Understanding the motivations that drive your target customer are critical for successfully positioning a consumer brand.
This content was first published in the No Best Practices newsletter on 5.31.2021.
If you want to sell people something they don’t need, you’re going to have to understand why people buy things they don’t need. Not trying to throw shade on anyone’s business here, just trying to put things into perspective.
To do that, let’s narrow down the definition of “need”. To do that we’re going to borrow from psychology again and consider Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
Humans need to secure the base of the pyramid first. Without food, water, warmth and rest you’d literally die. As you move up the pyramid the layers become less essential to basic survival. But it doesn’t mean those needs are unimportant.
Fulfilling basic needs is the “low hanging fruit” of capitalism because basic needs have broad, built in demand. If you’re starting a brand or business today you can either think really creatively about basic needs (think–Amazon), or you can sell things that people essentially don’t need, but want.
Understanding the motivations that drive the middle and top of the pyramid are critical for successfully positioning a consumer brand.
These motivations unlock your customer’s values. And those values are the key to building a user experience, product assortment and marketing strategy that resonate with your customers.
The Four Motivations
I’ve identified four main consumer motivations for purchases that take place at the middle of the pyramid. When you launch a brand it’s best to focus on one. But you’ll need to develop strategies to address all four if you want to scale massively.
Motivation #1: Price:Value
This consumer is seeking out the most “value per pound”. They want to purchase things that are made to last; paying extra for brand value is a ripoff. They love professional-grade tools, especially for cherished hobbies. Of course, this can become a kind of status signaling in itself.
Motivation #2: Status Signaling
This consumer is looking to signal traditional markers of wealth and status. How that manifests may vary based on an individual’s community. Birkin bag collectors and hypebeasts both fall into this category.
Motivation #3: Personal Values
This consumer is looking to curate their consumer choices to complete an “I am the kind of person who…” statement. This can be as simple as purchasing from brands that align with one’s political causes–for example, only purchasing cars from American manufacturers. Sometimes it’s more nuanced. Fitness brands like Crossfit and Peloton tap into the values of personal achievement and self improvement.
Motivation #4: Entertainment/Dopamine
When this consumer shops it’s not about the product, it’s about the thrill. They crave the dopamine rush of seeing “Up to 80% Off” and the thrill of picking through a clearance rack or a massive online sale category page. Sometimes brand names can add to the thrill, because it makes the feeling of “scoring a deal” more intense.
Congruence Is Essential
New brands need to pick one of these customer types and align their entire strategy to its unique motivations. Otherwise, a brand’s strategy and its customer will be incongruent. This will make growth an uphill battle.
TL;DR: you need to put your money where your mouth is, because we all have excellent BS detectors.
Two examples of incongruent strategies:
1: An apparel brand sees itself as a Status Signaling brand. It invests a significant percent of the marketing budget in fashion shows and influencer gifting.
However, the brand also runs bi-annual “online sample sales” that drive a disproportionate amount of revenue. The brand’s customer file is now full of Dopamine Seekers, so full price collection launches often fail to meet sales expectations.
2: A DTC brand positions itself as “cutting out the middle man” and uses Price:Value positioning in all of its marketing materials. This marketing attracts customers who are looking for high quality products at a reasonable price.
The brand uses art direction to make the product look more expensive and special than it feels in real life. The brand also pays influencers to post canned reviews about how well the product works.
But in reality, the product was slightly modified from a drop-shipper’s catalog and it is not much better than a mass market private label good.
The Price:Value customer makes an initial purchase and is not impressed. Return rates are high and retention rates are low, dragging down profitability.
In a future post I will show you how to create end to end customer experiences that are congruent with your brand’s values.