Basics of Motivation:
McGuire’s Classification of Motives
People
are motivated by many things, some positive others not. Some
motivating factors can move people only a short time, like hunger which
will last only until you are fed. Others can drive a person onward for
years.
Motivation is the driving force within individuals that impels them to action. Motivation
is the activation or energization of goal-oriented behavior. Motivation
may be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans
but, theoretically, it can also be used to describe the causes for
animal behavior as well. According to various theories, motivation may
be rooted in the basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize
pleasure, or it may include specific needs such as eating and resting,
or a desired object, hobby, goal, state of being, ideal, or it may be
attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism, morality, or
avoiding mortality.
Needs :
Needs are the essence of the marketing concept. Marketers do not create needs but can make consumers aware of needs. A
need is something that is necessary for humans to live a healthy life.
Needs are distinguished from wants because a deficiency would cause a
clear negative outcome, such as dysfunction or death. Needs can be
objective and physical, such as food and water, or they can be
subjective and psychological, such as the need for self-esteem. On a
societal level, needs are sometimes controversial, such as the need for a
nationalized health care system. Understanding needs and wants is an
issue in the fields of politics, social science, and philosophy.
Types of Needs
· Innate Needs: Physiological (or biogenic) needs that are considered primary needs or motives
· Acquired Needs: Learned in response to our culture or environment. Are generally psychological and considered secondary needs
Goals :
A
goal or objective is a projected state of affairs that a person or a
system plans or intends to achieve—a personal or organizational desired
end-point in some sort of assumed development. It is the sought-after
results of motivated behavior.
Types of goals:
· Generic goals: are general categories of goals that consumers see as a way to fulfill their needs
· Product-specific goals: Are specifically branded products or services that consumers select as their goals
Positive and negative motivation:
Positive motivation
is a response which includes enjoyment and optimism about the tasks
that you are involved in. Positive motivation induces people to do work
in the best possible manner and to improve their performance. Under this
better facilities and rewards are provided for their better
performance. Such rewards and facilities may be financial and
non-financial.
Negative motivation
aims at controlling the negative efforts of the work and seeks to
create a sense of fear for the worker, which he has to suffer for lack
of good performance. It is based on the concept that if a worker fails
in achieving the desired results, he should be punished. Negative
motivation involves undertaking tasks because there will be undesirable
outcomes, eg. failing a subject, if tasks are not completed.
Almost
all students will experience positive and negative motivation, as well
as loss of motivation, at different times during their life at
University.
Both
positive and negative motivation aim at inspiring the will of the
people to work but they differ in their approaches. Whereas one
approaches the people to work in the best possible manner providing
better monetary and non-monetary incentives, the other tries to induce
the man by cutting their wages and other facilities and amenities on the
belief that man works out of fear.
Rational versus Emotional Motives
• Rationality implies that consumers select goals based on totally objective criteria such as size, weight, price, or miles per gallon. A conscious, logical reason for a purchase. A motive that can be defended by reasoning or logical argument
• Emotional motives imply the selection of goals according to personal or subjective criteria. A feeling experienced by a customer through association with a product.
The Dynamic Nature of Motivation
• Needs are never fully satisfied
• New needs emerge as old needs are satisfied
• People who achieve their goals set new and higher goals for themselves
Model of the Motivation Process:
The
motivational process is the steps that you take to get motivated. It is
a process, that when followed produces incredible results. It is
amazing what you can do if you are properly motivated, and getting
properly motivated is a matter of following the motivational process.
Like any other process it takes a little work and foresight and planning
on your part. However, the return on your investment of time is
significant, and it is important when needing extra motivation that you
apply the motivational process.
In the initiation a person starts feeling lacknesses. There is an
arousal of need so urgent, that the bearer has to venture in search to
satisfy it. This leads to creation of tension, which urges the person to
forget everything else and cater to the aroused need first. This
tension also creates drives and attitudes regarding the type of
satisfaction that is desired. This leads a person to venture into the
search of information. This ultimately leads to evaluation of
alternatives where the best alternative is chosen. After choosing the
alternative, an action is taken. Because of the performance of the
activity satisfaction is achieved which than relieves the tension in the
individual.
Arousal of Motives:
The
arousal of any particular set of needs at a specific moment in time may
be caused by internal stimuli found in the individual’s physiological
condition,by emotional or cognitive processes or by stimuli in outside
environment.
