Bad ‘Love’ …. Corporate ‘Love’

Our own individual experiences with love in a business context, have left each of us a bit jaded about love as a life and leadership principle.  We’ve all been disappointed by others’ proclaiming they ‘love’ us while delivering something far less than love to us.

Over time, leaders (and organizations) have become increasingly aware that strong emotional connections with constituents can lead to improved financial opportunities and performance.⁽¹⁾  With this realization comes an increasing pursuit of what I’ll refer to as ‘corporate love’.  This version of love is often handed to the marketing and advertising department as a charge or end necessary to drive customer engagement and to deepen customer relationships.  And once in the marketers hands, love becomes a tool to derive results in the corporate model of love, something like this:

Features + Emotional Significance = Emotional Attachment (i.e., ‘love’).

This mindset is commonly referred to as ‘positioning’.  It incorporates using product design and marketing techniques to create a ‘position’ of significance for a product (or brand) in the minds and hearts of consumers.

Recognizing the lift available to brands that customers love, some companies have gone to great extents to try to position customer love with their products.  KFC, Jeep and McDonalds all created ads with an appeal towards the experience of love, tied directly or indirectly to their products.  You probably don’t even recall these ads, as the campaigns were relatively short-lived, suggesting their lack of success in creating their desired outcomes … associating their brands with ‘love’.

How about Coke and Subaru, though? Think of how we felt about the idea of grabbing a Coke and a smile, or helping the world by sharing a Coke.  And Subaru just puts it right out there in their tag line … ‘Love, it’s what makes a Subaru a Subaru’.  While these ads have been relatively effective, I’d argue that the ads aren’t much more than simply nice slogans.  While consumers may feel a sense of warmth and love from the brands, do Coke and Suburu truly deliver on the experience of love that they promise to consumers?

I’d like to take you back to Apple’s 2014 Christmas ad, referred to many as ‘The Song’.  A young girl took a love song recorded by her grandmother and used her Apple devices to record the original song and dub in her own voice to create a duet.  She then put the final recording on an I-pod and left it on the kitchen table with a picture as a gift for her grandmother to start her day.  If you’re like me, you can recall that add with considerable clarity, and if not specific mental clarity, at least with a strong degree of emotional clarity.  It was an amazingly powerful ad geared at selling Apple’s products through the experience of sharing music and our love with others.  https://youtu.be/N2ubgxn8aQ8

While the ad itself was powerful, what Apple did as an organization in support of the ideas in the ad was where the ad’s true value resided.  Apple aligned their organization to create a consistent experience for consumers … from product design, to manufacturing, to their stores and sales approach.  The evidence is there to suggest that Apple not only wanted to create a product and experience of value for their consumers, but they wanted to value their consumers in how they did what they did.  I can’t say whether Apple has really continued to live up to the standard of love, and few companies do, but those that do … give themselves an opportunity to thrive.  This type of approach, where an entire organization is aligned on delivering love to constituents, is the only way to truly create loving relationships with consumers.  Why? Because love doesn’t come from manipulation, and it isn’t something that can simply be taken from others. Instead, it must first be given (demonstrated).

While typical ‘corporate love’ is built on the premise of taking something from consumers, L2 is built on demonstrating love to constituents first.  Our  model for L2 is:

TRUST + EMOTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE = LOVE

In this equation, product features and marketing simply become one small piece of the process of creating trust and emotional significance with constituents.  Every person and process must demonstrate value to others, and the entire organization must understand that strong relationships don’t happen without trust.  Organizations must then deliver love first … before requesting love in return.  That is the true beginning of love (L2) … which when delivered to others, sets the stage for exceptional results.

Love Matters!  Join the revolution of L2®!

L2 is a registered trademark.  Used with the permission of the John Maxwell Company

1. Fleming, J.H., Harter, J. K. (2009) The Next Discipline – Applying Behavioral Economics to Drive Growth and Profitability, The Gallup Organization, gallup.com