In a world where 37% of people wake up stressed, the brands that win are those that make life lighter.
The consumer landscape has fundamentally shifted. Traditional competitive advantagesâbetter features, lower prices, faster deliveryâare no longer enough. Today's overwhelmed customers are making purchase decisions with their emotional bandwidth as much as their wallets. They're gravitating toward brands that reduce friction, spark joy, and make them feel truly seen.
The Joy Dividend introduces a groundbreaking framework for winning in what author Hamutal Schieber calls the "Emotional Economy"âwhere reducing customer stress and creating moments of delight generates compound returns in loyalty, advocacy, and lifetime value.
Drawing on 25 years of strategic research with Fortune 500 companies and startups alike, Schieber uses cross-industry insights to reveal why brands that master both stress reduction AND joy creation build unshakeable customer devotion.
The brands that thrive in the next decade won't just compete for attentionâthey'll earn affection by making customers' lives measurably better. This book shows you exactly how to become one of them.
In a world where 37% of people wake up stressed, the brands that win are those that make life lighter.
The consumer landscape has fundamentally shifted. Traditional competitive advantagesâbetter features, lower prices, faster deliveryâare no longer enough. Today's overwhelmed customers are making purchase decisions with their emotional bandwidth as much as their wallets. They're gravitating toward brands that reduce friction, spark joy, and make them feel truly seen.
The Joy Dividend introduces a groundbreaking framework for winning in what author Hamutal Schieber calls the "Emotional Economy"âwhere reducing customer stress and creating moments of delight generates compound returns in loyalty, advocacy, and lifetime value.
Drawing on 25 years of strategic research with Fortune 500 companies and startups alike, Schieber uses cross-industry insights to reveal why brands that master both stress reduction AND joy creation build unshakeable customer devotion.
The brands that thrive in the next decade won't just compete for attentionâthey'll earn affection by making customers' lives measurably better. This book shows you exactly how to become one of them.
Chapter Overview
Todayâs marketplace is defined by unprecedented levels of consumer stress and anxiety. This âEmotional Economyâ has fundamentally shifted what consumers value and how they make decisions. Brands that recognize this transformation are responding by designing experiences that reduce mental strain and create moments of delight. This chapter introduces the JoyâStress Matrix, a framework for mapping how brands perform on these critical emotional dimensions and explains why excelling at both calm and joy is essential for winning lasting loyalty in an age of overwhelm.
Stress has become humanityâs baseline. According to Gallupâs 2024 global poll, 37% of adults said they felt âa lot of stressâ yesterday, compared to 29% at the beginning of survey, in 2006.[1] This finding means that more than 1 in 3 people wake up agitated.
Reported stress varies by country, ranging from 10% to 65% across different nations, but the overall trend is unmistakableâhumanity is on edge. Negative emotions such as worry and sadness have climbed to new highs alongside stress.
The Shift in Priorities: From Value and Novelty to Ease and Relief
The consumer landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade. Chronic stress has fundamentally transformed both values and expectations. Every day feels like an endurance test of decisions and distractions, so we crave things that lighten the load most. In this Emotional Economy, solutions that offer ease, simplicity, or a moment of relief have newfound premium value. Brands must recognize that customers are buying not just with their wallets but with their bandwidth as well, and that bandwidth is severely constrained. Winning hearts (and business) now means understanding and addressing peopleâs emotional strain.
After years of âmore, faster, cheaperâ being the mantra of consumer culture, a subtle but profound shift is underway. While price and novelty still matter, an increasing number of people prioritize ease, emotional relief, balance, and simplicity in purchasing decisions. A great product isnât enoughâit also needs to feel effortless or uplifting. Stress is now a key consumption context, and reducing it is a new value dimension.
Consumers are quitting brands that add to their stress or violate their values. A 2022 Harris Poll found that 82% of shoppers want a brandâs values to align with theirs, and 75% have parted ways with a brand over a conflict in values.[2] In other words, consumers are actively pruning sources of friction or discord from their lives, whether thatâs a toxic workplace or a brand that lets them down. The remaining loyalty is increasingly directed toward brands contributing to oneâs sense of ease, integrity, or joy.
