Chapter
8
CUSTOMER MOTIVATION
Learning outcomes
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
■■
Explain and discuss the nature of motives
■■
Explain the process of the arousal of needs
■■
Discuss the classification of motives
■■
Discuss Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
■■
Discuss McGuire’s psychological motives, and the economic and emotional
classification of motives
■■
Explain what is meant by psychographics
■■
Explain the different motivational research options.
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8.1
Introduction
In this day and age, it is becoming more and more difficult to identify what
motivates customers to buy certain products or makes them react in a certain way.
Motives inspire everything we do and all decisions we make – and it is important for
marketers to be aware of the things that motivate customers. Customer motivation
can be defined as an internal state that compels or drives people to identify, select
and buy products or services that fulfil both their conscious and subconscious
needs and desires.1 Keeping this definition in mind, if we are able to understand
consumers’ motivations, we will be equipped to understand why consumers do
what they do and why they choose the products and services that they do. It is
human nature to be motivated by something – either consciously or subconsciously.
We might know why we are doing something, but sometimes we are not really sure
why we are doing something. Looking at this from a marketing perspective, we need
to acknowledge that people are usually not fully aware of the forces that drive them
towards some products and away from others. Often, these choices are influenced
by people’s values; their priorities and beliefs about the world. It is the task of the
marketer to identify what their needs are and what motivates them to do certain
things. Understanding consumer motivation can mean the difference between a
successful campaign and a waste of time and money at the end of the day.
This is not an easy task, as customers experience many and different kinds of
needs. However, insight into this matter offers a valuable approach for marketers
to study motivational influences in buying behaviour. In this chapter, we examine
the motivation process and need arousal, highlighting the fact that motivation
links needs and objectives. We look at the classification of motives, and examine
psychographics. Lastly, we briefly discuss motivational research.
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8.2
The nature of motivation
As stated previously, consumer motivation is an internal state that
drives people to identify and buy products or services that fulfil
conscious and subconscious needs or desires. The fulfilment of those
needs can then motivate them to make a repeat purchase or to find
different goods and services to better fulfil those needs
8.2.1
Needs, motives and objectives
When the customer has a desire to satisfy their needs, what the customer
experiences is called motivation. This desire to fulfil a need is what drives people
to move to action and the energy of that desire is called motivation. Clearly, there
is a close relationship between needs and motives. As the driving force within
individuals that impels them to action, motivation is produced by a state of tension
that exists as the result of an unfulfilled need and the way to relieve this stress is to
fulfil the need.
The term ‘need’ refers to something that is essential or important and not only
something that is desirable or nice to have. From a marketing perspective, a need
is a consumer’s desire for a product’s or service’s specific benefit, whether that be
functional or emotional. A want is a desire for products or services that are not
necessary, but which consumers wish for.2
Needs are therefore the basic sources of buyer behaviour and have to
be stimulated before the consumer is driven to action.
Every individual has needs. Some are innate; others are acquired:
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Innate needs are physiological (biogenic); they include the needs for food,
water, air, clothing, shelter and sex. Because they are necessary to sustain
biological life, the biogenic needs are considered primary needs or motives.
Acquired needs are needs that we learn in response to our culture or
environment. These may include needs for self-esteem, prestige, affection,
power and learning. Because acquired needs are generally psychological
(psychogenic), they are considered secondary needs or motives.3
The specific goals the customer selects and the patterns of action that they undertake
to achieve these goals result from individual thinking and learning.
For any given need, there are various appropriate goals. The goals chosen by
individuals depend on those individuals’ personal experiences, physical capacities,
the prevailing cultural norms and values, and on whether the goals are accessible
in the physical and social environment. For example, consider a young woman who
wishes to lose weight and who thinks that diet pills will be the best way to achieve
her goal. Her doctor, however, advises her not to use the pills, as it will be bad for
her health. She might now settle for a healthy diet and exercise as an alternative to
the diet pills. The goal or objective has to be both socially acceptable and physically
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Chapter 8: Customer motivation
accessible. If the young woman did not have the option of eating healthily and
exercising, she would either ignore the advice of her doctor or select a substitute
goal, such as staying her current weight, but being healthy.
A person’s perception of their own self also influences the specific goals selected.
We often perceive the products we own, would like to own or would not like to own
in terms of how closely they reflect or are congruent with our self-image. Therefore
a man who sees himself as trendy, fashionable and successful may want to wear a
TAG Heuer watch, drive a BMW 420i, wear only Patagonia or Todd Snyder clothes
and Nike shoes, and eat only organic foods.
