Clever Geek Handbook
13 October 2025

A Woman's Place Is in the Boardroom

Recommendation

The numbers are revealing: Women held only 14% of US directorships in 2003 and only 10% of UK corporate board seats a year later. Why does such a dearth of distaff board members prevail when a vast majority of women hold jobs, make most major home and business purchases, and outnumber men in attaining university degrees? Is this imbalance due to the male-oriented corporate culture, child rearing issues, biased recruitment and promotion policies, all of the above or something else entirely? Consultants Peninah Thomson and Jacey Graham thoroughly explore this issue, examining the reasons why the gap exists, why companies would be healthier with a greater female board representation and what firms can do about it. They also detail how they formed the “Financial Times/Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 Cross-Company Mentoring Program” as one solution to the problem. The book’s conversational flow makes up for its repetition and lack of synthesized information. BooksInShort suggests it to all executives who seek balanced corporate governance and particularly to women who aspire to directorships.

Take-Aways

  • Women are grossly underrepresented on large corporations’ boards: In 2004, only 10% of UK board seats belonged to women; in 2003, women held just 14% of US board seats.
  • Females make the majority of purchasing decisions both in the home and the workplace.
  • Gender-equal boards would correspond better to “the ‘mind’ of [the] market.”
  • Men and women exercise different yet complementary styles. Together they could create a new, superior management paradigm.
  • Male CEOs don’t consider child rearing a deal breaker in promoting women.
  • Male-oriented corporate cultures are one reason why women don’t ascend to the boardroom in greater numbers.
  • Development, mentoring and coaching are crucial for women who aspire to directorships.
  • The “Financial Times/Stock Exchange 100 Cross-Company Mentoring Program” began in the UK in 2004 to develop a “pipeline” of incipient female directors.
  • Measuring gender imbalances in your company can quantify this issue and provide a launching pad for solutions.
  • Sustained change requires “individual, team and systems” commitments

Summary

Why She Who Controls the Purse Doesn’t Rule the Business World

Women make up slightly more than half the world’s population. In the United States and United Kingdom, they make more purchasing decisions than men and earn the majority of bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Women own more than a third of US businesses. Worldwide, they “influence” greater than 85% of buying choices, purchase more than half of all new cars and “start 35% of new businesses.” Yet, in 2003, women held only 13.6% of Fortune 500 company directorships; in 2004, only 9.7% of Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 directors were female. Given their overriding presence in economic life, why are so few women on corporate boards?

“These large, increasingly global institutions that shape our world and our lives are themselves misshapen, because they are led and governed almost entirely by men.”

While many reasons exist for the lack of female directors, the question of whether to have more women serve in corporate boardrooms no longer is debatable. Greater female involvement in corporate governance draws talent from the entire labor pool at a time when skills and capabilities are in great demand. In general, women bring different strengths and management styles to the board table than men. A fairer representation of women on corporate boards would give companies a competitive edge over firms that rely solely on male expertise.

To Buy or Not to Buy...Only a Woman Knows

Women make the majority of purchasing decisions in the home and in the workplace. When it comes to buying furniture, planning vacations or purchasing a new house, more than 80% of the time a woman makes or influences the decision. Even for automobiles and consumer electronics – sectors where you might think men dominate – women drive 60% of the purchasing decisions about cars and 51% about electronics. In the US, more than half of working women contribute most of their families’ incomes, and, in most homes, women manage the household finances.

“Our research has convinced us that there is no conspiracy and that if there is a glass ceiling, it is not of man’s deliberate making.”

The workplace is no different, with American women holding more than 50% of purchasing manager jobs. They also wield enormous power over health plans and pension funds, given their predominance in human resources. In addition, women own 38% of American companies, hiring more than 27 million workers and producing more than $3.5 trillion in yearly revenues.

“The reason large companies should appoint more women to senior management positions is that it will improve their performance.”

Since women make the majority of purchasing decisions, assuming that companies would benefit by having women on their boards is not a huge leap. A 2004 UK study found that firms with female directors generated greater returns than companies led exclusively by men. A US research project the same year concluded that companies with a more equitable gender mix achieved a higher return on equity than those with a less-diverse board. Although the studies don’t prove that a better gender balance among board members leads to higher earnings, they do support the intuitive reasoning behind it.

