Consumer Motivational Theories - Thorndike and Alderfer

Summary

This presentation delves into consumer motivational theories, focusing on Thorndike's Law of Effect and Alderfer's ERG Theory. It explores how motivations such as emotional, societal, rational, and biological factors influence consumer behavior. The speaker uses examples like McDonald's advertising to illustrate how positive outcomes from consumer actions drive repeat behavior. The video aims to provide marketers with insights into understanding and applying these theories to create effective marketing strategies that resonate with consumers' needs.

Takeaways

• 🎤 The presentation introduces consumer motivational theories with a playful song referencing Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
• 📝 Motivation is defined as anything that gets you to do something, which can be emotional, societal, rational, or biological.
• 🔍 The script explores two specific theories of consumer motivation: Thorndike's Law of Effect and Alderfer's ERG Theory.
• 🐾 Thorndike's Law of Effect suggests that actions leading to positive results are more likely to be repeated, which can be applied to consumer behavior.
• 🔑 Thorndike's experiments with animals demonstrated that positive outcomes from actions increase the likelihood of those actions being repeated.
• 🛍️ Consumers are influenced by both positive and negative outcomes when making purchasing decisions, aligning with Thorndike's Law of Effect.
• 🌟 Alderfer's ERG Theory simplifies Maslow's hierarchy into three categories: Existence, Relatedness, and Growth, focusing on different levels of needs that motivate consumers.
• ⏳ Alderfer's theory allows for regression, meaning if higher needs are not met, consumers may revert to fulfilling lower-level needs.
• 📊 The presentation visually demonstrates how positive and negative experiences with products and services can influence consumer behavior.
• 📈 Marketers use understanding of these motivational theories to create ads and products that aim to satisfy consumers' needs and avoid negative outcomes.
• 🤔 The script encourages viewers to consider which type of motivation—biological, emotional, societal, or rational—will drive them to complete their notes.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the presentation?

The main theme of the presentation is consumer motivational theories, specifically focusing on Thorndike's Law of Effect and Alderfer's ERG Theory.

What is the purpose of the song 'Oops I did it again I Market it to your motivation'?

The song is a playful introduction to the topic of consumer motivational theories, attempting to relate the concept of motivation to the audience's needs such as belongingness, self-actualization, and biological needs.

What is motivation according to the script?

Motivation is defined as anything that gets you to do something, which can be emotional, societal, rational, or biological.

What is Thorndike's Law of Effect and how does it relate to consumer behavior?

Thorndike's Law of Effect states that if an action leads to a positive result, the action is more likely to be repeated. In consumer behavior, this means that consumers are influenced to purchase products that lead to positive outcomes and avoid those that lead to negative outcomes.

Can you describe the experiment Thorndike conducted with a cat in a wooden box?

Thorndike's experiment involved a cat in a wooden box with a door connected to a lever or pedal. When the cat activated the lever or pedal, the door would open, allowing the cat to escape. The cat learned to repeat the action due to the positive outcome of being released.

What are the three levels of Alderfer's ERG Theory?

Alderfer's ERG Theory consists of three levels: Existence, which combines Maslow's biological and safety needs; Relatedness, which corresponds to Maslow's belongingness needs; and Growth, which combines Maslow's esteem and self-actualization needs.

How does Alderfer's ERG Theory differ from Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

Alderfer's ERG Theory differs from Maslow's hierarchy by condensing the five levels of Maslow's hierarchy into three levels and introducing the concept of regression, where individuals can revert to a lower level of needs if higher-level needs are not met.

What is the significance of understanding motivational theories for marketers?

Understanding motivational theories helps marketers create ads and products that address consumers' needs and desires, leading to positive results and influencing consumer behavior effectively.

How can the script's discussion of motivational theories be applied to advertising strategies?

By understanding the different motivational theories, advertisers can create ads that appeal to consumers' emotional, societal, rational, and biological motivations, thus increasing the likelihood of consumers engaging with the product or service.

