Interview #1 What you see is what you get

So I've probably entered into my first interview with far too much of a desire to talk about PIXAR and not enough about WOW brands. Fortunately the people that I was interviewing (ex agency colleague and old friend Posan Pang, and current team mate Suzanne Gussman),were more than happy to indulge me as PIXAR was close to their (or their kids) hearts.

 For those of you that need your memory jogged about PIXAR's products and how they have touched our lives click here. If you've been living on another planet for the last few years and want to know more about the company, click click here.

So it turns out that I'm not alone in loving the brand and thinking that its WOW. But I'm surprised by how much they want to know what WOW means? I had not thought to qualify the term for their understanding, but through the 'power of smartphone' we found the following document on WOW brands.

At this point I'm reluctant to get them into a discussion around the black art of branding but the link offers the following description of a WOW brand:


'WOW brands represent those few, select organisations which truly live up to their brand promises and deliver exceptional customer experiences'

We came to the conclusion that 'exceptional customer experiences' leave you feeling happy, neigh ecstatic. People are genuinely happy as a result of seeing a PIXAR film- you name one and its unlikely that you, or somebody you know will not have have been touched by the magical stories that they create. Through parenthood I feel that I've been given a stronger dose of the magic (thanks to my daughter).

On reflection, we agree that all brands have 'mojo', and the mojo of a WOW brand like PIXAR lies in three key areas:

-Emotive story telling that connects with their audience (Nobody ever through about making a movie about toys, and even my daughter understands why Woody was jealous of Buzz...)

-A discernibly different and distinctive product (It's a well known fact in Hollywood that only PIXAR can make a movie about whatever they want, and everybody else has make movies about animals, because only PIXAR can make it look compelling, just think about UP)

-A desire to keep getting better (From not being phased by the limits of technology to animate fur like in Monsters Inc to not thinking like Disney that the whole movie could become formulaic)

After some discussion, we come to the conclusion that 'Brand Promise' can only exist when there is some consistently outstanding quality to the experience that is being offered... I guess in this case this means ' a smile every time'...