Understanding Motivation: Needs, Drives, and Goals

Motivation

• Motivation is an inner drive influencing actions to fulfill needs or desires.
• This process involves need recognition, drive to fulfill the need, and goal achievement.

Needs vs. Wants

• Needs: Basic requirements like food, water, or shelter.
• Wants: Desires shaped by culture and personality.
• Utilitarian Motivation: Goal-oriented and solves practical problems.
• Hedonic Motivation: Pursuit of pleasure or enjoyment.

Drive Theory

• Motivation arises from an unfulfilled need, creating a drive for consumers to reduce discomfort.

Placebo Effect

• Consumers believe a product has an effect due to expectations, even without actual effects.
• Branding and marketing can influence consumer perceptions and outcomes.

Goal Valence

• Goal valence refers to the attractiveness or desirability of achieving a goal.
• Positive Valence: Goals that consumers desire.
• Negative Valence: Goals that consumers want to avoid.

Types of Motivational Conflicts

• Approach-Approach Conflict: Choosing between two desirable outcomes.
• Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict: Choosing between two undesirable outcomes.
• Approach-Avoidance Conflict: One goal has both positive and negative aspects.
• Marketers help resolve conflicts by highlighting positive outcomes or minimizing negative aspects.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• Discomfort arises when beliefs or behaviors contradict each other.
• Marketers reduce this by reinforcing purchase decisions with post-purchase communications.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Physiological: Food, water, shelter.
• Safety: Security, protection.
• Social: Belonging, affection.
• Esteem: Respect, recognition.
• Self-Actualization: Personal growth, fulfilling potential.
• Marketers target different needs based on where consumers are in the hierarchy.

Affect

• Emotional responses include evaluations, moods, and emotions.
• Marketers evoke emotions to influence buying decisions.

Mood Congruency

• Mood congruency is the tendency to evaluate stimuli consistent with one's mood.
• Marketers use positive or negative emotions to influence consumer responses.

Consumer Involvement

• Involvement is the level of interest and engagement with a product, message, or situation.
• Inertia: Low involvement behavior, where consumers make decisions out of habit.

Types of Involvement

• Product Involvement: Involvement with a specific product category.
• Message Involvement: Engagement with the message or advertising.
• Situational Involvement: Temporary engagement influenced by specific situations.

Perceived Risk

• Perceived risk is the uncertainty and potential negative consequences of a purchase decision.
• Types of Risk: Financial, Social, Psychological, Performance, Physical.

Brand Loyalty

• Brand loyalty is a strong preference for a brand, leading to repeated purchases.

Strategies for Increasing Message Involvement

• Use interactive media, personalized content, and emotionally engaging messaging.

Video on Money and Happiness

• Hedonic Adaptation: People quickly return to a baseline happiness level after positive or negative events.

The Self

• Self is the total of an individual's beliefs and attitudes about themselves.
• Collectivistic Cultures: Focus on group identity.
• Individualistic Cultures: Emphasize personal identity.

Self-Concept

• Self-concept is the image one has of oneself.
• Dimensions: Body image, personal traits, social roles, and possessions.

Self-Esteem and Social Comparison

• Self-Esteem: The degree to which one values oneself.
• Social Comparison: Evaluating oneself based on comparisons with others.

Ideal Self vs. Actual Self

• Ideal Self: The person one aspires to be.
• Actual Self: One's current self-image.

Impression Management

• Consumers try to influence how others perceive them.

The Looking Glass Self

• Our self-concept is shaped by how others perceive us.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• Individuals act in ways that align with others' expectations, influencing behavior.

Extended Self

• Individual Level: Personal possessions.
• Family Level: The home and its furnishings.
• Group Level: Social affiliations.

Embodied Cognition and Enclothed Cognition

• Embodied Cognition: Physical states influence thoughts and behaviors.
• Enclothed Cognition: Clothing impacts psychological processes.

Gender Roles and Sex-Typed Products

• Gender Roles: Socially accepted roles for men and women.
• Sex-Typed Products: Products marketed based on gender stereotypes.

Body Image

• Body image is the way one perceives their physical body.
• Marketing influences body image through advertising ideals of beauty.

Beauty and Universal Standards

• Beauty standards vary across cultures, but some elements (symmetry) are universally appreciated.

Modifying and Decorating the Body

• Examples: Tattoos, piercings, makeup, plastic surgery.

Personality

• Personality is a unique set of characteristics that influences an individual’s responses to situations.

Freud’s Personality Theory

• Id: Instinctual desires.
• Ego: Rational component.
• Superego: Moral conscience.
• Marketers appeal to the id, ego, and superego.

Defense Mechanisms

• Examples: Repression, rationalization, projection, denial.

Motivational Research

• Motivational research uses Freudian concepts to understand the psychological reasons behind consumer behavior.

Neo-Freudian Theories

• Adler: Focuses on social relationships and inferiority.
• Horney: Emphasizes anxiety and coping mechanisms.

Carl Jung’s Work

• Collective Unconscious: Shared memories and archetypes common to all humans.
• Archetypes: Universal symbols in branding.

Trait Theory

• Personality traits influence consumer behavior.
• Relevant Traits: Openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism.

The Big Five Personality Traits

• Dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

• Dimensions: Introversion/Extraversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving.

Brand Personality and Anthropomorphism

• Brand Personality: Traits attributed to a brand.
• Anthropomorphism: Assigning human characteristics to non-human entities.

Lifestyle

• Lifestyle is a pattern of behavior influenced by values, attitudes, and consumption patterns.

Buyer Personas

• Buyer personas are fictional representations of target customers for marketing strategies.

Psychographics vs. Demographics

• Psychographics: Psychological traits like values, attitudes, interests.
• Demographics: Basic statistical characteristics like age, gender, income.

AIO Dimensions

• Activities, Interests, and Opinions used in psychographic segmentation.

Values

• Values are core beliefs that guide consumer behavior.
• Belief Systems: How individuals interpret the world.
• Cultural Value System: A culture’s shared values.
• Norms: Expected behaviors (customs, mores, conventions).

Marketers’ Role in Values

• Marketers appeal to values by aligning their products with consumers' beliefs.