Emotionomics – Leveraging Emotions for Business Success

Citation

Zaman Ahmad, K. (2010), "Emotionomics – Leveraging Emotions for Business Success", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 95-96. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731011010407

This book generally espouses the importance of being aware of and capitalising on emotions for business success. It is divided into ten chapters as follows.

Chapters 1‐3 build the case of why emotions matter. The first chapter which was the introduction explained why it is important to study emotions. The argument put forward was that emotions drive reasons and actions rather than the other way around. The conscious thought forms only a small portion of mental activity. Feelings through visual imagery and other non‐verbal communication predominate. Thus, how consumers respond to products is caused primarily by emotions. Chapter 2 teaches how to read other people's emotions from their facial expressions. The rule here is that when interpreting body language, only the face is important and not the other parts of the body. The reason put forward was that only facial expressions are universal across cultures whereas the same cannot be said of other parts of the body. This chapter also highlights the importance of going beyond merely categorising emotions as positive or negative. That is because negative emotions such as anger and sadness can lead to very different outcomes. Anger leads to quicker action compared to sadness. Chapter 3 introduces the emotionomics matrix: which comprise of the following factors – defend, acquire, bond, and learn. These four factors form a matrix which ultimately governs behaviours. In conclusion, Chapters 1‐3 successfully convinces us of the importance of paying attention to emotions.

Chapters 4‐8 are about marketplace applications. Chapter 4 relates emotions to the subject of branding. The advice given in this chapter in relation to branding and emotions were: enable consumers to feel a sense of membership (i.e. a “we” or “us” mindset); brands should over‐deliver emotionally but not over‐promise rationally; and deliver a strong storyline. Chapter 5 discussed about the offer design, packaging and usability. The advice was that those in marketing should aim to be both awe‐inspiring and emotionally relevant. At the concept stage, marketers should aim to create awe. At the sensory encounter stage, engage the senses and invite intimacy and commitment. At the usability stage, protect consumers' fragile faith in the offer as bad designs violate the love pact. Chapter 6 focused on advertising. The important lesson given here was that people today are drowning in information and are only too glad to tune out what is not relevant or entertaining. So, take the emotional route rather than the logical one. Play up on the emotions paying special attention to originality, relevance, likeability and credibility. When conducting focus groups do not say “Look at this and tell me what you think” for this makes subjects think rationally. Instead ask them how they “feel” for this is more relevant to buying decisions. Chapter 7 is about sales. The advice given here were – hire salespeople who can provide consistency and build trust between management, the sales team and the customers. Salespeople should be upbeat, resilient and caring. Chapter 8 is about retail and service. In this area, respectfulness, engagement and reassurance of the customers are critical. The key‐take away from this chapter is that with customer service, what's really at stake is a person's sense of self‐worth. Focus on shoppers emotional experiences when they interact with the company and seek to remove or alleviate the barriers that elicit strong negative emotional responses. Delays and inconvenience are harmful to customer relationship.

Chapters 9‐10 are about the applications of emotionomics at the workplace. Chapter 9 discussed the well‐written subject of leadership, but more from the perspective of emotions – for this is the human side of business that consumes most of the operating costs. Consequently, failure to be emotionally adept is very counterproductive and even suicidal. The advice given to leaders here was that, leaders should create faith in their followers and have a vision that instils pride in employees. Leaders should convey confidence, be free from fear but not display arrogance. If caring is not projected by leaders, their employees would not buy‐in. Finally, Chapter 10 is about managing employees. The advice given here was, only hire people with high scores for emotional intelligence and high scores for big five in the categories of extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to change and low scores on neuroticism. Finally, this chapter points out that any formal training that emphasises rational thought over feelings, isn't a real substitute for training that provides for more emotionally meaningful guidance. That is very important advice, for it is the common practice of organizations to do just the opposite, i.e. they usually cut their training budget for soft skills first and retain only technical training, in times of economic slowdown.

In my opinion, this book falls under the category of “must‐read.” It more than adequately builds the case for treating emotions as extremely important in the context of both marketing and management. Unlike a lot of self‐help books that chose to omit empirical data, this book on the other hand is rich in citations, data, graphs, facts and figures. Not only that, it also gives readers sound practical advice on how to apply emotionomics in sales, customer relationship and management. These points were given succinctly at the end of each chapter. My only criticism of this book is that it failed to highlight the relevance of the techniques in neuro linguistic programming (NLP) on how to manage emotions in oneself and others through visual, auditory and kinesthetic modalities. Also, in relation to facial coding, NLP prescribes that one should calibrate the facial expressions first for each emotion (such as anger, sadness, etc.) as facial expressions are not universal contrary to what the book argues. However, with calibration, not only facial expressions but also body language can be interpreted accurately (according to the NLP school of thought). Perhaps, these techniques were not intended to be within the scope of this book. Nevertheless, I would still recommend this book to all managers, leaders, executives and marketing personnel for it will change their way of thinking and provide insights on how to further improve their performance. In conclusion, I would agree with the testimonial of Philip Kotler that “Dan Hill's book is a revelation.”