Holiday and BRAND LOVE. minted and Toyota get it so right.

Like so many, I recently ordered holiday photo cards. It was an all nighter. I agonized how to find a "just right" design that would do justice to the keen eye of our young family photographer who has somehow made us look so great each year for our annual family photos. How to get that effortlessly elegant card that fit the poses that I loved best? I finally found the right template but I had to choose outside my usual go-to holiday photo card templates from Walmart, CVS and Walgreens.

I discovered a company called minted.

The site touted a community of artists who contribute to the designs. That appealed to me. I had never tried them before. It was admittedly higher dollar. I LOVED the design but braced myself for the final total as I clicked clicked click to quickly design it, drop in my favorite photos of the 4 of us + Mercy the dog.

On checkout, they threw in free engraving of your recipients address - something I wasn't expecting.

I waited for a few days and, when it came, it was wrapped in a way that appealed to me as someone who likes unique handmade things (in my suburban community land of big box, chain experiences). '

It had a handwritten label tied by a big silver bow around the cards - and it was signed "Packaged by Ricardo. Especially for Gigi" --- Especially for me. I had no idea who Ricardo was or if his name was really Ricardo but I couldn't believe this was a handwritten statement to me as the customer.

It was a personalized touch. Despite the cynicism I will always carry in me as a lifelong journalist, this was an act of CORPORATE love that really got to me. That, and the quality of my cards, will keep me coming back. In a marketplace crushed with a gazillion choices of holiday cards, this one appealed to me on an emotional level -- stood out -- and will most likely keep me as a customer from now on.

Toyota and my dad's legacy

2016 was an extremely hard year for me. I unexpectedly lost my dad who was the center of our family's universe. He was our larger-than-life Indiana Jones who was a globe trotting philanthropist - a retired mechanical engineer - who valued efficiency and workmanship.

Full of love for life and always intent on helping people by creating cultural understanding, he spearheaded a sister city relationship in our suburban town near Dallas, TX with a Soviet city - long before Glasnost - and we came under attack for it. He plowed forward - later knitting the hearts of people everywhere together as a volunteer tour leader for a cultural exchange organization started by former US President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn.

My dad's passion for life needed a vehicle to match both his high energy and exacting practicality.

His prized car that he researched and saved for on his engineer salary but in a way that he plotted a careful return on investment on a predicted long car life: was his Mercedes 300D.

I had the chance to travel with him to Germany when I was a young college student to help him pick it up and the factory - not far from where he received his training as a mechanical engineer. Every bit of that car he had planned for in an exacting manner for its engineering excellence. I learned so much from him that trip. About cars as we toured the Mercedes factory in Germany before we picked it up, about his college days, about life.

He loved that car so much he started a business on the side of his job as an engineer to import cars like this for his friends.

He drove that car until it couldn't go any more. We never thought we'd see him love any car as much.

Until the Toyota Prius.

He purchased the Prius in 2007 after much careful research again. Our family didn't think it could come close to the love he experience for his Mercedes but it did. I think it even surpassed his Mercedes/German engineering love. He was amazed by the Prius' technology, showing us the bells and whistles each time we rode with him. He drove that car for nine years - to every cultural exchange meeting, religious understanding activity, global peace awareness event and so on - as he worked to make the world around him better.

In June, after he died, my mom gave me his car.

She said it might one day far in the future need a new battery. That it had one battery that was less expensive. And another that was really expensive.

I had it checked by our trusty mechanic - crying the whole time I told him I checked in my car to be examined. The pain of losing my dad still raw. All looked great, he said, but I should be prepared that at any time in the future, that $4500 battery might well need replacement.

Flash forward to one month later.

My husband said the car came to a slowdown and then a complete stop -- with all lights indicating that it needed a new battery. I took it the very next day to the only dealership my dad trusted with the care of his beloved Prius: Toyota of Richardson.

Again, I cried when I checked the car in -- saying this was my dad's car and I thought that something might be wrong with its battery.

I had the most caring service adviser I could ever have asked for. When he called me later that day to tell me my fear was true: It was the $4500 battery and that my car was just out of warranty, I tried to hold back my tears on the phone. This would be a huge and unexpected financial hit for us.

But he suggested I call Toyota of North America and explain what had happened -- thinking I might have a chance as it was not too far past its warranty.

I did so and, on the other end of the phone, was an angel named "Mike."

Again, the tears surfaced in a conversation I tried to keep quick and professional. I explained to Mike at the Toyota North America call center that this car was my dad's baby - that he kept routinely and immaculately serviced - documenting anything he did to it.

I said I knew it was out of warranty but asked was there anything he could do to help?

What I remember most about that call with Mike was the compassion and empathy in his voice.

"Miss Shamsy, I am so sorry for your loss," he said. "Give me your call back number and let me see what I can do."

The next day, he called me back and said he had gone to his management and the head or our dealership and they came up with a plan for me. A brand new battery at less than 50% of its cost.

Again, I cried and thanked Mike -- and later my Toyota adviser - profusely for this.

This was something that got me not only on the wallet level - but in my HEART. I will forever be a Toyota customer now.

Mike the call center agent truly brought to life for me Toyota's promise I noted afterwards on this page: "You are what really drives us." He focused on me as the consumer - didn't read off some standard call center script - and went above and beyond to help me.

How do you create this type of brand love? I see this love around me -- ex) I have a friend whose husband refuses to wear any athletic/exercise product unless it is adidas.

I like this article from Harvard Business Review: The Eight Phases of Brand Love.

I recognize the phases described here as "Deepen the Connection" and "Keep Love Alive." I do these two things each day at work with strategically planned marketing and communications tactic on my accounts: Deepening our relationships with our existing customers by reminding them of why we got "married" in the first place. Example: I recently produced a video story of a neonatal ICU nurse at one of our healthcare accounts who was desperate to get her PC up and running on her shift with her babies -- how she reached our India help desk employee to help her. By the end of that call, she was calling him "her brother" and I told their story by video to remind the employee base of our healthcare account to not be afraid of calling the help desk (our employees).

In fact, when I was on the phone with Toyota's "Mike," I thought how our interaction was just the type of story I'd scour my client companies to find and then turn into emotional videos to help reinforce the value our help desks deliver.

Do you create BRAND LOVE at your company with your customers? Do you, as a consumer, have BRAND LOVE in your home? And, if so, how was that love born?

Would love to hear as I reflect this holiday season that's a bit more empty for our family this year how the moments of empathy like this (even from an unlikely source in the consumer / corporate world) is what has seen us through this year.