Traditional marketing methods are becoming less effective, consumers are demanding more and more personalized options, and the need to generate more socially justified commercial offers is growing strongly and steadily.
This model gives rise to new problems in the field of value creation. Managers must face emotionally charged social issues and do not have a set of instruments capable of facing these new scenarios; Furthermore, companies do not have any experience with these new types of problems and there is no curriculum in business education institutions that trains them on how to face these difficulties. The growing relationship between "market share - market share" and "heart share - participation in the heart" forces companies to have a shared vision: to focus simultaneously on information and imagination and reason and emotion. The addition of the emotional component broadens the scope of the competition.Terms such as "Experiential Economics" or "Emotional Economics" should be considered in this context.
Value creation from a historical perspective
We will try to explore the changes in the value creation of society and we will analyze the mechanisms that underlie these changes. Until recently, the concept of value creation was interpreted only in financial terms. Until 1750, agriculture was the only sector in charge of creating value in society. Most of the employed population - at that time, 90% - operated in the agricultural sector, that is, in the “agricultural economy”, today that percentage has decreased to 5% in Europe and less than 3% in the United States. United. During the period of the Industrial Revolution, the majority of the employed population worked in industry (40% at its peak). Currently, the automation process has reduced this rate to 15%. Nowadays, 80% of the employed population works in the service sector and,Consequently, we are talking about a service economy. Given the recent evolution of the automation of services taken to the extreme on all fronts, without a doubt, the culmination of this economy has already been reached.
The question is how the economy will evolve in the future. The progressive creation of value in the past was: from raw materials to products and from products to goods and services; in our days, according to some authors it will imply the generation of "Experiences, Perceptions" or, according to other opinions, "Dreams and Stories". But in synthesis, the creation of value in the future will in fact be more emotional and immaterial and may take any form or framework: formulas related to theater or entertainment, aesthetic or learning proposals, stories with a script based on “we care for… ”linked to social and cultural values.
The term that encompasses all these ideas is Emotional Economy; In line with this evolution, the expectation is that in the future an increasing part of the employed population will be occupied in the “emotional sphere”. The keys to emotional professions are becoming the keys to all professions. This evolution, moreover, happens at an increasingly rapid rate. The agricultural society lasted approximately 10,000 years, the industrial society around 200 years and the information society, which appears as the result of a reflection of the Experience or Emotional society, will provoke a renewed business model and consequently a model necessarily renewed employment. Contrary to all previous economies where value creation basically revolved around the dimension of profit,The creation of value in the Emotional Economy will be a mixture of two dimensions: the individuality of the people and the perceived benefit; Companies are expected to take their responsibility and operate from this new broad social vision that includes the perceived benefit and uniqueness of each of their clients.
Based on a series of recent publications, it can be affirmed that the Emotional Economy has been approached from different perspectives:
• The American authors emphasize the aspect of "traditional benefits". They only speak of an Economic Experience if the client / guest is willing to pay more for a simple service and if they experience sensory experiences after a suitable Set Design.
• European authors, in addition to the traditional benefits and contrary to the version of the profit-seeking model as the sole business objective, take into account the dimension of “the benefits for the individuality of the client / user / guest”. In this case the starting point is another type of company, the company as a "tribe", which appeals to stories that have value for the consumer that are born from the values of the social environment where they operate, the offer is directed to their hearts and his feelings. Products / services (tactical or short-term aspect) are subordinated to history (strategic or long-term aspect).
