Emotions are such an amazing facet to living life. Many psychologists have tried to develop an understanding and apply rational theory and models to it. And yet emotions remain an incredibly vast and widely misunderstood subject matter, and in many instances are implied as a bad thing.
A very common tactic in the business world is to dismiss another’s opinion by calling it “an emotional response” and so imply that the person making the opinion is not balanced to give a rational view. Indeed, in today’s society “being emotional” about something implies that one has lost control and perspective.
And yet it is emotion that provides the entire colour and texture that makes our lives interesting. Psychologists agree that there are broadly 16 major human emotions: Joy, Sadness, Acceptance, Disgust, Fear, Anger, Surprise, Anticipation, Optimism, Love, Submission, Awe, Disappointment, Remorse, Contempt, Aggressiveness. Imagine your daily life without these feelings ... it would be a very dull experience.
Bangladeshis are famously one of the most emotional people in the world. It is hardwired deep into the DNA of every citizen. Indeed it’s no surprise that Rabindranath Tagore was recognised for his talent to capture emotions through his poetry when he became Asia’s first Nobel laureate winning the Nobel Prize in 1913 for Literature. And it is these emotions that make up so much of this nations personality and character.
I have travelled to over 70 countries across five continents and in all that travel, Bangladesh is the only place where I have met a person for the first time and been invited that very same evening to have dinner at that person’s home with their parents, wife and children. It is an amazing kindness and sense of hospitality that Bangladeshi people should be very proud of. Emotions are at play in many of our day-to-day activities and at the heart of everything that is wonderful about Bangladeshi people.
So, what does emotion have to do with the world of business and money making? After all making money demands cool and calculated rational thinking.
That is true in part but when only operating that way, one misses a huge opportunity: much of Bangladesh’s economy remains at a commodity level. When buying and selling goods and services, consumers in Bangladesh are often just offered purely rational and functional benefits.
For example, when buying oranges at New Market, you just find the freshest, the biggest or the ones from the famed orange orchards of Chaatuk in Sylhet. All these factors are purely functional and rational. But what if buying an orange somehow made you feel you were making the best choice for your child’s health, that because you chose that orange, you were a good parent who was putting their family first? Or what if when you bought that orange it made you feel like you were living a health conscious life, or it made you and others think that you were a stylish and modern person who knew what things were trendy?
All of a sudden, what was just an orange has suddenly begun to stand for something additional ... a functional product is slowly turning into a brand. Brands at their most basic level can be defined as “a set of tangible and intangible promises” made by a provider, which motivate them to meet a guaranteed level of product performance or service delivery.
Using my orange example, the tangible part would be the freshness, the size, the source, the taste etc. And in Bangladesh the functional benefits are well known for every single product category from oranges to fish to rice to saris to cars to banks to cell phones to hospitals.
My point is proven by how businesses of the same category all seem to be next to each other in the marketplace: all the orange sellers are next to each other, as are the pharmacies, book sellers etc.
When one walks around these markets, the only differences on offer are the functional benefits of that particular product category. None of these businesses have stated to think about the “intangible promise” that a brand could also make; it seems that the majority of local brands play only through the functional facet, leaving the emotional part silent … a tragic oversight given that Bangladeshi people are one of the most emotional people on earth.
The principles of marketing and branding should be a critical tool for societal upgradation. The legacy of “negotiation economy” is that in pursuit of the lowest possible price, quality is always sacrificed and so, across society, Bangladeshis are left with sub-standard choices.
At their most basic level, brands are shorthand for a promised level of quality, a “seal of authenticity” for the particular range of benefits that a company will offer. If applied across the entirety of the economy and civic infrastructure it will, in one stroke, raise our standards forever.
If Bangladeshi companies are to prosper in Bangladesh (with ever more international companies entering the country) as well as thrive within the global economy, they will need to integrate these “intangible” promises into their brand contract. These brands contracts must delight Bangladeshis who will treasure them as unique and wonderful manifestations of their national culture, and feel a genuine emotional connection whenever they use or interact with these brands.
As we all now know, Bangladesh has been identified by many leading bodies as one of the next 11 economies to watch around the world. Political turmoil notwithstanding, Bangladesh truly is at the juncture of unfulfilled potential. We keep being told this and by so many that at some point, we must grasp the opportunity and make good of our potential. It can be done – Silicon Valley was built is less than 15 years, Singapore in 20 years.
And those who were brave enough to grasp those opportunities presented through the diligent application of business basics retain huge market shares and profits today.
Toffael Rashid is a global marketing professional.