The challenge of turning a brand into an object of love By John Gapper Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Poilane bread, Tide soap powder, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Cheerios cereal. What do these things have in common? According to their supporters, they are remarkable products that are more than just brands. They provoke such affection - even love - that their owners often talk about them to the underprivileged people who have not yet tried them. Some of them are now called “lovemarks”,a name invented by Kevin Roberts, Chief Executive of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide, the advertising agency (or ideas company, as it likes to be known). Mr. Roberts prefers products that are “mysterious” or “intimate”, rather than being useful or competitively priced, and that can inspire “loyalty beyond reason”. But love is not a word to be used lightly. For most of us, it means exclusivity: we are not intensely attached to lots of things because we are not built that way. Companies must try either to make products that a few people love, or products that many people quite like; an attempt to do both will produce obstacles and conflicts. Two things lie behind the craze for emotional involvement. The first is overcapacity: there are too many products in every market segment, and this means it is hard to gain attention for anything ordinary. Seth Godin, a marketing consultant, mentions Frito Lay’s launch of Stax, a rival to Procter & Gamble’s Pringles potato crisps. He says that, despite a $50m (£27m) marketing campaign, fewer than half of those people questioned by market researchers recognized the name. Mr. Godin’s solution is for companies to make only “remarkable” things that will make consumers take notice. “The tendency with any industrial or consumer good is to keep making it a little bit better, but that does not help one bit”, he says. A product must be revolutionary, or at least innovative, to attract attention from tired shoppers. The second factor is the increased ability of consumers to communicate their views about products, whether good or bad. “In the age of the Internet, goods have real-time reputations”, says Ben McConnell, co-author of Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force. He says that the Internet has increased by a factor of the number of people that one consumer can influence. A company can take advantage of this by creating a group of enthusiasts who will generate buzz about its products. One company that does so is Krispy Kreme, which puts enormous effort into store openings. To help spread the word and provoke excitement, it distributes free doughnuts to people before the launch. These openings then become theatrical events: some fans camp overnight to be first to get a doughnut. exe. What is the key message of the article? Choose the best alternative.