Hallmark. Harvard Business Review. EDS Consulting. They all Sell Ability.

CEO William Porter announced today publication of his latest article on LinkedIn, “Hallmark. Harvard Business Review. EDS Consulting. They all Sell Ability.”

The article is based on Porter’s new book, The Coming Customer Impact Economy, which explores in detail what he believes will come next after our current Customer Experience phase. And he thinks that companies will begin to “personalize” the customer experience more and more, having it become more “permanent”. 

He further points out that, while a Hallmark Cards, Harvard Business Cards and global consultants EDS are all in different market segments, they could all be part of the same “Customer Impact Segment” – Ability -  which Porter introduces us to in his new book.  

Other segments, Porter continues, in the coming Customer Impact Economy will include Sentiment, Purpose and Trust among others. Literally, in the next few years as the customer experience begins to fade, a company’s products and services will be focused on affecting say a customer’s Ability, their Sentiments or maybe their Imagination, and thus a company’s Branding efforts will follow suit. 

The Travel and Hospitality Segments, say Carnival Cruise Lines or Marriott Resorts are already playing hard in the Sentiment segment, focusing much more on videos of families interacting on vacation rather than a cruise ship or a physical hotel building at a resort. The pull of memories and nostalgia are exceedingly strong emotional hooks for would be customers and companies like Carnival and Marriott know this.    

As I usually do, I’m offering several Tips to businesses who play in and around the Travel and Hospitality segment. Those Tips are included below. 

Tip # 1.  Investigate Whether Sentimentality or Nostalgia Are Part of Your Company’s Dynamic. 

If you are in or around the Real Estate or Travel business, for example, it’s a pretty good bet you appeal to a potential customer’s memories or sentiments. Residential for sure, and in some cases, I think, commercial real estate – company offices literally -   are the setting where people’s lives unfold daily with activites like celebrations, birthday parties, promotions and visits by relatives: all heavily laden with memories and nostalgia about the past. 

Does this sort of thing happen in your business? 

Tip # 2. Consider Branding or Re-branding Around Sentiment and all the visuals and text that accompany your hard copy, online and social platform initiatives and materials. 

As I’ve said before, my years of both quantitative and qualitative research tells me that, as future customers demand more and more “value” from companies, Customer Impact will be on their radar – I guarantee it! 

So until next time we’re together good luck in your business efforts. 

Ciao.