Engaging the Heart in Business

A Revolutionary Market Approach Based On Love

Alice Alessandri, Alberto Aleo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780429879128
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

In the wake of the profound upheavals that our society has been facing, the business world is undergoing change. Values ??such as trust, well-being, sustainability, and respect for human beings and their deeper ambitions are becoming increasingly important. Corporations and professionals can achieve and maintain success only if they can bring their relationship with their customers to a new, higher level. The condition that links the two is very similar to that created when we fall in love. The organizational models and marketing approaches based on the metaphor of war, and the inherent rhetoric of "command and control", are no longer valid; to form such a bond we need love. The authors are aware of this. Since 2013, in collaboration with international scholars, they have been studying the new market dynamics and the fundamental role of ethics in gaining commercial results. While their previous book Sales Ethics (2015) helped to set up and manage customer relationships based on trust and fairness, this new book will support you in building your business strategy and designing marketing tools (from customer analysis, to the definition of your offer and the style of communication, up to the positioning of prices and the management of resources) in the light of a new model, the Loving Business Model, which aims to make the customer fall in love with you, and you with your work. This book, like its predecessor, is the result of independent research conducted between Italy and the United States combined with the authors' many years of professional experience. It contains the most up-to-date and effective techniques available in the modern marketing landscape, supported by case studies, concrete examples and activities, which will guide you to put your newly acquired knowledge into practice.

1

The context

Abstract

In a changing market, it is necessary to adapt your paradigms to ensure that your business models remain competitive. In this chapter, we analyze together the main changes that have taken place over the last few years in society and in economics. We believe such alterations support using the new metaphor of love in the current context. Read this chapter if you want to understand why love releases energy that can help your business grow.

Love is in the air: signs that change is underway

Have you noticed that things are changing? In addition to the ongoing political and social upheavals we are seeing throughout the world, the lives of individuals have also changed: your life and our lives, so to speak.

In fact, we now spend much of our time online; we use social media to get news, to share our opinions and exchange news stories though we are frequently unaware of the sources and may not even know how truthful they are. The mass production of news has led to a vast amount of low-cost content and an inevitable decrease in quality. In addition, the aging of populations in Western countries suggests another, fundamental paradigm shift, because with age comes greater reflection and a search for meaning that is further intensified by the fall of dominant ideologies and the now structural crisis of the major religions.

These two apparently separate phenomena may feed into each other, as the increasingly superficial modes of communication underscore an unsatisfied need to find meaning in our lives. This can lead to people adopting positions and convictions based on little or no substance: the trend of a moment becomes a dogma. This use of a vast array of untrustworthy media to satisfy our thirst for meaning necessarily impacts on the economic sphere. We can go beyond accepting and integrating these social needs when creating business models, by attempting to generate a positive impact that will direct market action towards the common good, promote greater awareness and prompt a renewed sense of responsibility. However, it is necessary to ask ourselves what human need unites and explains these phenomena. We believe the common denominator that leads people to frantically interact in search of meaning, and to sometimes choose superficial and pre-packaged answers to this quest, is based on every human being’s essential desire to love and be loved.

We communicate and interact to have human contact and feel protected by the “network” that we continue to create.

We look for meanings and we weave conversations with the aim of forming bonds with others, to feel accepted and welcomed, exchanging emotions and feelings and thereby giving value to our lives. All these are manifestations of love or, if you prefer, of a search for love.

If it is true that we, indeed all of society, are “love-driven”, why not tackle the issue directly even when talking about business?

Economics is a social science. It thus deals with people, communities and scarce resources that must be managed efficiently for a single purpose: to generate well-being. Well-being, not just wealth! Today, people are happy when they are relating to others, when they have access to evolutionary knowledge and information and when they can participate and give meaning to their existence thanks to all this. If this is the case, then economics should deal with love. There is nothing new in this proposition because, as we will discover in the next paragraph, economics and love have been linked for several centuries. Moreover, companies have already begun, more or less consciously, to give signs of movement in this direction; indeed, you need only turn on your TV to recognize the “romantic”, intimate and emotional tone of most advertising and content. Feelings are already “selling” goods and services; however, we have not yet proceeded beyond exploiting their attractiveness to actually explore using feelings as a guide to redesign current business models. Why? Our answer is that sentiments, and love especially, are challenging. While it is easy to declare love and rattle it under the nose of a potential lover (or customer), proving and exchanging love, and establishing a true relationship based on this, is a different kettle of fish. Yet the statistics demonstrate that those who succeed can achieve surprising and lasting results. For example, Prof. Raj Sisodia, professor of business ethics at Babson College, demonstrates in his book Firms of Endearment¹ that companies that “practice love” on average obtain better results, and faster and for longer, than those that are ruthless. One of the largest consulting companies in the world, McKinsey, has published a study on the negative effects of the selfish or “short-term” corporate vision, dispelling the myth that only the bad guys win in the market.² These analyses clearly show that the performance of companies that pursue self-interested behavior is comparable in the short term to those that adopt a more ethical vision of business; however, after just five years the differences in results are in favor of the latter. Over a longer period, this gap becomes an abyss: over a period of 15 years, for example, the results of ethical businesses become ten times better, while the more ruthless organizations struggle, and generally fail, to pass the test of time. We have collected some statistics too, using a sample of about 50 organizations among the clients we meet each year, with an average of 800 people involved in training activities on sales and marketing ethics. Well, what we observed during the two years we were preparing this book is that 83% of the participants declared a significant improvement either in personal performance or in that of their organization after taking part in initiatives that were directed at making their work more humane and respectful of their values. Specifically, almost 20% of them claimed to have achieved an increase in commercial results (higher sales, customer loyalty, word of mouth increase) from the first months after the activity.³

