Topic 6. Consumer Motivation and Involvement
Chapter Reflections
- Watch Dan Pink’s Ted Talk on Motivation. How do his examples and discussions on incentives challenge our understanding of motivation?
- Track your consumer purchases for one week: make a list of those purchases that would be considered “high involvement” and those that would be “low involvement”.
- Think of a PSA, such as a non-smoking campaign, and identify different persuasive messages that could be applied to both Promotion and Prevention goal orientations.
- Listen to CBC’s “Under the Influence” episode called, Have It Your Way: How Mass Customization Is Changing Marketing. Discuss how different brands featured in this episode used mass customization to increase consumer involvement.
- Is your name on a can of Coke? Explore Coca-Cola’s marketing campaign and discuss this in the context of mass customization as a tool to increase consumer involvement.
- How can we motivate consumers to eat more…broccoli? Explore this mock marketing campaign published by the New York Times to persuade consumers to purchase broccoli and give it the same elite “status” that kale has enjoyed in recent years. What motivational techniques are marketers using in this campaign?
- Watch this vintage recruitment commercial by the U.S. Army. How is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs being used to motivated young men to enlist in the army?
- Are you familiar with the chocolate bar, Snickers? Take a look at how their commercial advertisements focus on a consumer’s drive state. Discuss how “reward” and “homeostasis” are featured in their advertisement.
- Watch Wieden + Kennedy’s “Old Spice Case Study” to learn more about the Response Campaign and how Old Spice engaged customers with its content thereby motivating a new generation (of mostly female) customers to take notice of the brand. Explore a more detailed history of Old Spice in Cheddar’s YouTube video and discuss how the brand re-positioned itself and increased consumer involvement through advertising.
- Interested in learning more about Maslow’s time with the Blackfoot? Martin Heavy Head (Blackfoot Nation), wrote two Twitter threads about Abraham Maslow’s time with the Blackfoot. This thread discusses Maslow’s observations about the Blackfoot’s idea of wealth and status, and this thread shares the Blackfoot perspective on Maslow after his visits in the 1930s.
- Read this article on How Advertisers Scrambled To Ditch Ads and Shift Messaging During the Coronavirus Pandemic and provide your own examples that relate to the changing advertising landscape as a response to changes in consumers’ needs, wants, and motivations.
