The brand strategists’ toolkit: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Nick Liddell

For many marketers, the go-to framework for motivation was put forward by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’ and is most commonly known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

What motivates people?

This is an enormously important question if you work in branding. Should we use a stick or a carrot? Love or fear? Should we play on insecurities or appeal to aspirations? Without some sort of framework for understanding human motivation, we would have no way of working out how to influence (or manipulate) people to behave the way we want them to: how to stimulate employees to work hard; how to persuade customers to buy and recommend your company’s products; how to encourage partner organisations to work with you; or how to induce shareholders to buy your...

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