Maslow And Marketing

Maslow's apt theory of hierarchy of need that is based on human psychology and how their emotional behavior is a crucial motivation factor in choosing a product/service integrates five levels of human needs :

Physiological, Safety, Love, Esteem and Self-Actualization.

Let's consider some real cases where products have used Maslow's law. If we consider the tire industry, we see that they use the Maslow law to motivate people to become their customers.What do they do? In the advertisement, many tire groups tell how the tire will grip the road ensuring the car doesn't roll over. Here the tire group is selling safety to customers and that's a strong enough reason why one should buy the tire of that particular Brand. Moving on a step ahead, Michelin tire group in their Ads tell that their tire is safe for babies. With that, along with selling safety, Michelin Tyres succeed in trapping the emotions of people.

Yet another example of Maslow's theory is the selling of drill bits. Drill bits are sold to create hole but do people really want holes in their walls?Never. So how do you sell them? People want holes to put in screws to hold up something on that. So sell them the drill bit saying how they could save their memories, may be a family picture or a souvenir or any such that's close to their heart.

So which level of Maslow's hierarchy do you reach your customers at? And if you haven't tried Maslow's hierarchy, try it - it works.