Consumer Motivation

Major- MFM II
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.
Positive and negative motivation:
• 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, eg.
failing a subject, if tasks are not completed.
Positive and negative motivation:
• 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.
Motivation Process:
Motivation Process:
• 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 then 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
• 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
• 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
• 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.
Environmental arousal

• 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
Philosophies Concerned with Arousal of
Motives:
• 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”:

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.
Abraham Maslow’s “Need Hierarchy Theory”:
• 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.
Abraham Maslow’s “Need Hierarchy Theory”:
• (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 status, 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.
Abraham Maslow’s “Need Hierarchy Theory”:
• 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.
Abraham Maslow’s “Need Hierarchy Theory”:
• 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 and
contents insurance, life assurance, schools.
• Belongingness and Love needs - dating and match-making services,
chat-lines, clubs and membership societies, MacDonald‘s 'family'
themes like the old style Oxo stock cube ads.
Abraham Maslow’s “Need Hierarchy Theory”:
• 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.
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 arc
three types of motivational conflict of importance to marketing managers:
•          Approach-Approach Conflict
•          Approach-Avoidance Conflict
•          Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict
Approach-Approach 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 lo 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 Conflict
• 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 the person doesn’t not want to gain
weight (avoidance). The development of lower caloric snack foods
reduces this conflict and allows the weight-sensitive consumer to
enjoy snacks and also control calorie intake.
Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict
• 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) --Limited physical or Financial
resources. --Obstacle in the physical or social environment 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. E.g. 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.
Defence Mechanism:
• 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 etc… to attract opposite gender
• 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 .