What is an example of a negative experience that can influence consumer behavior according to the script?

The script mentions a negative experience with a sales representative at a store, which led the speaker to avoid that store and shop at Walmart instead, demonstrating how negative experiences can influence consumer choices.

How does the script suggest that marketers should consider multiple motivational factors in their strategies?

The script suggests that marketers should consider multiple motivational factors by examining various ads that address different motivations, such as societal influence, emotional appeal, rational choice, and biological needs.

Outlines

00:00

🎓 Introduction to Consumer Motivation Theories

The script starts with a playful song reference to introduce the topic of consumer motivational theories. It emphasizes the importance of understanding what drives people's actions, whether it's emotional, societal, rational, or biological. The presentation aims to explore different theories, specifically Thorndike's Law of Effect and Alder's ERG Theory, to gain insights into consumer behavior. The speaker encourages the audience to take notes and engage with the material, setting the stage for a comprehensive look at motivation in marketing.

05:01

🐾 Thorndike's Law of Effect and Consumer Behavior

This paragraph delves into Thorndike's Law of Effect, highlighting the behavioral psychologist's experiments with animals and how positive outcomes from actions influence the repetition of those actions. The concept is then applied to consumer behavior, suggesting that positive experiences with products or services increase the likelihood of consumers returning for more, while negative experiences deter them. The script uses the characters Curly, Larry, and Mo to illustrate this principle in a relatable shopping scenario, emphasizing the impact of positive and negative outcomes on consumer choices.

10:02

🛍️ Alderfer's ERG Theory: Simplifying Maslow's Hierarchy

The script introduces Alderfer's ERG Theory as a simplification of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, condensing the five levels into three: Existence, Relatedness, and Growth. Existence encompasses biological and safety needs, Relatedness focuses on personal relationships, and Growth combines esteem and self-actualization. Alderfer's theory suggests that individuals must satisfy their current level of needs before progressing to the next, with the unique addition that regression is possible if higher-level needs are not met. This paragraph explains how Alderfer's model differs from Maslow's by allowing for regression and providing a more streamlined view of human motivation.

🔑 Integrating Motivational Theories in Marketing

The final paragraph synthesizes the concepts from Maslow, Thorndike, and Alderfer, discussing how these theories can be applied to understand consumer motivations in marketing. It points out that advertisements often target various motivations, such as societal influence, emotional appeal, biological needs, and rational decision-making. The script uses examples of different ads to illustrate how each addresses a specific type of motivation. It concludes by posing a reflective question to the audience about their personal motivations, encouraging them to consider the different motivational factors that influence their own actions and decisions.

Keywords

💡Consumer Motivational Theories

Consumer motivational theories are frameworks that explain why consumers are driven to make certain purchasing decisions. In the video, these theories are explored to understand the underlying factors influencing consumer behavior. For example, the video discusses how Thorndike's Law of Effect and Alderfer's ERG Theory contribute to our understanding of consumer motivation.

💡Thorndike's Law of Effect

Thorndike's Law of Effect is a behavioral psychology concept which posits that behaviors followed by positive outcomes are more likely to be repeated, while those leading to negative outcomes are less likely to be repeated. The video uses this law to explain consumer behavior, suggesting that consumers are more inclined to purchase products that have previously resulted in positive experiences.

💡Alderfer's ERG Theory

Alderfer's ERG Theory simplifies Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs into three categories: Existence, Relatedness, and Growth. It suggests that individuals are motivated to fulfill these needs, and failure to meet higher needs can lead to regression to lower levels. The video discusses how this theory can be applied to understand consumer behavior, such as seeking products that fulfill basic needs or desire for social connection.

💡Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a motivational theory that classifies human needs into a five-tier model, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. The video mentions Maslow's theory in the context of Alderfer's ERG Theory, noting that Alderfer found Maslow's model too complex and thus simplified it.

