.
Enchantment is a feeling you want every customer or prospect to have towards your business. How do businesses like Apple, Zappos and Virgin America create the feeling of enchantment in their customers' minds?
Guy Kawasaki, author, co-founder of Alltop and former chief evangelist at Apple, can tell you how. In his new book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions, Kawasaki explains how any business can enchant like the most powerful and engageing brands in the world. He argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want, but to bring about a voluntary, enduring and delightful change in others.
In a recent interview with HubSpot, Kawasaki answered five important questions about enchantment and its role in transforming a business:
5 Lessons of Enchantment from @GuyKawasaki
1. Can you describe your initial reaction when you saw your first MAC product?
The clouds parted. I heard angels singing. The scales of character-based interfaces with cursor keys were removed from my eyes. It was the most religious experience one could have without consuming controlled substances.
2. Well, those are strong words -- it sounds like you were "enchanted"? Can you tell me a bit more about what you mean by the term "enchantment."
"Enchantment” is the process of delighting people with a product, service, organization, or idea. Its outcome is a voluntary and long-lasting allegiance that is mutually beneficial. In other words, it's the purest form of sales and marketing.
3. You were an early Apple employee. Beyond the obvious stuff (i.e. Steve's a genius), what is unique about that Apple, Apple's culture, Steve, Steve's attitude, etc that has allowed it to be a consistent enchantment producing machine?
Actually, I'm not that early. I was employee #5041. I don't know how I can remember that, but not the name of a person I met fifteen minutes ago. The three pillars of enchantment are likability, trustworthiness, and a great product. In Apple's case, the product pillar extends "to infinity and beyond" as Buzz Lightyear would say.
4. What other companies consistently enchant?
Two others leap to mind: Virgin America and Zappos. Using the three-pillar test, Virgin America's product is also the tallest pillar. For Zappos, the tallest pillar is trustworthiness.
5. What are your top 3 tips for marketers out there that want to make their companies and products more enchanting?
Let's assume that the company has a great product and is likable and trustworthy--that is, that the pillars are in place. Then my top three tips are: First, tell the story about why you created the product. Don't use any industry-jargon and cite any marketing studies. Explain why you created a personal computer that anyone could afford or a search engine that produced better results or an airline that you would look forward to fly on.
Second, plant many seeds. Don't just suck up to the A-listers and upper-echelon visible journalists and analysts. Reach out, instead, to the great unwashed masses and hoi polloi. In the flattened new world that we now live in, it's the "Lonelyboy15" and "Brooke888" who make or break a product. A-listers et al report the news, they don't make it. Their blessings, for example, certainly didn't cause the success of Facebook or Twitter.
Third, show people your magic. During the summer, the folks at NovaScotian Crystal open up the factory to enable tourists to watch how craftsmen blow glass. By showing these visitors the magic, the company has an easier time selling them crystal pieces. Showing how you make something is enchanting, so create factory and office tours. If you're ever in Las Vegas, contact Zappos for a tour, and you'll see what I mean.
If you are interested in making your business for enchanting, then you might want to take the Enchantment Aptitude Test on the book's Facebook Page.
What are some examples of businesses that you find to be enchanting?
Free Download: Better Business Blogging in 2011
This 24-page ebook features tips and ticks from some of the world's best bloggers
Download this free business blogging ebook today!