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 Negative
• Motivation • Motivation
– A driving force A driving force away
toward some object from some object or
or condition condition
(needs, wants) (fears or aversions)
• Approach Goal • Avoidance Goal
– A positive goal – A negative goal from
toward which which behavior is
behavior is directed directed away 10
 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 Motivation
or
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) 17
 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 therefore19are
 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. 24
• 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). 27
 Thank You All
For Patient Listening !

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