CUSTOMER MOTIVATION

The Key To A Marketer's Success: Understanding Consumer Motivations

(Radhika Duggal - An experienced financial services and healthcare marketing
leader focused on millennial customers.)

As marketers, we can all agree that understanding our consumers’ motivations – their
internal drive to satisfy their physiological and psychological needs and wants – is
!"#$%&'($)
critical. That’s because motivations are the primary drivers of purchase decisions.
Marketers need to understand the decision-making and purchasing process in order to
champion relevant products, feature innovation and create effective marketing
communications. !"#$%&'($&()*$+,-!$./0$12$3&4!&$&5#6$.7$+8$+,9$:9$!&(;#$1,-!$%&<$&-%=
!"#$%&'()'*+&,'-.'/0&,'1'*2&"'3#0'"4&,
Just how do consumers move from identifying motivations to purchasing products and
services that fulfill their needs and wants? The process has four distinct stages:
!"#!$%&$!'()$"*+,$,-!'$."&/

1. It begins with recognizing a latent or overt need. Let’s use hunger, for example.
!"#$%"&$'(&$)*#$)+,'$%"-%$./$01$234$./$5"*$'"6&$78$'"9%2$:/$;"<#$=%>$%?&$)*#@$'*$AB$)*$A8$2#C$=%$:.+/@$7D$7-4$'"9%2$:/$
)E%"$2#E$'E'$AF/$'"G%$'"H$IJ/$=%>$
2. Once the need for hunger is recognized, it causes an inherent tension, or discomfort,
that we are motivated to fulfill. If you’re hungry, it may be because it’s lunch time, so
you start evaluating your lunch options.
./012$)312$45#$),-#$#/(671$%/81/$9/:;$9/<%$/;=#$>;12$>(?1@$2&?12$1/,$48$>3%$>"#$%&'($#"$%/7$)7$%AB$%C(12$D8;$E$F:1/$>"#$GB$1/,H$/;=#$>3%$G?$GB$#"$%/7$
1/,$H
3. Your motivation translates into desire (or want), likely for a specific goal focused on
a product category (e.g., sandwiches, salad, pizza, etc.) or a specific product (e.g., a Pret
A Manger sandwich or a Sweetgreen salad).
!"#$%&'($)*$)+%$),-#$%./01$2(3$.40.$5&$%.67$8*0$0.($#9($54$1&78$#:01$%.;01<$=>601$5?$@"$)AB$#A$CD$E+0$)*$CFG$)9H$),-#$0.($#9($#I3$8J0.$EK01$#L#.$:0$M3C3@

4. Your goal is achieved through behavior that satisfies your original need and thus
reduces the tension you feel. In this example, perhaps you’ve fulfilled your need by
ordering and eating a Sweetgreen salad.
!"#$%&'($%")$*+!$"&,-$%&'!$./$!#0$*"1$2/%$3#&$45$617$891$:;2<

Marketers need to understand this process for several reasons, including:

!"#$%$&'()%*+%$&,-+)%$".)/%$'01%$"23%4#1%5)/%)",%67,%"896%6:)/%$";)/<%4(%$"8=%>?)%>@%)/AB'%$'C,%DE)/%4+,%F#6%42)"%

• The development of marketing communications that convey a functional or emotional

value proposition that is aligned with fulfilling the need or tension consumers have
identified and are trying to fulfill.

• The timely launch of those marketing communications so that consumers see those
messages as they are discovering the needs, wants and tensions to be fulfilled or
alleviated.
!"#$%&'#'()*+#,-.#,&,#/0+#$%12#3*#3&$#4+5#,%6#+578)#')9:#;<+5=

• The development of new products, features, experiences and wholescale innovation

that can better meet consumers’ goals.
,&#+%>#')?$

But marketers often struggle with how to identify and understand consumer motivations
due to the complexity of non-physiological motivations (e.g., motivations outside of
basic needs for food, clothing and shelter). Here’s how marketers can go about
understanding consumer motivations and leveraging these insights to power effective
campaigns.

Leverage existing physiological research.

Don’t reinvent the wheel as you’re seeking to understand your consumers’ motivations.
Instead, lean on existing models of consumption motives such as the system developed
by Ernest Dichter in the 1950s. According to Dichter, product consumption is driven by
12 key motives, and each of these motives translates into different product choices. The
12 motives are power, masculinity-virility, security, eroticism, moral purity/cleanliness,
social acceptance, individuality, status, femininity, reward, mastery over one’s
environment, disalienation (a desire to feel connected to the world around us) and
magic-mystery. Understanding which consumption motive drives consumers to
purchase your products enables you to form the basis of your positioning, value
proposition and marketing campaigns.

Conduct research to understand your consumers’ motivations.

One of Dichter’s more notable pieces of work focused on understanding consumer

motivations to serve as the foundation of a marketing campaign for Ivory Soap, a P&G
product. To do so, Dichter conducted in-depth interviews with the goal of
understanding what truly motivated consumers to purchase soap, as well as their
thoughts and feelings on the ritual of bathing. Dichter concluded that bathing was a
cleansing ritual that was motivated by a need for purification from the taints of the
world. Therefore, the purchase of soap was motivated by this need for spiritual purity.

