Monetization.
What happens when the same products from many different businesses meet the same highest quality expected from consumers?
The highest quality becomes a basic concern, not the main concern. There is a shift of the main concern. It aims now to release products from the straitjackets of their use values. They start going from offering a service to offering a vision, a holistic dimension of products that attempts to team up with offering consumers better lifestyles through the product "ideology."
The product distribution cycle goes from offering a service to offering its brand values. It attempts to deliver both in one single stroke even when the basic concerns have to be met first.
It wraps the product in an "ecosystem" of values which are human universal values like "bravery" (Diesel), "sports greatness" (Nike), "thinking different" (Apple), "happiness" (Coca-Cola), "compassion" (Unilever), etc.
However, a funny twist is happening to the distribution cycle of products. The main concerns regarding products, namely, the human universal values embedded to them, are also becoming basic values in themselves, use values or just another partial service offered by other kinds of businesses.
We can see it in countless webinars to improve people's lifestyles, all sort of entrepreneurial spiritual retreats, workshops on happiness, on courage, on making a difference, on compassion, etc.
Today we have experts on products basic concerns (use values' highest quality), experts on products main concerns (brands universal values) and experts on turning brands main concerns into basic concerns as they are being offered as specific use values by turning spirituality and lifestyle into a profitable specific service.
We can see the irony of it all. Universal values are "ideologies" for some businesses, while for other businesses they are their bread and butter.
Products' use values in the traditional sense (specific product utility), get a total makeover twice.
First, when brands embed to them universal values. Second, when those very universal values get a makeover as they are sold by other businesses as partial and not as holistic values (even when they brand themselves as holistic), which sell spiritual products with specific use values.
In that sense, universal human values are thought of by some businesses as generic ideological universal values whose specific tailoring aim to sell the product use value. Nike brand "sells" greatness but, truly, it sells sportswear.
For other businesses, those very universal values are their livelihoods or main source of income. Thus, universal values acquire in themselves specific use values and are tailored to offered specific services.
Yet, all these spiritual tailored services are facing the same dilemma described above when many products have already reached the same highest quality expected from consumers.
This time many spiritual products are reaching the highest quality and this time we don't seem to find new generic universal human values to serve as "ideologies" for spiritual products.
This brings us to a crucial question. If "ideologies", as universal values, become the brand values of products, what "ideologies" could be embedded to universal values when they themselves become products in the marketplace?
Another question my derived from this. Can universal and spiritual values be commodified as specific products? How can we release spiritual values from the straitjackets of their use values in the same way as it is done with traditional specific products when a brand's values are added to them?
There is not an easy answer to such questions, but it is obvious that a possible and practical answer is pointing at the fact that not all universal values can be commodified and be turned into products or services.
When spirituality is our livelihood not all of it can be made, directly or indirectly our source of income. An aspect of spirituality has to actively relinquish its monetization and that includes monetization of spirituality's brand values.
