The Importance of Emotion

I am reading this great book 'Firms of Endearment' (which you can buy on Amazon). I strongly suggest anyone who is supporting a consumer business should read this book. Whilst I am only a little way through so far, one of the points the book makes is about the importance of arousing emotions in dealing with consumers.

 'A brand or company that fails to arouse a consumer's emotion in positive ways will not have consumer's loyalty. And the same holds true for employees'....

So, what has this to do with retail investing and the wealth management industry? Quite a lot I think.

Firstly, that interaction with consumers and retaining loyalty (in order to retain and grow revenue streams) means more providing content in the context of each consumer to arouse emotions. Those propositions that are too blunt and just about the product, instead of about the client, are likely to suffer. To really be about the client, it means it has to be about their investment portfolio, their situation, and their performance.

Secondly, unless a firm is passionate about what it does in the context of the consumer, it may struggle to retain talent also. Firms moving from an absolute culture to a client culture are more likely to attract and retain the best, motivated people.