Everyone must satisfy basic needs such as hunger and thirst. But the way two hungry
people go about this can be very different: one person wants a pizza and soft drink,
while the other wants healthy food and filtered water. Other needs are utilitarian
and are products that make everyday life easier – the items that are a priority for
certain purposes. We emphasise the objective, tangible attributes of products,
such as petrol consumption in a car; the amount of fat, protein and kilojoules in a
cheeseburger; or the durability of a pair of jeans. Needs may also be hedonic which
refers to those items that bring emotions such as enjoyment and pleasure through
ownership or use of these items.4
We now look at the arousal of needs.
8.2.2
Need arousal
Marketers are aware of the fact that customers need to be made aware of their needs
or a need to be ‘awakened’ in them – a need they may have but are not aware of it.
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Need arousal is a method used in advertising which plays on a desire or requirement
of the target to try and sell the product to them; for example, they require security,
therefore they should purchase an alarm system.5
Marketers will therefore use the identified needs of customers to entice them to
purchase their products. Arousing customers’ needs is possible through marketing
actions such as creative advertising, using selective media and how the product is
positioned in the market. In many instances, the customer’s needs are dormant –
they are not even aware of them, and it requires some sort of stimulus to arouse
them through emotions or physiological means.
For example, you could feel the need for a new car because you are tired of your
current car’s high petrol consumption (the actual state) and you realise that
a new Polo Blue Motion would use less petrol (the desired state). The arousal of
specific needs at a specific point in time may be caused by internal stimuli found
in the individual’s physiological condition, emotional or cognitive processes, or
external stimuli in the environment – all of which implies that there are various
types of arousal.
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Physiological arousal
All people have certain basic bodily needs based on their physiological condition at
that moment in time. The physiological cues are involuntary, however they arouse
related needs which cause discomfort until such a time that they are satisfied.
A growling stomach might trigger awareness of a hunger need and a parched throat
a thirst need. The person who is hungry or thirsty might be compelled to buy some
groceries or drink something at a café. Physiological arousal therefore deals more
with the basic needs of customers such as thirst, hunger, safety, bodily protection
(warm or cold) and so forth.
Emotional arousal
Emotional arousal can be defined as a state of heightened physiological activity. It is
part of human nature to daydream and fantasise, which often results in the arousal
of latent needs. People tend to place themselves in their minds in situations where
they imagine themselves in ideal or desirable positions and this usually happens
when they are bored or frustrated in their lives (autistic thinking). By doing this,
customers tend to arouse dormant needs, which then leads to a state of discomfort
and which may propel the consumer to goal-orientated behaviour. A young graduate
who sees himself as becoming the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg might start to
learn more and more about technology and social media and available apps to try
and develop his own new successful app.
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Cognitive arousal
Cognitive arousal, also referred to as intellectual arousal, is about thinking and
mental stimulation.6 Cognitive awareness of a need may be triggered by a stimulus
in the environment, such as when someone on social media says on Facebook that
it was so special to be able to do something for their parents such as taking them
to lunch. This may trigger thoughts in a person to do something for their parents,
(cognitive awareness of needs). Similarly, an advertisement of a couple getting
engaged may arouse in a young person the cognitive need of getting engaged to
their partner.
Environmental arousal
The needs activated at a specific time are often determined by specific cues in
the environment. Without these cues, the needs would remain dormant; that is,
they would not be aroused. For example, the smell of food may arouse the ‘need’
for food. Advertisements often produce a psychological imbalance in the viewer’s
mind. For example, a young aspiring model sees a well-known model wearing Guess
clothing, and suddenly she is unhappy with her current wardrobe. The tension she
is experiencing disappears only when she buys herself a Guess outfit.
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Chapter 8: Customer motivation
8.2.3
The drive state
Once a need is aroused, it produces a drive state.7 A drive is an affective state in
which a person experiences emotions and physiological arousal.
In the customer context, this state would include searching for information, talking
to other customers about a product, shopping for the best bargain, and buying
products and services.
Customer decision making is activated when the customer recognises that a
problem exists, and problem recognition occurs when the customer’s actual state
of being differs from a desired state of being. Thus problem recognition and need
activation are essentially synonymous concepts, and goal-directed behaviour and
the search for information are closely related. In each case, the customer engages in
a series of behaviours to fulfil a need or solve a problem. Following the automatic
or chosen behaviour, the final outcome will be the experience of a new state and,
possibly, a sense of satisfaction. This outcome, if positive, feeds back to calm the
drive. If the new state is not satisfactory, the feedback recycles the process; in other
words, it starts the process all over again.
