Written by Jin Kim | 21 June 2010

Everything to Everyone, is nothing to no one. - Innovation Protocol Brand Seminar

My belief is that as society evolves, so do our minds and our ability to seek out and understand different bits of information. There used to be a fewer selection among goods back in the day when sodas cost a nickle. You wanted a car? Well you had a simple choice, go to Freds, or go to Henry. It was simple, a car was a car, and so you could be everything in cars, to everyone. But now, we have economy cars, sports cars, luxory cars, sedans, wagons, SUV's, trucks, hatchbacks, hemi, supercharged, turbocharged, water cooled, air cooled, and the list goes on.

Lets begin with how BMW does a great job in being something to someone here in the USA.

You first have to be known - BMW makes cars
Known for something - BMW makes luxury cars
Known for something Distinctive - BMW makes European Luxury cars
Known for something I care about - BMW makes European Luxury sports sedans
Preferred - BMW makes German engineered luxury sports sedans
After you get to this point, the company has now crossed the Golden Threshold
Now, the company has reach the level of ESTEEMED - driving a BMW says something about who you are.

A BMW is just a car. It has four wheels and gets you to point A to point B, just like a Kia or Hyundai will do, yet if I pull out my car keys and set them on the table and people see that BMW logo, automatically, people assume a few things about me.

This is because BMW has done a great job in being something to a specific group of people.

Lesson #1, be specfic.