All products and services deliver fundamental elements of value that address four kinds of needs in people: functional, emotional, life changing and social impact. The more elements of value a company can provide to their customers, the happier they will be.
Keeping this in mind, when creating Moorings Park Grande Lake, we strived to create a community that embodies all four of these elements of value to keep our residents as happy as possible. We wanted to create a new Life Plan retirement community designed to meet – and exceed – our residents’ needs.
Under each element of value, there are sub-elements to further explain these four elements. Functional consists of notions like saving time, simplifying your life, reducing costs, reducing risks. Emotional relates to peace of mind, wellness, personal rewards. Life changing means a sense of hope, motivation, belonging. Social impact considers notions like self-transcendence.
This idea of the elements of value is nothing new. The original thinking of this structure ties back to Abraham Maslow and his hierarchy of needs. In his writings, he noted that human actions often arise from an innate desire to fulfill a variety of needs: from the most basic (security, food, warmth, etc.) to the most complex (self-esteem, altruism, etc.).
Similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the elements of value is most often organized as a pyramid with the bottom of the pyramid representing physiological and safety needs, while the top include self-actualization and self-transcendence. Most believe that attainment of the needs at the top cannot be achieved until they have met those at the bottom.
As people have changed over time, so have some of the elements’ meanings. For example, one of the sub-elements of functional is connects. At one time, connects likely referred to the Pony Express or telegrams. Today, that term represents more modern means of communication such as cell phones, Facebook, the internet and others.
This introductory article is the first of a series of articles on the elements of value and what that means to today’s seniors.
