Consumer Motivation
Inter-Departmental Minor-UG
Basics of Motivation
• People are motivated by many things, some positive
others not. Some motivating factors can move
people only a short time, like hunger which will last
only until you are fed. Others can drive a person
onward for years.
• Motivation is the driving force within individuals that
impels them to action.
• Motivation is the activation or energization of goal-
oriented behaviour. Motivation may be intrinsic or
extrinsic.
• The term is generally used for humans but,
theoretically, it can also be used to describe the
causes for animal behaviour as well.
• According to various theories, motivation may be
rooted in the basic need to minimize physical pain
and maximize pleasure, or it may include specific
needs such as eating and resting, or a desired
object, hobby, goal, state of being, ideal, or it may
be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as
altruism, morality, or avoiding mortality.
Needs
• Needs are the essence of the marketing
concept. Marketers do not create needs but
can make consumers aware of needs. A need
is something that is necessary for humans to
live a healthy life.
• Needs are distinguished from wants because a
deficiency would cause a clear negative
outcome, such as dysfunction or death.
• Needs can be objective and physical, such as food
and water, or they can be subjective and
psychological, such as the need for self-esteem.
• On a societal level, needs are sometimes
controversial, such as the need for a nationalized
health care system.
• Understanding needs and wants is an issue in the
fields of politics, social science, and philosophy.
Types of Needs
• Innate Needs: Physiological (or biogenic)
needs that are considered primary needs or
motives
• Acquired Needs: Learned in response to our
culture or environment, are generally
psychological and considered secondary needs
Goals
• A goal or objective is a projected state of
affairs that a person or a system plans or
intends to achieve—a personal or
organizational desired end-point in some sort
of assumed development.
• It is the sought-after results of motivated
behaviour
Types of goals
• Generic goals: are general categories of goals
that consumers see as a way to fulfil their
needs.
• Product-specific goals: Are specifically
branded products or services that consumers
select as their goals.
Positive and Negative motivation
• Positive motivation is a response which includes
enjoyment and optimism about the tasks that you are
involved in.
• Positive motivation induces people to do work in the
best possible manner and to improve their
performance.
• Under this better facilities and rewards are provided
for their better performance.
• Such rewards and facilities may be financial and non-
financial.
• Negative motivation aims at controlling the negative
efforts of the work and seeks to create a sense of
fear for the worker, which he has to suffer for lack of
good performance.
• It is based on the concept that if a worker fails in
achieving the desired results, he should be punished.
• Negative motivation involves undertaking tasks
because there will be undesirable outcomes, e.g..
failing a subject, if tasks are not completed.
• Almost all students will experience positive and negative
motivation, as well as loss of motivation, at different times
during their life at University.
• Both positive and negative motivation aim at inspiring the
will of the people to work but they differ in their
approaches.
• Whereas one approaches the people to work in the best
possible manner providing better monetary and non-
monetary incentives, the other tries to induce the man by
cutting their wages and other facilities and amenities on
the belief that man works out of fear.
Rational versus Emotional Motives
• Rationality implies that consumers select goals
based on totally objective criteria such as size,
weight, price, or miles per gallon. A conscious,
logical reason for a purchase. A motive that can
be defended by reasoning or logical argument
• Emotional motives imply the selection of goals
according to personal or subjective criteria. A
feeling experienced by a customer through
association with a product.
The Dynamic Nature of Motivation
• Needs are never fully satisfied
• New needs emerge as old needs are satisfied
• People who achieve their goals set new and
higher goals for themselves
Model of the Motivation Process
• The motivational process is the steps that you take to get
motivated.
• It is a process, that when followed produces incredible
results. It is amazing what you can do if you are properly
motivated, and getting properly motivated is a matter of
following the motivational process.
• Like any other process it takes a little work and foresight
and planning on your part.
• However, the return on your investment of time is
significant, and it is important when needing extra
motivation that you apply the motivational process.
Process of Motivation
• In the initiation a person starts feeling lacknesses.
There is an arousal of need so urgent, that the
bearer has to venture in search to satisfy it.
• This leads to creation of tension, which urges the
person to forget everything else and cater to the
aroused need first.
• This tension also creates drives and attitudes
regarding the type of satisfaction that is desired.
• This leads a person to venture into the search of
information.
• This ultimately leads to evaluation of alternatives
where the best alternative is chosen.
• After choosing the alternative, an action is taken.
• Because of the performance of the activity
satisfaction is achieved which than relieves the
tension in the individual.
