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I was recently delivering a conference speech in Singapore and stayed at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. A few days after my visit I received a Customer satisfaction survey via email. I am always fascinated by what people measure as this sends a subconscious signal to the Customer about what the organisation thinks is important.

One of the questions the Mandarin Oriental Hotel asked was “How well did we anticipate your needs?” ‘Wow!’ I thought. ‘They are trying to anticipate my needs….. and more importantly they are measuring it!’

I’m struck by the mixed messages brands send out to their customers. "Nothing’s more important than the customer" is the staple rhetoric from many a CEO whilst failing to always join up the customer satisfaction dots.

The term ‘love mark’ coined by Saatchi and Saatchi describes the place that many brands strive for but few succeed in reaching. It’s a place where emotional engagement happens between consumers and the brand, to the extent where consumers will happily go out of there way and pay a premium for the brand, and will extol its virtues to those around them. Such brands can go as far as to form part of that person’s identity, a good example of which is Harley Davidson, which is one of the most requested tattoo designs in the World!