Customers tend to adopt new products and switch brands just to try out a different
brand. Moreover, they look for more information about products, and get bored
when exposed to repetitive advertising. Arousal seekers are also users of a greater
assortment of options within the same product category, such as fast food.
It is not possible to determine how many needs people actually have to overcome
due to the problem of a virtually infinite number of possible needs; psychologists
and researchers have suggested various categories or general groupings of needs.
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8.3
The classification of motives (needs)
There are three particularly useful approaches to understanding and classifying
customer motivation. The first approach, Maslow’s motive hierarchy, is a macrotheory, or overall theory, designed to account for most human behaviour in general
terms. The second approach, based on McGuire’s psychological motives, uses a
fairly detailed set of motives to account for a limited range of customer behaviours.
The third, the economic and emotional classification, distinguishes between
rational and emotional (or non-rational) motives.
8.3.1
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Maslow was one of the first psychologists to try to identify specific human motives
and classify them in a general scheme. Maslow’s theory is founded on the principles
that all people adopt a set of motives based on social interaction and genetic setup;
that there are differences in motives with some being more basic than others, and
that the more basic motives need to be largely satisfied before the other higher-level
motives can be satisfied.
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Maslow’s theory puts forward that people are motivated by five basic categories
of needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualisation. Based on this
theory, the higher needs in the hierarchy only emerge once people are of the opinion
that the previous need has been sufficiently satisfied. In order to understand better
what motivates human beings, Maslow formulated a hierarchy of needs in which
levels of motives are specified, as shown in Figure 8.1.
SAFETY
Security
Shelter
Protection
PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS
Water
Sleep
Food
LOWER-LEVEL NEEDS
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Selfactualisation
achieving one’s full
potential, including
creative activities
Esteem needs
prestige, feeling of accomplishment
Belongingness & love needs
intimate relationships, friends
Safety needs
security, safety
Physiological needs
food, water, warmth, rest
Figure 8.1 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
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Chapter 8: Customer motivation
A hierarchical approach implies that the order of development is fixed; that is, one
level must be attained before the next higher level is activated.
Level 1: Physiological needs
Physiological needs are the first and most basic level of human needs.
These needs are quite clear. They are mainly the things we need for our survival
and include needs for water, food, clothing, breathing and shelter. Maslow also
included sexual reproduction in this level of basic needs as it is essential to the
survival of the human race. These basic needs are dominant as if they are not at least
largely met, the next level cannot be reached. It must be noted that a person can
be partially on the one level of satisfaction and also on the next level of satisfying
needs – it is not expected that all needs are totally satisfied before the next level in
the hierarchy is attempted.
Level 2: The need for safety
After physiological needs have been satisfied, safety and security needs become the
driving force behind an individual’s behaviour. On this level, the requirements start
to become a bit more complex as people are wanting to have more control and order
in their lives. To this extent, safety and security contribute greatly to this level.
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These needs are concerned not only with physical safety but also include
order, stability, routine, familiarity, financial security, health and wellness,
and safety against accidents and injury.
For example, people want a job, to have money in a savings account for uncertain
times, to have health and life cover, and to live in a safe neighbourhood, in order to
feel secure and in control of their environment. Due to the prevailing crime situation
in South Africa, estate agents are promoting the safety and quality lifestyle offered by
secure estates with 24-hour security and a safe environment for children to play in.
Level 3: Belongingness and love needs (social needs)
This level includes things such as love, belonging and acceptance by others. On this
level, the need for emotional relationships drives human behaviour. This need is
satisfied by, amongst others, friendships, social groups, community groups, family,
religious affiliations, and romantic attachments people look for.
People generally need to feel loved and accepted by others, which means there is a
need for personal relationships with friends and family, to be part of a group such
as a book club, knitting club, sports club or a religious group.
Emotional needs play a significant role in the customers’ decisions about many
types of products. The social motives of belonging and love are manifested in their
purchase of products that are regarded highly by others, which marketers address
in their marketing efforts in various ways, as is seen during special occasions such
as mothers’ day and Valentine’s day.
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Level 4: Esteem needs (ego needs)
At this level of Maslow’s hierarchy, there is a need for appreciation and respect.
