Thirty plus years ago, Technical Writing students were learning how printing had to be typeset. We only watched three major television networks, ABC, NBC and CBS. The Big 3 automotive companies, Ford, Chrysler, General Motors and minor American Motors held over 90% of market share in the United States. Cars were so wide that they were within a tenth of an inch to being classified as trucks (engineers didn’t use metrics). FM stereo and air conditioning were options on cars. Gasoline prices were around 60 cents per gallon and a lot of cars averaged 10 miles per gallon. Dealership salesmen controlled all product and price information and rarely looked at or talked to a woman even when she was present with a male during negotiations. Consumers definitely were not in control, the manufacturers and their retailers were.

During that time, I was so fortunate to spend my junior and senior years at Michigan Tech to study a newly introduced major, Technical Writing. I married Hancock born Stan, now deceased, who introduced me to Tech and the Copper Country. When he graduated from the College of Business, he interviewed a wide array of companies Tech attracted. They included Buick Motor Division and AC Spark Plug. The Buick recruiter by chance overheard Stan tell the AC Spark Plug recruiter that I was studying Technical Writing. The Buick recruiter cornered Stan afterwards and told him Buick had a job opening for a Technical Writer. The recruiter said he had no idea Tech offered such a degree. I was immediately pulled from the Union, in my jeans, and interviewed. Little did I know how my life would change when I was hired as the first female college graduate at Buick. Tech’s unique degree provided me the opportunity to work in various areas of engineering, sales and marketing worldwide with American, Japanese and European companies.

The biggest emerging trend during my career is that consumers took control. Their media choices expanded with cable television and communications exploded with the internet. Imports, particularly Japanese, significantly raised the standard of quality and value for the money with models offered that could withstand a global fuel crisis. Dealership salespeople (although sadly, still are mostly men), now sell vehicles to consumers loaded with product and price information who often times know more than they do.

What are my predictions over the next 30 years? A lot of them are pretty obvious. The consumer will control brands globally. Brands no longer belong to manufacturers or retailers. The internet will dominate all communications including automotive. Consumers will interactively decide when, where, why and how they want to know more about any product anywhere in the world. Consumers will spread the word about products. Successful companies will communicate personally anytime, anywhere with the individual consumer when the consumer invites them via email, blogging, interactive television and cell phones, or whatever the new device. Consumers will provide powerful feedback to companies who will listen. Consumers will even break down bureaucratic distribution systems. If they have no need for a middle man, they can order the product themselves and have it delivered to their home or business at a better price. They would use a service facility when necessary.

Alternative energy products will overtake traditional gasoline powered products, especially environmentally safe ones due to a global shortage of oil and an increase in pollution. More foreign products, especially Chinese and Indian products, will be available. There will be even more specialized products such as city vehicles for short distances, busy freeways, crowded parking, improved environmental impact and improved physical fitness.

The study of emotions will become serious research for companies who seriously want to touch the heart of their consumers. Not research to determine facts, but research to understand emotions. Just about all of the following comments are taken from a book, The Future Beyond Brands Lovemarks, written by Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi. In a multi-cultural global world, just understanding the facts or reasons why a consumer purchased a product will no longer be bold enough to cut through the clutter of all the commodity products offered. Human beings are powered by emotion not by reason. Study after study has proven that if the emotion centers of our brain are damaged in some way, we don’t just lose the ability to laugh or cry, we lose the ability to make decisions. The neurologist Donald Calne puts it brilliantly: “The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions.”

So what kind of emotions are we talking about? Everyone has a different list, but people tend to agree on two points: first, emotion can be separated into primary and secondary emotions: and second, most of our emotions are negative. Emotions can inspire and excite us. They can also frighten and threaten us. It’s survival. Our emotions tell us what’s important, and in our ancient past it was smart to pay the most attention to the bad stuff.

Primary emotions are brief, intense, and they cannot be controlled. Emotion researcher Dylan Evans of King’s College London says primary emotions are: “Joy, sorrow, anger, fear, surprise, disgust.”

What is really striking about the secondary emotions is how social they are and how important they are. You can feel primary emotions when you are alone. But to work up a secondary emotion you need someone else around. The so-called secondary emotions are not secondary in reality. They make up the volatile mix from which human relationships are formed, which makes them pretty fundamental. Secondary emotions combine the head with the heart. They are: love, guilt, shame, pride, envy, jealousy. Which brings us to emotion number one. The most fundamental of them all, love. In the consumer world, Kevin Roberts calls this Lovemarks.

The Lovemarks of this new century will be the brands and businesses that create genuine emotional connections with the communities and networks they live in. This means getting up close and personal. And no one is going to let you get close enough to touch them unless they first respect what you do and who you are.