💡Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is a concept where a behavior is increased in frequency when it is followed by a positive outcome. In the script, this is exemplified by Thorndike's experiments with animals, where a cat learns to escape a box by performing an action that leads to a positive result, such as being released.

💡Negative Reinforcement

Negative reinforcement, while not explicitly named in the script, is the concept where a behavior is increased because of the removal of an aversive stimulus. It can be inferred from the discussion of avoiding products or experiences that lead to negative outcomes, as in the case of a poor shopping experience leading to a customer seeking alternatives.

💡Biological Needs

Biological needs refer to the basic physical requirements necessary for human survival, such as food, water, and shelter. The video discusses these needs in the context of Maslow's and Alderfer's theories, emphasizing their importance as the foundation for consumer motivation.

💡Societal Influence

Societal influence is the impact that society has on an individual's behavior and decisions. The video script mentions societal motivation in the context of advertising, where ads may appeal to a consumer's sense of social responsibility or desire for social acceptance.

💡Rational Choice

Rational choice is a concept where individuals make decisions based on logical reasoning and assessment of costs versus benefits. The video uses the example of an ad for Priceline, where the appeal is to the consumer's rational motivation to save money by making informed purchasing decisions.

💡Emotional Motivation

Emotional motivation refers to the influence of emotions on a person's actions and decisions. The video script illustrates this with examples of ads that tug at the heartstrings, aiming to evoke an emotional response that motivates the consumer to act, such as purchasing a product to support a cause.

💡Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy is the plan and method used by businesses to promote and sell their products or services. The video discusses how understanding consumer motivation is crucial for developing effective marketing strategies, as it helps businesses create ads and products that resonate with consumers' needs and desires.

Highlights

Introduction to consumer motivational theories with a humorous song reference.

Objective to understand what motivates people from a consumer perspective.

Exploration of Thorndike's Law of Effect and its application to consumer behavior.

Description of Thorndike's experiment with a cat in a box to illustrate learning through positive reinforcement.

Consumers are motivated by positive outcomes and avoid actions leading to negative results.

The impact of positive and negative experiences on consumer choices in stores.

Aldfer's ERG Theory as a simplification of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Existence, Relatedness, and Growth needs in Alderfer's Theory and their importance in consumer motivation.

The necessity to satisfy lower-level needs before progressing to higher-level needs in ERG Theory.

Aldfer's concept of regression in motivation, differing from Maslow's approach.

Combining motivational theories to understand consumer behavior in marketing.

Examples of ads addressing different motivations: societal, emotional, biological, and rational.

The role of positive and negative effects in influencing consumer actions according to Thorndike's Law of Effect.

Marketers' consideration of motivational theories when creating ads and products.

The multifaceted nature of motivations in advertising, often combining multiple factors.

Encouragement for viewers to reflect on their own motivations for completing notes.

Closing remarks and an invitation for questions, ending the presentation.

Transcripts

[Music]

