Empathy Analytics

Heartbeat is an emotion analytics Saas on a mission to radically scale empathy. The applications are limitless. Heartbeat can analyze text from any source (i.e. surveys, social media, reviews) and segment the data into 10 primary and 100 secondary emotions. The resulting emotion insights are clear and actionable, and allow us to aggregate emotion data in a way that has previously been impossible. 

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Only 20% of the population is naturally empathetic

A new study conducted by Stony Brook University in the UK discovered ‘roughly 20% of the population has an innate trait associated with greater sensitivity, or responsiveness, to environmental and social stimuli’. For this group empathy is highly developed, comes naturally and the advantages of being empathetic are obvious. For the other 80% of the population empathy comes less easily.

What does this mean for marketers? If only 20% of us are innately empathetic we are going to have a tough time connecting with our consumers through our brands. Brands are built by people to emulate human traits and therefore lack of empathy is ultimately detrimental. Though we may not all be empathizers, we certainly expect to be empathized with.

Brands Need Empathy to Survive

Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, is what differentiates a product from a brand.  Brands understand the job they are doing, and the emotional relationship the brand has with the consumer. This emotional connection is what makes a brand ‘meaningful’. ‘A meaningful brand is defined by its impact on our personal and collective wellbeing, plus its functional benefits’, says HAVAS.

It’s clear that meaning is critical to long-term success. According to a global survey of 300,000 people in 33 countries, people wouldn’t care if 74% of brands disappeared. (HAVAS, Meaningful Brands 2017). 

AI Helps Close the Empathy Gap

Luckily our ability to understand emotion through data and artificial intelligence is improving. Marketers have the opportunity to compensate for lack of natural empathy through innovative analytical tools designed to measure emotion. Heartbeat AI, a women-led Canadian start-up has created an elegant, simple and efficient tool to better understand emotions, and the role they play in decision making. Ultimately it’s the combination of functional benefits (the product’s job) coupled with the emotional benefits (the product’s meaning) that will elevate a brand’s meaning, longevity and success.