Once the needs at the first two levels have been satisfied, the esteem needs begin to
play a more prominent role in motivating behaviour.8 At this stage, gaining respect
and appreciation from others is becoming increasingly important to people. It is
important for people to have their efforts acknowledged when they accomplish
something. In addition to the need for feelings of accomplishment and prestige,
esteem needs include self-esteem and personal worth. It is important for people to
feel that they are valued by others and that they add meaning to something out there.
Examples include academic accomplishments, performing well in sports activities,
reaching high positions in their place of work or excelling at a hobby. Achieving a
good self-esteem – liking what they have achieved and receiving recognition from
others – tends to make people feel more confident in their abilities.
Level 5: Self-actualisation
‘At the very peak of Maslow’s hierarchy are the self-actualisation needs. “What a
man can be, he must be,” Maslow explained, referring to the need people have to
achieve their full potential as human beings.’9 According to Maslow, most people
never satisfy their ego needs sufficiently to move to the last level in the hierarchy –
the need for self-actualisation (self-fulfilment).
This need refers to an individual’s desire to fulfil their potential; in other
words, to become everything they are capable of becoming.
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This need is expressed in different ways by different people. For example, a boxer
may aspire to become the world champion in his weight division and work singlemindedly for years to become the best in that sport.
At each level of Maslow’s hierarchy, different priorities exist in terms of the product
benefits a customer is looking for. Ideally, people progress up the hierarchy until
their dominant motivation is a focus on ‘ultimate’ goals, such as justice and beauty.
Unfortunately, this state is difficult to achieve, at least on a regular basis. Most of
us have to be satisfied with attaining this state occasionally, in peak experiences.
Table 8.1 gives examples of product appeals tailored to each level.
Table 8.1: Maslow’s hierarchy and marketing strategies
Level of hierarchy
Relevant products
Example of an appeal
Self-actualisation needs
Hobbies, travel, education
Adidas: ‘Nothing is impossible’
Esteem or ego needs
Cars, furniture, credit cards
Mercedes: ‘The best or nothing’
➥
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Chapter 8: Customer motivation
Level of hierarchy
Relevant products
Example of an appeal
Belonging or social
needs
Designer clothing, perfume,
cellphones and beverages
Olive Garden: ‘When you’re
here, you’re family’
Safety or security needs
Healthcare, insurance,
alarm systems, retirement
investments
Trellidor: ‘The ultimate crime
barrier’
Physiological needs
Food, beverages, clothing
Jungle: ‘Energy champion’
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs provides a useful framework for marketers
to segment the market, and it helps with product positioning
in the following ways:
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8.3.2
Segmentation applications: The needs hierarchy is often used as the basis
for market segmentation (see Chapter 11), as specific advertising appeals
are directed at individuals on one or more need levels. For example,
Chanel perfume is targeted at mature women with a higher income, and
Chanel’s advertisements emphasise social appeal by portraying celebrities
using their product.
Positioning applications: Another way to use the hierarchy is in the positioning
of products; that is, deciding how the product is to be perceived by prospective
customers. The key to positioning is to find a niche that is not occupied by a
competing brand. This application relies on the notion that no need is ever
fully satisfied; it usually continues to be motivating to a certain extent. For
example, most manufacturers of luxury cars use status appeals (for example,
‘Impress your friends’), self-actualisation appeals (for example, ‘You deserve
the very best’) or social appeals (for example, ‘The whole family can ride in
luxurious comfort’). To find a unique position among its luxury competitors,
Mercedes-Benz has used a safety appeal by showing pictures of MercedesBenz vehicles that have overturned or been badly damaged but whose
passengers have been unhurt.
McGuire’s psychological motives
McGuire developed a motive classification system that is more specific than Maslow’s.
McGuire’s classification consists of two categories: internal and external motives.
McGuire’s internal motives
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The need for consistency: A basic human desire is to have all facets or parts
consistent with one another. These facets include attitudes, opinions and selfimage. Marketers use this idea in several ways. First, they develop a consistent
marketing mix. The second area of marketing interest with consistency is called
cognitive dissonance. This refers to a tendency among consumers to second
guess their decision – was it the right decision to make? It is a little seed of doubt
that creeps in, especially where expensive purchases are made.
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The need to attribute causation: This set of motives deals with the human
tendency to determine who or what causes the things that happen to us. Do we
attribute the cause of a favourable or unfavourable outcome to ourselves or to
some outside force? Attributing cause is a part of the foundation for the use of
rhetorical theory to understand consumers’ responses to persuasive messages.
