How often do you take a step back from your day-to-day job to ask “why?”
It’s so easy to get caught up in the busy routine and forget why humans actually do what they do. On the consumer side, you might ask yourself, “Why am I drawn to cars that emphasize safety features?” or “Why do I buy shampoo that claims it’ll make my hair feel soft?” As a marketer, you might ask yourself, “Why do I think this marketing campaign will appeal to our personas?” or “Why would someone click on this call-to-action?”
The answers to many of these questions can be traced back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which identifies basic human needs as physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization:
Now, after looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, let’s try to answer a few of the questions I posed above. When marketers want to market a safe car, they likely try to target consumers’ safety needs. If a marketer wants to sell shampoo to make a person’s hair feel softer, they could position that product as a solution to belonging or esteem.
For more on this concept and various other principles of human behavior, download our latest ebook: An Introduction to Marketing Psychology.
This guide will help you:
- Get a grasp on Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs
- Learn the most important principles of human behavior
- Understand how marketing can influence how people think, feel, and behave
- Look at your marketing activities through a psychological lens
Download the introductory guide to marketing psychology here.
How are you using psychology to make smarter marketing decisions? Let us know in the comments below.
