The Transformation

Product emotions are valued everywhere, yet the opportunity to leverage product emotions is so large in part because so few firms have focused on them as a primary purpose of their products. Think again about our opening discussion of the LoneStar long-haul truck. When considered merely as a tool of business, trucks should be designed to maximize output (miles) while minimizing costs (no frills, no added weight). Because trucks have always been viewed that way, most trucks are cost-driven, minimalist products. But when a company recognizes an emotion-based opportunity and considers lifestyle support for the driver, using this particular truck can become an emotional experience for the user. With proper execution the resulting product will be revolutionary, like LoneStar.

The story of long-haul trucks is the story of most products in the U.S. during the latter part of the 20th century. Emotion-based opportunities were not the goal. Most products were designed primarily or even exclusively for the functions that they performed. Efforts were focused on achieving higher-quality performance of those functions while holding costs in check. For many companies, the drive to reduce costs often neglected the experience of using the product, sacrificing high-margin product emotions for tight-margin minimalism. LoneStar, and the many other case studies discussed in this book, serve to demonstrate that products can and should be designed to fulfill emotion-based opportunities. Product emotions are critical to long-term business success.

Understanding the value of product emotions will not simply transform a company’s tactics and marketing but change its product strategy and perhaps even its mission. For companies accustomed to creating customer value through the performance of their products, the goal is to build on that foundation of performance while adding product emotions. People buy and pay for what they value, and everyone values emotion.

Creating valued emotions is not coincidence or luck, nor need it be the result of creative genius. Anticipating and meeting emotional needs requires rigorous analysis, a method that helps the company to identify desired emotions, to understand those emotions, and then to translate that understanding into a strategy for brand development, for product and portfolio development, and for specific product features.

Built to Love is about that method, a rigorous and analytical approach to identify and understand emotions and to translate that understanding into company profits. First, let’s understand the benefits of emotion, so that designing them is clearly worth the effort.