Chapter Overview

This chapter has overviewed consumer motivation. Motivation is an inner drive that reflects goal-directed arousal. The motivated consumer is aroused, ready and willing to engage in an activity. Understanding the goals consumers are pursuing can provide insights into many aspects of their behavior, including how they perceive and interpret the world around them.

Many psychologists have constructed extensive lists of basic goals or needs. To some extent, it may seem confusing that there are so many (sometimes conflicting) accounts and lists of human needs. One reason for this is that needs are not directly observable. We cannot see or touch a need or a motivation or want. Although all human cultures probably share some common bases of motivation (because of their common biology), motivation researchers have been unable to identify a single set of universal motives, spot them in behavior, and explain situational variation in their expression.

We outlined four classic theories of motivation in this chapter including: Sigmund Freud's concept of drives (e.g., as mediated by the id, ego, and superego); Carl Jung's concept of archetypes (e.g., the self, the great mother, and the hero); Abraham Maslow's concept of need hierarchy (e.g., physiological needs, safety needs); and Henry Murray's list of human needs (e.g., abasement, acquisition, affiliation). We gave examples of how each can be used by marketers, but also discussed some of the limitations of each of these theories. Freud, Jung, Maslow, and Murray had views of the self and motives that derived from Western psychology. Their theories are culture-bound. They can still be very useful, but marketers must be wary of assuming they apply to everyone regardless of culture.

In this chapter, we stressed how consumers' perceptions of social and cultural situations shape their desires and goals for action. Research on the brain and mind support that consumers are uniquely shaped by cultural and social settings and they are constantly adapting based on what works and what does not. Our brains are not like computers, but are more like the ecology of a jungle. Each of us is a product of our environment--each of us has at least a somewhat unique set of motivations. Moreover, particular motivations are supported in some cultures and not in others.

Many cultures have an interdependent rather than an independent view of the self. The interdependent self is not separate from the social context and the social unit. We described how difference self-concepts associated with different cultures impact motivation. We outlined five needs important in Western advertising appeals. Two of these needs (the need for power, and uniqueness) are likely to be much higher in independent than in interdependent cultures. Three of these needs (the needs for achievement, affiliation, and self-esteem) are likely to be important to both, but have very different meanings and actions associated with them. We described marketing appeals to these five needs. Then we discusses and illustrated two consumer needs related to the shopping process including: deal proneness and self-sacrifice just to suggest how shopping environments can relate to consumer needs.

Motives need to be understood in terms of consumer effort and involvement. Pursing goals, the motivated consumer many feel involved interest, excitement, anxiety, passion, engagement, and flow. A flow experience is then a person's attention is completely absorbed by the activity or the goal object's peak involvement. Involvement can include cognitive and/or affective involvement. Marketers can stimulate one or the other or both types of involvement. Consumer involvement is a function of the goal object, the individual, and the decision situation. Consumer researchers distinguish between enduring product involvement and situational product involvement. Most consumers only experience enduring involvement in a few products and/or activities. Situational involvement describes temporary interest in a purchase or consumption process. Many aspects of the decision situation can influence situational involvement.

It is important to keep in mind that, in many purchase situations, the consumer could not care less. Low-involvement consumers are not active information seekers or active information processors. Often, low-involvement consumers are indifferent among a group of brands. We outlined several strategies that can be used by marketers for products that evoke low involvement.

We describe some research methodologies that can be useful in researching motives and measuring involvement in the concluding portion of this chapter. The means-end chain provides a way to dig beneath the surface and to discover layers of consumer meaning. At the first step, the respondent narrows down the list of important product benefits to the two that are seen as most important. The interviewer continues to ask why to get at the most basic reasons or motives for valuing these benefits. The Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) uses pictures and non-visual images gathered and/or generated by consumers' thoughts and feelings about a topic. ZMET offers a way to tap into the unconscious mind. It provides a way to understand consumer motivations that are not necessarily tied to verbal expressions. We outline one measure of involvement called the Revised Personal Involvement Inventory (the RPII). The measure is short, easy to use, and can be used to measure involvement with ads, products, or purchase decisions.