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values (Holbrook 1999). Choi (1999) says that the ultimate purpose of trading is earning people, not pro ts. It implies that pro ts will be realized once marketers earn the hearts of people. TPM focuses on earning people. Managing true partnerships, marketers and consumers aim at making consumers happier and the world a better place. Not only will making decisions become more dif cult, but also, for marketers achieving their goals will take longer. However, warm hearted marketer-consumer partnering will eventually contribute to earning pro ts and achieving their long-term mission-oriented goals.
Earning Partners with Hearts
Table 4 de nes the concepts we use in this article. I de ne marketing that delivers happiness as a marketing transaction or consumption that gives a person happy moments that she or he will remember for a long time.
Seligman (2011) has identi ed ve elements of happiness as positive emotion, meaning, achievement, positive relationships, and engagement. Seligman (2002, p.102) has differentiated the concept of grati cation from pleasure as “the grati cations are
get from certain activities. We suggest that marketing activities that generate grati cation or gratitude
are likely to deliver happy moments that remain in consumers’ memory for a long time. Two episodes are introduced to show how grati cation or gratitude can deliver happiness.
Episode 1: Sean’s marketing report that made his daddy happy by generating grati cation
Sean’s daddy received a report from his eleven
year old boy.2 The title was I-river Report.
I-river is an e-book reader brand. Sean explained what an e-book reader was and described the characteristics and the price of I-river. He continued describing what it means for him to have an
e-book reader. He said it was easier to carry and read books anywhere. Also, he said, in this digital era, he needed to experience using such a digital device at an early stage of life. He then wrote his proposals for his part of contribution. He would invest all the money he saved up, and consider the e-book reader as present for his next birthday. He promised that he would read books much more, even in parks, with the reader. Finally, he attached
Concepts
De nition
Implications
Marketing delivering happiness
A marketing transaction or consumption is delivering happiness if it gives a happy moment to the consumer that she or he will remember for a long time
The happy moment should be memorable Meaningful experiences often give such happiness
Grati cation
Positive emotion associated with the sense of meaningfulness a person perceives from a certain activity in which she or he is involved
[Positive emotion + meaning] among Seligman’s ve elements of subjective well-being
Effects of grati cation will be enhanced if coupled with engagement, positive relationships, and achievement
Gratitude
Feeling of meaningful achievement a person perceives from a certain activity in which she or he is involved
[Achievement + meaning] among Seligman’s ve elements of subject well-being
Effects of gratitude will be enhanced if coupled with engagement, positive relationships, and positive emotion
Table 4. Concepts for delivering happiness
activities we very much like doing, but they are not necessarily accompanied by any raw feelings at all. Rather, the grati cations engage us fully, we become immersed and absorbed in them, and we lose self- consciousness... The grati cations last longer than the pleasure, they involve quite lot of thinking and interpretations.” We use the term grati cation in this article to indicate positive emotion associated with the sense of meaning fullness people get from certain activities.
Furthermore, we de ne the concept of gratitude for this article as the feeling of meaningful achievement people
two coupons, one for a free errand and the other for a free massage, which were valid for a year.
Apparently, Sean’s consumer, his daddy, felt gratification from his son’s marketing report
so much that he let the episode be known to a newspaper reporter. Such gratification leads to happy moments that can be remembered for a long time. At the core of such activities, there is the marketer’s heart. It is the Sean’s heart that enabled delivering gratification.
Episode 2: A hearing-impaired couple delivers happiness to a consumer generating gratitude
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