Consumer Motivation

1. Chapter Two
Consumer Motivations

2. What Is Motivation?
• The driving force within individuals that makes them to action
• It is produced by a state of arousal or tension, which exists as the
result of an unfulfilled need
• Individuals strive consciously and subconsciously to reduce the
tension through behavior they anticipate will fulfill their needs and
thus relieve the stress they feel

3. Classifying Consumer Motivations
Researchers put motivation into five categories:
1. Conscious vs. Unconscious
2. High vs. Low Urgency
3. Positive vs. Negative Motivation
4. Rational vs. Emotional

4. 1. Conscious vs. unconscious
• Conscious motives are motives we are aware of, the reasons for our
behavior are clear, and these motives do not need to be aroused
For example, You buy new cloth because the old one has worn out or is
out of style
• Sometimes we are unaware of the reason why a particular behavior
was undertaken; our motivation is unconscious
For example, Habitual shoppers are acting on unconscious needs

5. 2. High vs. low urgency
• High urgency needs must be satisfied immediately and may make
comparison shopping impossible
For examples, Heating system quits; the car breaks down
• Low urgency needs can be postponed and enable consumers to shop for the
best product at the best price

6. 3. Positive and negative motivation
• Positive motivation drives consumers toward some object or
condition
• Negative motivation (e.g., fear/guilt) drives consumers away from a
consequence

7. 4. Rational v. emotional motives
• Rationality implies consumers select goals based on totally objective and
practical criteria, such as size, weight, price, etc.
• Ads that provide factual information are aimed at this motivation
Example Car Purchase
• Emotion implies the selection of goals according to personal or subjective criteria,
such as pride, fear, affection, or status
• Ads that identify products with a particular lifestyle target emotional motivation
Example Dimond ring

8. Types and systems of needs
• For many years, psychologists and others interested in human behavior have
attempted to develop exhaustive lists of human needs
• Lists of human motives often are too long to be of practical use to marketers
• Some psychologists have suggested that people have different needs and
priorities based on their personalities, experiences, environments, etc.
• Others believe that most humans experience the same basic needs, to which
they assign a similar priority ranking

9. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• Maslow formulated a widely accepted theory of human motivation based on
a universal hierarchy of needs
• Holds that individuals seek to satisfy lower-level needs before higher-level
needs emerge
• The lowest level of regularly unsatisfied need serves to motivate behavior
• When that need is satisfied, a new and higher need emerges, and so on…

10. Cont.

11. 1. Physiological needs
• The most basic needs, required to sustain biological life
• the same as the primary needs listed earlier (food, water, air, shelter,
clothing, sex)
• Physiological needs are dominant when they are persistently unsatisfied
• Maslow said: “For the man who is extremely and dangerously hungry,
no other interest exists but food. He dreams food, he remembers food,
he thinks about food, he perceives only food, and he wants only food.”

12. 2. Safety needs
• After the first needs are met, safety and security become the driving force behind
behavior
• Involve much more than physical safety:
• Order
• Stability
• Routine
• Familiarity
• Control over one’s life and environment
Examples of goods and services that meet safety needs?
• Health and availability of health care are safety concerns.
• Savings accounts, insurance policies, education are means to satisfy the need for
security
• Personal protection devices are an example of products marketed to meet this need

13. 3. Social needs
• Include love, affection, belonging, and acceptance
• People seek warm and satisfying human relationships with others and
are motivated by love for their families
• This need would be emphasized in ads for personal care products,
jewelry, and other gifts (e.g. diamonds)
• Ads for long-distance calling plans

14. 4. Egoistic/Esteem needs
• Inwardly-directed ego needs reflect an individual’s need for self-
acceptance, self-esteem, success, independence, and personal
satisfaction with a job well done
• Outwardly-directed ego needs include needs for prestige, reputation,
status, and recognition from others

15. 5. Self-actualization
• Maslow: most people never fully satisfy ego needs; thus don’t reach
this level
• Refers to a person’s desire to fulfill potential
• Examples, Scientists striving to discover a cure for cancer

16. Todays Quiz
Fill the blank
1. _____________emphasize(s) that profitable marketing begins with the
discovery and understanding of consumer needs and then develops a marketing
mix to satisfy these needs.
2. _____________is the action and decisions process of people who purchase
goods and services for personal consumption.”
Open Ended Questions
1. What is consumer behavior?
2. Mention at least two Characteristics of Consumer Behavior and explain them
3. List and explain in short about traditional and contemporary models

17. Motivational conflict
• Occurs when multiple needs arise and fulfilling one goal conflicts with another
• The end result is frustration
• Conflict can involve both positive and negative motivation
• Lewin identified three types of motivational conflict:
1. Approach-approach conflicts
2. Avoidance-avoidance conflicts
3. Approach-avoidance conflicts