He Tarzan, She Jane

Women and men have different strengths. For example, tests reveal that girls are more skilled verbally, while boys tend to excel at mathematics. Women communicate differently as well, looking for collaboration, empathy and bonding experiences. Men, however, seek status by displaying position and knowledge in their communications.

“The root of the problem lies not so much in the culture’s ideals of femininity, as in the distinctively masculine culture that has evolved in companies.”

Men created and shaped the corporate environment, so the traditional business culture is male-oriented, making it easier for men to navigate and get ahead. The hierarchical, linear structure of most corporations plays to men’s strengths. Men compete aggressively for position and openly exhibit ambition. However, many women don’t want others to view them as ambitious because they associate that trait with being self-serving or manipulative. Women also tend to shy away from “office politics,” an aversion that hampers their advancement. Cultural conditioning inhibits women in corporate settings that favor men’s natural abilities and inclinations.

“The evidence suggests there are two board pipelines, one for men, one for women, and that the women’s is much leakier than the men’s.”

While the numbers of men and women starting their careers are almost the same, “many more women drop out as they climb their career ladders.” Among women with MBA degrees, only two-thirds work full time, while 95% of their male counterparts hold full-time jobs, according to a 2005 Harvard Business Review article. Why do women leave their jobs? Many wish to have children or need to care for elderly parents. Others quit work because they find it unfulfilling, or they feel out of step with corporate cultures. One female executive commented, “You break so many glass ceilings on the way up...that you finally come to realize that you have accumulated a lot of shards along the way.”

In the Minds of Men

Several CEOs and chairmen of Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies – “the corporate kings” – shared their opinions on gender inequality on boards of directors. They commented on why so few women are appointed to boards, how they felt about naming women to boards and what they could do to add to the numbers of female directors. The interviews revealed several themes:

  • Some industries, such as mining, engineering and investment banking, are more male-oriented than other sectors, such as retail or health care. Fields with “macho” cultures make it more difficult for women to fit in and succeed.
  • The career path to a board candidacy requires a lot of travel, relocation or operational experience. Male executives commonly believe that women are less willing to travel and move than men.
  • Many CEOs view the lack of viable female candidates as a “pipeline” issue rather than a discrimination issue: The labor pool lacks enough eligible women for board positions.
  • They also believe that once women start holding more board seats, “a tipping point” will occur and others quickly will follow.
  • Most male executives concur that women bring valuable leadership qualities to the boardroom. But some ask how much those factors outweigh the traits at which men excel.
  • They acknowledge child rearing as an issue that affects women’s careers more than men’s, but don’t consider it a deal breaker in promoting women.
  • All the corporate kings agree that excluding “half the world’s talent pool” from board consideration would lead to serious competitive disadvantages.

“The Marzipan Layer”: Living Just Below the Frosting on the Cake

The researchers asked similar questions of women in senior management roles just below the board level, the rank that Laura Tyson, dean of London Business School, deems “the marzipan layer.” Female executives believe that fewer women are in the pipeline because corporate cultures make it easier for men to progress up the career ladder. These high-status women suggest that men are subconsciously biased when they lean toward male candidates for board positions.

“There comes a stage in the careers of many able and ambitious women when they begin to feel a little like a fish out of water.”

“Marzipan women” feel that men often misinterpret their cues. When women don’t broadcast their ambitions as men do, men interpret that reticence as a lack of ability and desire. Female executives agree that women gravitate to “pink collar” departments, such as human resources, which give them less exposure to operations or other paths that lead to the boardroom.

“Climbing the ladder up to the boardroom is not, of course, the ambition of every woman and we’re not suggesting it should be.”

Some distaff executives believe that many women don’t crave board positions as men do: Perhaps women don’t feel that the time, personal sacrifices, or risk and exposure are worth it. However, the interviewees concur that training and mentoring programs are crucial for those who do aspire to directorships.

“The FTSE 100 Cross-Company Mentoring Program”

Mentoring programs invite experienced executives to give advice, lend support, share knowledge and offer guidance to junior colleagues. In an effort to increase the numbers of women holding board positions, authors Peninah Thomson and Jacey Graham developed the FTSE 100 Cross-Company Mentoring Program in the UK in 2004. Initially, 20 male CEOs and chairmen from large corporations agreed to mentor women in senior positions at other companies. The ultimate goal of the program is to help marzipan women gain directorships at FTSE 100 companies or in the public sector. The program’s guidelines call for mentoring relationships that are “based on mutual respect, candor and trust,” and that encourage open communication about objectives and experiences. Early feedback from the coaches and the coached indicate that mentoring benefits both parties: It provides the mentor with an opportunity to consider the role of his company’s marzipan layer, and it affords the female executive a chance to consult with a seasoned veteran of corporate boardrooms.