This development marks a pivot from the prior decadesâ emphasis on excitement and newness. In the 2010s, many companies raced to out-innovate and out-advertise each other, assuming consumers constantly craved novelty and endless choices. But in an anxiety-rich environment, novelty for noveltyâs sake can backfire, as it can feel overwhelming or gimmicky. Many consumers seek comfort, trust, and things that work. A product that is 5% cheaper or with a few extra features might lose out to a competitor that offers a simpler user experience or a reputation for excellent support. Emotional ROI (return on investment) is as crucial as functional ROI.
However, âeaseâ doesnât mean laziness or lower standards but removing unnecessary effort so customers can focus on what matters to them. Think about the success of companies that have built their brand around making life easier. Food delivery, curbside pickup, and meal-kit services boomed during the pandemic because they were offering something beyond convenienceâthey helped remove stress (e.g., avoiding crowded stores and not having to plan meals). Many families discovered that meal kits relieved the nightly burden of âWhatâs for dinner?â These services thus helped reduce decision-making fatigue, especially for frazzled caregivers.
The implication for brands is powerful: If you can position your offering as something that lightens the customerâs mental load or lifts their spirits, you deliver value far beyond the product itself.
The Generational Stress Framework: Tailoring Relief to Different Cohorts
Stress is universal, but each generation experiences and manages it differently. Brands that understand these nuances can tailor experiences that relieve pressure and ignite delight in ways that resonate with their target audience. While these are broad patterns that donât replace needs-based analysis, similar technology, culture, and life stage experiences create some common needs within generational cohorts. Table 1.1 is an index (or a âcheat sheetâ) showing an easy-to-understand overview of these cohorts. Treat these patterns as testable design hypotheses, not stereotypes.
Research from multiple sources confirms these patterns are more than anecdotal. A 2025 study by Deloitte found that 40% of Gen Zs and 34% of millennials feel stressed or anxious all or most of the time.[3] Meanwhile, Gen X, often overlooked in marketing conversations, controls approximately 31% of U.S. spending power, while reporting the highest caregiver burden of any generation.
Despite these differences, a common thread emerges across all age groups: They are gravitating toward brands that destress the customer experience. Whether through automation, curation, friendly design, or value-driven business practices, the winning brands reduce friction and emotional strain for their target generation.
Table 1.1 The Generational Stress-Relief Index (see book for full table)
Generation & Primary Stress Drivers
Relief Strategies
Joy Triggers
Brand Imperatives
Common Pitfalls
Gen Z (1996â2010)
Millennials (1981â1995)
Gen X (1966â1980)
Functional vs. Emotional Jobs: The Ulwick ODI Framework
As consumers gravitate toward stress-reducing solutions, itâs helpful to frame this trend in terms of Jobs To Be Done (JTBD), a powerful concept in innovation theory developed by business professor Clayton Christensen and refined by Tony Ulwick. The JTBD framework asks, âWhat âjobâ is the customer hiring your product or service to do?â[4]
Tony Ulwickâs OutcomeâDriven Innovation (ODI) model further distinguishes four job layers that together explain why people hire a product or service and therefore identifies where brands can remove stress and spark joy (Table 1.2).
Table 1.2 The Four-Layer Jobs Framework for Emotional Value Creation (see book for full table)
Job Layer & Definition
Stress Source When Unmet
Joy-Creating Outcome
Strategic Application Example
Core Functional Job:
Consumption Chain Jobs:
Related Jobs:
Emotional & Social Jobs:
Itâs important to note that functional and emotional jobs are intertwined, but according to Ulwick, fulfilling the emotional aspect requires nailing the functional one first. A meditation app wonât deliver calm if itâs buggy (i.e., frustration undermines the emotional job). A restaurant canât provide a comforting night out if the service is slow and disorganized (stress at the table will trump the ambiance).
Brands must execute on quality and function as entry stakes, but differentiation comes through mapping and optimizing the customerâs emotional journey.
Applying Ulwickâs ODI Framework to emotional experience design allows for systematic improvement,
Identify the emotional jobs accompanying each functional job.
Define success criteria for those emotional jobs.
Map current performance against those criteria.
Identify underserved emotional needs as innovation opportunities.
Design interventions that specifically target those emotional gaps.
