Monojit Lahiri explores how love, emotion, intimacy, and human connection have evolved from personal values into powerful business tools, reshaping branding, consumer loyalty, storytelling, and engagement in today’s rapidly changing emotion-driven economy.

In this thought-provoking essay, the writer examines the growing importance of emotional intelligence, empathy, storytelling, and human connection in modern marketing and branding. Drawing upon concepts such as the Attraction Economy and Kevin Roberts' Lovemarks philosophy, the article explores how brands build lasting consumer loyalty through intimacy, mystery, sensuality, and authentic engagement.  

Act I. Scene I. Enter irony, through a simple but loaded question:

Isn’t it truly intriguing that the most hymned, celebrated and revered emotion on planet Earth is, alas, allocated just one day in the year for remembrance, when hard-sell and heart-sell go on maniacal overdrive? That done, on every other day, this emotion is slung back into the deep freeze while technological prowess, pricing coups, strategic alliances and corporate muscle grab the spotlight?

The fact is, never in recorded history has there been a more desperate desire and need for love. Quickly translated, it means the love market has never been so huge and inviting. Cynics and pin-striped, collar-down marketers may scoff at this line of thought, but obviously these myopic cavemen are a universe away from the new, exciting world of the Attraction Economy, which explores the terrain through narratives that are both engaging and insightful, and that connect directly with the heart.

The Rise Of The Attraction Economy

Champions of this movement believe that old, ghisa-pita branding practices have become stultified and need to be put to sleep. In their place comes the idea of creating “love affairs” with brands—the new name of the game.

Look around and see for yourself a landscape exploding with people longing to invest in love, emotion, imagination and feeling, with one huge stumbling block: they are clueless about how to hit the button—if there is one.

Declares an amused corporate consultant: “They are caught flat-footed in the challenge of translating love into a palpable and tangible act that is warm and credible.”

To real people, it is not rocket science. It is about getting back to basics—junking those bulky reports and endless research studies and leveraging this emotion as a strategic device for consumer connect.

Do this and watch the bottom line soar.

Communication guru Kevin Roberts, in his landmark book The Lovemarks Effect, reckons that three outstanding attributes define this template: Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy.

“Mystery is about stories, metaphors, dreams and symbols, a space where past, present and future become one. Also, what keeps long-term relationships alive? Sensuality keeps the five senses on red alert for new textures, intriguing scents and tastes, great music and spellbinding imagery. Intimacy invokes empathy, commitment and passion—the small, perfect gesture. These are connections that win intense loyalty and are remembered long after features and benefits have faded away. With intimacy comes the feeling of brand ownership.”

Powerful stuff.

The Lovemarks Effect And Consumer Loyalty

Smart, sensitive, insightful and clued-in communicators have always understood, recognized and cashed in on this emotion intelligently to escape the commodity trap and place brands where they belong—centre stage.

Declares behavioural scientist Kishore Ullal, who specializes in brand studies: “This is a hallowed space reserved totally for charismatic brands—Pepsi, Coke, Reebok, Nike, Apple, Fevicol, Tanishq, Vodafone, Airtel, Lux, HDFC, Archies—which inspire passion and loyalties that are non-negotiable.

What better time than today’s cynical and complex world to get love back on track? Reaffirm what smart emotion-driven marketers have always believed: in the war between reason and emotion, get your facts straight. Reason leads to conclusion. Emotion drives action.”

There you have it. 

If fun, sensuality, mystery and intimacy enthral, engage, entertain, enrich and empower life, why should they be blinkered off from the communication thrust related to trade and commerce, business and industry?

After all, aren’t these activities ultimately driven by people?

Why should we not substitute the dumb, impersonal, corporatized, passion-trimmed-into-efficiency mode with a strong, personal and emotional connect?

The questions are not merely rhetorical. They go to the very heart of how brands can remain relevant in an age where consumers are overloaded with information but starved of genuine engagement.

From Consumer Contact To Consumer Connection

Starbucks, Cafe Coffee Day, Barista and even ICICI Bank advertising seem to be doing it brilliantly, all the time.

Explains Kolkata-based adman Kanchan Datta: “They’ve understood that the rules of the game have changed. It’s no longer only about consumer contact programmes; it’s about hanging out and being involved. Not about taking notes, but taking the pulse.

Also, they’ve recognized that the research guys, after researching the hell out of what they believe needs to be researched, have conveniently ignored the rest.”

And therein lies the challenge. The truth is that everything of value cannot be probed, dissected, analysed, scanned and researched for the right answer.

Why?

Because then we are in danger—as one perceptive pundit brilliantly put it—of being exactly wrong instead of approximately right; of placing consumers at the base of the pyramid rather than at the centre; of mistaking the fingers on our hands for the beat of our hearts.

This is where emotion enters the frame—not as a sentimental add-on, but as a vital business tool capable of creating authentic human relationships.

The Emotion Economy And The Future Of Storytelling

So what’s the takeaway?

Basically, we need to stop merely talking about love and emotion and actually set them to work. We need to blend them into the rampaging new-age Emotion Economy.

The entertainment industry provides a brilliant setting for this transformation. It appeals to our creative, unconscious and intuitive side—zones that operate beyond rationality and rules, celebrating storytelling, mystery and metaphor.

These are the spaces where enduring relationships are built. These are the spaces where brands cease to be products and become experiences.

Love As The Ultimate CEO

So at the end of the day, is love a mango, a four-letter word, a many-splendored thing, or the April rose that only grows in the early spring?

Is it nature’s way of giving a reason for living? The golden crown that makes a man a king?

You decide.

But yes, the jury is out, and the popular consensus is that, everything considered, love is indeed the CEO that presides over all constituencies and target groups simply because it unfailingly conquers the most significant, critical, precious, sacrosanct and empowering territory of all—your heart.

Hey guys, give LOVE a chance!