By Bert Zethof

Despite a world full of things to do and buy, people still crave a sense of meaning in their lives. Businesses that can offer some meaning can do well.
To wit, three products or services whose success can be explained in part by people's yearning for connection:

1. Beanie Babies dolls tagged with a unique name, birthday and poem.

2. A recent experiment showed that an item offered for sale on eBay with a story behind it (even with the disclosure that it was fictional) sold for a higher price than the equivalent item without a story.

3. A Japanese service that supplies actors to stand in as relatives for lonely seniors in retirement homes.

Should or could your product or service add meaning to your customers' lives? How could you modify your offering to make it more meaningful?

What can you offer that is truly meaningful and not a superficial stand in? Connect with your own authenticity and passions and you are more likely to create the real thing and have customers come to you.