Jesus Christ! Two hours after my first post and I already have to defend my stance!
One of my Airborne Entertainment colleagues is guiding me through TypePad, and while checking up to ensure that I didn't completely screw up the Internet while posting he said in passing: "Uh, isn't 'Surprise' is just another name for 'Wow'? And Tom Peters kinda owns that word..."
Well, it ain't. There's a big difference between the two. To put it mathematically:
Surprise > Wow
Surprise is the next level of Wow; a form of differentiation like no other. In fact, my obsession with Surprise began last year on a trip to Japan, where I learned the difference between atarimae hinshitsu (quality that is expected) and mirokuteki hinshitsu (quality that fascinates), terms I first gleaned from Alex Wipperfurth's excellent Brand Hijack book.
I'll get to the Japanese anecdotes in a later post, but to counter my colleague, here's the diff between the two:
Wow = Exceeded expactations Surprise = Shock!
Wow = Incremental Surprise = Quantum Leap
Wow = A great ballgame Surprise = A major upset
Wow = A new haircut Surprise = A new hair color
Surprise is one of the seven basic human expressions (anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness and sadness being the six others). Yet it's potential for business remains untapped.
Until now.
Wow!