This systematic approach transforms vague notions of delight into concrete innovation opportunities. For example, a coffee brand might identify that beyond the functional job of âconsume caffeine,â customers have the emotional job of âfeel a moment of peace during a hectic day.â Success criteria might include âminimize time spent waitingâ and âcreate a sensory moment of pleasure.â Mapping performance might reveal that while the coffee tastes good, the ordering process creates anxiety. This points to specific interventions: perhaps a preorder system, calming store design, or ritualistic elements in the service experience.
Every touchpoint becomes an opportunity to help customers satisfy the emotional job that accompanies the core functional job. Does your onboarding process make a new user feel confident (as opposed to confused or overwhelmed)? Does your productâs sensory design contribute to the desired mood state? Even error messages or wait times can be designed to reduce stressâfor instance, using reassuring language (âHang tight, weâre on it!â)âinstead of cold technical jargon.
The JTBD lens enables a shift from asking âHow can we be different from competitors?â to âWhat is the customer really trying to achieve or feel, and how can we help?â This customer-centric approach reveals innovation opportunities that competitors often miss.
The Quantifiable Impact of Emotional Job Fulfillment
Meeting emotional needs isnât just good for customersâit delivers measurable business results. As shown in Table 1.3, research across multiple industries shows consistent patterns when brands successfully address emotional jobs.
Table 1.3 The Business Implications of Satisfying Consumersâ Emotional Jobs (see book for full table)
Business Metric
Typical Improvement When Emotional Jobs Are Satisfied
Business Implications
These figures represent averages across studies by Forrester Research, Motista, and Deloitteâs customer experience practice.[5] The most striking finding is the impact on customer lifetime valueâemotionally connected customers stay longer, buy more frequently, and are less price-sensitive, which creates exponentially higher value over time.
The JoyâStress Matrix: A Strategic Framework for Emotional Impact
To operationalize these insights, Iâve developed a matrix that charts customer stress on one axis and customer joy on the other (Table 1.4). The JoyâStress Matrix helps brands visualize their current emotional positioning and map a path to greater competitive advantage.
Table 1.4 The JoyâStress Matrix (see book for full table)
Joyful but Stressful
Joyful & Stress-Free (ideal)
Joyless / Bland
Stressful & Joyless
The matrix illustrates that a brandâs behaviors and strategies can fall into one of four quadrants:
Stressful & Joyless (low calm, low joy): The bottom-left quadrant lists brands that offer neither relief nor delight. These experiences are frustrating and dull, the worst of both worlds. Customers quickly avoid or abandon such brands since stressful encounters drive even long-time customers away. These brands typically compete solely on price or lack of alternatives.
Joyful but Stressful (low calm, high joy): The top-left quadrant includes brands that spark some pleasure but at the cost of high stress. Think of a product that is exciting or fun when it works but is confusing or unreliable. Customers might enjoy elements of the experience, but frequent friction or anxiety undermines the goodwill. High joy alone canât overcome high stress for long; eventually, the frustration will erode loyalty. Many trendy startups begin here, offering novel experiences but inconsistent execution.
Calm but Joyless (high calm, low joy): The bottom-right quadrant includes brands that deliver smooth, easy experiences but lack delight. These companies remove hassle and perform reliably (which customers appreciate), but donât create positive emotional peaks. The result is a competent but unremarkable experience, and customers feel satisfied but not emotionally connected. Such brands may earn repeat purchases out of convenience, yet they leave loyalty on the table by not cultivating love or excitement. Many established service providers occupy this space.
Joyful & Stress-Free (high calm, high joy): In the top-right lies the ideal. These brands make things easy and enjoyable in both dimensions. They minimize effort, friction, and worry, and consistently infuse little delights or pleasant surprises. Customers feel joyful and stress-free in these interactions. Importantly, this quadrant is where the Joy Dividend accrues: Customers feel relieved and delighted, which drives lasting loyalty, higher engagement, and enthusiastic word-of-mouth. A delightful experience that also removes stress turns casual buyers into passionate advocates.
