Metrics of measurement are hard to apply to emotions and require companies to take leaps of faith in discerning directions and strategies based on non provable hypothesis. There are many examples of product that came to market only due to courageous belief of individuals and sometimes in the face of research that suggested otherwise. Witness the Aeron chair. (ref Gladwell/Blink). Which never made it to acceptable metrics by Herman Miller standards but was introduced regardless to huge success. The Minivan is another striking example.
Reviewing these case studies and training teams to accept risk is a key part of creating answers that have a better shot at touching true emotion. Getting a 75% positive reaction to a product, package or service may seem initially positive, but there is also a good chance that it represents the watering down of something to milk toast. No one really loves it anymore on the trade off that no one hates it. It may be better to find a 30 % love it and 70% hate it and work on the issues. This will take some serious education in accepting risk.
Often dismissed as the fringe. This may be the most fertile area of all for finding and understanding emotional response to unspoken needs and wants. Why do some people covet and want things beyond reason? Ask or watch those who do. Usually discounted for being outside the mass, new thinking suggests that the mass no longer exists as once understood. Viewing consumers as segmented by income or demographics has gone the way of the focus group. That we are aligned by desire and only successfully marketed to as tribes of individuals connected by like desire or need as opposed to segmented by age and or niche. Today’s "amazing" product or service offerings address those needs/desires. My mother has everything Tony Benet ever recorded on her I-pod. My 10 year old daughter has everything Aly and AJ have ever done on the same device. Find out what the desire is and then answer it. There is no kids version of the I-pod or nano, just the right one.
The five ideas above are just a handful of suggestions and references. Another book that’s on the must read list around this topic is A Whole New Mind by ex Wall Streeter, Daniel Pink. In it’s tenth printing and named best business book of 2005, the book basically makes the case that the business world is coming out of a left mind, or metric dominated, era of rational decision making, into a right mind, a more creative emotionally driven mindset and that this shift will effect all knowledge and development work. Coming from a hugely successful left brainier, it’s a very persuasive argument.
Here’s what we do know for sure. Consumers are better informed, in fact hyper-informed. Hence the growth of social networking and the death of "push advertising". They need to feel the tingle when they respond to and buy and use things… it must be an authentic tingle because they will rat you out on the Internet otherwise. Look for non quantifiable emotionally driven business opportunities.
For many businesses, used to making things in reliable repeatable ways, this can offer some anxiety. Embrace it. Try a few of the methods above and stick with them and if someone argues that they are flawed argue back. Get emotional; it might be the only thing that counts pretty soon.
Resources; Semiotics
J.Ducan Berry, PHD -www.applied-iconology.com
Gregory Rowland, PHD –www.semiotics.co.uk
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