welcome ladies and gentlemen to another

exciting presentation on consumer

motivational theories let's start off

with a little

song Oops I did it again I Market it to

your motivation I satisfied your

belongingness needs or your social needs

or your biological needs or your

self-actualization needs or any of those

other needs yeah that wouldn't be a very

good song but anyways today we are going

to take a look at consumer motivational

theories and more specifically we're

going to look at Thorndike and alur so

sit back make sure you get your pen or

pencil out and take some notes um and

enjoy the

presentation okay so what are we going

to look at today first of all we're

going to try and identify what is

motivation again we want to make sure

that you guys have a solid understanding

about what motivates people we're then

going to take a look at two other not

necessarily competing theories but just

other theories regarding motivation and

consumer motivation the first one is

Thorndike and his LW of effect and the

second one is Elder and his ERG Theory

both of these take a look at different

reasons why consumers are motivated

lastly we're going to combine all of

these theories together both Thorndike

and Alder as well as maso from our

previous discussion and really come to a

solid understanding understanding of why

we look at all these different

motivational theories um for ourselves

as

marketers okay so motivation what is it

again well really again it's anything

that gets you to do something if that

happens to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex that's

a pretty good motivation however

motivations can be emotional societal

rational or biological if you're

motivated to do something because of

maybe a fear of emotion or that your

emotion is going to be positive that a

great motivation maybe it's Society

that's motivating you to do something

maybe it's just a rational Choice we've

been all trying to make rational

decisions in our lives and that's a

rational motivation and lastly

biological and again we looked at this

with the first stage of maso's pyramid

but biological motivations are anything

that we are going to do because if we

don't we may not

survive all right so let's start off

looking at this guy named Thorndike now

Thorndike was this behavioral

psychologist who took a liking to uh the

psychology or the behavior of animals he

studied animals and their behavior over

a number of years and he he looked at

how animals react after something

positive happens and what he found was

that if

animals have something positive happen

to them based on an action they are most

likely to repeat that action again and

again and he did this using an

experiment with a a cat that he's stuck

in a a wooden box and this box had a

door and a it was that door was

connected to this lever or in another

case a pedal and if the cat stepped on

the pedal or pulled the lever enough the

door would open the cat could leave

though that action of pulling the lever

or stepping on the pedal led to a

positive result and when he put the cat

back in the cat would do it again and he

the cat became more and more proficient

at doing this because of this successful

or this positive event that happened

after a successful Behavior so what we

are able to look at is the applying this

Theory to Consumers to people and

consumers are no different people are no

different we are motivated to do things

that result in positive actions and we

are unmotivated or we will avoid doing

things that lead to negative

actions and therefore as consumers we

are influenced to purchase products that

lead to these positive results and avoid

those products that lead to negative

results so we're influencing by both the

positive and negative and that's really

Thorn diy's law of effect when you

commit an action and leads to a positive

result you will more likely commit that

action again if you commit an action

that leads to a negative result you'll

less likely commit that action

again okay let's take a look at this

visually now and we're going to take a

look at three consumers just arbitrarily

let's call them Curly Larry and mo so

Curly Larry and mo mo walk to their

favorite store and we're going to call

this store shop

they walk into this store called shop

and they purchase a product that leads

to an economic social emotional

biological pleasure well Curly Larry and

mo mo are most likely going to return to

that same shop and purchased that

product again and again it's because

they walked into the shop they purchased

a product that led to a positive result

now if Curly Larry and mo walked into a

shop and they purched the product and it

led to a

negative event such as an economic

social emotional or biological cost most

likely they would not return to that

same shop and they would go to a

different store to look for a maybe even

a different product so we can apply

Thorn dik's law of effect not only to

purchasing products but also experiences

we have in store how many of you have

had this before where you've walked into

a store and the the sales representative

there was just terrible I know I've had

it before and and I know the stores no

longer exist but zers I've walked into

zers before and I was treated absolutely

brutally by the sales representative in

the store I vowed never to return to

zelers and I went to Walmart every time

thereafter right that negative

experience that emotional cost I cried

after I really did led me to go to

Walmart as a result and so stores and

businesses need to really be aware of

this and that's why they invest a lot of

time and energy into producing positive

relation a ships with their

customers right and if you go into a

store that gives you great customer

service most likely you're going to

return to that store again and again to

look for certain products that they

offer because you know you're going to

get that positive

result in marketing we see this all the

time when it comes to advertising and

