Consumer Motivation

CHAPTER 4 - CONSUMER MOTIVATION

Acquired needs: are needs that we learn in response to our culture or environment. These may include needs for self-esteem, prestige, affection, power, and learning.

Approach object: a positive goal towards which behavior is directed.

Avoidance object: a negative goal from which behavior is directed away.

Defense mechanisms: methods that people sometimes adopt to protect their egos from feelings of failure when they do not attain their goals.

Emotional motives: imply the selection of goals according to personal or subjective criteria.

Generic goals: the general classes or categories of goals that consumers see as a means to fulfill their needs.

Innate needs: are physiological needs; they include the needs for food, water, air, clothing, shelter, and sex.

Levels of aspiration: new and higher goals that individuals set for themselves.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs: postulates that individuals seek to satisfy lower-level needs before higher-level needs emerge. The lowest level of chronically unsatisfied need that an individual experiences serves to motivate his or her behavior. The levels are: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, egoistic needs, and need for self-actualization.

Motivation: is the driving force within individuals that impels them to action. This driving force is produced by a state of tension, which exists as the result of an unfulfilled need.

Motivational research: qualitative research designed to uncover the consumer's subconscious or hidden motivations.

Motivational research techniques: there are a number of qualitative techniques that are used to delve into the consumer's unconscious or hidden motivations, such as metaphor analysis, storytelling, word association, sentence completion, thematic apperception tests, drawing pictures, and photo sorts.

Positioning: is deciding how the product should be perceived by prospective customers. The key to positioning is to find a niche -an unsatisfied need -that is not occupied by a competing product or brand.

Positive versus negative motivation: some psychologists refer to positive drives as needs, wants, or desires and to negative drives as fears or aversions. However they are basically similar in that both serve to initiate and sustain human behavior. For this reason, researchers often refer to both kinds of drives or motives as needs, wants, and desires.

Primary needs: biogenic needs that are needed