Brand Love & Functional Hope Are Scalable & Inspire Functional Optimism.

(Note: I’m not advocating Harlow’s experiments. To avoid stereotyping humans, let’s continue analogizing stressful circumstances by extrapolating Harry Harlow’s findings.)

Psychology & marketing involve human interactions with & reactions against factors altering life-quality.

Observing people's successful actions inspires hope. Customer integrators help with plans for learning about conditions & skills to build functional hope.

When customers successfully create & consistently preserve value, functional optimism blossoms. Functionally Optimistic customers will likely return to buy resources to upgrade/renew/maintain functional value.

Factors plus human interactions/reactions cause additional planned or unplanned effects/factors which bring more interactions/reactions. Continuous interactions & reactions involve relating to/with people, functions, dysfunctions, products & ideas/beliefs because these relate to major life factors.

Avoidance/Escapes fail when problems aren't identified. Customers need insightful guidance to avoid/escape negative certainties. Customer integrators optimize retailing by being parent-like confidantes & guides.

Since maternal relationships are important, inadequate “nurturing” stressed Harlow’s newborns. Without maternal guidance for finding & using resources, newborns were stressed by unrecognized gaps.

Niche newbies might fill perceived gaps & suffer from worse unrecognized/unremedied gaps. Customers’ misperceptions interfere with using insightful information about where/how to seek remedies.

Interactions contribute/inflict quality changes, so people alter plans & learn skills or must delegate/recruit/hire managers to adjust results. Having similar conditions & goals, people can share costs & benefits of contractors/retailers to guide choices for creating advantages.

After delegating/relying on specialists, customers rest or resume other priorities fitting personal specialties. Specialized brain cells process input until fatigued. Task-switching can somewhat unburden/reset some cells.

Some mental stress comes from personal & social expectations. People need temporary distance from responsibilities & expectations. Hired helpers allow rest. Recreation releases pressure.

People want logical reasons to fulfill emotional desires. If individual benefits don’t seem totally logical, explain how/why combined benefits create logical advantages.

Example: Seeming low-priority entertainment is important to restore energy with positive feelings. People need stress-relief to feel secure enough for unfamiliar possibilities.

New logical plans can fail & confidence fades, when people are distracted by previous results deteriorating. Loss-avoidance is prioritized over gains. Tension saps energy. Despite seeming oxymoronic, rest is more productive after enjoyment releases tense energy.

Since people might misunderstand & dismiss sparse offers, compellingly explain the logic & how you aid customers with productivity through relaxation &/or activities. Provide vital insights to justify attention because short, bland advertising is easy to ignore.

Enjoyable novelty might attract passing interest which people might repeat. You might sell enjoyable novelties occasionally. To form relationships, you & customers should share philosophical grips like rescued people gripping rescuers’ hands.

Customer integration relates/attaches to customers' lives with advantage offers fulfilling important criteria. Projects should stop/mitigate/prevent current & further threats, so customers have less stress/boredom & better focus for successful learning & implementation.

Integration adds value, replaces missing elements &/or strengthens/restores/supports necessities for completely functional units. People might settle for inadequate functionality because they haven't observed, experienced or learned anything better. Advantage offers should open experiential worlds (variety) with insightful knowledge & observations.

Offer Acceptance Criterion: Customers wonder how they used-to/would manage without your updated advantages. Despite competitors/substitutes, your advantages add/preserve better specialness. Advantage offers upgrade life-quality which energizes/empowers customers to directly increase progress.

Build Value Oases. Compete with Value Deserts.

Like Harlow's babies retreated to cloth-covered surrogates for comfort, people can tolerate stress by remembering their comfort oases. When you offer high-quality oasis elements, compellingly explain necessity of relief which differentiates your advantages.

Recovery & high-stress avoidance are valuable immediately & long-term, plus revitalized people can create & maintain more personal/familial/social value. Revitalization refills people with things removed or injured by stress.

You & influencers might recommend kits (products/techniques) based on observed &/or experienced triumphs & disappointments. Help members understand by specifically describing people’s progress from projects.

Progress can mean increased distance from threats/chaos &/or increased proximity to opportunities. Like gardeners evaluate progress: Vegetables thrive. Weeds don't.

Some projects are successful by eliminating troubles & establishing distance from threats/chaos, so step-by-step progress is trackable.

Despite imperfect conditions, you can help people focus productively by decreasing inaccurate guesses/diagnoses & problem-induced stresses. Guide customers' preparations so interference isn't inevitable.

Rechecking for troubles is necessary, time-consuming maintenance. Since planning can reduce surprises & scheduling can reduce disrupting other activities, what indicates necessary prevention practices & repairs?

Offers can be advantageous when projects don’t disrupt lives. If people must reschedule activities, offers are less convenient & interfere with other productive projects.

To gather food Rhesus mothers leave or bring babies who desire playing & wandering/exploring. If surrogates were constantly available, babies had bad choices: Hunger/thirst or painful wire surrogates.

