In an era marked by the terrible shocks of the global pandemic, and a generalised crisis of the most traditional values, companies and brands have a precious opportunity to renew their service offerings to people, striving to build an innovative business model that has the individual, the person, the human being, at the centre, along with all their interests and needs.
From the end of 2019 onwards, millions of people around the world have been forced to get used to a new lifestyle, to a radical upheaval of their daily habits. For many, this has meant an alarming increase in anxiety and tension levels, not to mention the numerous bouts of depression caused by the pandemic. In order to help people adapt to these new circumstances, companies have begun to offer human-centred services and products, a series of highly personalised solutions dedicated first and foremost to the well-being of the person, to the immediate satisfaction of their most urgent needs.
It is not just a question of mere products in some product category: the change is epochal and also concerns the deepest fibres of the brand, its essence. The pandemic has prompted many companies to completely reformulate their philosophical principles, to which has been added a clear interest in the fate of the planet, natural ecosystems and people.
An iron barrel for the individual
Since this is a forced change, brought about by totally unpredictable and unstoppable causes of force majeure (the health emergency), the antidote for restoring a semblance of serenity will have to come from the same source, i.e. from outside, and will have to have the capacity to effectively meet all people’s needs, even the most basic ones, modelling around them a sort of iron barrel in which each individual can feel at ease and satisfied.
To combat anxiety, the negative effects of hyper-connectedness and manic shopping, some of the largest global companies have already adopted successful, highly innovative strategies based on people’s well-being.
Google, for example, has developed an exceptional system to protect the mental and psychological health of its employees, through an internal protocol called TEA (Thoughts, Energy, Attention). This programme, aimed primarily at maintaining a good balance between the private and working spheres, trains employees in self-analysis, helping them to identify the causes of stress – including those shared with their colleagues in the workplace – and drawing up a plan to reduce it, to neutralise it, thus restoring a certain spiritual balance.
The focus on people is thus not merely the marketing of innovative products for customers, focused on activating the mechanisms of well-being, but also concrete internal strategies to promote the health of the company’s employees and workers.
Google has also shown that it wants to safeguard people’s lives outside the workplace: by encouraging the use of a tool such as Calendar, for example, the company encourages employees to set aside ‘no meeting days’, thus helping people to take a break from work and devote a few hours to their interests, family and personal passions.
The case of Google
Google’s focus on personal wellbeing is also evident in its online training for managers, which was set up with the aim of helping top management to recognise the symptoms of malaise in their employees and to devise effective counter-strategies to restore harmony in the company. Sometimes, the desire to trigger people’s physiological wellbeing can be intuited from particular services made available by brands, such as those that intervene on the unconscious aspects of the individual.
The numerous casino bonuses designed by some of the best online gambling platforms, for example, have been developed precisely to allow people to live an incredibly intense gaming experience, fuelled by the (partially) free bonuses and the rich opportunities arising from their use, such as that of playing some of the best traditional casino games and gaining practical experience in their use, with the possibility of winning real money.
The drive towards people’s wellbeing can take different forms: it can be directed at customers, externally, or internally, with a view to bringing the company and its employees closer to a more human dimension of work. In the medium to long term, companies that are able to grasp the spark of uniqueness in each person, dedicating time to their development and care for their wellbeing, will already be halfway to success.