Yin and Yang Are Better Than Yang Alone

Research supports the premise that firms led by men and women work better than companies governed by people of a single gender. Organizational development specialist Carlotta Tyler studied more than 1,500 female leaders from 1981 to 1997. She concluded that women’s approaches to work complement men’s methods. The combination of the two different styles creates a better, more efficient archetype. The female work model is collaborative and relationship-based, while the male style is hierarchical and results-oriented. Men tend to be linear and sequential in their thinking, while women prefer an exchange of ideas and a circuitous process to reach conclusions.

“With cultures, the devil is in the detail, in the micro-messages employees and other constituencies are constantly transmitting and receiving.”

The Management Research Group conducted a study of 900 male and 900 female managers in the US and Canada to identify gender differences. The project, which gathered information from the respondents as well as from their superiors, peers and subordinates, found that:

  • Women attained higher rankings on leadership measures, while men did better on “strategic planning and business orientation.”
  • “Women were seen as more energetic, intense and emotional. Men were seen more as low-key, understated, quiet,” and better at “controlling their emotions.”
  • Women scored better on “people-oriented skills.” Bosses believed that male managers were more adept at “business-oriented skills,” but their subordinates disagreed.
  • Their superiors judged both genders as “equally effective overall,” while colleagues and subordinates selected women as “slightly more effective than men.”

Next Steps

How can you help women succeed, in the short and long term, in your corporate structure? To anchor this issue in facts and numbers, conduct a quantitative analysis of your firm’s governance. If the statistics show that women are underrepresented in your management, you can’t deny the problem. Expand awareness of gender inequality within the company, enlist support from upper management and promote change. Raw data will provide a starting point for determining objectives, developing a strategy and considering implementation. Your firm also must ensure that its recruitment policy aligns with its vision of attracting and promoting female candidates.

“If the appointment of a woman to a board drives egos from the room, that’s almost reason enough for appointing her.”

Companies can provide mentoring, coaching, education and development programs to help female employees get ahead. Creating a women’s exchange within a company will help women come together to network and to navigate corporate politics, two areas in which they tend to do less well than their male counterparts.

“There is nothing right or wrong about organizational politics – it just is.”

Sustained change requires a commitment in three arenas: “individual, team and systems.” To create a gender-inclusive culture, get all your business’s constituents to examine their assumptions and attitudes, and to discard restricting behaviors. Modify team dynamics that exclude female members by demonstrating the value of diverse viewpoints and experiences. In the words of one female executive, “It’s not enough to surround yourself with people who are different. You only get the real benefits if you value the differences and create a climate that allows everyone to bring all of themselves to work.”

About the Authors

Peninah Thomson is a consultant at Praesta Partners, an executive coaching firm. Jacey Graham co-founded Brook Graham LLP, which specializes in corporate diversity management.

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A Woman's Place Is in the Boardroom

Book A Woman's Place Is in the Boardroom

Palgrave Macmillan,
 


13 October 2025

Managing Your Own Learning

Recommendation

Managers and trainers rely on James R. Davis and Adelaide B. Davis’ book on training strategies, which the authors now have adapted as a personal self-help guide to learning. Although they touch briefly on underlying learning theories and present examples of learning from diverse academic fields (i.e. psychology, sociology, philosophy and communications), this is primarily a step-by-step manual. It begins with a brief self-assessment, guiding you to examine your strengths and weaknesses and to decide what you want to learn. Then, the authors explain how and when to use each of the seven major approaches to learning: behavioral, cognitive, inquiry, mental models, collaborative, virtual realities and holistic learning. They also suggest the best ways to learn in each category. Their well organized book lists major principles, enumerates rules, and provides a summary of each chapter. BooksInShort recommends this individually directed manual to those who wish to make the most of the time they spend absorbing new information.

