We often reach a “stay or go” point in key relationships. It can happen with our partners, our jobs, or even the brands we’ve been using.

We go through the process of weighing up the pros and cons of the relationship. We assess what has changed, or not changed as we hoped. We factor in new opportunities, new dreams and new fears. We analyze the gap between what we first imagined this relationship would turn out to be, and how it has actually turned out. We consider the cost to us to “make things right again”. We struggle to balance rationality and sentimentality. We focus on what really matters to us individually, and to the other party in the relationship.

Then we decide. To stay. Or to go.

Brands which achieve a high quotient of emotional meaning as they establish and nurture relationships often survive these decisive moments. From the get-go, they have worked from a better understanding of the deep, human needs and desires of people (both their customers and their employees). They have strived to make sure that every encounter with people embodied that understanding, and resonated with unique meaning and emotion.

If questioned in the “stay or go” mode, these meaningful brands stand the test of time, hold up under intense scrutiny, and move people to stay, not go.

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