Customer experience is the internal and subjective response customers have to any direct or indirect contact with a company. 71 Indirect contact most often involves unplanned encounters with repre-sentations of a company's products, services,or brands and takes the form. of word-of-mouth recommen-dations or criticisms,advertising,news reports,reviews,and so forth. Such all encounter could occur when Google' s whimsical holiday loges pop up on the site' s home page at the inception of a search, or it could be the distinctive 'potato, potato 'sound of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle's exhaust system. 72 The secret to a good experience isn't the multiplicity of features on offer. Microsoft Windows,which is rich in features,may provide what a corporate IT director considers a positive experience. 73 A customer's experience with an Apple device such as the iPod begins well before the purchaser turns it on perhaps because of the dancing silhouettes in the TV advertisements. Furthermore, the origami-like (and recyclable) packaging enfolds the iPod as though it were a Faberge egg made for a czar. A small sticker,'Designed in California, Made in China,'communicates the message that Apple is firmly in charge but also interested in keeping costs down. Even Windows users appreciate the device's intuitive, Mac-like feel and find that downloading tracks from iTunes is easier than buying a CD on Amazon. 74 A successful brand shapes customers' experiences by embedding the fundamental value proposition in all the product's features. For BMW, 'the Ultimate Driving Machine'is much more than a slogan;it informs the company's manufacturing and design choices. 75 BMW would not consider developing such a feature unless it amplified rather than diminished the driving experience.