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Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being - Coggle Diagram
Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being
how We classify consumer needs
Murray’s Psychogenic needs
content：
dimensions as autonomy (being independent)
defendance (defending the self
against criticism)
play (engaging in pleasurable activities).
theoretical basis
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).
content：
What is happening?
What is happening?
What is being thought?
What will happen?
Theoretical basis：
people will freely project their own subconscious
needs onto the neutral stimulus.
By getting responses to the pictures, the analyst really gets at the person’s true needs for achievement or affiliation or whatever other need may be dominant
Murray believed that everyone has the same basic set of needs but that individuals
differ in their priority rankings of these needs.13
Specific needs and buying behavior
Other motivational approaches have focused on specific needs and their ramifications for
behavior.
For example,
individuals with a high need for achievement strongly value personal
accomplishment.14
They place a premium on products and services that signify success
because these consumption items provide feedback about the realization of their goals.
These consumers are good prospects for products that provide evidence of their achievement.
One study of working women found that those who were high in achievement moti-vation
were more likely to choose clothing they considered businesslike and less likely to be interested in apparel that accentuated their femininity.15
Some other important needs
that are relevant to consumer behavior include:
Need for affiliation (to be in the company of other people):16
content,
The need for affiliation is relevant to products and services for people in groups,
example
participating in team sports, frequenting bars, and hanging out at shopping malls.
Need for power (to control one’s environment):17
content,
Many products and services allow us to feel that we have mastery over our surroundings.
example
These products range from “hopped-up” muscle cars and loud boom boxes (oversized portable radios that impose one’s musical tastes on others) to luxury resorts that promise to respond to every whim of their pampered guests.
Need for uniqueness (to assert one’s individual identity):18
content,
Products satisfy the need for uniqueness when they pledge to bring out our distinctive qualities.
example
Cachet perfume claims to be “as individual as you are.”
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
introduce：
The psychologist Abraham Maslow originally developed his influential Hierarchy of
Needs to understand personal growth and how people attain spiritual “peak experiences.”
Marketers later adapted his work to understand consumer motivations.19
theory content：
Maslow’s hierarchi-cal structure implies that the order of development is fixed—that is, we must attain a certain
it (indirectly) specifies certain types of product benefits people might look for, depending
on their stage of mental or spiritual development or on their economic situation.20
At each level, the person seeks different kinds of product benefits.
Ideally, an individual progresses up the hierarchy until his or her dominant motivation is a focus on “ultimate” goals, such as justice and beauty.
Unfortunately, this state is difficult to achieve (at least on a regular basis); most of us have to be satisfied with occasional glimpses, or peak experiences.
Experimental study of this theory
One study of men aged 49 to 60 found that these
respondents engaged in three types of activities to attain self-fulfillment
(1) sport and physical activity,
(2) community and charity,
(3) building and renovating
Regardless of whether these activities were related to their professional work, these so-called magnetic points gradually took the place of those that were not as fulfilling.21
Application of the theory in the field of sales：
Marketers’ applications of this hierarchy have been somewhat simplistic, especially because the same product or activity can gratify different needs.
For example
one study found that gardening could satisfy needs at every level of the hierarchy:22
Physiological—“I like to work in the soil.”
Safety—“I feel safe in the garden.”
Social—“I can share my produce with others.”
Esteem—“I can create something of beauty.”
Self-actualization—“My garden gives me a sense of peace.”
The relationship between the theory and culture：it
is culture-bound;
its assumptions may apply only to Western culture
People in other cultures (or, for that matter, even some in Western cultures) may question the order of the levels it specifies.
for example：
A religious person who has taken a vow of celibacy would not necessarily agree that physiological needs must be satisfied before self-fulfillment can occur.
many Asian cultures value the welfare of the group (belongingness needs) more highly than needs of the individual (esteem needs).
Theoretical guidelines- In marketing ：
The point is that this hierarchy，although marketers widely apply it, is helpful primarily because it reminds us that consumers may have different need priorities in different consumption situations and at different stages in their lives—not because it exactly specifies a consumer’s progression up the ladder of needs.