The need to categorise: Often, we need to categorise and organise information and
experiences in some meaningful yet manageable way. So we establish categories
or mental partitions that allow us to process large amounts of information.
For example, a consumer may categorise clothing retailers into two groups:
those who generally sell items for under R200 and those whose items are
generally priced over R200. Many stores price items at R9.95, R19.95, R49.95
and so on to avoid their products being categorised as over R10.00, over R20.00
or over R50.00.
The need for cues: These motives reflect the need for observable cues or symbols
that enable us to infer what we feel and know. Our impressions, feelings and
attitudes are subtly established by viewing our own behaviour and others and
drawing inferences as to what we feel and think. In many instances, shoes or
watches offer subtle hints about a desired image or lifestyle. The shoes or watches
of sales consultants should therefore convey the desired image of the business.
The need for self-expression or independence: This motive deals with the need to
express one’s identity to others. We feel the need to let others know who and
what we are by means of our actions (which include the purchase and display
of goods). The purchase of a specific brand of home appliance or model of car
allows consumers to express their identity to others, since these products have
symbolic or expressive meanings.
The need for novelty: We often seek variety and difference simply out of the need
for novelty. Marketers refer to this kind of motive as variety-seeking behaviour.
This is the prime reason for brand switching and impulse purchasing. The
need for novelty changes with time. That is, consumers experiencing rapid
change generally become satiated and look for stability, while customers
in stable environments get bored and look for change. The travel industry,
for example, segments the holiday market in part by promoting ‘adventure’
holidays or ‘relaxing’ holidays to different groups, depending on their likely
need for novelty.
McGuire’s external motives
Self-expression, ego defence, assertion and reinforcement motives seem to be
similar – they all refer to achievement, gaining esteem, receiving admiration and
expressing identity. Therefore, they are similar to Maslow’s ego motive, while the
affiliation motive is similar to Maslow’s belonging motive. Modelling is a major
means by which children learn to become customers or consumers. The tendency
to model explains some of the conformity that occurs within reference groups.
Marketers utilise this motive by showing desirable types of individuals using
their brands, for example, actors or actresses such as Cameron Diaz appearing on
billboards and advertisements wearing a TAG Heuer watch.
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Chapter 8: Customer motivation
8.3.3
Economic and emotional classification
It is not only psychological needs that lead to decision making by consumers but
also economic and/or emotional motives.
Economic criteria
When customers buy products, they may also be concerned about aspects such as
economy, quality, performance, suitability and reliability. They can satisfy these
economic motives by applying economic criteria in decision making. Customers
often disagree on the relative importance of the criteria, which differ from one
customer to another, from one buying situation to another and from one product
to another.
Economic motives are rational in nature. Marketers often express them
in quantifiable terms,
for example ‘Buy now and save 25%’ or ‘For this week only’. They can also be
expressed in less specific terms, for example ‘Suit your family ... suit your pocket’,
as in some car advertisements. It is interesting to note that in the latter example,
the emotional appeal of affiliation with the family and the economic appeal of
affordability are combined in a single sentence.
Emotional criteria
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The emotional motives in customer decision making include all the social and
ego motives of Maslow and McGuire. The economic motives are considered to
be completely rational, but this does not mean that the satisfaction of emotional
needs is a non-rational act.
Customers do not necessarily act in a non-rational manner when they
allow their emotions to influence their buying decisions.
Moreover, it is almost impossible for us to make any decision on a purely rational
basis, as emotional motives invariably influence our customer decision. Nevertheless,
people are usually reluctant to admit that their buying behaviour is influenced by
emotional motives. For example, a person who buys an iPhone because they want
to show off financial status will most likely not admit this motive. This person
would rather rationalise the decision by basing it on functionality or durability.
Marketers often use two divergent approaches in advertising. The heading and copy
of the advertisement may be rational and therefore appeal to economic motives,
while the illustration tends to suggest satisfaction of emotional motives.
Some advertisements are purely rational, but many are totally emotional.
Appeals to emotional motives are strongly persuasive. Marketers should consider
the characteristics of their product, and review their particular situation before
deciding on a particular mix of appeals in a marketing message. An important facet
of motivation is psychographics, which we consider next.
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8.4
Psychographics
Psychographics are characteristics that describe individuals in terms
of their psychological and behavioural makeup.
Psychographics in marketing focus on understanding the consumer’s emotions and
values in order to market more effectively to consumers.10 Psychographics focus on
consumers and their activities, opinions and interests, and aim to understand the
cognitive factors that drive the behaviours of consumers. For example, a person’s
need to seek affiliation or peer approval may encourage her to start playing tennis.