Arousal of Motives
• The arousal of any particular set of needs at a
specific moment in time may be caused by
internal stimuli found in the individual’s
physiological condition, by emotional or
cognitive processes or by stimuli in outside
environment.
• Physiological arousal
• Emotional arousal
• Cognitive arousal
• Environmental arousal
• Physiological Arousal Bodily needs at any one specific
moment in time are based on the individual
physiological condition at the moment. Ex.A drop in
blood sugar level or stomach contractions will trigger
awareness of a hunger need.
• Ex..A decrease in body temperature will induce
shivering, which makes individual aware of the need
for warmth this type of thing, they arouse related
needs that cause uncomfortable tensions until they
are satisfied. Ex. Medicine, low fat and diet
• Emotional Arousal Sometime daydreaming
results in the arousal (autistic thinking) or
stimulation of latent needs.
• People who are board or who are frustrated in
trying to achieve their goals or often engage in
daydreaming, in which they imagine themselves
in all sorts of desirable situations.
• Ex.A young woman who may spend her free
time in internet single chat room.
• Cognitive arousal sometime random thoughts can lead to
a cognitive awareness of needs. An advertisement that
provides reminders of home might trigger instant yearning
to speak with ones parents.
• Environment arousal The set of needs an individual
experiences at particular time are often activated by
specific cues in the environment. Without these cues the
needs might remain dormant. Ex. The 8’o clock news, the
sight or smell of bakery goods, fast food commercials on
television, all these may arouse the need for food Ex. New
cell phone model display in the store window.
Philosophies Concerned with Arousal of Motives
• Behaviourist School
– Behaviour is response to stimulus
– Elements of conscious thoughts are to
be ignored
– Consumer does not act, but reacts
Cognitive School
– Behaviour is directed at goal
achievement
– Needs and past experiences are
reasoned, categorized, and transformed
into attitudes and beliefs
The Selection of Goals
• The goals selected by an individual depend on
their:
• Personal experiences
• Physical capacity
• Prevailing cultural norms and values
• Goal’s accessibility in the physical and
social environment
Motivation theories and marketing strategy:
Abraham Maslow’s “Need Hierarchy Theory”:
• One of the most widely mentioned theories of
motivation is the hierarchy of needs theory
put forth by psychologist Abraham Maslow.
• Maslow saw human needs in the form of a
hierarchy, ascending from the lowest to the
highest, and he concluded that when one set
of needs is satisfied, this kind of need ceases
to be a motivator.
As per his theory this needs are:
• (i) Physiological needs: These are important
needs for sustaining the human life. Food,
water, warmth, shelter, sleep, medicine and
education are the basic physiological needs
which fall in the primary list of need
satisfaction.
• Maslow was of an opinion that until these
needs were satisfied to a degree to maintain
life, no other motivating factors can work.
(ii) Security or Safety needs: These are the
needs to be free of physical danger and of the
fear of losing a job, property, food or shelter. It
also includes protection against any emotional
harm.
(iii) Social needs: Since people are social
beings, they need to belong and be accepted
by others. People try to satisfy their need for
affection, acceptance and friendship.
• (iv) Esteem needs: According to Maslow, once
people begin to satisfy their need to belong, they
tend to want to be held in esteem both by
themselves and by others.
• This kind of need produces such satisfaction as
power, prestige status and self-confidence. It
includes both internal esteem factors like self-
respect, autonomy and achievements and external
esteem factors such as states, recognition and
attention.
• (v) Need for self-actualization : Maslow regards this as the
highest need in his hierarchy. It is the drive to become what one
is capable of becoming, it includes growth, achieving one’s
potential and self-fulfilment. It is to maximize one’s potential
and to accomplish something.
• As each of these needs are substantially satisfied, the next need
becomes dominant. From the standpoint of motivation, the
theory would say that although no need is ever fully gratified, a
substantially satisfied need no longer motivates. So if you want
to motivate someone, you need to understand what level of the
hierarchy that person is on and focus on satisfying those needs
or needs above that level.
• Maslow’s need theory has received wide
recognition, particularly among practicing
managers.
• This can be attributed to the theory’s intuitive
logic and ease of understanding.
• However, research does not validate these theory.
• Maslow provided no empirical evidence and other
several studies that sought to validate the theory
found no support for it.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in marketing (application)
• To help with training of Maslow's theory look for Maslow's
Hierarchy of Needs motivators in advertising. This is a great
basis for Maslow and motivation training exercises:
• Biological and Physiological needs - wife/child-abuse help-
lines, social security benefits, Samaritans, roadside recovery.
• Safety needs - home security products (alarms, etc), house
an contents insurance, life assurance, schools.
