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Consumer Motivation

Shipra Singh

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• Motivation is the driving force within individuals produced by a state of tension caused by unfulfilled needs and wants.

• Motivation is the driving force within individuals that impels them to action

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Model of the Motivation Process

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Needs

• A felt state of deprivation of some basic satisfaction.

• Needs are the essence of the marketing concept. Marketers do not create needs but can make consumers aware of needs.

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Types of Needs

• Innate Needs–Physiological (or biogenic) needs that are

considered primary needs or motives(food, water, air, clothing, shelter)

• Acquired Needs– Learned in response to our culture or

environment. Are generally psychological and considered secondary needs(self-esteem, prestige, affection, power, learning)

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Utilitarian and hedonic needs

• Utilitarian needs:- these needs focus on the practical benefits of a product and identified with the attributes of a product.E.g. Economy or Durability of the product.

• Hedonic needs:- these needs are related to the achieving pleasure from the consumption of a product and are related to the emotions and fantasies.E.g. Desire to be attractive to the opposite sex.

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Goals• The sought-after results of motivated behavior are

known as goals.

• Generic goals are general categories of goals that consumers see as a way to fulfill their needs(wants a graduate degree)

• Product-specific goals are specifically branded products or services that consumers select as their goals(MBA from FMS, IIM)

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Goals Structure

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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

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Motivations and Goals

Positive • Motivation–A driving force

toward some object or condition

(needs, wants)• Approach Goal–A positive goal

toward which behavior is directed

Negative • Motivation

A driving force away from some object or condition(fears or aversions)

• Avoidance Goal–A negative goal from

which behavior is directed away

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Motives

• Physiological motive (satisfying basic needs)• Psychogenic needs (satisfying psychological

needs.)• Conscious motives (a consumer is aware of the

motives)• Unconscious motives (a consumer is not aware

of the motives)• E.g. buying expensive clothes for good fit

(conscious) but it also fulfills status needs (unconscious motives)

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Rational versus Emotional Motives

• Rationality implies that consumers select goals based on totally objective criteria such as size, weight, price.

• Emotional motives imply the selection of goals according to personal or subjective criteria

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• Positive versus negative motives.• Positive motives attract a consumer towards a

desired goal.• Negative motives direct them to avoid

unpleasant consequences.• E.g. fear can influence consumers into buying

water purifiers.

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The Dynamic Nature of Motivationor

needs and goals are dynamic

• Most 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• Substitute goals are formed.

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Substitute Goals

• Are used when a consumer cannot attain a specific goal he/she anticipates will satisfy a need

• The substitute goal will dispel tension• Substitute goals may actually replace the

primary goal over time

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Frustration

• Failure to achieve a goal may result in frustration.

• Some adapt; others adopt defense mechanisms to protect their ego.

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Types of Frustration

• Aggression (writing letters to the concerned person)• Rationalism(thinking rationally/explanations)• Regression (childish/immature behavior)• Withdrawal (avoiding a situation)• Projection (blaming others)• Autism (day dreaming)• Identification(identifying others to resolve the

problem )• Repression (resolve frustration by forcing the need

out of the conscious mind)

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Arousal of Motives

• Motives may remain dormant for number of years but it can be triggered by various situations like:-

• Physiological arousal, involuntary (decrease in body temperature)

• Emotional arousal (purchasing products endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar)

• Cognitive arousal, random thoughts (Home away from home ad may remind a person of home and he may become aware of his need to call his wife.)

• Environmental arousal (need to have coke after seeing someone taking it, smell of bakery goods)

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Nutrament, a product marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb originally was targeted at consumers that needed to receive additional energy from their drinks after exercise etc., a fitness drink. It was therefore targeted at consumers whose needs were for either love and Belonging or esteem. The product was not selling well, and was almost terminated. Upon extensive research it was determined that the product did sell well in inner-city convenience stores. It was determined that the consumers for the product were actually drug addicts who couldn’t digest a regular meal. They would purchase Nutrament as a substitute for a meal. Their motivation to purchase was completely different to the motivation that B-MS had originally thought. These consumers were at the Physiological level of the hierarchy. BM-S therefore had to redesign its MM to better meet the needs of this target market.

Motives often operate at a subconscious level therefore are difficult to measure.

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Philosophies Concerned with Arousal of Motives

• Behaviorist School–Behavior is response to stimulus–Consumer does not act, but reacts

• Cognitive School–Behavior is directed at goal achievement–Needs and past experiences are reasoned,

categorized, and transformed into attitudes and beliefs

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Theories of Human Motivation

• Sigmend Freud assumed that psychological forces shaping people’s behaviour are largely unconscious, and that a person cannot fully understand his or her own motivations.

• A technique called laddering lets us trace a person’s motivations from the stated instrumental ones to the more terminal ones.

• Then the marketer can decide at what level to develop the message and appeal.

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Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Figure 4.10

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Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory

• Two factor theory that distinguishes dissatisfiers (factors that cause dissatisfaction) from satisfiers (factors that cause satisfaction).

• The absence of dissatisfiers is not enough to motivate a purchase, satisfiers must be present.

• A computer that does not come with a warranty would be a dissatisfier. Yet the presence of a product warranty would not act as a satisfier or motivator of a purchase, because it is not a source of intrinsic satisfaction. Ease of use would be a satisfier.

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• Hertzberg’s theory has two implication. • First, sellers should do their best to avoid

dissatisfiers (e.g., a poor training manual or a poor service policy). Although these things will not sell a product, they might easily unsell it.

• Second, the seller should identify the major satisfiers or motivators of purchase in the market and then supply them.

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Motivational Research

• Qualitative research designed to uncover consumers’ subconscious or hidden motivations

• Attempts to discover underlying feelings, attitudes, and emotions through disguised and indirect techniques without triggering defensive mechanism.

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Qualitative Motivational Research

• Word association and sentence completion (this method is highly applicable to studying consumer’s association with existing brand names and those under development).

• Storytelling (this method consists of having customers tell real life stories regarding their use of the product under study).

• Drawing pictures and photo-sorts (visual images are often used to study consumer’s perceptions of various brands and to develop new advertising strategies).

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Thank You All For Patient Listening !