Understanding User Needs – The Fundamental Motivation Theory
Ever wondered why Enfield riders wave each other? Why people keep tweeting ‘I just crossed 1,000 followers’?
Why people buy certain set of brands?
The answer, to a very large extent lies in the very basic fundamental of human motivation – Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Read on, even though it sounds a little B-school talk (but is the most practical framework to understand user needs).
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
The human motivation theory is a pyramid structure consisting of five different levels -
- Physiological needs
- Safety Needs
- Love/Belongingness
- Esteem
- Self-Actualization
Physiological Needs
The lowest level of need is mainly associated with human body needs (food, clothing, shelter, sex, sleep etc).
Safety Needs
The innate desire to have a stable/safe life, a sense of orderly world and personal as well as financial security constitutes safety needs.
Social Needs
Sense of belongingness and acceptance form this group.
Esteem Needs
Esteem needs comprise the basic human desire to be respected by others, to be recognized in the society and appreciated for one’s contribution to the society/workplace.
Self-Actualization
Valid for only 2% of the crowd, self-actualization needs refer to realization of one’s potential, and speaks of one’s search for seeking personal growth.
Level 1-4 are also called Deficiency Motivator, while Level 5th is the Growth Motivator. What’s important to note here is that once a need is satisfied, the person moves onto the next (constant struggle and that’s why opportunity to up-sell).
Why you should care about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
Because user motivation drives usage of certain products. In order to market your product, you need to understand where does your service fit in w.r.t these levels?
Keep following questions in mind:
- What level of needs are you satisfying?
- Do you even know your customer’s present level? (atleast segment wise?)
- Most importantly, are you helping people move from one level to the next? Can you create a marketing messaging around the same?
Examples of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- Insurance companies pertain to safety needs. When they market their product, they create a fear of safety (post-death scenario).
- Aspirations – a lot of product usage happens because people aspire to be something else. They want to move to the next level and that’s where a marketer comes in.
Take any beauty cream/lifestyle ad and they would want you to be somebody else. And it sells.
- Social Networks : They tend to fit in Level 3 – where one wants to be part of the society/group. But, most of the successful socionets have one thing is common – they started within a closed circle (Orkut: invite only, Facebook:colleges only), and others aspired to be part of the crowd/network. They were able to create an implicit ‘Esteem Need’ by not opening the network.
Most of the flop social networking product failed to understand this.
- Wikipedia: Why do people contribute to Wikipedia? What drives them to write (with no monetary gain?)?
- Why people want to break news on Twitter? Why do they RT (Re-Tweet?)
- How companies like Apple/Harley Davidson/Royal Enfield have been able to create a strong community (while deep pocketed competition’s attempt failed flat?)
- What about open source? Why do people contribute? Why do some kickass developers give away free Wordpress plugins to the community? What motivates them?
The answer lies in basic human motivational factors.
But the bigger question is whether your product/service appeals to your users or not? Does it help them move up the value ladder?
Share your opinion.
Next: Examples of Successful Businesses that have Built Services around ‘”(Un)Defined’ User Needs
[Part 1 of This Week’s Theme – Understanding User Needs]
pic credit
About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
Good One.
Where will you put cellphone in this pyramid?
I believe it has moved from esteem to the bottom of the pyramid…for some
… can live without food for 12-hours but not with cell!!.
it is even 1-level down from the bottom of the pyramid
BTW, why homeostasis is in the pyramid? Health would have been the right word unless someone felt homeostasis is more attractive and confusing
.
ashish very nice article!
This post reminds me of OB and the MBA college and the complete theme reminds me of the marketing classes
Well..I have seen enough startups failing to understand the user need..or even see if something exists!
Sometimes, its better to go back to school!
This is cool refresher,
One point, everytime one looks at any product we (in corporate world) feel almost everything humans can consume and produce and sell profitably has been invented (almost that is). Any also we feel that any new product would only have niche segment. So we try and reduce prices, make it look ‘More Valuable’ than others etc, give better packaging etc.
Someone working out of their garage comes out with a unique thing (why did i not think like that) and presto everyone else follows, Game On! Suddenly the biggest brands have me too, even those ones who understood customer completely as well.
I honestly thought this article would highlight something like that, where to identify the latent human need, none thought mobile could be platform like computer, it evolved to becoming one today, i feel there might (MIGHT) have been a strong user need for this, but rarely expressed.
I think if we are able to identify those latent needs we can have more start ups, more innovation, better products.
I always knew this.. at the back and front of my mind… but could never weave it in words to explain it to myself or to the world.. i thank you for it!