The key ideas

Aesthetic Intelligence: How to Boost It and Use It in Business and Beyond

Pauline Brown, 2019

Why does a technically flawless product fail, while a simple fridge becomes something people love? Pauline Brown spent years in the luxury industry, and she is sure of one thing: people don't need more stuff, they need pleasure. You'll learn how taste works and walk through four steps that turn a vague "I like it" into a decision for business and for life.

Who it is for

For anyone building a product, a brand, a shop or a business of their own who wants people to keep coming back. And for everyone who senses that some things bring joy and others don't, but can't yet say why.

When something touches several of our senses at once, seduction begins.

The course that taught future executives to feel

In 2016, Harvard Business School added an unusual course to its program. It wasn't taught by an artist or a designer, but by Pauline Brown, someone from big business. She had led strategy at Estée Lauder and then became chairman of LVMH in North America. That's the group that owns Louis Vuitton, Dior, Hennessy and dozens of other brands. The course was called "The Business of Aesthetics", and it taught future executives not only to count, but to feel.

In 2019 the course grew into a book. Its central idea is unusual for business writing: people don't need more things, they need pleasure. And aesthetics is one of the most powerful ways to give it. So taste in business isn't decoration for the marketing department. It's a serious tool.

Brown has a name for the ability that drives this tool: aesthetic intelligence. It's the skill of understanding what feelings a thing or a place stirs in you, working out why, and explaining it to others. Brown insists this isn't an inborn gift for the chosen few. You can build it, like a muscle. The book is structured to match, in two big parts. The first explains why business needs aesthetics, the second teaches you how to grow this intelligence.

You'll learn why a product packed with cutting-edge technology can still fail, how four steps turn a vague "I like it" into a decision a whole team understands, and why sometimes the best move is to cut part of your range. This matters not only to people building a brand. Brown writes about business and about life.

Glasses people felt awkward wearing

In the early 2010s, Google unveiled Google Glass: glasses with a tiny screen in front of one eye and a built-in camera. The technology was cutting-edge. It felt like the future had already arrived. But the glasses never became a mass product.

Brown uses them as an example of a failure that wasn't the technology's fault. In her view, it came down to feelings: people felt awkward wearing the thing on their face. In one talk she put it even more bluntly: the glasses failed not because of the price or the features, but because they looked silly.

This leads to the book's main argument. Many companies compete on price and features and barely think about the feelings their product stirs. Yet people choose with their hearts first. Feelings drive most purchases, and logic often arrives later to justify the choice.

That's why, Brown argues, it isn't enough for a leader to listen to their own taste. They need to understand what their customers feel. You can make a product smarter and cheaper than a competitor's and still lose if it's unpleasant or awkward to use.

Notice how this plays out in everyday life. We rarely explain a purchase with "it just feels nicer". We talk about price, reviews, specs. But the choice is often made before we've had time to think. This doesn't mean features don't matter. Brown's point is different: when everyone's features are much the same, the one who gives pleasure wins.

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About the author

Pauline Brown is an American executive and former chairman of LVMH in North America. She led strategy at Estée Lauder and taught a course called "The Business of Aesthetics" at Harvard Business School.

All books by this author: Pauline Brown

Terms from the book

  • Jobs
  • Walmart
  • Dyson
  • Schwartz
  • Starbucks
  • Attunement
  • Schultz
  • Harvard Business School: The business school of Harvard University in Boston, one of the best known in the world. Brown taught there in 2016 and 2017.
  • LVMH: The French luxury group Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. It owns Louis Vuitton, Dior, Hennessy, Moët & Chandon and dozens of other brands.
  • Estée Lauder: An American cosmetics company that owns many well known skincare and fragrance brands.
  • Aesthetic intelligence: Pauline Brown's own idea, not a scientific term: the ability to understand what feelings a thing or an experience stirs in you, work out why, and pass that on to others.
  • Google Glass: Glasses made by Google with a tiny screen in front of one eye and a built-in camera. They were shown in 2012 but never became widely popular.
  • SMEG: An Italian maker of home appliances, known for its brightly colored fridges in a fifties style.
  • Interpretation: The second skill in Brown's model: the ability to turn a feeling, pleasant or unpleasant, into a clear thought and a point of view of your own.
  • Articulation: The third skill in Brown's model: the ability to describe your vision so that a team can bring it to life exactly.
  • Philosophy: An American cosmetics brand founded in 1996. It is known for naming its products with phrases like "Hope in a Jar".
  • Carlino: Cristina Carlino, an American entrepreneur and the founder of the cosmetics brand Philosophy.
  • Curation: The fourth skill in Brown's model: the ability to pick the best, remove the excess and put what remains together beautifully into one whole.
  • Golden Cat: An American maker of cat litter, bought by Ralston Purina in the 1990s.
  • Entenmann's: An American brand of packaged baked goods: donuts, cakes and pies.
  • Chanel: Coco Chanel (1883 to 1971), a French fashion designer and the founder of the house of Chanel.
  • Aesthetic empathy: Brown's phrase for the ability to understand what gives pleasure to other people, not only to yourself.
  • Target: An American chain of general stores and Walmart's main rival. Known for affordable goods with an eye for design.
  • Warby Parker: An American company founded in 2010. It sells glasses online and in its own stores.
  • McDonald's: An American fast food chain, the largest in the world.
  • Dom Pérignon: A premium champagne from the house of Moët & Chandon, part of LVMH.
  • Bulgari: An Italian jewelry house founded in Rome in 1884. Part of LVMH since 2011.
  • Tesla: An American company that makes electric cars.

All terms

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