Take-Aways

  • The four keys to effective learning are: planning for learning, organizing your participation in learning, motivating yourself to learn and controlling your learning.
  • Start your learning plan with an honest analysis of what you have already learned.
  • To identify gaps in your learning, compare what you know with what you want to know.
  • Well established theories about learning support each of the seven ways to learn.
  • Behavioral learning requires acquiring a new skill.
  • Cognitive learning involves learning from presentations or other acquired information.
  • Inquiry learning is based on thinking and asking questions.
  • Use mental models to learn problem solving and decision making.
  • Learning through virtual reality involves practicing activities in a safe, simulated environment.
  • Holistic learning is learning from experience.

Summary

Preparing to Learn

At this time of rapid change, everyone must be a perpetual learner. The key to being a good learner is learning more about learning, so that you can make the most of what you learn from any effort you undertake. You want to become proficient at the process of learning itself. You need to have this ability, since what counts today are not credentials but high-quality performance, which requires the ability to continually learn and improve.

“Effective thinkers in the workplace are the people who generate ideas, develop and analyze proposals, invent new products, devise new services, suggest quality improvements, or sift through the information flowing through the organization to distinguish sense from nonsense.”

The four keys to being an effective learner are:

  1. Plan for learning — Don’t wait for learning opportunities. Analyze what you need to learn and seek out experiences that fulfill your needs.
  2. Organize your participation in learning — You will learn more if you understand how learning occurs and decide how you can participate most effectively.
  3. Motivate yourself to learn — Understand what inspires and intrigues you.
  4. Control your learning — Seek feedback on how well you have learned. Research other resources that can provide you with additional information so you can learn more.

Your Learning Plan

To begin the learning process, create a learning plan. First, honestly analyze what you have already learned. Assess your formal education. What are your proficiencies — your basic skills or building blocks of learning, such as reading, writing, speaking, communication skills, language skills and performance skills? In what fields are you conversant — what are the fields in which you know the basic information and ways of thinking? What are your specialties? Where do you have special expertise, in either an academic, occupational, or professional area? Create a chart in which you assess what you have previously learned at each level of knowledge. Note the gaps in your learning and figure out what else you want to know and achieve. Be as specific as you can when you do this analysis.

“The essence of behavioral learning is action — having the opportunity to practice the skill under guidance.”

To apply this approach to improving your job performance, analyze the job itself. Examine what you need to know to perform your job well, or better. Discuss your job with others to get their suggestions on how to accomplish your job so effectively that you become more valuable to your company. Think about transforming the job into a different and better job. Project your job into the future to imagine what skills you might need.

“The mind needs some system for dealing with the complexity posed by problem solving and decision making. This is why we turn to mental models.”

Include related learning in your plan, so that you learn material beyond your field. This enables you to communicate better with your peers, subordinates and superiors. This related learning also can give you a broader perspective about your own field and about diverse ways to become more effective.

“Generate information that will help you decide what you need to learn to be able to improve performance, develop capacity, or build on your interests. The goal is knowing what you need and want to know.”

Once you have analyzed your current learning, compare what you have discovered with what you want to know, so you can identify gaps to fill. Then, determine what kind of formal and informal learning is necessary to fill these gaps. Once you have a clear idea of what you want to learn, you can think clearly about how you want to learn it.

Learner, Know Thyself

When you really know yourself as a learner, you can estimate your own needs and potential more accurately. This allows you to match your abilities more effectively with what and how you want to learn. Consider your age, intelligence, aptitude, achievement or current level of learning and motivation. Also, know your learning style — including your personality type and your preferred sensory modalities for learning (auditory, visual, or tactile-kinesthetic). This can help you choose and shape the learning experiences that are best for you. Armed with this information, you can select appropriate learning situations, recognize your strengths and limitations, realize the effort you will need to expend, and determine how much time you will need to invest in learning.

The Seven Ways of Learning

In managing your own learning, you will find it helpful to know about the seven ways of learning. Well established theories about learning underlie these approaches, which have been the subject of extensive research. Select a method according to how you learn and what you want to know. These seven learning methods are: behavioral learning, cognitive learning, inquiry learning, mental models, collaborative learning, virtual realities and holistic learning. Use the type of learning that is best for achieving the results you want.

Behavioral Learning: New Skills

Use behavioral learning to gain a new skill. This approach works for learning mental, cognitive, or physical skills (which psychologists call psychomotor skills). B.F. Skinner first developed the ideas behind behavioral learning in the 1950s, building on the work of E. L. Thorndike. He created one of the first learning theories — that behavior is affected by consequences, such as reward or punishment.

