Assignment 3 #Usage of Motivation Theories in Marketing Strategies

Product and Services Marketing Rohan Kelkar 1 | P a g e Roll no. 12M450

ASSIGNEMNT NO. 3
Product and Services Marketing
Roll no. : 12M450
Course: MMM (2012-2015)
Batch: Batch 1

USAGE OF MOTIVATION THEORIES IN MARKETING STRATEGIES

Assignment 3 #Usage of Motivation Theories in Marketing Strategies

Product and Services Marketing Rohan Kelkar 2 | P a g e Roll no. 12M450
Maslows Theory of Motivation in Marketing
Marketing is a field where marketers analyze the requirements of the consumers and provide solution to
satisfy their needs. There are several types of needs of the consumers however these needs are not equal.
Hence marketers typically arrange these needs into a hierarchy of needs developed by psychologists
Abraham Maslow.
Physiological Needs
Physiological needs are the most basic needs. These encompass needs such as the need for water, food
and sleep. Although a small business, like a bed and breakfast, might fulfil these needs, they also fulfil
higher level needs. Most small businesses in the United States will only find it profitable to market products
that fulfil physiological needs if they meet higher level needs as well, such as safety, love and belonging,
esteem and self-actualization needs.
Safety Needs
After fulfilling their basic physiological needs, the next level of needs that are important to people are safety
needs. Safety needs are those needs that provide security to people. If you operate a business as a
financial adviser, for example, you might market your services as providing financial security. Someone
who sells home security systems might promote them as providing safety for the customer's family. Both
services fulfil safety needs in different ways.
Love and Belonging Needs
The next level of needs in marketing is the level of love and belonging. These are essential human needs,
to feel a sense of belonging. Many small businesses attempt to fulfil love and belonging needs by making
customers feel like they are part of the family. For example, you might send your customers a card during
the holidays or on their birthdays to show that you care for them.
Esteem Needs
Esteem needs are needs that have to do with feeling confident and respected. Marketers often emphasize
esteem needs when promoting luxury products. For example, if you are a tailor who makes custom suits,
you might promote them as symbols of achievement and success. The message to your customer is that
by buying one of your suits, his need to feel esteem will be met.
Self-actuali zation Needs
Self-actualization is the highest level of needs. Self-actualization needs deal with the customer's goals and
dreams. For instance, if you are a real estate agent, you might promote your services as helping to fulfil
your customers' dreams of owning a home, raising a family and living a fulfilling life. Although the services
you provide do not do this directly, they can be marketed as helping to fulfil these aspirations.

Assignment 3 #Usage of Motivation Theories in Marketing Strategies

Product and Services Marketing Rohan Kelkar 3 | P a g e Roll no. 12M450

Marketers frequently use Maslow's hierarchy to target their ads towards needs at different levels of the
hierarchy.
As seen above, for each level of the pyramid we have a related product to fulfill the need of the consumer
of that level. The marketer sees this as an approach to communicate the message of the benefits of the
product to consumers. This way the Maslows theory of motivation can be used to formulate the marketing
strategies for effectively marketing the products and solutions.

Assignment 3 #Usage of Motivation Theories in Marketing Strategies

Product and Services Marketing Rohan Kelkar 4 | P a g e Roll no. 12M450
Adams Equity theory
Considered one of the justice theories, equity theory was first developed in 1963 by J ohn Stacey Adams,
a workplace and behavioral psychologist, who asserted that employees seek to maintain equity between
the inputs that they bring to a job and the outcomes that they receive from it against the perceived inputs
and outcomes of others (Adams, 1965).
Equity theory involves a particular interpretation of cognitive dissonance. Equity theory postulates that
persons in social exchanges relationships compare with each other the ratios of their inputs into the
exchange of their outcomes from the exchange. Inequity is said to exist when the perceived inputs and / or
outcomes in an exchange relationship are psychologically inconsistent with the perceived inputs and/or
outcomes of the referent. As in the case of cognitive dissonance, when a person receives a inequity in a
social exchange relationship, a motivation develops to restore equity or balance. A person may use several
possible methods for reducing the inequity.
1. Increase inputs if they are low in relation to the outcomes and their inputs of appropriate referents.
2. Decrease inputs if they are high in relation to outcomes and the referents inputs.
3. Increase outcomes if they are low in relation to the inputs and referents outcomes.
4. Decrease outcomes if they are high in relation to inputs and referents outcomes
5. Leave the exchange module
6. Psychologically distort inputs or outcomes
7. Change the referent

Assignment 3 #Usage of Motivation Theories in Marketing Strategies

Product and Services Marketing Rohan Kelkar 5 | P a g e Roll no. 12M450
Balance Theory of motivation
Balance Theory is a motivational theory of attitude change proposed by Fritz Heider, which conceptualizes
the consistency motive as a drive toward psychological balance. Heider proposed that sentiment or liking
relationships are balanced if the affect valence in a system multiplies out to a positive result.
Balance Theory is also useful in examining how celebrity endorsement affects consumers' attitudes toward
products.
[2]
If a person likes a celebrity and perceives (due to the endorsement) that said celebrity likes a
product, said person will tend to like the product more, in order to achieve psychological balance.
However, if the person already had a dislike for the product being endorsed by the celebrity, they may
begin disliking the celebrity, again to achieve psychological balance.
Heider's balance theory can explain why holding the same negative attitudes of others promotes closeness
(see The enemy of my enemy is my friend).