It's the holy grail of business: create a branded product that people like
so much that they end up falling in love with it.
As a result, they don't just buy your branded product or service once or
twice - they become loyal to it. And not just for a reason, but beyond reason;
beyond price, beyond attribute often becoming a life long repeat customer and
brand champion promoting it freely whenever the opportunity arises.
Which business inspired person doesn't want this? Yet you'd be surprised at how many people in business will not place the words 'love' and 'business' any where near each other.
But they should because people love lots of stuff; from other people to products, brands, places, and so on. I love my family and friends. Professionally I love to understand brands
and branding. For fun, I love cooking, and the related tools I have to help me
make dishes. I love Tangle Foot beer. There are loads of other products I love too. I also love the Lake District and India. Now that's a 'whole
lotta of love' as Led Zeppelin once sang - a band I love.
Out of necessity, you'll probably purchase something. How many times have you made a purchase, with partial need attached because you had to have it? And did you end up paying more than you could have paid with a similar product? Even more intriguing, did you willing pay for something that isn't as good as another product and pay more for it?
For example: the top of the range Windows phone is technically better in just about every area, but more people will pay more money for the iPhone 6. The stats prove this. That's love working in business right there. If you can create a product that people love, it makes business sense.
When everything else is the same; the same big data, the same technology, the same type of service or product, seeking to creating meaningful, emotional connections that carry human value seals the deal. Lovemarks by Saatchi & Saatchi proves this time and time again.
So okay great, if people love stuff they will pay more for it. My question is:
What is love?
To gain some understanding on this would be to gain a massive edge in business. Why? Because people are willing to pay more for stuff they love.
To start with, how would you
describe love?
Most of us would agree with this statement: 'Love is an emotion'. And perhaps you would also agree this statement 'love is the strongest emotion of all'.
But have you ever thought about 'how' and why we fall in love with someone or in the case products that business creates and sell, with
something? Is love at first sight possible or is it something profoundly more complex? Or is it a mixture of lots of different things all coming together a precisely the right moment?
Dr Barbara Frederickson a distinguished professor of psychology at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, author, keynote speaker and a lady
whose work I greatly admire describes love quite brilliantly: Love can be
thought of as ‘micro-moments of positivity resonance.' The
more we experience positive moments, the more we build up a rapport with who ever or what
ever is providing it.
There is a lot of science behind this idea which you can read about in Dr
Frederickson's book; Love 2.0. But what makes these micro-moments so attractive
to us that we actually fall in love? Are we learning to love through
rationalisation of our thoughts or is there something that strikes us even
before this happens?
Great thinking is changing. Science is adding its weight and our
understanding of our own self is evolving; Rene Descartes famously said 'I think
therefore I am'.
However based on scientific findings, neurologist Donald Calne is famously
quoted as saying: 'The essential difference between emotion and reason is that
emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions.'
This would suggest that humans are emotionally led. We act primarily on our
emotions, before rationalising them as part of a past experience process which
leads us to being able to form our own conclusions.
Now remember Descartes: 'I think, therefore I am'. But is this actually
correct?
Enter Neuroscientist/neurobiologist Dr. Antonio Damasio. Described 'As a
leading neuroscientist, Damasio has dared to speculate on neurobiological data,
and has offered a theory about the relationship between human emotions, human
rationality, and the underlying biology'.
His thinking takes our understanding to another level.
Damasio's work is responsible for an updated, and in my opinion corrected
version, of Descartes famous quote with one dramatic and fundamental change to
the wording. Damasio replaces reason with emotion to read: 'I feel, therefore I
am.' A closer inspection of his work provides conclusive evidence to support
this.
You feel; this is an emotion.
You rationalise; this is thinking.
You conclude; How do I rate this experience.
You choose: Do I want more or less or this. (Will I build up positivity resonance and fall in love)
'I feel, therefore I am'. Emotion trumps reason. Studying Dr Damasio's work
will provide you with the evidence to support this. You can find out more by
taking a look at the Neuromarketing World Forum 2014 Keynote given by Damasio.
This is why smart brands invest so much in to emotional based marketing and
advertising. They're seeking to create these micro moments of positivity
resonance. This is because savvy brands realise that the brand boom time is
over, people realise that most comparable products do the same thing; all beer
tastes pretty good and gets you drunk, washing powder washes your clothes to a
brilliant white and so on.
In order to keep up and win your attention in a time where people have
simply switched off to advertising, brands are becoming more caring, more
authentic and more emotionally orientated in their communication. In effect, more human, more
loving.
Why is this important to understand? When you get an
understanding of how we work as humans, not just at face value, but
understanding the real deep emotional context of what we truly crave, we can
begin to create things with real purpose; from human relationships all the way
through to love of our favourite products.
If you want to truly win in business, you'll not dismiss the fact that love
and business are, by their very nature, intrinsically related. Act on love, get it right and you'll get a serious return on your money.
Simon Bell,
Director,
Sensation Creative
