, or even God. Years ago when I was an artist manager, one of my clients sat down at a piano to play some new songs for my business partner and me. As she began to sing, I was caught up in the music. I knew her talent was coming directly from some other place. I was overwhelmed at the beauty.
5. Clarity. A wow experience creates a moment when you see things with more clarity than ever before. You suddenly “get it” in a new way. Not long ago, I was reading Chasing Daylight by Eugene O’Kelly.4 The story was so powerful I could not put it down. I read it in one long airplane ride to the West Coast. In those few hours, I had more clarity about life than I had had in a long time.
6. Presence. A wow experience creates timelessness. You aren’t thinking about the past. You’re not even thinking about the future. Instead, you are fully present in what is happening now. One such perfect moment happened when I enjoyed an evening on the porch with my daughter, Mary, and her husband, Chris. We spent several hours talking and enjoying a bottle of wine together. It seemed like time stood still.
7. Universality. A true wow experience is nearly universal. Almost everyone will experience it in a similar way. This is why Cirque du Soleil and the Grand Canyon are so popular. They are so compelling that they appeal to people of all ages and ethnicities.
8. Evangelism. A wow experience has to be shared. You can’t contain it. You immediately begin thinking of all the people you wish were with you. After the experience, you recommend it unconditionally. You become an unpaid evangelist. I have done this with all the books I recommend to my friends and on my blog. And as you might know, “Apple evangelists” are a phenomenon of their own.
9. Longevity. The shine never wears off a wow experience. You can experience it again and again without growing tired of it. It endures. In 1973 I attended a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young concert at Texas Stadium in Dallas, Texas. I was on the field, about ten yards from the stage. It was incredible. In 2000, for my birthday, Gail bought tickets to the CSN&Y concert in Nashville. Twenty-seven years later, they still blew me away.
10. Privilege. A wow experience makes you proud in a good way. You’re glad to be associated with it. You feel privileged, as if you are in an elite group, but at the same time humbled that you have had the experience. “Sandra” had a wow experience following her cochlear implant surgery. She had become profoundly deaf by the time she had the implants. On Activation Day, she was able to hear her granddaughter’s first words to her: “Can you hear me, Grandma?” Within months her hearing was clear, and “the magic began. I heard grandchildren’s voices for the first time, and my children, family and friends sounded just as I remembered. Does life get any better than this?”5 Clearly Sandra feels both privileged and humbled."
}