Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs and Marketing
Have you ever wondered why a certain product or service does not last for long, even though it meets the majority of the market needs?
It could be that you are not marketing to their need. Marketers are people who meet, satisfy the demand or create new needs for consumers. But to understand the need of customers is a different story and Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Need might be the right tool for you to do it.
The psychological behinds Maslow’s Hierarchy explain the theory of human motivation, represented by a pyramid with 5 levels from the most basic need to the highest evolved form of it: Physiological, Safety, Love & Belonging, Esteem, and Self-actualization. Maslow pyramid is no stranger to many people today, but the meaning and wisdom of it could give you a lot of value if you apply it correctly. For marketers, the pyramid can give you a guide to target the right market, to meet the need of potential customers, so that you can create a strategy that can deliver the right message to them.
For a human being, we always start from the most basic need, the physiological need. We need food, water, sleep, shelter to stay alive. In the pyramid, we see these needs are ranked as the lowest. These are the most basic and strongest needs of humans. Hence, the needs at a higher level do not appear if this basic demand has not been satisfied.
When we have fulfilled our basic need, we move up to the next level which is the fulfillment of Safety. We need a safe neighborhood to live in or a good job with stable income. We need protection and safety against threats. It is the desire to live a stable life, a peaceful society.
After that, the next level is the need of belonging. This is a social need where you find intimacy with others. You make friend with your colleagues at work or from a pick up basketball court. You start to find your love one and start families. We connect and develop relationships at this stage.
Then, we move to the next level, the need of Esteem. At this stage of the pyramid, you seek recognition from others. You want to be loved and respected by others in the organization and society.
Lastly, the highest form of need, the self-actualization level. This is the need to express yourself, be affirmed in life and work according to your passion and devote yourself to a community. Their work is based on truth, understanding, wisdom and experience
We move up and down in this pyramid as events and situations happen. For instance, when you have reach the level of Esteem but you just lose your job, your place immediately drop to level 2, the level of safety. You start to feel insecure and panic to figure out your way to get a new job.
For marketers, if you understand the level of your target customers through Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, you can quickly determine what your customers want, seek, and desire. You need to make sure you have understood fully the desire of your audiences, or your marketing strategy might become ineffective. Your product might be outstanding but it will never meet your market’s need if you choose to pitch it to audience in the wrong level of hierarchy.
At Canal Circle, we are developing a groundbreaking technology that would be a perfect match for the microfinance community. We need to build our self-confidence and market our product to earn our clients; but we have forgotten that we have jumped from zero to level four of Maslow Hierarchy, the need of Esteem. As for a new startup, we need investors to invest money on our business, we need to have enough resources to pay the employees, which is the level of Security of the hierarchy. We cannot move up the pyramid if we have not fulfilled our most basic need; that means until we have enough resources to grow our business, we can start to build ourself up to meet the next level of the pyramid.
Now we can start to tackle our marketing strategy to meet the needs of the targeted customers. People always forget things that give them pleasure faster than the things that stressed them the most. This is perfect because we can add it to our advantage. When people does not get what they need, it causes stress and uncomfortable feeling. They start to worry and feel anxious when these things are not met.
This is where we come in play. Instead of telling them how to solve it, we offer our technology as the solution. Firstly, we express our sympathy with the clients, telling them how stressful it often feel. Finally, market your product carefully to help reduces their stress and anxiety, that your product can sweep all those difficulties away.
The pyramid might not be a tool for customer profiling, but rather than a guidance for you to determine the right group of customers, which needs they want to fulfill. Imagine your customer in the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, what they are lack of, think about the problem that cause your customer stress and anxiety and how your product or service can cure it. When your product or service is the solution to meet the need of your targeted customers, you will sure get what you want.
Source: https://menwithpens.ca/maslow-marketing/
Derrick Nguyen
Marketing Analyst