So, why do we continue to believe that economics and good sentiments are bad bedfellows? Sometimes we may lack the proper tools to measure results correctly. If you only consider the short-term results, neglecting the side effects and indirect outcomes of your actions on the market, you might overlook the effectiveness of certain behaviors inspired by ethics, respect and love. Moreover, numbers alone fail to highlight the negative effects of misconduct. This may provide an explanation for the seemingly inexplicable flop of certain enterprises that appear destined for success, while other entrepreneurial ideas that initially had trouble finding investors become multi-billion businesses.⁴

If the market and its dynamics could be fully represented through data and figures, a “super algorithm” would have been invented to predict phenomena such as the 2008 crisis or to create the perfect money-making machine. Moreover, as Albert Einstein said, “Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted”.⁵

Of course, introducing love into the business paradigm makes things seem more complicated and not everyone likes the idea. To get good results by applying a business model focused on love – like the one presented in this book – you have to work hard. The prize for those who persist will not only be greater and longer-lasting results. Above all, it is also the achievement of a state of well-being that is more than economic, but closely resembles the happiness that many of us seek. In our opinion, this is the true objective that the social science of economics is called to serve.

Let’s summarize the key elements⁶ we have identified in the market and in society, which will help you understand why the time has come to change the paradigm:

•Failure of mechanistic models – Data, numbers and mathematical theories no longer seem to fully describe the business and its results. Phenomenal cases of success and failure only become clearer if an experiential and emotional component is introduced into customer choices, employee performance and market.

•Spread of feminine principles – Listening, acceptance, soft skills, or as some authors call them, “feminine principles”,⁷ have become a must in modern organizations. Personnel managers, and managers in general, seek them in applicants and are committed to developing them among their collaborators.

•Use of emotions in communication – Emotions reach the brain before logical words and thoughts.⁸ They are, therefore, more important when it comes to convincing someone to buy. This is why advertising uses them so lavishly.⁹ Even if you operate in a business to business market, selling to other companies and not to the final consumer, you have to take this into account because it is people who are making the choices.

•Democratization and transparency of information – Whether we like it or not, social media is part of our lives, meaning that everything we do now is easily accessible and perhaps more transparent than we would like. People and companies must consider that they cannot fully control who, where, how and when people are talking about them: if you behave incorrectly, sooner or later people will know.

•Increase in touch points – Consumer interactions with business have multiplied and diversified. Professionals and managers need a greater number of connections to do their jobs effectively. This omnichannel complexity is a must-have for anyone who wants to remain in the market.

•Crisis of confidence – Since the events of 2008 (Lehman’s bankruptcy filing and the market crisis) onwards, distrust has become the consumers’ fundamental tactic of self-protection. Access to information through the Internet and social networks enables us to collect data and potentially verify in real time the truth and completeness of any information provided by sellers. For companies, a betrayal of their customers’ trust can lead to realizing their worst nightmares and risking dangerous negative effects.

•Importance of loyalty and word of mouth – The distrust we discussed above is best overcome through word of mouth and loyalty. If someone recommends a product or service impartially, we are more willing to listen to them. Returning customers are also easier and “cheaper” to manage. Research indicates that, on average, selling to a new customer costs five to six times more than an already active contact. Any marketing plan that makes sense must, therefore, focus on encouraging loyalty and positive word of mouth.

•Sustainability – There is much talk of environmental and social sustainability, but the concept extends also to the economic sphere.¹⁰ Multinationals, for instance, may sometimes affect the environment and society much more than governments. The application of principles of business ethics in companies can therefore radically improve the conditions in which human beings exist, but to have the means to do so, profits are necessary. There can be no ethics without revenues because there would be no resources to act.

•Return to spirituality – From the 1960s onwards, we have witnessed a progressive decline in values and in religion. The resulting identity crisis has led to what Zygmunt Bauman¹¹ called a “liquid” society in which the only moral reference is one’s own interest and ego. More recent generations have, however, begun to react to the loss of moral certainties and to the sense of insecurity that derives from this, with an increased interest in spirituality. New forms of religiosity and renewed awareness have begun to appear in society and, consequently, also affect the markets: customers and companies may be united by common values.

•Aging populations – The West is aging; this is a fact. As people get older, they naturally seek deeper meanings and consider their spiritual legacy. Contributing to improving the world or being part of a project that goes beyond oneself are manifestations of a simple but fundamental awareness: we are not eternal, so it is worth trying to make sense of our existence, and our work and purchasing choices are part of the whole.

•Human and digital integration – The largest companies in the world are digital. Giants like Apple, Amazon and Facebook were born and developed through new interfaces and virtual modes. Their skill was to conceive...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Information
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 The context
• 2 Reference models for Engaging the Heart in Business
• 3 Engaging the heart in business
• 4 Love yourself: Branding and identity
• 5 Love why you do it: Having clear and shareable goals
• 6 Love who you do it for: Who your customers are and what you can do for them
• 7 Love what you do: The offer system and the creation of value
• 8 Respect your rivals: How to manage your relationship with the competition
• 9 Love who you do it with: Getting the best from people
• 10 Love how you do it: The value journey and managing the relationship
• 11 Conclusions
• FAQ – Answers to frequently asked questions
• Bibliography
• Index