Consumer needs and motivation
Every individual has needs; some are innate, others are acquired. Innate
needs are physiological (i.e., biogenic); they include the needs for food,
for water, for air, for clothing, for shelter, and for sex. Because they are
needed to sustain biological life, the biogenic needs are considered
primary needs or motives.
Acquired needs are needs that we learn in response to our culture or
environment. These may include needs for esteem, for prestige, for
affection, for power, and for learning. Because acquired needs are
generally psychological (i.e., psychogenic), they are considered secondary
needs or motives. They result from the individual’s subjective
psychological state and from relationships with others. For example, all
individuals need shelter from the elements; thus, finding a place to live
fulfills an important primary need for a newly transferred executive.
However, the kind of house she buys may be the result of secondary
needs. She may seek a house in which she can entertain large groups of
people (and fulfill her social needs); she may also want to buy a house in
an exclusive community in order to impress her friends and family (and
fulfill her ego needs). The house an individual ultimately purchases thus
may serve to fulfill both primary and secondary needs.
Motivation can be described as the driving force within individuals that
impels them to action. This driving force is produced by a state of tension,
which exists as the result of an unfilled need. Individuals strive— both
consciously and subconsciously— to reduce this tension through behavior
that they anticipate will fulfill their needs and thus relieve them of the
stress they feel. The specific goals they select and the patterns of action
they undertake to achieve their goals are the results of individual thinking
and learning. Figure 3.1 presents a model of the motivational process. It
portrays motivation as a state of need-induced tension, which exerts a
“push” on the individual to engage in behavior that he or she expects will
gratify needs and thus reduce tension.
The specific course of action that consumers pursue and their specific goals
are selected on the basis of their thinking processes (i.e., cognition) and
previous learning. For that reason, marketers who understand motivational
theory attempt to influence the consumer’s cognitive processes.
Positive and negative motivation— Motivation can be positive or
negative in direction. We may feel a driving force toward some object or
condition, or a driving force away from some object or condition. For
example, a person may be impelled toward a restaurant to fulfill a
hunger need and away from motorcycle transportation to fulfill a safety
need. Some psychologists refer to positive drives as needs, wants, or
However, though negative and positive motivational forces seem to differ dramatically in
terms of physical (and sometimes emotional) activity, they are basically
similar in that both serve to initiate and sustain human behavior. For
this reason, researchers often refer to both kinds of drives or motives as
needs, wants, and desires.
Rational versus emotional motives— Some consumer behaviorists
distinguish between so-called rational motives and emotional (or nonrational) motives. They use the term rationality in the traditional economic sense, which assumes that consumers behave rationally when
they carefully consider all alternatives and choose those that give them
the greatest utility (i.e., satisfaction). In a marketing context, the term
rationality implies that consumers select goals based on totally objective
criteria, such as size, weight, price, or miles per gallon. Emotional
motives imply the selection of goals according to personal or subjective
criteria (e.g., the desire for individuality, pride, fear, affection, status).
The assumption underlying this distinction is that subjective or
emotional criteria do not maximize utility or satisfaction. However, it is
reasonable to assume that consumers always attempt to select
alternatives that, in their view, serve to maximize satisfaction. Obviously,
the assessment of satisfaction is a very personal process, based on the
individual’s own need structure as well as on past behavioral, and social
or learned experiences. What may appear irrational to an outside
observer may be perfectly rational in the context of the consumer’s own
psychological field. For example, a product purchased to enhance selfimage (such as a fragrance) is a perfectly rational form of consumer
behavior.