18. 1. Approach-approach conflicts
• Arise when consumers face a choice among desirable option i.e., two positive
goals or motivations
• the more equal the positives, the greater the conflict
• Marketers can use tactics designed to ease the conflict by making one option more
attractive or creating conditions where consumers can have both
Examples
• Buying a new car vs. going on an expensive vacation
Example
• Restaurant menu: combination plates help consumer who can’t decide what he
wants
• Special rates, sales, deals, etc. can make one more attractive (e.g., buy a full fare
seat, get second free)

19. 2. Avoidance-avoidance conflicts
• Arise when consumers must choose between two options with unfavorable
consequences
• Marketers seek ways to minimize the negative aspects of purchasing their product
• Marketers may also emphasize the negatives related to avoiding the purchase of
the product
Example
• Paying to fix up the old car or buying another one
• Life insurance is a classic example: paying premiums vs. leaving your family
unprotected
How do they do that?
• Car: low-rate financing, payment plans, etc.
• Insurance: turn it into an investment

20. 3. Approach-avoidance conflicts
• Most typical conflict because every purchase requires parting with
something (time, money, energy, risk)
• Consumers only purchase products when they believe the benefits
outweigh the costs
• It is the job of marketers to convince consumers that their product’s
value exceeds its costs

21. Personality and Consumer Behavior
Personality is derived from Latin words which:
• Personare – to speak through
• Persona – an actor’s mask, a character in a play
• Pesona grata – an acceptable person
• Persona non grata – an unacceptable person
• Personality is the way in which you understand the world and your place in it, the things
that motivate you, and the way in which you learn, are all aspects of your personality.

22. What is Consumer Personality?
• Some theorists prefer to view personality as a unified whole: others focus on
specific traits. The wide variation in viewpoints make it difficult to arrive at
a single definition.
• defined as those inner psychological characteristics that both determine and
reflect how a person responds to his/her environment (i.e., both heredity and
environment have impact on personality development).

23. Determinant of Personality
• The major determinants of personality of a person can be grouped into
four broad headings.
1. Biological Factors
2. Cultural Factors
3. Family and Social Factors
4. Situational Factors

24. 1. Biological Factors
Biological (inborn) factors may be studied under three heads the heredity, the brain
and physical structure.
A. Heredity. The relative effect of heredity comprises an old argument in personality
theory.
• Certain characteristics, primarily physical in nature, are inherited from one’s parent,
transmitted by genes in the chromosomes contributed by each parent.
• The importance of heredity varies from one personality trait to another.
For instance, heredity is generally more important in determining a person’s character.

25. Cont.
B. Brain. Another biological factor that influences, personality is the role of brain
in an individual.
C. Physical features. Perhaps the most outstanding factor that contributes to
personality is the physical structure of an individual. An individual’s external
appearance is proved to be having a tremendous effect on one's personality.
For instance, the fact that a person is short or tall, fat or skinny, handsome or ugly,
black or whitish will undoubtedly influence the person’s effect on others and in
turn, will affect the self-concept

26. 2. Cultural Factors
• Culture is traditionally considered as the major determinant of an
individual’s personality
• Culture expects and trains its members to behave in the ways that are
acceptable to the group.

27. 3. Family and Social Factors
• Family and social factors are also important in shaping personality of an
individual
• we have to understand the socialization and identification process
• Socialization is the process by which an individual infant acquires from the
enormously wide range of behavioral potentials that are open to him/her at birth.
• It initially starts with a contact with the mother and later on with other members of
the family and the social group which play influential roles in shaping in the
infant's personality

28. Cont.
• Identification is fundamental in understanding personality.
Identification starts when a person begins to identify himself with
some other members of the family.
• Apart from family background, social class also influences a person’s
perception, perception of self and others, and perception of work,
authority and money, etc.

29. 4. Situational Factors
• The effect of environment is quite strong.
• Knowledge, skill and language are obviously acquired and represent
important modifications of behavior.
• Learned modification in behavior are not passed on to children, they
are acquired by them through their own personal experience, through
interaction with the environment

30. Brand personality
• Consumers tend to attribute various descriptive “personality like” traits or
characteristics the ingredients of brand personalities to different brands in a
wide variety of product categories.
• Associating the Brand with gender of masculine or feminine is called Brand
personification
• Consumers not only attribute personality traits to products, but also, they
tend to associate personality factors with specific colors

31. Cont.
• For instance, products with red color, implies excitement, human, strong, hot and passionate.
Yellow is associated with novelty, caution, temporary, warmth and black frequently indicates
sophistication, power, authority and Mystery. Other color connotations also include:
• Blue – commands, respects, authority
• Green – secure, natural, relaxed or easy-going living things
• Orange – powerful, affordable, informal
• Brown – informal and relaxed, masculine, nature
• White – goodness, purity, chastity, cleanliness, attractiveness, refinement, formality
• Silver, gold and platinum – royal, wealthy, stately.

32. Emotions
• Recall that motives can be rational or emotional
• Love, fear, anger, envy, loneliness, sorrow
• These emotions influence our behavior
• In recognition, marketers use emotions to sell products
Examples of emotions that influence behavior?
• Love: gifts, flowers, greeting cards