If you can’t be the bride at the wedding or the
corpse at the funeral, why go?
Grandma Nelly
Last week, we talked
about the belonging or associative need.
Early humanity formed groups in order to thrive and survive. We instinctively need people. There is, however, another side to humanity
and that is the importance of the individual.
We are not only social animals, but we are unique … we are
individuals. It is this context that brings
forth the notions of the final two emotional needs, status and control.
Advertisers commonly
use status as an emotional buying need.
Status reflects our position, or our desired position within our group
or tribe. The tribe may protect the
tribe members from outside threats, but status is often a battle within the
tribe. We want to know our status and,
often, improve our status. We want
more. To quote Abraham Maslow, “Man is a
perpetually wanting animal.” (Alternatively, to quote Mick Jagger, “I can’t get
no satisfaction.”)
We compete within the many
tribes in which we live in modern society.
I have brothers (the Family Tribe) and brothers compete.
(I only have one sister, so I have no insight on how sisters
compete.) We have our work tribes, our
school tribes, and our social tribes.
The notion of ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’ is just another
manifestation of our desire to enhance our position within our various tribes. Tribes also compete with each other, often with a status method. Here in my province of British Columbia, the government proudly proclaims it. "The best place on earth."
If the first aspect of
status is our position within the tribe, the second is our desired position
within the tribe. This is our
aspiration. Aspiration is also a huge
influencer over our behaviour, including our buying behaviour. The target market for ‘Seventeen’ magazine is
not the seventeen year old, but the fourteen and fifteen year old aspiring to
be seventeen. The seventeen year old is
perceived to have more status, and thus is desirable to emulate…at least within
that demographic tribe.
Status manifests
itself in many ways. Sometimes, the
selection of a brand is in itself tribal.
The Mac vs. PC commercials is classic examples of Mac presenting itself
as the ‘cool’ group whereas PC is part of the ‘nerdy group’. As my daughter would say, “We never really
left high school.”
Status is all about
how we look to the outside world. Status
manifests itself differently to differently people. My friends are real ‘car guys’. One drives a Mercedes SUV and the other a
Porsche. I drive a Chevy Cruise. I used to drive a Saturn. For the most part, I want a sensible car that
delivers good gas mileage and has a low cost per km. On the other hand, I was an early adopter of
both the e-book (I had the Sony and now use a Kobo Glow) and pre ordered my
IPad. I could tell you it is all about
the technology, but status has a lot to do with these decisions.
Status is important in
marketing. Even Wal-Mart has a campaign
called the ‘second look’. The premise if
the campaign is that Wal-Mart carries high-end brands such as Dyson and
Samsung. The message is Wal-Mart is not
as down scale as you might think. (I don’t
know how effective this is, however they are certainly using a status based
message rather than their usual low price message.)
Buying decisions are
emotional. Status helps your customers
achieve their status aspirations within their pier groups. General Motors designed brands to move their
customers through these status stratums.
You could start with a Chevy, move to a Buick and then eventually get to
the Cadillac.
No matter your business,
you should ask if it is appropriate to use a status message as a part of your
overall promotional message. Next week,
the fourth and final need …the need for control.
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