When Olga Fell in Love With Maersk
Sometimes it happens suddenly, lightning fast, with overwhelming force; sometimes it just simmers. One day is a look, a word another day, another day a gesture, and then suddenly you wonder, is this love? Today I woke up thinking of Maersk and asking myself this question, writes Olga Delgado.
I know Christmas is coming and it is a time for love, but as a researcher I tried to define when this new passion began and to find out which events contributed to this crush. A long list of facts appeared in my mind. It was the Maersk workers I met in several conferences and the way they talked about their company. It was their approach to empowering women in the maritime sector and the support of minorities. It was their commitment to the environment, their 360 degree Corporate Social Responsibility, their values and the principles that pervade all their actions. It was me researching on sustainable leadership of shipping companies and finding out that Maersk was light years ahead of many other shipping
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Triple E 'Rose George' Courtesy of Maersk Line
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companies (according to anonymous answers of seafarers). It was, of course, their proximity in the social networks, it was also watching the breathtaking TripleE manoeuvring at Gothenburg (one of my colleagues of Monalisa 2.0 Project recorded it with his smartphone and shared it with all the team members). And later, it was Oceanuslive.org introducing me to the charming TripleE Angels: Lena Göthberg, Rose George and Michelle Wiese Bockmann, who welcomed me with open arms. It was also Maersk becoming a famous movie star appearing in 'Captain Phillips', and finally I found myself adding the Lego TripleE to my Santa’s wish-list for Christmas.
I couldn’t find the beginning, but I discovered something interesting: I was not alone. Recently I realised how many others are falling in love with Maersk. It’s like the gorgeous teenager everyone loves at high school. That made my happy. People falling in love with Maersk means that people are increasingly more concerned about trust, environment, loyalty and transparency, and that augurs well that other shipping companies will have to follow in their footsteps, and that makes me optimistic for the future of seafarers, who have unfairly faced very hard times in their profession during last decades.
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Maersk Triple E Photo: BBC
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People not only fell in love with people, but also with other creatures, with nature, with places, with a cause, with a hobby, and even with brands. In Marketing we call this phenomenon “Lovebrands”. Many of us go to sports stores and go directly to Nike products. Why are so many people more loyal to their “Lovebrands” than to their partner? As it turns out, there is a pattern, and Lovebrands act and communicate, in a way that is the complete opposite to what other brands do. According to Simon Sinek, most people and organizations communicate from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. That means they explain what they do, some explain how they do it and usually stop there, because many people and organizations don’t even know why they do what they do. In the case of Lovebrands, they start by saying why they do what they do. They start communicating their main purpose, the cause or belief that moves them, at the end of the day, why they exist. In the case of Nike, we are not buying just sport shoes, but a belief that it is relevant to each of us, a belief we feel connected to: “You don’t have to win a competition, you don’t have to be a professional, everybody can go to the street and just run, yes, you can, just do it!” Another example is the case of Apple products, we are not simply buying electronic products, but buying into the purpose: “In everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently”.
In the case of Maersk, customers are not just buying transport. With their selling line: “Your promise. Delivered,” they say more than just three words, and they know it. They believe that promises must be fulfilled, and that connects with many people who value and look for trust.
There is a biological explanation for this. Sinek correlates the parts of the brain with the different communication levels. Neocortex corresponds to the “what” level; this part of the brain, which is the newest part that appeared with “Homo Sapiens”, is responsible for all our rational and analytical thoughts, and also language. It is able to explain what we do. While our limbic part of the brain is responsible for our feelings, like trust and loyalty, and are also responsible for all human behaviour, all decision-making, but has no capacity for language. The limbic brain understands the “why” level. So, when brands explain what they do, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information, like facts features and benefits, but this just doesn’t drive behaviour. In contrast, when brands say why they do what they do, they are talking directly to the part of the brain that controls behaviour, which people can then rationalize later from the tangible information. This part of the brain is where gut decisions come from. It is where we take decisions that sometimes we cannot argue verbally.
This is the way the message of a promise is kept, and trust in Maersk goes directly to our heart (or speaking properly, to the limbic part of the brain, this part that understands the “why” level), and this makes it a Lovebrand, “my new Lovebrand”.
Olga Delgado submitted this letter. But who is she? She has no connection at all with Maersk, she is the Director of SEAcademy FNB and the 
responsible for Leadership Training at Monalisa 2.0 Project, a PhD Researcher and Professor of Maritime Leadership, Maritime Sociology and Maritime Marketing at Technical University of Catalonia in Barcelona, who last year directed the International Conference Proudly Empowering Women in the Maritime and is organizing the Conference Maritime Transport 2014.
You can find her as @OlgaDelgadoIT on Twitter, where she discovered @OCEANUSLive.
We think that the fact that such relatively new subjects are taught in the University is a good indicator of the promising direction that Shipping is currently taking for a better future.
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