Tennis thus becomes part of her psychographics. In turn, this psychographic drives
customer behaviour towards doing whatever is needed to implement it; thus it
becomes motivational.
8.4.1
Psychographics and lifestyle
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Psychographic research is research that attempts to assess customers on the basis of
psychological dimensions as opposed to purely demographic dimensions. A person’s
motivations determine behaviour as well as lifestyle. Consider a team of marketers
who want to target a young population. They identify their ideal customer as a
young man between the ages of 22 and 25, living in Johannesburg, who earns
R150 000 to R200 000 a year. You may know many people who fit this description.
Do you think they are all the same? Would they all be likely to share common
interests and buy the same products? Probably not, since their lifestyles are likely
to differ considerably. In other words, customers may share the same demographic
characteristics and still be very different people. Hence, retailers need to find a way
to ‘breathe life into’ demographic data to identify, understand and target customer
segments that will share a set of preferences for their products and services.
The term ‘psychographics’ is often used interchangeably with ‘lifestyle’ to denote
the separation of customers into categories based on differences in choices of
consumption activities and product usage. There are many psychographic variables
that marketers can use to segment customers, but they all share the underlying
principle of going beyond superficial characteristics to understand customers’
motivations for buying and using products.
Demographics allow us to describe who buys, while psychographics
allow us to understand why they buy.
This is largely based on the values of the customer concerned.
8.4.2
Values determine lifestyle
‘Values are basic and fundamental beliefs that guide or motivate attitudes or
actions. They help us to determine what is important to us. Values describe the
personal qualities we choose to embody to guide our actions; the sort of person we
want to be; the manner in which we treat ourselves and others, and our interaction
with the world around us. They provide the general guidelines for conduct.’11
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Chapter 8: Customer motivation
Our values are related to customer activities. For example, people who value a sense
of belonging particularly like team activities. Those who value fun and enjoyment
particularly like activities such as sailing, dancing, hiking and camping, and
often consume a lot of alcohol. People who value a warm relationship with others
tend to give gifts to others for no obvious reason. A person’s set of values plays
an extremely important role in consumption activities; that is, people buy many
products and services because they believe that these will help them to attain a
value-related goal.
8.4.3
Psychographic profiles
AC Nielsen Market Research Africa’s Sociomonitor Value Groups Survey is the most
authoritative psychographic profile of its kind in South Africa. In order to create the
value groups, respondents answer an extensive battery of psychographic statements.
Their answers are then grouped and scored, giving every single respondent a
different score and position on the ‘social map’, depending on their answers. These
scores are analysed statistically and the value groups – broad groups of customers
with similar values, attitudes and motivations (psychographics) – are identified.
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8.4.4
The uses of psychographics
We can use psychographics in a variety of ways, most notably in market
segmentation. They allow marketers to go beyond the simple demographic or
product usage descriptions. Sometimes, marketers create their strategies with a
typical customer in mind. However, the stereotype may be inaccurate, as the actual
customer may not match these assumptions. For example, say the marketers of a
particular beer company thought their market consisted of young professional men
between the ages of 25 and 30, but were then surprised when they realised that
their beer is actually consumed by older family men between the ages of 40 and
45. Psychographic information can guide marketers in emphasising features of the
product that fit in with a person’s lifestyle. Products targeted at people whose lifestyle
profiles show a high need to be around other people may focus on the product’s
ability to help meet this social need. Furthermore, psychographic information can
offer useful input in advertising; specifically communicating something about the
product. The advertiser obtains a much richer mental image of the target customer
than that obtained through statistics, and this insight improves the advertiser’s
ability to ‘talk’ to that customer. For example, it was found that women that buy
expensive perfume would like to think that they are unique in wearing their
preferred brand.
One perfume brand decided to take advantage of this tendency, and they developed
advertisements with the theme ‘It’s only you’. Understanding how a product fits
or does not fit into customers’ lifestyles allows marketers to identify new product
opportunities, design media strategies and create environments that are the most
consistent and harmonious with these consumption patterns.
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8.5
Motivational research
Motivational research can be defined as a type of marketing research that
attempts to explain why customers behave as they do and attempts to discover the
underpinning attitudes, feelings and emotions regarding the use of a product or
service. Two techniques, namely depth interviews and projective techniques, are
frequently used in marketing studies.
