Customer Need and Behaviour

Abraham Maslow was a twentieth-century social psychologist. His pyramid of basic needs is one of the most cited models in marketing.

Imagine that Mr. Singh comes to discuss his pension plan. Of course, we talk about his hopes and desires for his retirement. We usually start with how to meet his physiological needs; by this we mean how he will pay for his food and housing – this is a major customer concern. We will also talk about safety needs, how our client will protect himself and his family when he is retired. We think about social needs: will he still be able to afford membership of the golf club? Then there is the Porsche that he drives to the golf club. This is an example of an esteem need – to maintain his lifestyle and social status. We talk a lot about golf in fact! There are also self-fulfillment needs: here we consider all Mr. Singh’s personal projects and dreams. We have to work out how much money he will need to invest today in order, for example, to be able to travel the world when he retires.

Marketers are interested in customer needs as these can explain customer wants or desires for a specific product or service.

Just as products have a life cycle, so do consumers – the Consumer Life Cycle, or CLC.

Purchasing behavior or purchasing patterns refer to what a consumer buys, and when and how they make their final purchasing decision. The first step is usually awareness of the brand. The consumer forms purchase intentions – plans to buy things – which they may or may not act on. Routine purchases of the same products on a repetitive basis (for example, coffee from the coffee machine at the office) have low levels of personal involvement. Major investments (such as buying a car) or impulse purchasing (such as buying some new shoes or a CD on the way home) have higher levels of personal involvement. Some consumers have very high levels of loyalty to a brand or product and they will always buy the same brand.

Comprehension questions:

1. Who is Abraham Maslow?

2. What do you know about the pyramid of A. Maslow?

3. What are marketers interested in?

4. What are the consumer purchase intentions?