30. IS YOUR MARKETING REALLY MOTIVATING FOR YOUR
CUSTOMERS?
INTRODUCTION
Tom Peters, the Excellence guru, asserted that the real job for ‘marketing’ was and is to make
‘sales’ redundant! Image your marketing being so targeted, motivating and convincing for the
customer – that you require little or no sales effort to execute the buying transaction.
While we can’t promise a tool that delivers all of that –try using Maslow’s Hierarchy Of
Needs and it’s constituent ‘human motivations’ as a great way to test how close you are
coming to really motivating your customer to buy.
EXAMPLES OF MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS IN MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS
The following examples show products, services and marketing communications, as they
address the five levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The first 4 levels are the ‘deficiency
motivators’ – these needs / motivations that will be more readily attended to by the ‘customer’
than the 5th level of self-actualisation (which is the ‘growth motivator’)
1. Biological and Physiological needs - wife/child-abuse help-lines, social security
benefits, Samaritans, roadside recovery.
2. Safety needs - home security products (alarms, etc), house and contents insurance,
life assurance, schools.
3. Belongingness and Love needs - dating and match-making services, chat-lines, clubs
and membership societies, Mac Donalds, 'family' themes like the old style Oxo stock
cube ads.
4. Esteem needs - cosmetics, fast cars, home improvements, furniture, fashion clothes,
drinks, lifestyle products and services.
5. Self-Actualization needs - Open University, mentors and life coaches.
MAP YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE TO THE MASLOW MOTIVATOR
Overleaf, you’ll find the eight levels of human needs – starting with the highest level
and going down to the most basic level.
1. Take your products / services and place them opposite the need you believe
the product/service mostly addresses.
2. Now consider how you market the product /service – are you communicating
their benefits in terms that address the need?
3. Are their several needs that map one of your products/ services – are you
communicating the multiple benefits accordingly?
MAP YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE TO THE MASLOW MOTIVATOR
MASLOW HIERARCHY OF
HUMAN NEEDS
KEY MOTIVATORS
TRANSCENDENCE
HELPING OTHERS TO SELFACTUALISE
SELF-ACTUALISATION
PERSONAL GROWTH , SELFFULFILLMENT
AESTHETIC NEEDS
BEAUTY, BALANCE, FORM
COGNITIVE NEEDS
KNOWLEDGE, MEANING, SELFAWARENESS
ESTEEM NEEDS
ACHIEVEMENT, STATUS,
RESPONSIBILITY, REPUTATION
BELONGINESS AND LOVE
FAMILY, AFFECTION,
RELATIONSHIPS, WORK GROUP
SAFETY NEEDS
PROTECTION, SECURITY, ORDER,
LAW, LIMITS, STABILITY
BIOLOGICAL AND
PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS
BASIC LIFE NEEDS – FOOD,
DRINK, SHELTER, WARMTH,
SLEEP
WHERE IS YOUR PRODUCT
ALIGNED?