When customers are dissatisfied by available options, guide evaluations of situations improved by options. Which improved situation is better?

Checking My Back-trail. Where’d I Go Wrong?

Many course-changes make meandering back-trails & details pile onto current inconveniences & emerging unfamiliar factors. Retailer teammates' offers should decrease disruptions.

Combine insightful knowledge to prioritize destinations & routes out of current circumstances. Avoid/Decrease concerns of problems recurring & endless journeys/projects by defining indicators of completed/successful changes.

Customized option offers inspire pleasant anticipation of relief. People are relieved by achieved goals but are more concerned about losses than gains.

Relief might focus backward when people realize problems stopped “pursuing” them, so they feel free to pursue happiness.

Develop advantage offers by adding insightful knowledge about niche members’ internal lives plus local/external obstacles, threats & opportunities. Your great offers will fail if most members wonder ‘BUT what if (trouble) keeps happening/happens again? Then (opportunity) won’t help me!’

Offer Example: ‘(Indications) show (problem) emerging. As (problem) gains momentum, do you feel pursued? (Store) consultations find techniques for using (products). When you advance, (problem) won’t chase you.’

Contractors serve travelers/snowbirds who don’t let property concerns inhibit enjoyment. Before sensors & phone apps, properties were monitored by neighbors/relatives without knowledge or equipment for diagnoses or repairs. Experiences can be fully enjoyed whether customers get alerts & call contractors or alerts go to contractors.

Whether your retailer teammates prevent, remedy or mitigate threats, help customers justify purchasing practical protection. Help customers maximize advantages & return refreshed to their regular or better lives with lighter moods & more energy.

Ensure customers’ conditions don’t deteriorate, so project prioritization is less stressful. Stress builds & negates delights when over-stretched/burdened people try reaching for physical necessities & delights.

What do you provide to bring value into customers’ reach or bring them closer to destinations?

People may be more vulnerable when reaching for unfamiliar benefits. Threats might overtake distracted people while they’re reaching.

Mentally & physically reaching while balancing, people simultaneously focus on proprioception & conserving desired value. Splitting focus may interfere with value retention/creation when inattention drops things.

People might struggle to retain low-value if they don't recognize better options.

Though newborns didn’t have comparisons/memories, surrogates had low value.

People might focus mostly on backtrails to detect threats & fret about weaknesses/vulnerabilities. Others charge ahead by focusing on opportunities & desires to preserve/improve strengths. Pursuing happiness is troublesome when people feel they're pursued.

When emerging/pursuing problems seem inevitable, people might surrender instead of checking horizons & planning/preparing prevention, mitigation or solutions.

Procrastinators & overwhelmed people might not check horizons or accept warnings. Go-getters might retrieve previously successful resources & assume new results are effective.

Analogy: Patients previously stopped antibiotic prescriptions when they felt better & saved pills for future infections/sicknesses. Medication potencies decrease; plus, weakened microbes can reproduce & recover to reinfect, then stop patients’ recoveries. Mutated microbes become resistant to treatments.

Suspicious patients/consumers might think physicians/advertisers lie/exaggerate claims about product effectiveness &/or problem severities.

Do niche members perceive governmental, educational &/or local authorities/influence

Review whether customers know how factors interact or might expect unlikely interactions. Customers might uncomfortably listen to lessons of possible mistakes.

Consultations review how current factors & actions can bring unexpected benefits & drawbacks. Potential benefits can inspire curiosity, so customers feel better about listening.

Empathetically cover how much/many actions are necessary to avoid drawbacks including stopping too soon, so customers schedule enough time. Empathy improves rapport & decreases defensiveness, so customers aren’t concerned about immediate pride & focus on how results might affect reputations.

Consultations decrease customers’ Cognitive Labor so they can focus on remembering/relearning & learning skills.

I'm including more quotes/excerpts than usual to bring more value. The full article has more insightful information.

Brand Love Scales—So Stop Settling for Being Liked by Doug Zarkin

https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/brand-love-friend-zone-stop-settling/

"Real growth comes when a brand moves from liked to loved, from acquaintance to advocate. And that transformation doesn’t happen through gimmicks or one-time stunts—it’s built through consistent, emotionally resonant experiences that create brand love."

"It starts with understanding your consumer’s pain points, aspirations, and rhythms."

"It demands curiosity, empathy & humility to realize trust is earned in small, consistent moments—not grand gestures."

"You start by asking better questions. 'What would make them want to come back?' 'How do I remove friction and add meaning?' You reframe marketing as a relationship, not a transaction."

"They’re necessary, not loved. When a better alternative shows up, they’re the first to fall."

Inspire “Brand Love” to create Customer Integration.

Copyright 2025 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

Your business's profit potential depends on how much value your market niche perceives in what you offer. They won't perceive any value unless they have a reason to think about it. It's why you need effective marketing.

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