Chapter 4

Motivation and Values

By Michael R. Solomon

Consumer Behavior
Buying, Having, and Being
Sixth Edition
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 The Motivation Process
• Motivation:
– The processes that lead people to behave as they
do. It occurs when a need arises that a consumer
wishes to satisfy.
• Utilitarian need: Provides a functional or practical
benefit
• Hedonic need: An experiential need involving
emotional responses or fantasies
• Goal:
– The end state that is desired by the consumer.

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 The Motivation Process
• Drive:
– The degree of arousal present due to a discrepancy between
the consumer’s present state and some ideal state
• Want:
– A manifestation of a need created by personal and cultural
factors.
• Motivation can be described in terms of:
– Strength: The pull it exerts on the consumer
– Direction: The particular way the consumer attempts to
reduce motivational tension

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 Ads Reinforce Desired States
• This ad for exercise
shows men a desired
state (as dictated by
contemporary Western
culture), and suggests
a solution (purchase of
equipment) to attain it.

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 Motivational Direction
• Needs Versus Wants:
– Want: The particular form of consumption used to satisfy
a need.
• Types of Needs
– Biogenic needs: Needs necessary to maintain life
– Psychogenic needs: Culture-related needs (e.g. need for
status, power, affiliation, etc.)
– Utilitarian needs: Implies that consumers will emphasize
the objective, tangible aspects of products
– Hedonic needs: Subjective and experiential needs (e.g.
excitement, self-confidence, fantasy, etc.)

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 Instant Gratification of Needs

• We expect today’s technical products to satisfy

our needs – instantly.

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 Motivational Conflicts
• Approach-Approach Conflict:
– A person must choose between two desirable alternatives.
– Theory of Cognitive Dissonance: A state of tension occurs
when beliefs or behaviors conflict with one another.
• Cognitive Dissonance Reduction: Process by which
people are motivated to reduce tension between beliefs
or behaviors. (product bundling)
• Approach-Avoidance Conflict:
– Exists when consumers desire a goal but wish to avoid it at
the same time. (weight maintainance)
• Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict:
– Consumers face a choice between two undesirable
alternatives. (buy new tv vs. get it fixed)
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Solutions to Approach-Avoidance Conflict

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 Classifying Consumer Needs (cont.)
• Specific Needs and Buying Behavior:
– Need for achievement: To attain personal accomplishment
– Need for affiliation: To be in the company of others
– Need for power: To control one’s environment
– Need for uniqueness: To assert one’s individual identity
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
– A hierarchy of biogenic and psychogenic needs that
specifies certain levels of motives.
• Paradise: Satisfying Needs (p. 123)?
– Distinct differences regarding the conceptualization of
paradise between American and Dutch college students

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 Classifying Consumer Needs
• Henry Murray need dimensions:
– Autonomy: Being independent
– Defendance: Defending the self against criticism
– Play: Engaging in pleasurable activities
• Thematic Apperception Technique (TAT):
– (1) What is happening?
– (2) What led up to this situation?
– (3) What is being thought?
– (4) What will happen?
– People freely project their subconscious needs
onto the stimulus
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Figure 4.2 4 - 11
 Dutch Conception of Paradise

• A Dutch respondent’s collage emphasizes this person’s

conception of paradise as a place where there is
interpersonal harmony and concern for the environment.
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 Criticisms of Maslow’s Hierarchy
• The application is too simplistic:
– It is possible for the same product or activity to satisfy
every need.
• It is too culture-bound:
– The assumptions of the hierarchy may be restricted to
Western culture
• It emphasizes individual needs over group
needs
– Individuals in some cultures place more value on the
welfare of the group (belongingness needs) than the needs
of the individual (esteem needs)

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 Consumer Involvement
• Involvement:
– A person’s perceived relevance of the object based
on his/her inherent needs, values, and interests.
• Object: A product or brand
• Levels of Involvement: Inertia to Passion
– Type of information processing depends on the
consumer’s level of involvement
• Simple processing: Only the basic features of the
message are considered (sound, color)
• Elaboration: Incoming information is linked to
preexisting knowledge (ads for ski excursions)
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Conceptualizing Involvement

Figure 4.3 4 - 15
Increasing Involvement through Ads
• The Swiss Potato
Board is trying to
increase involvement
with its product. The
ad reads, “Recipes
against boredom.”