“Learning is the key to flourishing and prospering in this new area. Learning awakens our sensibilities, enables us to actualize our aspirations, and takes us places we never dreamed of going.”

The basic approach of behavioral learning is to set goals or objectives, and then pursue them in a series of small steps called tasks. This process is known as task analysis. Start by establishing a learning baseline, such as by taking a written or physical “pretest,” to show your current level of skill. Then analyze the tasks involved and work on learning each step. As you go along, seek feedback on how you are doing and reinforce yourself with rewards for good performance. Punishment can serve as negative reinforcement, but generally just the avoidance of punishment or negative consequences discourages unwanted behavior. Focus on positive rewards.

“Include in your plan for learning the related learning you will need outside your field so that you can communicate better, broaden your perspective and be more creative and effective.”

Today, you can use this approach in computer-based learning, including computer-assisted instruction (CAI), which provides reinforcement through feedback programmed into the software itself.

Cognitive Learning: Learning from Presentations

Cognitive learning involves learning new ideas or functions from presentations or acquired information. The theory of cognitive learning says that you learn as information makes an impression on any of your five senses. Your internal filters let information pass through or screen it out, depending on what you want to know. Information that comes in is analyzed and encoded. It enters your short-term memory for a few seconds, and will disappear unless you store it (that is, learn it) in long-term memory.

“Context, meaning and prior knowledge deeply affect our understanding of information.”

In cognitive learning, you must pay attention and stay focused. Since you cannot pay attention to everything, figure out what is most important (for example, discern the key points in a presentation). Don’t overload your learning system. People can only focus on one thing at a time. Periodically refocus your attention and avoid distractions as you learn, so you continue to absorb information. It is natural to interpret what you are learning, so you will learn better if you look for overall patterns, context and meaning. Building bridges from your prior learning also helps you remember.

Inquiry Learning: Learning to Think

Inquiry learning uses thought and analytical questions. It involves evaluating information, criticizing it, transforming it, and using it to reach conclusions. The practice of learning by asking questions and answering them has a long history, going back to Plato and Aristotle.

“Learning through inquiry is a way of learning that proceeds by asking questions.”

The three types of thinking in inquiry learning are critical thinking, creative thinking and dialogical thinking. In critical thinking, you judge the authenticity, worth, or accuracy of something and look at its reasons or justifications. You need to ask the right questions, look for premises and assumptions and avoid jumping to the wrong conclusions. In creative thinking, you seek original ideas. Finally, in dialogical thinking, you evaluate different points of view and frames of reference as you examine both sides of an argument.

Mental Models: Solving Problems and Making Decisions

Mental models are helpful in finding and defining problems, generating ideas for solutions, and evaluating and choosing among possible solutions. Mental models can help you solve problems and make decisions because they help you deal with complexity. Using these models, you can proceed through the steps involved in solving a problem, weighing your options and predicting the likely outcomes of each choice.

“Groups are especially good for diverse kinds of collaborative learning.”

In the basic problem-solving model, start with a goal, consider the initial information you have, and look at the gap between the goal and your current problem. Then, explore different solutions and consider the barriers to each one. The mental models available for this process include random search, trial and error, a means-end analysis, working backwards from the goal, simplification, and using data, graphs, and diagrams. In decision making, you want to consider values, identify possible outcomes, weigh the desirability of different outcomes, predict their likelihood, establish your selection criteria, and make a choice.

Collaborative Learning: Learning in a Group

Collaborative learning involves changing opinions, attitudes and beliefs; understanding feelings and establishing empathy; working in teams, or building interpersonal speaking and listening skills. Group learning is effective in generating ideas, understanding communication and human relations, changing attitudes and practicing teamwork. Group communication usually operates on two simultaneous levels — on the task level, participants are communicating about the work to be done, and on the process level, participants are responding to the group’s social needs. You can assume various roles in a group, such as the task-oriented role of being an information seeker or information giver, or the process-oriented role of being an encourager or harmonizer. Group learning occurs through sharing and listening as you work together to gain information or accomplish tasks.

