How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Plot the Graph.

For brands that make it to the winner's circle in the upper-right-hand quadrant, where high love and high respect combine to form lovemarks, the rewards can be substantial. Think Lexus and Steinway, ESPN and Mikimoto. Barbie and Starbucks. Plus Nelson Mandela, Marilyn Monroe, Italy, and Krispy Kreme.

The good news is that it's possible to move a product to a better neighborhood. "We can tell which dimension is a key influence on love and respect, and, indeed, on sales volume, which is really the exciting thing," says John Pawle, managing director of QIQ. Pawle says researchers have so far conducted about 800 online surveys across four product categories -- cars, breakfast cereals, analgesics, and magazines. And because they measure such things as frequency of use and buying intentions, they can show how a brand's sales change as it moves from quadrant to quadrant.

General Mills, for example, was looking for a way to give Cheerios a boost a couple of years ago. After applying the lovemarks research, "we realized there was an opportunity to take Cheerios to a higher emotional ground, moving it from being part of the kitchen cupboard to part of the family," says Mike Burns, co-CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, New York. To ramp up the brand's love quotient, General Mills replaced the bowl on the package with a heart and retooled its advertising to focus less on the product's functional benefits (oats are good for you) and more on its emotional ones. "It became very much about motherhood and nurturance -- that Cheerios is an expression of love and doing the best for your family," says Burns. "That's when the brand took off." Cheerios is now the top cereal brand in the country, and occupies a position that's the equivalent of beachfront property on the lovemarks graph.

Stengel says P&G has now also introduced the concept to its global marketing organization. "The lovemarks approach hasn't replaced our brand-measurement practices, but it has helped us understand more about the relationships consumers have with our brands, and inspired us to think about ways we can develop them into lovemarks," he says.

But what goes up can also come down. Microsoft, a brand most respect but few love, is in danger of slipping even further, says Roberts. "We ran it through the Lovemarker, and it's at risk of becoming a bland, disliked, high-respect" brand. Chevrolet was once a lovemark but lost its cachet. The point is that lovemarks aren't owned by manufacturers. They're owned by the people who love them. "Start thinking of these people who love what you do as inspirational consumers. Help them get behind your brand," he says, "and watch it accelerate into a lovemark."

Fast Take: How to put Love in your brand

• Find your most passionate customers and listen to them. They'll tell you all you need to know about why your brand is a lovemark for them. They'll write your advertising for you.
• Put your brand through the love-respect axis. (An abbreviated version is available online at www.lovemarks.com.) Look at how it scores on mystery, sensuality, and intimacy. Make it operate on as many senses as possible.
• Start telling stories. Quit talking about benefits and performance. Instead, show your brand as part of an experience, an adventure, a myth, or a dream.

Linda Tischler is a Fast Company senior writer.

Discussion Guide

Interested in further exploring some of the ideas and issues in this article? Consider starting a Fast Company reading group. Here are some possible conversation catalysts:

Kevin Roberts' continuum of love provides interesting fodder for how we perceive the products we love. Visit the Lovemarks Web site and rank some of your favorite brands, as well as check out what others have said. Put your own company through the Lovemarker test and decide where you would rank it. Where would it ideally place -- and what would it take to get there? How can industries such as telecom improve their Lovemarks? Is there any downside to being a well-loved brand? McDonald's brought love to the forefront with its "I'm Lovin' It" campaign. Take a visit to a local McDonald's -- is the love evident among the grease traps?