• Belongingness and Love needs - dating and match-making
services, chat-lines, clubs and membership societies,
Macdonalds, 'family' themes like the old style Oxo stock cube
ads.
• Esteem needs - cosmetics, fast cars, home
improvements, furniture, fashion clothes,
drinks, lifestyle products and services.
• Self-Actualization needs - Open University, and
that's about it; little else in mainstream media
because only 2% of population are self-
actualizers, so they don't constitute a very big
part of the mainstream market.
Discovering purchase motives
• Buying motives determine two things:
• what consumers want to do, and how much they
want to do it.
• To market successfully, purchase motives first
have to be directed towards your goods, not
someone else's.
• Second, the drive has to be strong enough so that
people will act on it; they have to be willing to pay
the price in terms of Rupees, time, and effort.
Latent and Manifest Motives
Marketing Strategies Based on
Motivation Conflict
• With the many motives consumers have and the
many situations in which these motives are
activated, here are frequent conflicts between
motives.
• The resolution of a motivational conflict often
affects consumption patterns. In many instances, the
marketer can analyze situations that are likely to
result in a motivational conflict, provide a solution to
the conflict, and attract the patronage of those
consumers facing the motivational conflict.
There are three types of motivational conflict of importance to marketing managers:
• Approach-Approach Conflict
• Approach-Avoidance Conflict
• Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict
Approach-Approach Motivational Conflict
• A consumer who must choose between two attractive
alternatives faces approach-approach conflict.
• The more equal this attraction, the greater the conflict.
• A consumer who recently received a large cash gift for
graduation (situational variable) might be confused between a
trip to Hawaii (perhaps powered by a need for stimulation) and a
new mountain bike (perhaps driven by the need for assertion).
• This conflict could be resolved by a timely advertisement
designed to encourage one or the other action. Or a price
modification, such as "buy now, pay later." could result in a
resolution whereby both alternatives are selected.
Approach-Avoidance Motivational Conflict
• A consumer facing a purchase choice with both positive
and negative consequences confronts approach-avoidance
conflict.
• A person who is concerned about gaining weight yet likes
snack foods faces this type of problem.
• He or she may want the taste and emotional satisfaction
associated with the snacks (approach) but does not want lo
gain weight (avoidance).
• The development of lower calorie snack foods reduces this
conflict and allows the weight-sensitive consumer to enjoy
snacks and also control calorie intake.
Avoidance-Avoidance Motivational Conflict
• A choice involving only undesirable outcomes produces
avoidance-avoidance conflict. When a consumer's old
washing machine fails, this conflict may occur.
• The person may not want to spend money on a new washing
machine, or pay to have the old one repaired, or go without
one.
• The availability of credit is one way of reducing this
motivational conflict.
• Advertisements emphasizing the importance of regular
maintenance for cars, such as oil tiller changes, also use this
type of motive conflict: "Pay me now. or pay me (more) later."
Frustration
• Failure to achieve a goal often result in feeling
of frustration (inability to attain goal)-
frustration comes because of either Limited
physical or Financial resources.
• Obstacle in the physical or social environment:
In such frustration, people are likely to adopt a
defence mechanism to protect their egos from
feelings of inadequacy.
Defence Mechanism: Methods by which people mentally redefine frustrating situations
to protect their self-images and their self-esteem
• Aggression (attracting) may react with anger
towards his/her boss for not getting enough
money for one trip so frustrated consumers
have boycotted manufacturers in an effort to
improve product quality and have boycotted
retailers in an effort to have price lowered.
• Rationalization (Convince themselves)They may
decide that goal is not really worth (reasoning
for being unable to attain their goals)
• Regression—People react to frustrating
situations with childish or immature behaviour
• Withdrawal—withdrawing from the situation.
Ex. Person who has difficulty achieving officer
status in an organisation may simply quit the
organisation or he may decide he can use his
time more constructively in other activities.
• Projection—An individual may projecting blame
for his/her own failure and inabilities on other
objects or persons. Ex. the driver who has an
automobile accident may blame the other driver
or the condition of the road Ex. cricket player
blame the ground / climate.
• Autism or Autism thinking Day dream that
enables the Individual to attain unfulfilled needs
( dreaming / thinking emotionally / romantically).
• Identification Sometime people feel frustration by
subconsciously identifying with other persons or
situation that they consider relevant. Ex. Mouth
wash, shampoo, soap to attract opposite sex.
• Repression– Another way that individuals avoid
the tension arising from frustration is by repressing
the unsatisfied need Ex. A couple who cannot have
children may surround themselves with plants or
pets.