Virtual Reality: Learning through Practice Simulations

Use virtual reality practice sessions when you want to improve performance by practicing professional activities in a safe, simulated environment. This is especially appropriate in risky situations, such as using a high-tech simulated cockpit to train a pilot or a plastic dummy to teach CPR. But even when no danger is present, you can increase your competence by practicing in realistic simulation conducted in a safe environment. This can include using a role-playing exercise before a critical presentation, or acting out an interaction between a dissatisfied customer and a sales clerk.

Holistic Learning: Learning from Experience

In learning from experience, you want to reflect on what has occurred and draw meaning from it. Then, you can absorb your new experiences into previously established frameworks of meaning (assimilation), change your interpretation to assign new meanings (accommodation), or adjust two or more sets of interpretations at the same time (differentiation and integration). As with the other models of learning, this helps you understand, retain and employ the knowledge you have acquired as the manager of your own learning.

About the Author

James R. Davis  is a professor at the University of Denver. His books include Better Teaching, More Learning and Interdisciplinary Courses and Team Teaching. He co-authored Effective Training Strategies: A Comprehensive Guide to Maximizing Learning in Organizations with Adelaide B. Davis.  She served as a training analyst for a state-managed public utilities company, and taught human resource management at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

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Managing Your Own Learning

Book Managing Your Own Learning

Berrett-Koehler,
 


13 October 2025

Built to Love

Recommendation

Life might seem pretty empty without your Apple iPhone, Starbucks latte or Harley-Davidson motorcycle. There are good reasons for that. These iconic brands understand the value of emotions and design emotional connections into every aspect of their products, including delivery, packaging, website and design. Professors Peter Boatwright and Jonathan Cagan outline the link between positive consumer emotions and product profitability. They clarify the challenges of synthesizing emotion into products, and they present the “Product Emotion Strategy” to help businesses achieve this goal. They support their theories with dozens of case-in-point examples, including McDonald’s fast-food restaurants, Blue Hose plumbing supplies and LoneStar trucks. BooksInShort warmly recommends this book to executives, product designers and managers, engineers, and marketers.

Take-Aways

  • Products that are “built to love” purposefully connect emotionally with consumers.
  • Positive feelings about products produces repeat business and enhanced brand image.
  • Product features – such as design, usability, color, and so forth – elicit emotion.
  • High-emotion companies outperform firms that offer just quality products.
  • Companies deliver emotions externally through “associated emotions” or internally via “supported emotions.”
  • Associated emotions are “created autonomously of the features of a product” via channels such as advertising.
  • The product itself inspires supported emotions.
  • Every interaction between a customer and a product offers a “touchpoint,” an opportunity to connect.
  • Compare your products’ “touchpoints” with other items purchased by your preferred customers.
  • Once you’ve identified touchpoints, design them into your product.

Summary

Talking About Emotion

Every product category includes some items that people love. This rare, wonderful connection often occurs by happenstance rather than design. For the most part, people buy products because they fulfill a particular need or function. They might be good products or even the best available, but they don’t necessarily elicit positive emotions from the user.

“Emotion is fundamental to all that is human, including the products that we enjoy.”

“The difference between an ordinary product and a captivating product is emotion.” Rather than rely on a happy accident, your company should try from the outset to design products that connect emotionally with the consumer, engendering passion and loyalty. Such products are “built to love.” Many companies offer products and services that arouse strong feelings in their customers. For example, because Navistar’s LoneStar truck so effectively meets every need of long-haul truckers, many drivers sport tattoos of the LoneStar logo. People love their Apple iPods, KitchenAid toasters and waffle makers, BMW cars, or Webkinz stuffed animals. Each of these products fulfills a functional need while making customers feel good about using it.

“People buy products that make them feel better or safer or prouder.”

Companies focus on making emotional connections with consumers at the time of purchase. Those emotions, however, are fleeting. Products that stimulate an ongoing, positive experience provoke emotions in buyers that endure for the item’s lifetime. Consumers talk about those products to their friends and purchase them repeatedly. Because the Internet connects people around the world, such opinions from consumers often carry more weight than traditional advertising.

“People buy and pay for what they value, and everyone values emotion.”

When people feel good about a product, their emotions expand to include the brand. Then the brand must acknowledge, value and reinforce such feelings. However, many businesses focus almost exclusively on features and costs, ignoring the consumers’ experiences with the product. Savvy marketers can alter their strategy, expanding beyond product performance to anticipating and gratifying consumers’ emotional needs.

