The Passion Spectrum

Kathy Sierra who is, apparently an eminent commentator on 'Web 2.0' recently wrote a post referring to another post written by Scott Adams (the Dilbert cartoonist - evidently also a blogger).

Scott wrote that, in polling consumer opinion, the 'kiss of death' for a product or concept is indifference or mild approval. He says, relatively convincingly, that you're better off having a spectrum of passionate opinions, even if most of them are negative, as long as some of them are passionately positive.

"The opposite of love," one of my flatmates in University once told me, in reference to relationships, "isn't hate. It's indifference."

In the UK, Unilever are again making use of this spectrum of passions in an ad campaign for Marmite. They've gone as far as building a site devoted to what might be considered a 'basic' food stuff.

I'm not sure whether I should be pleased or annoyed that they've included an online drawing tool. This is an online fad, presumably born partly due to an advancement in Flash, that I've been cataloguing with some amusement.

There are, however, (literally) innumerable products for which people are mostly or entirely indifferent but buy anyway.

A broad spectrum of passions, I suppose, delivers inherent brand equity. This is a nice plus to a marketer but by no means a requirement.