As marketers, we should take similar steps to conduct market research to truly

understand our consumers’ motivations, needs, wants and fears with respect to a product
category. Focus on qualitative research, such as individual in-depth interviews,
observational research methods like ethnography, and focus groups to understand both
consciously and unconsciously held beliefs and attitudes that help explain why your
consumers behave in the ways that they do.

Not a market research expert? No worries – even conducting research in a relatively

scrappy way, as I discuss here, will enable you to garner this insight.

Analyze your research to understand your consumer.

Once you’ve conducted your research, invest the time and energy to read and reread the
verbatim responses of each respondent. In doing so, look for overt or implicit patterns.
Remember, search for what went unsaid in these interviews as diligently as you focus
on what was said.

Do so by finding the answers to the follow questions:

• Does the product fulfill psychological needs. If so, which ones?

• How does the product relate to consumer feelings (e.g., competitive drive, self-esteem,
security, etc.)?

• Does the product hold symbolic significance for consumers?

• What fears do consumers hold regarding the product category?

• How do external influences like culture and reference groups impact consumers as
they consider your product or service?

Don’t forget to consider the results of the above questions in the context of the business
environment to ensure that the consumer motives you uncover will lead to marketing
insights.

Your next instinct may be to verify the findings of your qualitative research with a
quantitative survey or to measure them against the general population. However,
motivational studies often cannot be proven through survey research – especially if they
relate to unconscious motives. Instead, focus on evaluating your resulting hypotheses
by testing ad concepts that address different motives uncovered by your research.

Understanding consumer motivations is becoming increasingly important in marketing

and branding, and there is no need to guess what motivates your consumers. Focused
research into consumer motivations can enable your team to develop more successful
marketing communications and an innovation roadmap that will be more likely to meet
your consumers’ needs. Don’t let your consumers’ motivations remain a mystery –
conduct motivation research to understand your consumers in a systematic and
scientific way that will improve your chances of success.

A. Use the phrases in the box from the article to complete the following sentences.

General population Product category Consumer motivation

In-depth interviews
Positioning campaign featured product
quantitative survey
qualitative research marketing campaign Reference groups

1. …………… is the required classification for your products based on attributes,

so your products will be organised, and convenient for your customers to shop
in your store.

2. ………….. is an entire group of potential participants about which some

information is required to be ascertained.

3. You can use the …………….. to place products from different categories to give
a better idea of your brand.
 4. ………….. is an internal state that drives people to identify and buy products or
services that fulfill conscious and unconscious needs or desires.

5. ………….. is individuals and groups that influence our opinions, beliefs,

attitudes, and behaviors.

6. …………. is a comprehensive course of action to sell and promote something,

i.e., either a product, service, or brand.

7. …………….. is a process that involves creating an identity/ image of the brand

or product within the target customers’ minds.

8. ………….. is a qualitative data collection method that involves direct, one-on-

one engagement with individual participants.

9. The results of the ……………. will generally be numerical form – for example:
35% of customers rate the new product as "attractive".

10. There are a variety of methods of data collection in ………………. , including

observations, textual or visual analysis.

B. Read the article and chose the correct option to complete the following
sentences.

1. Marketers need to understand the decision-making and purchasing process in order

to ………………

a. get products and services that match your customers' needs and wants

b. change features of new products

c. create effective marketing campaigns.

d. identify customers' motivations for shopping

2. According to the writer, the process of customers moving from motivation to

purchasing behavior consists of 4 stages, which are ……….find the wrong answer)

a. recognize a motivation, evaluate options, translate into desire, satisfy original

need and want.

b. recognize a need, evaluate options, translate into purchasing behavior, satisfy

original need and want.

c. recognize a need, evaluate options, translate into desire, satisfy original need and
want.
 d. recognize a need, evaluate product features, translate into purchasing behavior,
satisfy original need and want.

3. Marketers need to understand the customers’ process of moving from motivation to

purchasing behavior in order to ………………….

a. develop marketing communications that suit the potential customers’ needs of

customers.

b. develop new products, features and experience to meet consumers’ goals.

c. launch timely of those marketing communications so that consumers see those

messages as they are purchasing the products.

d. innovate some product features to meet customers’ goals.

4. Marketers often struggle with how to identify and understand consumer motivations
due to ……………….

a. the complexity of the physiological motivations.

b. the complexity of purchasing decision behaviors.

c. the complexity of psychological needs and wants.

d. the complexity of the process the customers’ process of moving from motivation
to purchasing behavior.

5. According to the writer's advice, lean on existing models of consumption motives as

you’re seeking to understand your consumers’ motivations to ………….

a. propose value to your customers.

b. enable you to form the basis of your featured product.

c. understand which consumption motive drives consumers to purchase your

products.

d. form the basis of advertising campaigns.

B. Read the article and answer the following questions.

1. What did Ernest Dichter find in his research?

2. What data collection methods did Ernest Dichter use to understand customer
motivations.
3. What data collection methods should we use to conduct customer motivation
research?
4. What is the purpose of investing the time and energy to read and reread the
verbatim responses of each respondents?
5. Why is it important to understand customer motivation in marketing and
branding?