8.5.1
Depth interviews
These are interviews with individual customers designed to determine deep-seated
or repressed motives that cannot be brought out by structured questions. Customers
are encouraged to talk freely in an unstructured interview, and their responses
are interpreted carefully to reveal their motives and potential buying inhibitions.
A related feature of the depth interview is the focus group interview, in which eight
to 12 customers are brought together under the direction of a moderator to discuss
issues that may reveal their deep-seated needs or unconscious motives. Focus groups
are likely to stimulate discussion because of the context, and they may bring out
thoughts and motives that individual depth interviews will not.
EXAMPLE
What depth and focus group interviews reveal
Depth and focus group interviews in several studies have provided useful findings,
such as the following:
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●●
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8.5.2
Customers want a sense of freedom and power when they get behind the
wheel of a car. They use the surge of acceleration to give themselves a
sense of being freed from the mundane aspects of life. If marketers want to
advertise petrol, they should play on this feeling and, for instance, talk about
‘the tiger in your tank’.
Men dislike air travel because of ‘posthumous guilt’ – they are afraid that
they will die in a crash, thus turning their wives into widows. To combat this
aversion, airlines should advertise how quickly they can return businessmen
home to their loved ones.
Eating sweets is a source of guilt because of childhood associations with
reward and punishment. Any attempt to market sweets to adults should
therefore emphasise the fact that the consumers deserve the rewards
associated with the consumption of the sweets.
Projective techniques
These techniques are designed to determine motives that are difficult to express
or identify. Researchers cannot ask customers direct questions, because customers
may not be aware of their motives for buying, and thus may be unable to answer.
Instead, marketers can give customers a situation, a cartoon or a set of words, and
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Chapter 8: Customer motivation
ask them to respond. Customers project their feelings and concerns about products
onto this less threatening or less involving situation. In one experiment, for
example, researchers tried to discover why women were reluctant to buy instant
coffee when it was first introduced in 1940. The researchers drew up two identical
shopping lists, with the exception that one included regular coffee and the other
instant coffee. They asked the women to project the type of woman most likely
to have developed each list. The ‘housewife’ who included instant coffee on the
list was characterised as lazy and a poor planner. These findings demonstrated
that many women had a deep-seated aversion to buying products such as instant
coffee or instant cake mixes, because of a concern that their husbands would think
they were shirking their homemaking duties. As a result of the study, marketers
advertised instant coffee in a family setting, portraying the husband’s approval.
The psychoanalytic approach may not be empirical, but motivational researchers
were the first to argue that customers are complex and difficult to understand, and
are driven by powerful forces of which they are largely unaware.
Furthermore, motivational research provides marketers with basic cues for more
structured, quantitative marketing research studies – studies that can be conducted
on larger, more representative samples of customers. It continues to be a useful tool
for many marketers who want to know the genuine reasons underlying customer
behaviour. However, it is no longer considered the only method for uncovering
human motivation, but rather one of a variety of research techniques available
to the researcher. Despite some shortcomings, motivational research has proved
to be of great value to marketers concerned with developing new ideas and new
advertising appeals.
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CASE STUDY: The Oliver family
The Olivier family is a middle-class family living in Durban. Mr Olivier has been a
loyal customer of Vodacom for the past five years. He has cellphone contracts for
himself, his wife and their two teenage children. For the past five years, he has
chosen contracts that include Nokia phones with free minutes and SMS bundles,
as the family only needed to make calls and send text messages. Recently,
Mr Olivier discovered that his bill at the end of the month was substantially more
than usual. Upon investigation, he found that this was due to him and his children
accessing the internet from their phones, which, of course, uses data. As a result,
the Olivier family discovered that they needed contracts that would provide them
with data packages and smartphones.
Mr Olivier then discovered that MTN had a special offer that included four Samsung
Galaxy smartphones, with unlimited data, for the price of two. This was the best
option for the Olivier family’s needs and, as a result, they changed their network
provider and brand of phone.
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8.6
Summary
In this chapter, we dealt with customer motivation. Our discussion included a
description of the motivation process that revolves around needs, motives and
objectives, and the different forms of need arousal. We examined the different
forms in which motives can be classified in order to be useful to marketers.
We also explored psychographics, which is a facet of motivation. We concluded
the chapter with a discussion of motivational research.
QUESTIONS FOR SELF-ASSESSMENT
To assess your progress, answer the following questions.
Paragraph/essay-type questions
1.
Explain the motivation process and its significance to marketing.
2. How can a marketer use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (or motives)?
3. Explain McGuire’s motives and the economic and emotional classification of
motives and highlight the marketing implications.
