Deep Motivators Of Consumers – How To Market & Sell People More $h!t
Did you survive? Or, did you plunk down way more than your share of the $26.5 billion that Americans spend on back to school shopping each year? Are you feeling hoodwinked into taking your teenage daughter to Forever 21 to buy overpriced shorts that barely cover her butt cheeks?
Or, maybe you're already planning your midnight run to the Apple Store to plunk down you share of the $171 billion that Apple made last year. And perhaps you don't give a crap that your perfectly good "old phone" will end up in a landfill somewhere.
We all spend money. For different reasons.
And if you're a marketer or product innovator, you want your share.
I just completed a study funded by the Finnish government. It reveals the intellectual and emotional drivers that get people to open their pocket books – basically, why people buy and why. Based on my research, I'd have to say that most people aren't even aware of why they're buying what they're buying.
We identified eight roles that consumers play as they interact with companies, products, and services. Here are the eight consumer profiles and the motivators that make them tick:
1. Value Chasers – Look for the greatest value, usually with cost in mind
Impulse Followers – Follow the most convenient path, including buying and engaging when it's fast and easy
2. Impulse Followers – Follow the most convenient path, including buying and engaging when it's fast and easy
3. Simplicity Seekers – Seek solutions that reduce complexity and make things easier
4. Brand Lovers – Gravitate to specific brands and aspire to the images and values they represent
5.Fear Fixers – Do what it takes to minimize risk, reduce the potential for problems, and address fears about the future
6. Experiential Engagers – Enjoy participating in unique experiences and place value in intangible services over tangible products
7. Meaning Makers – Tries to find meaning in most everything they do, including the causes, companies, and products they support
8. Expressive Creatives – look for ways to express themselves to release creativity and gain a personal sense of creative accomplishment
Just like we all have unique DNA, so do we possess unique life experiences that impact what we think, feel, and do. The conscious and unconscious motivations that lead us to choose to do business with one company over another are influenced by our backgrounds, social context, and culture.
We also may take on one role one day, and a different one the next. It's not uncommon to move between 3-4 different roles depending on the day, week, or year and what's going on in our personal lives and economy.
The question for marketers and innovators is this: which deep motivators do you, or can you, appeal to?
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