The WOW factor.

In the August 1996 US Air in-flight magazine is an article about Bob Pittman, new chief executive officer of the real estate company Century 21. It so happens that Pittman is credited with the creation and direction of MTV, the television cable broadcast that put rock video on the map and that many say is the voice for Generation X. MTV is much, much more than a television station. It is an elaborate, innovative, and multimedia machine for what MTV itself describes as "raw talent, adrenaline, and emotion."

So what is Bob Pittman doing running a real estate chain?

According to the article, "Pittman sees the Century 21 job as an opportunity to become the next Michael Eisner. 'At Disney, Eisner took a great brand name that had been underexploited and built upon it,' he says. 'You don't get many opportunities to do that, because there aren't many brands like that left. But Century 21 is one of them. It's a sleeping giant.,

So to awaken that "sleeping giant," Pittman brought 10,000 Century 21 agents to an annual meeting in Orlando, rented Universal Studios, and brought in Tom Brokaw and Diana Ross and Martha Stewart. But "the real star of the show," says the article, "was Pittman himself, a man with so much energy he seems to bound off walls. ..."He stirred the crowd by announcing new company policies that promise to revolutionize stodgy old Century 21, and maybe even the entire real estate industry. Mike Bowman, a small-town broker who traveled to the convention from Euliss, Texas, later exclaimed: "It was the best convention I've ever been to. Bob Pittman has got everyone really excited."

I wonder how many association conventions received that kind of review this year. How excited are your membership?

Whatever else Bob Pittman did in Orlando, he communicated -- and motivated at least some of his members to buy in to his messages.

At the ASAE annual meeting in Boston, motivational speaker Ron Archer said that it is no longer enough to satisfy your customers. It has become necessary to WOW them. If you can't deliver the WOW factor to your members, he said, you can't keep their attention.

What will it take to WOW your members?

No doubt Bob Pittman spent a lot of money on his meeting, and a lot of money can buy a lot of dazzle. But dazzle doesn't necessarily equal WOW.

On an overnight stay at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island I once saw Vidalia onions on the room service menu. I called the concierge to ask if I could buy a couple to take home to a friend who professes an abiding affection for this particular culinary treat. With great apologies, the concierge told me that state regulation prohibited sale of food and beverage for off-site consumption, so the answer was no -- can't help. But when I awoke the next morning, I found a sack of Vidalias at the foot of my bed. The concierge had hopped in her car and run over to a without grocery nearby to buy some for me.

That's WOW service.

The rules of the game are changing. The players are changing. The competition is changing. What it takes to knock my socks off really isn't. It's above-and-beyond application of customer (member) care and consideration -- the very best tools to use if you plan to exploit your "brand."