• Physiological arousal
• Emotional arousal
• Cognitive arousal
• Environmental arousal
- Physiological Arousal Bodily needs at any one specific moment in time are based on the individual physiological condition at the moment. Ex..A drop in blood sugar level or stomach contractions will trigger awareness of a hunger need. Ex..A decrease in body temperature will induce shivering,which makes individual aware of the need for warmth this type of thing, they arouse related needs that cause uncomfortable tensions until they are satisfied. Ex..Medicine,low fat and diet
- Emotional Arousal Sometime daydreaming results in the arousal (autistic thinking) or stimulation of latent needs.People who are board or who are frustrated in trying to achieve their goals or often engage in daydreaming, in which they imagine themselves in all sorts of desirable situations. Ex..A young woman who may spend her free time in internet single chat room.
- Cognitive arousal Sometime random thoughts can lead to a cognitive awareness of needs.An advertisement that provides reminders of home might trigger instant yearning to speak with ones parents.
- Environment arousal The set of needs an individual experiences at particular time are often activated by specific cues in the environment.Without these cues the needs might remain dormant.ex.The 8’o clock news, the sight or smell of bakery goods,fast food commercials on television, all these may arouse the need for food Ex..New cell phone model display in the store window.
Philosophies Concerned with Arousal of Motives
• Behaviorist School
– Behavior is response to stimulus
– Elements of conscious thoughts are to be ignored
– Consumer does not act, but reacts
• Cognitive School
– Behavior is directed at goal achievement
– Needs and past experiences are reasoned, categorized, and transformed into attitudes and beliefs
The Selection of Goals
The goals selected by an individual depend on their:
• Personal experiences
• Physical capacity
• Prevailing cultural norms and values
• Goal’s accessibility in the physical and social environment
Motivation theories and marketing strategy:
Abraham Maslow’s “Need Hierarchy Theory”:
One
of the most widely mentioned theories of motivation is the hierarchy of
needs theory put forth by psychologist Abraham Maslow. Maslow saw human
needs in the form of a hierarchy, ascending from the lowest to the
highest, and he concluded that when one set of needs is satisfied, this
kind of need ceases to be a motivator.
As per his theory this needs are:
(i)
Physiological needs: These are important needs for sustaining the human
life. Food, water, warmth, shelter, sleep, medicine and education are
the basic physiological needs which fall in the primary list of need
satisfaction. Maslow was of an opinion that until these needs were
satisfied to a degree to maintain life, no other motivating factors can
work.
(ii)
Security or Safety needs: These are the needs to be free of physical
danger and of the fear of losing a job, property, food or shelter. It
also includes protection against any emotional harm.
(iii)
Social needs: Since people are social beings, they need to belong and
be accepted by others. People try to satisfy their need for affection,
acceptance and friendship.
(iv)
Esteem needs:According to Maslow, once people begin to satisfy their
need to belong, they tend to want to be held in esteem both by
themselves and by others. This kind of need produces such satisfaction
as power, prestige status and self-confidence. It includes both internal
esteem factors like self-respect, autonomy and achievements and
external esteem factors such as states, recognition and attention.
(v)
Need for self-actualization : Maslow regards this as the highest need
in his hierarchy. It is the drive to become what one is capable of
becoming, it includes growth, achieving one’s potential and
self-fulfillment. It is to maximize one’s potential and to accomplish
something.
As
each of these needs are substantially satisfied, the next need becomes
dominant. From the standpoint of motivation, the theory would say that
although no need is ever fully gratified, a substantially satisfied need
no longer motivates. So if you want to motivate someone, you need to
understand what level of the hierarchy that person is on and focus on
satisfying those needs or needs above that level.
Maslow’s
need theory has received wide recognition, particularly among
practicing managers. This can be attributed to the theory’s intuitive
logic and ease of understanding. However, research does not validate
these theory. Maslow provided no empirical evidence and other several
studies that sought to validate the theory found no support for it.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in marketing (application)
To
help with training of Maslow's theory look for Maslow's Hierarchy of
Needs motivators in advertising. This is a great basis for Maslow and
motivation training exercises:
Biological and Physiological needs - wife/child-abuse help-lines, social security benefits, Samaritans, roadside recovery.
Safety needs - home security products (alarms, etc), house an contents insurance, life assurance, schools.
Belongingness
and Love needs - dating and match-making services, chat-lines, clubs
and membership societies, Macdonalds, 'family' themes like the old style
Oxo stock cube ads.
Esteem needs - cosmetics, fast cars, home improvements, furniture, fashion clothes, drinks, lifestyle products and services.
Self-Actualization
needs - Open University, and that's about it; little else in mainstream
media because only 2% of population are self-actualizers, so they don't
constitute a very big part of the mainstream market.