advertisers really try and address this

Thorndike law of effect they will

produce ads that suggest that if you

don't buy a product maybe pain or that

negative cost will continue um and will

be prolonged therefore they're trying to

influence you to purchase their product

because if you don't purchase their

product you're going to have the

negative effect and advertisers as well

try and address the positive or the

pleasure and so they'll try and address

various Pleasures that if you buy the

product you'll receive these pleasures

and therefore you want to buy this

product and we see this now on this

slide here with with McDonald's buy this

mocha latte and you'll receive nothing

but indulgent mocha Bliss right that

idea of of purchasing a product leading

to a

positive social economic

biological or economic

pleasure okay so who's this alderfer

well alderford took a look at maso's

hierarchy of needs and he found it you

know what it's a little too complicated

he felt that that those five levels a

little bit too much so what he did was

he broke down maso's five levels his

hierarchy of needs and he broke it down

into just three existence relatedness

growth hence ERG Theory and what he

found was that people or consumers are

motivated to achieve any one of those

levels if they were motivated to achieve

the that existence level then they were

motivated to satisfy their biological

and safety needs so what he took was

maso's first two levels biological and

safety and combined them and called it

existence so all physical and

psychological needs necessary for

survival relatedness is very similar to

maso's belongingness and he felt that

masel was correct in this and that

people are motivated to fulfill personal

relationships so he titled this

relatedness and lastly growth and he

felt that esteem and self-actualization

could actually be condensed into one

level and people are looking to achieve

esteem as well as self-actualization so

person grow growth so people need to be

productive they need to fulfill their

themselves and in the growth needs

category so you'll notice that alder's

ERG theories looks very similar to maslo

and he he also believed in a pyramid

structure and he felt that in order to

progress up the pyramid and Achieve each

successive motivation or need you need

to achieve the level that you're

currently on so in order to get to your

relatedness or satisfy your relatedness

needs you need to satisfy first Your

Existence needs in order to get to your

growth needs you need to First satisfy

existence then relatedness and then

growth the only difference that we have

here between maslo and alderfer other

than its five compared to three levels

is the idea that alderfer put forward in

terms of that you can regress back down

the pyramid and so if you move up the

pyramid to growth but you fail to really

satisfy that growth you will regress

back down to reless and really try and

satisfy that again before you move back

up the pyramid Mao didn't really address

this and this is where alderfer and

maslo

differ okay so let's bring this all back

together now so we looked at maslo we've

looked at Thorndike and we've looked at

alderfer all three focused on motivation

and what motivates people to purchase

products or motivates them to commit

actions motivations again can be

emotional rational societal or

biological and if you take a look at

those four motivations you can fit them

into any one of those theories right

maslo and alderfer their first level was

all but biological right Thorndike took

a look at all of these motivations and

put them in terms of positive effects or

negative effects costs right so when we

look around the world and we look at ads

around the world from all these

different companies we can really look

at what motivations they're trying to

address right if we look at the first

first ad there ethical oil a choice we

have to make that ad is trying to

address a person's connection to their

society or societal influence on a

person's actions right so that's a

societal motivation right purchase

ethical oil because it's a choice we all

have to make Society influences that

where you look at the other ads let's

take a look now at the prevent child sex

abuse which motivation would this target

I think we could all agree that's

emotion right it's trying to tug at your

heartstrings just like the McDonald's ad

is also trying to tug at your

heartstrings no I'm just joking and the

McDonald's ad is trying to tugg at your

stomach strings let's call it your

hunger strings right so that's the

biological motivation whereas lastly

William Shatner and the price line

negotiator right this is your rational

motivation right purchase things for

less money than other items that's a

rational choice so when we look at all

these motivations together we we notice

that

they can show up in any number of ads

the other part to this is that some ads

will have a multiple motivations at play

here and it's the idea of you're trying

to achieve various levels of maso's

pyramid or alderfer's pyramid or

thorndike's positive side of his law of

effect so marketers always take this

into mind masle alderfer and thike when

they're preparing ads and also producing

products because they want to make sure

that the products the ads everything

about their marketing will lead to

positive

results right that ad is really trying

to

address address a

person's a person's rational

motivation okay so that's motivation

we've took a look at mael we've took a

look at Thorndike and we've taken a look

at alderfer so now POS this question to

you what is going to motivate you to go

back and make sure you have your notes

completed is it going to be biological

is it going to be emotional or societal

or rational or maybe it's just going to

be your own inner

motivations all right ladies and

gentlemen so make sure you go back have

all your notes complete um if you have

any questions please just ask and that's

it we'll see you tomorrow

[Applause]