The JoyâStress Matrix underscores a central lessonâexcelling on one emotional dimension is insufficient. Only when a brand delivers on both low stress and high joy does it win fans for life. A company that is merely efficient (calm but joyless) risks becoming a commodity, while one that is fun but inconsistent (joyful but stressful) will eventually lose trust. The aim is to design experiences that lighten the customerâs load and lift their spirits. To secure enduring devotion, a brand must manage the emotional journey, smoothing out the negatives and amplifying the positives.
Conclusion: A New Approach to Brand Building
The Joy Dividend Framework represents a fundamental shift in how we think about brand-building and customer experience. Rather than focusing solely on product features, price, or even conventional satisfaction metrics, it centers on the emotional state we create for customers. This approach acknowledges that in todayâs Emotional Economy, the most valuable thing a brand can offer is not just a solution to a functional problem, but relief from stress and a spark of joy in an otherwise anxious world.
The economic case for this approach is compelling. As weâve seen, brands that successfully address emotional needs see dramatic improvements in loyalty, advocacy, purchase frequency, and price tolerance. But beyond the business case, thereâs a human case: In a world where stress has become the baseline condition, brands have both an opportunity and a responsibility to exist as forces for emotional well-being.
The chapters ahead will provide detailed blueprints for implementing the Four Pillars of the Joy Dividend Framework, with practical tools, metrics, and examples that show how leading companies are already putting these principles into practice. By the end of this book, youâll have a comprehensive playbook for transforming your brand into one that consistently reduces stress and sparks joy, earning the compound interest of customer loveâthe Joy Dividend.
Key Takeaways: Winning in The Emotional Economy
Todayâs consumers are chronically stressed, which makes emotional relief a powerful differentiator.
The JoyâStress Matrix helps brands visualize their emotional impact on two critical dimensionsâjoy and stress.
Winning brands excel at both reducing stress and creating joy, and one without the other is insufficient.
Emotional needs vary by generation, but all cohorts value brands that lighten the mental load.
The JTBD Framework can be applied to systematically identify and address emotional needs.
Brands that successfully fulfill emotional jobs see dramatic improvements in loyalty and lifetime value.
The following chapters introduce the Four Pillars Framework, which provides a systematic approach to implementing joy-centric branding.
[1] Gallup. (2024). âGlobal Emotions Report.â Gallup, Inc. The findings are based on nearly 146,000 interviews with adults in 142 countries and regions in 2023.
[2] Consumer Goods Technology. (2022). â2022 Harris Poll study: Values alignment.â
[3] Deloitte. (2023). âGlobal Gen Z and Millennial Survey.â Deloitte Insights.
[4] Ulwick, T. (2016). âJobs to be Done: Theory to Practice.â IDEA BITE Press.
[5] Witkin, A. (2020). âEQ Quotient: Emotional Engagement in Building Brand Loyalty.â Brandingmag.
This nonfiction book (more like a research guide) looks at how constant stress has changed the way people think, choose, and stay loyal to a product or brand. Instead of chasing more features or novelty, consumers are gravitating toward experiences that feel easier, calmer, and more human. Blending research, real-world examples, and practical frameworks, the book shows how reducing friction, creating moments of joy, and respecting peopleâs limited time and emotional bandwidth can build deeper, longer-lasting loyalty.
The book is highly structured and methodical. Each chapter opens with a summary, ends with key takeaways, and often includes practical exercises. It draws on a mix of very recent data (2024â2025 studies) alongside older references, giving the arguments strong contemporary relevance.
The examples throughout are concrete, realistic, and easy to imagine applying in real business contexts. The book contains tables, charts, and dense blocks of information. The small text and volume of technical detail can feel like information overload, especially in mobile format, where some tables become difficult to read. Often, large lists or frameworks are presented first and explained afterward.
The tone of the content presented is academic and highly analytical, like a research-backed thesis. As a book, the pacing can feel challenging to read cover-to-cover. I can envision this book as a companion to a business class, where the content is broken up into weekly readings and lessons, allowing the ideas room to breathe.
Chapter 7 stands out as a highlight and a fitting conclusion. The comprehensive implementation guide provides a clear, step-by-step framework that brings all the concepts together practically and cohesively. After the analytical density of the previous chapters, this section feels necessary and helpful. It offers a thorough, actionable roadmap for product design, implementation, and long-term strategy.
If you want a thoughtful framework you can apply to long-term product, experience, or brand strategy, this book is for you.