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 Consumer Involvement (cont.)
• Involvement as a Continuum:
– Ranges from disinterest to obsession
• Inertia (Low involvement consumption):
– Consumer lacks the motivation to consider alternatives
• Flow State (High involvement consumption):
– Consumer is truly involved with the product, ad or web site
• Cult Products:
– Command fierce consumer loyalty and perhaps worship by
consumers who are highly involved in the product
• Harley Davidson

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 The Many Faces of Involvement
• Product Involvement:
– Related to a consumer’s level of interest in a
particular product
• Message-Response Involvement:
– (a.k.a. advertising involvement) Refers to a
consumer’s interest in processing marketing
communications
• Purchase Situation Involvement:
– Refers to the differences that may occur when
buying the same product for different contexts

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Emotions versus Cognitions
• Many marketing
messages, such as
this ad for a cosmetic
company in Taiwan,
focus on emotions
rather than cognitions.

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Customizing for Product Involvement

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 Measuring Involvement
• Teasing out the Dimensions of Involvement:
– Involvement Profile:
• Personal interest in a product category
• Risk importance
• Probability of making a bad purchase
• Pleasure value of the product category
• How closely the product is related to the self
– Zaichkowsky’s Personal Involvement Inventory Scale
• Segmenting by Involvement Levels:
– Involvement is a useful basis for market segmentation

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High Involvement

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 Strategies to Increase Involvement
• Appeal to hedonic needs
– e.g. using sensory appeals to generate attention
• Use novel stimuli
– e.g. unusual cinematography, sudden silences, etc.
• Use prominent stimuli
– e.g. larger ads, more color
• Include celebrity endorsers
• Build a bond with consumers
– Maintain an ongoing relationship with consumers
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 Values
• Value:
– A belief that some condition is preferable to its opposite (e.g.
freedom is better than slavery)
• Core Values:
– General set of values that uniquely define a culture
• Value system: A culture’s unique set of rankings of the
relative importance of universal values.
– Enculturation:
• Process of learning the value systems of one’s own
culture
– Acculturation:
• Process of learning the value system of another culture
– Cultural beliefs are taught by socialization agents (i.e.,
parents, friends, and teachers)

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 Core Values
• Cleanliness is a core
value in many cultures.

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 Application of Values
to Consumer Behavior
• Useful distinctions in values for
consumer behavior research
– Cultural Values (e.g. security or happiness)
– Consumption-Specific Values (e.g. convenient
shopping or prompt service)
– Product-Specific Values (e.g. ease-of-use or
durability)
• Virtually all consumer research is
ultimately related to identification and
measurement of values.
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 Emotions versus Cognitions

• The positive value we place on the activities of large

corporations is changing among some consumers who
prefer to go “anticorporate.” This ad for a coffee shop in
Boulder, Colorado reflects that sentiment.
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 Measuring Cultural Values
• The Rokeach Value Survey
– Terminal Values: Desired end states
– Instrumental Values: Actions needed to achieve
terminal values
• The List of Values (LOV) Scale
– Developed to isolate values with more direct
marketing applications
– Identifies nine (9) consumer segments based on the
values they endorse
– Relates each value to differences in consumption
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 The Means-End Chain Model
• Laddering:
– A technique that uncovers consumers’ associations between
attributes and consequences
• Hierarchical value maps:
– Show how product attributes are linked to desired end states
• Means-End Conceptualization of the
Components of Advertising Strategy
(MECCAS):
• Message Elements
• Consumer Benefits
• Executional Framework
• Leverage Point
• Driving Force

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 Syndicated Surveys
• Large-scale commercial surveys
• Voluntary simplifiers:
– Believe that once basic needs are sated, additional
income does not add to happiness.
• Examples:
– VALS 2
– GlobalScan
– New Wave
– Lifestyles Study

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 Materialism
• Materialism:
– The importance people attach to worldly possessions
– Tends to emphasize the well-being of the individual
versus the group
– People with highly material values tend to be less
happy
– America is a highly materialistic society
– There are a number of anti-materialism movements

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 Values of Materialists

• Materialists value visible symbols of success such as

expensive watches.
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 Discussion Question
• Materialists are more
likely to consume for
status. Can you think of
products and brands that
convey status?
• There is a movement
away from materialism in
our culture. Can you
think of products, ads, or
brands that are anti-
materialistic?

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Consumer Behavior in
the Aftermath of 9/11

• Following 9/11, ads

addressed people’s
fears in various ways.
This ad was created as
part of the Advertising
Community Together
initiative.

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