The Rise of Meaningful Business: Why Some Brands Stand Out
Once more, with feeling
While it might appear sensible to cut costs at the expense of meaningful engagement, in reality, this approach falls short of delivering true effectiveness.
Often by a HUGE margin.
As long as procurement and accountants are overly-weighted in business operations, those businesses are underperforming their potential. (note I said overly-weighted! It cuts both ways).
Many business leaders have worked this out: Sara Blakely (Spanx), Jessica Alba (The Honest Company), and just look at Ryan Reynolds (Maximum Effort and Wrexham) as great exponents of getting the ‘meaning’ right, or at least the balance of it right in business.
In our current age, where instant gratification and flashy appearances often reign supreme, it's the underlying meaning and emotional connection that genuinely matter.
But why is meaning so powerful? And how does it transcend material value?
A tale of two prizes
From an episode of Rick Rubin's Tetragrammaton podcast with guest Rory Sutherland: An energy company once dangled a grand prize of free energy for a year. Yet, astonishingly, only a handful tried their luck. Fast forward, and the same company presented a seemingly humble reward - a £10 Penguin book light, modelled after a character from their TV advert. The response? An overwhelming flood of entrants! It wasn’t the price tag that counted, but the sentimental connection and meaning the tiny light embodied. Even when complaints for service came in, rather than take a £50 rebate, they were inundated with requests for the lower value book light as compensation.
The weight of sentiment
On a shelf, a gleaming luxury watch you indulged for yourself might sit beside a weathered one-of-a-kind item (a drawing, a note, a voice message, a photo) of your late parent or sibling or child. If you could only keep one, which would you choose? For all its value, even the most lavish item often stands in the shadow of something steeped in memories and emotions. I know my choice.
Mum & Dad with my beloved brother, SImon on Dad’s knee and me on Mum’s. Sucking my thumb - classic. circa 1982.
Emotional resonance and compelling storytelling often fall outside traditional balance sheets, eluding the tangible metrics that numbers-driven departments thrive on. These intangibles, while powerful, introduce elements of risk, uncertainty, and creativity that don't neatly fit into spreadsheets or quarterly reports.
The ties that bind
Stories aren't just words strung together; they're imbued with feeling.
They elicit emotional reactions, from the swell of nostalgia to the sting of betrayal.
In embracing a narrative, we might feel a warmth, an intimacy, as if connecting physically with its essence. Beyond the emotions and sensations, stories leave us with an impression, a belief, a realisation. It's these diverse feelings, wrapped up in tales rich with meaning, that knit us closer, forging deep bonds and shaping our shared understanding of life.
Who wouldn’t want to be knitted closer together with their audience, customers or clients? OK possibly teachers… happy half term :)
Ben
P.S. Check out Spicy, a new song by Alessia. I’m always impressed when someone creates something new and my daughter’s music teacher has done precisely that.
P.P.S. And to show I’m not anti-procurement or ‘numbers’ people as they are all (nearly/ part) human too… ;) see below for some stats and sources.
Trust in Brands: According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, 81% of consumers say they need to trust the brand to buy from them. Storytelling plays a pivotal role in building this trust. This suggests a missed opportunity for businesses that don't invest in storytelling, as trust directly influences purchasing decisions.
Emotional Connection: A study by the Harvard Business Review found that customers who are "fully connected" emotionally to a brand are 52% more valuable, on average, than those who are just "highly satisfied." This underscores the importance of creating emotional resonance. [source: The New Science of Customer Emotions]
Brand Recall: Research by Stanford professor Chip Heath found that 63% of participants could remember stories, but only 5% could remember a single statistic. This hints at the enduring power of narratives over raw numbers. [source: Made to Stick]
