February 6, 2006, Appleton Post Crescent
By Kathy Fredrickson
iMark Consulting - President
Businesses Look to Link to Needs of the Customer's (Soul)
Would you say your product or service has soul? Most of us associate soulfulness with spirituality, people, music or feelings. The last place to find soul is in business — or is it?
My husband works with an architect who has made it his life's work to understand and practice the soulfulness of design. The passion and conviction he feels for the spirituality of a space wins the hearts and business of his clientele. His approach isn't from classical business practice. It mirrors the teachings of Thomas Moore (a modern-day priest turned consultant, not the Sir Thomas of the 15th century).
Business people may argue that finding the spirituality of business is a practice more conducive to nonprofit environments. I believe the interest in what Moore calls "contemplative, receptive, soulful consumption" is something that is taking hold in mainstream society and for-profit business needs to understand how and why it works. Otherwise, they will be playing catch up to their competition who understood it before they did.
The concept of soulful consumption is very simple — customers need to feel your products and services are intrinsically good for them. They don't want to feel "materialistic" for wanting what you provide. Materialism is perceived bad, but a $120 silk skirt from the Sundance catalog is justified for people who are interested in independent film advancement. Purchasing Clarks shoes at Joseph's Shoes on College Avenue makes a small business owner feel like they are fueling the region's economic engine and supporting the local students hired to work there. These examples illustrate that a customer associates their own spirit with the company, its founders, its core values and its products. If you don't march to the same beat, they don't associate soulful consumption with your brand.
If you want to understand soulful consumption more, I recommend purchasing Moore's book,"Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life" or looking at the soulful product research conducted by Jeffrey Durgee and Robert Veryzer of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. For those who want the cliff-note version, here are some important features that high soul products possess:
Captivation: Ask yourself if your business arrests attention with your customers. BearNaked granola uses a bold claw mark rather than the obvious bear and the tagline Fuel Your Wild Life to communicate their belief that food should be wholesome and have ingredients you can pronounce (and is able to command a price point of $3.99 for 12 ounces of their tasty morsels).
Personalization: Take a look at your product and processes with the goal incorporating a personal mark — an original stamp, signature or gift. Sundance jewelry has their mark on each piece.
Natural: Soulful items are connected to nature. Adding recycled content, cutting down on consumption, eliminating potentially hazardous products, creating green space for your employees — these are all efforts to make companies more naturally appealing.
Imperfect: Flaws should be corrected, right? Accepting imperfection makes us more comfortable with ourselves and the world we live in. Frank Lloyd Wright's homes, Abercrombie and Fitch's distressed clothing, and organizations big enough to admit fault are examples of perfect use of imperfection.
The soulful consumption concept ties right back to a point I have made in many columns in the past — if you try to force your way of thinking on to customers, they will run the other way. You have to go out and listen to the customer's rhythm, or you ain't got the goods to understand soulful consumption.
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