In order to flourish, companies and organizations today must understand that they are not in the business of making a certain product or providing a certain service, but rather they offer something much more encompassing, much more fundamental: they are in the business of enriching people’s lives. They are in the business of making people’s lives more fun, more thrilling, simpler, more comfortable, more liberating, safer, more meaningful, more efficient and more harmonious. This seemingly small shift in strategic thinking is huge. It allows companies and organizations to infatuate large groups of consumers and to do so continuously.
You want an inspirational example? How about this one from the news: Pope Benedict recently joined Twitter, and will make his first tweet on December 12th, probably the most anticipated tweet in history. How can this seemingly simple move help to create Slingshot-like lifestyle enrichment for over one billion Catholics worldwide? Here’s how:
Combining already existing yet previously separate elements. Take a very traditional institution like the Catholic church, and combine it with cutting edge social media technology — something that at first seems oxymoronic. Yet on second thought, it seems perfectly fitting, because it creates new value for the target audience.[Image via Wall Street Journal.]
Turning pain points into infatuation points. An important pain point of Catholics is that they feel too far removed from the head of their church. Another is that religious connectivity is too infrequent and regulated — in the form of weekly church services. So the Pope’s presence on Twitter turns these points into points of infatuation as believers are all the sudden directly connected with the head of the church, and they can get words of wisdom and inspiration from him on a continuous basis.
Broadened relevance. The church is seen as less relevant by new generations. By having a presence on Twitter, the Pope immediately expands his relevance and audience to a young generation that is growing up on social media. In fact, in a recent Wall Street Journal article, Msgr. Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications notes that there’s “ ‘No doubt that Twitter has precious characteristics that we are interested in,’ notably that 40% of its 140 million active accounts are held by 18- to 34-year-olds.”