The Bottom Line

Product features – design, usability, color, and so forth – elicit emotion. Consider how a supple leather car seat, a hefty screwdriver or a hotel lobby’s plush carpeting make you feel. Yet, as valuable as these positive feelings are, they can be hard to quantify.

“The cost of emotions is merely the cost of thoughtful execution of product features.”

Products and services evoke emotions through visual prompts, crafted features, and thoughtful communication and interaction. Emotional value emerges from features companies usually develop anyway. Often, designing for color, shape and ease-of-use is no more expensive than creating something dull or cumbersome.

“The design of the product form should...involve thought, research and a deliberate emotional connection to the customer.”

McDonald’s and Starbucks provide relevant successful examples. McDonald’s excels at the efficient preparation and fast delivery of food. Children enjoy the play areas, toys and fun-to-eat meals, while adults appreciate the simplicity and ease. McDonald’s reinforces these positive feelings in every aspect of its design and delivery, down to easy-to-open hamburger wrappers. In its early years, Starbucks enjoyed incredible success without investing in national advertising by creating an atmosphere where people could hang out, a “third place” to be outside of work and home.

“In general, people seek out products that make them feel good, that get their tasks done easier or faster, and improve their personal well-being and attitude.”

Companies can inculcate “emotion through their...physical products, software, services and brand.” Firms that provide emotional value will reap the monetary rewards. An analysis of stock returns showed that high-emotion companies, such as Apple and Google, outperform companies that have quality products and services but neglect the emotional component. This holds true even in depressed economic times.

Ways to the Heart

You can connect to your consumers’ emotions through “supported emotions” (feelings inspired directly by the product) or “associated emotions” (feelings that “are created autonomously of the features of a product”). Advertising, for example, evokes associated emotions to introduce a new product, to build awareness or to motivate a purchase. Consider the Coca-Cola ad aired during the 2008 Super Bowl, which featured Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade balloons fighting over an inflated bottle of Coke. The ad never mentioned taste, price or availability. Its sole purpose was to inspire feelings of happiness, satisfaction, freedom and victory.

“Emotion must be embraced in the most in-touch consumer company as well as the most mundane B-to-B company, for emotion is human and its reach is vast.”

Associated emotions manifest independently of actual product experience. It can take time and a significant advertising investment to cement consumers’ mental associations. The advertising implies that the product will fulfill a promise. If the product follows through on its promise, the advertising claim is authentic; this blurs the line between associated emotions and supported emotions. However, if the product falls short, advertising only manipulates consumers’ emotions, causing disappointment and loss of trust.

“Touchpoints are the means to transform a product from mundane to exciting, from ordinary to emotionally satisfying.”

A product itself can inspire supported emotions. Companies that build emotion directly into their products enjoy higher profits, increased customer approval, and positive buzz on blogs and other word-of-mouth vehicles. These enterprises can spend less on marketing because the product speaks for itself. Businesses can engage with customers via their products’ features, design and service. Apple has a high level of emotional engagement with its customers and a fanatical following. Apple software is user friendly, and is easy to understand and implement. Apple showrooms promote interaction with the firm’s products in an open, friendly environment hosted by knowledgeable computer professionals. Apple’s website is accessible and visually pleasing. The company’s functional and enticing packaging supports the entire experience.

“To truly deliver on a promise that captivates customers is to deliver on emotions, allowing the right emotions to flow through and energize your market.”

Emotional engagement is not limited to retail. It matters as much to the business-to-business arena. You might expect plumbing supplies to be a purely functional commodity. Dormont Manufacturing makes Blue Hose, a flexible pipe used to connect an appliance with a gas source. The installer puts in the pipe, and consumers rarely see or think of it. However, contractors, designers and builders have emotional issues: safety and regulatory compliance. Blue Hose excels in both areas, engendering loyalty and an emotional connection with its customers. Thereby, it outperforms its competitors.

“Product Emotion Strategy”

Companies can design products with emotional engagement in mind by using the “Model of Creating Products that Captivate Customers.” This three-step framework is as follows:

  1. “Determine appropriate emotions” – What kind of feelings does the product or company evoke?
  2. “Craft emotion strategy” – How should your product evoke these feelings?
  3. “Translate strategy into emotion-based features” – What “touchpoints (points of product interaction)” should your product possess?
“Every product that is carefully designed should have a consistent theme that promotes the emotion of the brand.”