Love needs respect right from the start. Without it, love will not last. It will fade like all passions and infatuations. Respect is one of the founding principles of Lovemarks. We need to understand what it demands. Respect looks to performance, reputation, and trust as its organizing principles. Within each of these principles Kevin Roberts believes there is an inspiring code of conduct.

Perform, perform, perform
Respect grows out of performance at each and every interaction. Peak performance is the ultimate table stake of all table stakes.

Pursue innovation
Innovation is continuous improvement for consumers. Every business today is expected to innovate—and to innovate meaningfully while creating value.

Commit to total commitment
Going the full distance is the price of respect. The new active consumer judges businesses and their products at every encounter, every touch point and will punish failure by not coming back.

Make it easy
The increasing complexity of many goods and services has raised the stakes. The equation is simple. If it’s hard to use, it will die.

Don’t hide
People can respect you only if they know who you are. Remember, in today’s internet environment there is nowhere you cannot be found. Don’t even try.

Jealously guard your reputation
Built over a lifetime, destroyed in an instant. Consumers today are ruthless if you let them down. Don’t.

Get in the lead and stay there
To be out front can be lonely and uncomfortable, but remember, the lead husky gets the best view.

Tell the truth
Front up. Be open. Admit mistakes. Don’t cover up; it will get businesses every time. Believe in yourself. At times like this it may be the only thing your business may have. At times like this your business reputation is your premium defense.

Nurture integrity
The corporate shake-ups of the last few years have put the spotlight back on integrity: the integrity of people, products, services, financial statements and most importantly, personal integrity.

Accept responsibility
Take on the biggest responsibility of all—to make the world a better place for everyone, creating self-esteem, wealth, prosperity, jobs, and choices. Quality is the measure by which businesses and products exceed expectations. Quality is all about standards. Keep it simple: set high standards and then exceed them. Meet, beat, repeat.

Never pull back on service
Service is where transactions are transformed into relationships. Service is where respect meets love. It is the first moment of truth.

Deliver great design
Attention Economy 101. Competition is hot and getting hotter. If you’re not aesthetically stimulating and functionally effective you just merge into the crowd. You have to be different, not just act different.

Don’t underestimate value
Not just the real dollar value but the perception of value. Only when people perceive the value they are getting as higher than the cost will they respect the deal you offer.

Deserve trust
Consumers want to trust businesses. They want to remain true to the ideals and aspirations you share with them. Practice what you preach. Never let them down.

Never, ever fail the reliability test
Expectations skyrocket: cars always start the first time, the coffee is always hot, and the ATM is always open. Today reliability is the door charge for respect before the show begins.

It’s a tough list. Demanding and uncompromising. Don’t even dream about Lovemark status unless your business can tick off each and every item.

The relationship between respect and love is deep, compelling, and symbiotic. At the risk of repeating myself: No respect. No love. Period.

Now respect is just the entryway into the heart. To become a Lovemark, a truly great love and inspire the consumer’s loyalty beyond reason, three key ingredients are needed. Mystery, sensuality and intimacy--strange attributes to associate with a brand but essential elements of a truly great love. By focusing on mystery, sensuality and intimacy, business-as-usual can be transformed with new emotions and new ideas. The Stanford economist, Paul Romer, likes to say that big competitive advantages in the marketplace always come from “better recipes, not just more cooking.”

We all know the power of mystery, sensuality and intimacy from our own lives. Why should relationships in business be any different? They are not.

Mystery Draws Together:
• Past, present and future, to locate us in time and space • Great stories, for context and meaning • Dreams which create action which in turn inspires dreams • Myths and icons, a reference library of the heart • Inspiration, the spark that sets Lovemarks on fire

Sensuality Is A Portal To The Emotions. This Is How Human Beings Experience The World:
• Vision
• Sound
• Smell
• Touch
• Taste

Intimacy, Where Thinking and Feeling Come Together Most Closely
• Empathy, so that we can understand and respond to other people’s emotions
• Commitment that shows we are in the relationship for the long haul
• Passion to energize the relationship

Think of one automotive company that does all that for you. Mine used to be Lexus but lately my experience is of poorer quality and hiding of the problem. Think of other products that have given you respect, mystery, sensuality and intimacy. How about airlines? I love Singapore Airlines and Jet Blue! Could my personal Lovemarks be on your list? The Statue of Liberty, iPod, Tiffany’s, Architectural Digest and Michigan Tech!

In the future, consumers will love and be loyal beyond reason to products and businesses, profit or non-profit, that love them with respect, mystery, sensuality and intimacy. Everyone will be involved in Lovemarks, communicators, engineers, biologists, physicists, chemists, no matter what you passionately create for your consumer or customer! That’s a dramatic change from the President of Michigan Tech telling me in the 1970’s that engineers don’t need to communicate, they just need to excel in engineering!

 
 
                Houghton, September 16, 2005.