I recently spent a fine Saturday morning sipping Bluebottle Coffee outside San Francisco’s Ferry Building Marketplace.  As I sat there under an open sky watching traffic trickle by on the Embarcadero, it occurred to me that I’m a bit weird when it comes to cars.  As in “I can tell the brand of car just from its exhaust note” weird. 

Here’s a list of the notable automobiles I heard go by:

• Subaru WRX
• Nissan 350Z
• Mustang GT
• Porsche 911
• BMW M3 (the newest one)
• Mazda Miata

Yes, they’re all sports cars – products designed to deliver an emotional use experience.  And isn’t it cool that each of these remarkable products delivers a substantial portion of the brand experience via the ears?  Believe you me, this stuff doesn’t happen by accident; Mazda is famous for squadrons of engineers who methodically try out umpteen combinations of induction/exhaust components until they reach that indescribable point of aural perfection.

What’s the sound of your brand?