McGuire’s Classification of Motives
Active
(Proactive)
|
Passive
(Reactive)
| ||||
Cognitive
(Thinking)
|
Preservation
|
|
2. Attribution
|
3. Categorisation
|
4. Objectification
|
Growth
|
5. Autonomy
|
6. Stimulation
|
7. Matching
|
8. Utilitarian
| |
Affective
(Feeling)
|
Preservation
|
9. Tension Reduction
|
10. Self expression
|
11. Ego Defence
|
12. Reinforcement
|
Growth
|
13. Assertion
|
14. Affiliation
|
15. Identification
|
16. Modeling
| |
Discovering purchase motives
Buying motives determine two things:
- what consumers want to do, and
- how much they want to do it.
To market successfully, purchase motives
- first have to be directed towards your goods, not someone else's.
- Second, the drive has to be strong enough so that people will act on it; they have to be willing to pay the price in terms of dollars, time, and effort.
Latent and Manifest Motives
Marketing Strategies Based on
Motivation Conflict
With
(he many motives consumers have and the many situations in which these
motives are activated, (here are frequent conflicts between motives. The
resolution of a motivational conflict often affects consumption
patterns. In many instances, the marketer can analyze situations that
are likely to result in a motivational conflict, provide a solution to
the conflict, and attract the patronage of those consumers facing the
motivational conflict. There arc three lypes of motivational conflict of
importance to marketing managers:
· Approach-Approach Conflict
· Approach-Avoidance Conflict
· Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict
Approach-Approach Motivational Conflict A
consumer who must choose between two attractive alternatives faces
approach-approach conflict. The more equal this attraction, the greater
the conflict. A consumer who recently received a large cash gift for
graduation (situational variable) might be ton) between a trip to Hawaii
(perhaps powered by a need for stimulation) and a new mountain bike
(perhaps driven by the need for assertion). This conflict could be
resolved by a timely advertisement designed lo encourage one or the
other action. Or a price modification, such as "buy now, pay later."
could result in a resolution whereby both alternatives are selected.
Approach-Avoidance Motivational Conflict
A consumer facing a purchase choice with both positive and negative
consequences confronts approach-avoidance conflict. A person who is
concerned about gaining weight yet likes snack foods faces this type of
problem. He or she may want the taste and emotional satisfaction
associated with the snacks (approach) but docs not want lo gain weight
(avoidance). The development of lower-caloric snack foods reduces this
conflict and allows the weight-sensitive consumer to enjoy snacks and
also control calorie intake.
Avoidance-Avoidance Motivational Conflict
A choice involving only undesirable outcomes produces
avoidance-avoidance conflict. When a consumer's old washing machine
fails, this conflict may occur. The person may not want to spend money
on a new washing machine, or pay to have the old one repaired, or go
without one. The availability of credit is one way of reducing this
motivational conflict. Advertisements emphasizing the importance of
regular maintenance for cars, such as oil tiller changes, also use this
type of motive conflict: "Pay me now. or pay me (more) later."
Frustration:
Failure to achieve a goal often result in feeling of frustration
(inability to attain goal-frustration comes) --Limited physical or
Financial resources. --Obstacle in the physical or social environment
such frustration people are likely to adopt a defense mechanism to
protect their egos from feelings of inadequacy.
Defense Mechanism:Methods by which people mentally redefine frustrating situations to protect their self-images and their self-esteem
- Aggression (attracting) may react with anger towards his/her boss for not getting enough money for one trip so frustrated consumers have boycotted manufacturers in an effort to improve product quality and have boycotted retailers in an effort to have price lowered.
- Rationalization (Convince themselves)They may decide that goal is not really worth (reasoning for being unable to attain their goals)
- Regression—People react to frustrating situations with childish or immature behavior
- Withdrawal—withdrawing from the situation.Ex..Person who has difficulty achieving officer status in an organisation may simply quit the organisation or he may decide he can use his time more constructively in other activities.
- Projection—An individual may projecting blame for his/her own failure and inabilities on other objects or persons.Ex..the driver who has an automobile accident may blame the other driver or the condition of the road Ex..cricket player blame the ground / climate.
- Autism or Autism thinking Day dream that enables the Individual to attain unfulfilled needs ( dreaming / thinking emotionally / romantically).
- Identification Sometime people feel frustration by subconsciously identifying with other persons or situation that they consider relevant.Ex.. Mouth wash, shampoo, soap..to attract opposite sex
- Repression– Another way that individuals avoid the tension arising from frustration is by repressing the unsatisfied need Ex..A couple who cannot have children may surround themselves with plants or pets .