4. Illustrate the use of psychographics in marketing.
5. Explain depth interviews and projective techniques used in motivational
research and indicate how the findings can be of use to marketers.
6. With reference to the case study, answer the following questions:
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A. The Olivier family identified a need for new cellphones and network
provider. How does the motivation process apply in this particular case?
B. How would you classify the motives of the Olivier family in terms of
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, McGuire’s motives and the economic and
emotional classification of motives?
C. With the Olivier family in mind, how should marketers take psychographics
into account in their marketing strategies?
D. Discuss the differences between needs, wants and opportunities with
reference to the case study.
E. Explain how marketers can increase the likelihood that their brands are
included in consumers’ consideration process. Give practical examples
based on the case study.
➥
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Chapter 8: Customer motivation
Multiple-choice questions
1.
Motivation occurs when a need is aroused that the customer wishes to satisfy.
Which of the following statements best describes a need?
1.1 Something that is either a physical or emotional requirement.
1.2 The number one goal of marketing.
1.3 Forces that are directed towards specific goals that can be achieved by
a purchase.
1.4 The basic sources of buyer behaviour.
A. 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3
B. 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4
C. 1.1, 1.3 and 1.4
D. 1.1, 1.2 and 1.4
2. Maslow formulated a hierarchy of needs in which levels of motives are specified.
A hierarchical approach implies that the order of development is fixed; that is,
one level must be attained before the next, higher level is activated. Which of
the following options suggests the correct order of these needs?
A. Physiological needs; safety needs; social needs; esteem needs; selfactualisation needs
B. Self-actualisation needs; safety needs; physiological needs; social needs;
esteem needs
C. Social needs; safety needs; self-actualisation needs; esteem needs;
physio­­logical needs
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D. Safety needs; physiological needs; social needs; self-actualisation needs;
esteem needs.
3. McGuire developed a motive classification system that is more specific than
Maslow’s. It consists of two categories: internal and external motives. Which of
the following motives are classified as internal motives?
A. Causation, assertion, independence, affiliation
B. Self-expression, ego defence, reinforcement, modelling
C. Novelty, assertion, reinforcement, self-expression
D. Categorisation, cues, consistency, independence.
4. Customers are not always motivated by psychological needs in their decision
making. When customers buy products, they are also concerned about aspects
such as dependability, materials, efficiency, installation, operating cost and
price, which can be categorised as _____________ motives.
A. economic
B. environmental
C. emotional
D. ethical.
➥
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Consumer Behaviour
5. The term ‘psychographics’ is often used interchangeably with _____________
to denote the separation of customers into categories, based on differences in
choices of consumption activities and product usage. It allows us to understand
why customers buy certain products.
A. demographics
B. lifestyle
C. behaviour
D. characteristics.
6. Demographics allow us to describe who buys, while psychographics allow us
to understand _____________ they buy.
A. what
B. where
C. why
D. when.
7.
We can use psychographics in a variety of ways. Which of the following
statements regarding psychographics is true?
7.1 Psychographics can be used most notably in market segmentation.
7.2 Psychographic information cannot be used to guide marketers in
emphasising features of the product that fit in with a person’s lifestyle.
7.3 Psychographic information cannot be used in advertising strategies.
7.4 Psychographics allow marketers to create their strategies with a typical
customer in mind.
A. 7.1 and 7.2
B. 7.2 and 7.3
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C. 7.3 and 7.4
D. 7.1 and 7.4
8. Which of the following statements regarding motivational research are true?
8.1 Motivational research is based on the premise that consumers are not
always aware of the reasons for their actions.
8.2 Motivational research attempts to discover the underlying feelings,
attitudes and emotions concerning a product, service or brand use.
8.3 Motivational research regularly includes surveys and depth interviews to
reveal consumer motives and potential buying inhibitions.
➥
Roberts-Lombard,
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Chapter 8: Customer motivation
8.4 Motivational research also utilises observation and projective techniques
to determine consumer motives that are difficult to express or identify.
A. 8.1 and 8.2
B. 8.2 and 8.3
C. 8.3 and 8.4
D. 8.1 and 8.4
9. When implementing _____________, it is not always productive for
researchers to ask customers direct questions, because customers may
not be aware of their motives for buying and thus may be unable to answer
accurately. Instead, marketers can give customers a situation, a cartoon or a
set of words, and ask them to respond.
A. motivational research
B. depth interviews
C. observation
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D. projective techniques.
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