CONSUMER MOTIVATION

Consumer Motivation

•Represents the drive to satisfy both physiological and psychological needs through product purchase and consumption.

•It gives insights into why people buy certain products. Stems from consumer needs: industries have been built around basic human needs.

Motivated Purchase

•Conspicuous consumption: Purchases motivated to some extent by the desire to show other people how successful they are.

•Companies reinforce the consumer motivations notion that products enable users to communicate their social status.

•In general, marketers try to create an image or personality for their brands.

MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

• In a choice between products, consumers usually choose the product that satisfies the most needs.

Motivational Intensity

• Depends on: How strongly consumers are motivated to satisfy a particular need.– Importance of

• Involvement: Degree to which an object or behaviour is personally relevant.

• Motivational intensity and involvement determine the amount of effort consumers exert in satisfying needs.

Motivational Conflict

• Motivational conflicts can take one of the three principal forms.

Approach – Approach Conflict: This type of conflict occurs when a

consumer is faced with two desirable alternatives, such as either

to buy a good music system or a computer.

Approach – Avoidance Conflict: This type of conflict occurs when a

consumer is facing a purchase choice that has both positive and

negative consequences.

Avoidance – Avoidance Conflict: This involves deciding between

two or more alternatives that are perceived as undesirable.

Such situations are somewhat stable and consumers tend to

vacillate between the undesirable choices.

Motive Arousal

• Physiological Arousal: Deprivation of any bodily need such as food, water

and other life sustaining necessities activates the need. Most of the

physiological cues are involuntary and often arouse some related needs.

For example, a person may heat up water to take a bath and may also

make a note to buy a geyser.

• Emotional Arousal: Sometimes latent needs are stimulated because a

person gets involved in thinking or daydreaming about them. For example,

a young man who wants to become a cricket player may identify with

Sachin Tendulkar and use products endorsed by him commercially.

• Cognitive Arousal: Sometimes just random thoughts may stimulate

arousal of needs. An ad “home away from home” may remind a person of

home and he may suddenly become aware of his need to call his wife or

children.

• Situational Arousal: A certain situation confronting a consumer may also trigger arousal. This can occur when the situation attracts attention to an existing bodily condition. For example, seeing an ad of Coca-Cola or a display suddenly makes one aware of being thirsty. The need would have been present but was not strong enough to trigger arousal.

Difficulties in Studying Buying Motives

• Variability of Customer

• Ignorance of Customer

• Variety and Complexity of motives

• Difficulties of expression

• Limitations of Sampling method