Research indicates that specific emotional categories are germane to product creation. Developers of this model group these emotions into 16 categories: “Independent, Secure, Confident, Powerful, Passionate, Compassionate, Content, Optimistic, Joyful, Proud, Sensuous, Adventurous, Honorable, Luxurious, Connected” and “Distinct.” When formulating a “product emotion strategy,” companies identify which emotions they want to trigger. This requires a thorough understanding of their target customers’ inspirations, goals and needs.

“The best design will be one that engenders the desired emotions.”

The “eMap” (emotion map) tool helps designers develop their product’s emotional strategy. The eMap provides insights about a company, its brand and its products that management can use to design future products and services. The eMap employs a seven-point scale (from -3 to +3) to measure emotions, listing the 16 positive emotion categories down the left-hand side of a page, with their corresponding negative categories on the right. The eMap enables management to set strategy by analyzing the responses to the following five questions:

  1. “Define terms” – What are the “product emotion categories”?
  2. “Current state” – How does your current brand fare, and what is its competition?
  3. “Goal state” – Considering all factors, what is your company’s desired category score?
  4. “Attributes” – What are your company’s aspects, as measured by each category?
  5. “Synthesis” – What product features are most stimulating and pertinent?
“Today’s marketplace is looking for an authentic relationship with its products.”

Every interaction between a customer and a product or service provides a touchpoint. For example, the visual aspect of a product can offer a powerful emotional connection. A product’s visual identity should reinforce its emotion strategy. Harley-Davidson motorcycles provide an excellent example of familiar design elements consistently supporting consumers’ emotional connection with the brand. Riders can easily identify a Harley-Davidson motorcycle by its “teardrop” fuel tank, round headlight, dipped elongated seat and wide fenders. Its visual identity evokes a set of desirable emotions: freedom, rebellion, independence and pride. As a result, Harley-Davidson customers are famously passionate about their motorcycles.

“The ultimate goal is to create emotions supported by the product and associated with a brand.”

The “Integrated Brand Identity Map” translates brands’ emotional goals into an understandable physical chart. List design elements down the left side of a page. List emotional goals across the top. Rank each brand you are analyzing in terms of how different design elements match various emotional objectives. To convey visual touchpoints, designers analyze how features and form influence emotional interactions. The process you would use to “translate emotion to touchpoint features” includes these four steps:

  1. “Identify touchpoint attributes” – These create emotion. Compare your products’ touchpoints with other items purchased by your preferred customers.
  2. “Integrate” – Once you’ve identified relevant touchpoints, design them into your product.
  3. “Test” – Present the product to your desired customers, study their emotional responses and find out what they feel.
  4. “Iterate” – Refine your product until customers respond with the emotions you seek.

Emotion Categories

Societal issues strike an emotional nerve and offer an important opportunity to connect with customers. Today’s consumers care about the environment, health care, social responsibility and globalization. Companies that consider these and other societal issues during their product development and as part of their marketing strategy will connect emotionally with their product’s constituency.

Nike developed “Nike Trash Talk,” a basketball shoe made entirely from manufacturing waste materials, such as rubber scraps. Wearers felt good about a shoe that supported sustainability and also performed well and looked cool. Users enjoyed working in partnership with Nike to address an environmental problem, and the shoe proved a financial success. Nike did well by doing good.

You might assume that highly technical products don’t evoke emotional reactions since they rely on logic and science. However, feelings such as optimism about a better future, adventure and even fear of the unknown affect consumer choices. Many health care companies are exploring ways to create an emotional connection to their consumers, such as by using music, massage, lighting and other atmospherics to ease stress and enhance the patient’s interaction with the health care system. Managers in other technology fields are also aware of the emotional component. For instance, the NASA Mars Exploration Rovers are vehicles that land on Mars and will never interact with humans. Yet engineers designed them to be aesthetically pleasing and elegant rather than purely functional.

About the Authors

Peter Boatwright and Jonathan Cagan are principals at Carnegie Strategies LLC, an innovation and product strategy consultancy. They wrote The Design of Things to Come with Craig M. Vogel, with whom Cagan co-wrote Creating Breakthrough Products.

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Creating Products that Captivate Customers

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