The stock had dropped under twelve dollars. Same-store sales were collapsing. Shoppers were doing something the industry had given a name to: showrooming. They would walk into a Best Buy, find the TV they wanted, pull out their phone, find it cheaper on Amazon and walk back out empty-handed.

The big-box store had become Amazon’s free showroom. Circuit City had died this exact death two years earlier. Borders had died this exact death the year before that. The script was written.

Hubert Joly took the CEO job in September 2012 anyway. Eight weeks in, he stood in front of Wall Street and announced what sounded, on its face, like a confession of defeat. Best Buy would match the price of any major online retailer—including Amazon—at the register, instead of pretending the comparison wasn’t happening.

The analysts wrote the obituary harder.

Don’t take away the calculator

What happened next is the most counterintuitive turnaround in modern retail. Joly didn’t try to take the calculator out of the customer’s hands. He handed them one. He said: yes, we know you’re comparing. We are not going to fight you on it. While you are doing it, why not talk to one of our people about which of these three TVs is actually right for your living room?

The price match was just the start. Geek Squad was reinvented from a glorified upsell into a reason to come to the store. Apple, Samsung and Microsoft built their own zones inside Best Buy’s footprint, turning the store into the best place in America to touch the products. The stock climbed, and ACSI named Best Buy the leader in technology and office specialty retail in 2025.

Joly didn’t out-Amazon Amazon. He removed the single biggest source of customer stress in his category: Am I being ripped off?

Then he built everything else on top of that floor.

The Joy-Stress Matrix

I recently spoke about the Joy Dividend and the map companies get stuck on. In the Emotional Economy, brands should aim for the top-right corner: joyful and stress-free. The examples people raised after the talk revealed the same pattern again and again.

Retail: Best Buy

Best Buy started as joyful but stressful. The store was fun to wander—that is why people went in—but the experience ended with customers wondering if they were being scammed, then leaving to buy on Amazon. High joy plus high stress still produces churn.

The play was to take the stress axis to zero by eliminating price anxiety, while keeping the joy that was already there: wandering, touching and the geeky enthusiasm of the staff.

Financial services: Capital One

Capital One began in the worst quadrant: stressful and joyless. In December 2021, it eliminated overdraft fees across consumer banking products, walking away from an estimated $150 million in annual revenue. Then came cafés where customers could bank or simply sit with coffee, followed by airport lounges that compete with Amex’s.

J.D. Power’s 2025 U.S. National Banking Satisfaction Study ranked Capital One first for the sixth consecutive year.

The sequence matters. Eliminate the punishment first. That moves the brand from stressful and joyless to calm but joyless—competent, fair, unremarkable. Then add the cafés, lounges and experience-led card tiers. Calm first, then joy.

Automotive: Hyundai

Hyundai attacked the stress axis with structural guarantees that absorbed the customer’s fear onto the company’s books: the ten-year, 100,000-mile warranty, followed by Hyundai Assurance, which allowed a buyer who lost a job in the first year to return the car.

Only after reliability was established could Genesis and the Ioniq design language move the joy axis. J.D. Power’s 2025 Initial Quality Study ranked Hyundai Motor Group first among corporations for the second consecutive year. The warranty bought the right to make the design move a decade later.

Air travel: Delta

Delta filed for bankruptcy in September 2005. Its later climb began with operational reliability—not a delight feature. Planes left the ground on time more consistently than competitors. The polished app, upgrades and lounges came later.

The company’s Keep Climbing promise is now measurable: Delta has been recognized for on-time performance and premium-economy satisfaction. Again, operations first. Indulgence second.

Rescue before ritual

The climb out of the stressful corner of the Joy-Stress Matrix doesn’t start with delight. It starts with the Calm Advantage—fixing the specific thing the customer is anxious about in your category.

Am I being ripped off? Will I lose my job and lose this car? Will the plane actually leave? Will the bank punish me for being two dollars short?

Rescue before ritual. Once that floor is solid, Playful Design and Surprise & Delight can build on top as the layer that turns dependable into beloved. Tried in the other order, joy reads as theater. Customers walk.

Most CMOs are running brands somewhere in the middle, with budget pressure, operational drag and a board that wants growth. The Joy Dividend isn’t a one-step jump. It is a sequenced climb: calm first, honesty about which floor you are actually on, then the joy customers feel because they trust the basics will hold.

Which quadrant is your brand actually in? Start a conversation if you want your leadership team working through that question.