Abraham Maslow, a psychologist, created the ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ to explain core human motivations from as early as 1943 and continued his work on this model throughout his career. The Hierarchy, while not rigidly linear, helps us understand the order in which basic to more complex human needs tend to be a focus for us.
Of course, marketers jumped right onto it and now use it to help understand how brands can better connect with their customers.
When we understand Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and at which levels our brands play, we can understand our role in their lives better. Doing this helps us to then communicate the benefits our products and services can bring them. The model also guides us for improving our offer for our audience, to serve them better.
Archetypes [here’s an intro into brand archetypes right here] give you a picture of WHO your brand is. Maslow’s Hierarchy gives you a picture of HOW your product or service benefits your customer. Combine these two, and you’ve got yourself a powerhouse of psychology behind you to better connect your brand with your audience.
Let’s break down each of the needs and how certain brand archetypes might play in each:
Physiological
The first of the needs is the most basic of human requirements for survival. Without these needs being met, we’re typically not going to focus on fulfilling needs higher up the ladder. These most primary needs include things like food, water, sleep, shelter, sex and comfort.
For brands that are playing at this level of the hierarchy, more effort is required to build strong brand ties, because there is greater competition. So many other products and services can fulfill needs at this level, so there’s greater choices available. This means the work to be done is to create a distinct brand position in the minds of the audience.
How brand archetypes might play to this level of the Hierarchy:
The Innocent: simplicity and wholesomeness
They set out to do the right thing, to keep everyone happy and onside. They’re transparent, honest and sometimes naive.
- pure, wholesome food and beverage products
- beauty products that provide basic skin care (for comfort or nourishment, using simple ingredients)
The Caregiver: nurturing and caring
They act in the service of others first, they’re nurturing, based on family and community values.
- food and beverage products that nourish
- products and services that provide simple comfort (like mattresses, massage, acupuncture)
- services that provide for basic needs such as shelter or warmth
Safety
Once physiological needs are fulfilled, we next move onto ensuring we and our families are safe and secure. These are things like financial security, emotional welfare, freedom, stability, health and wellbeing.
These needs are about predictability, order and control. Brands that play to these needs have to provide assurance, credibility and certainty to be believable and trusted.
The Ruler: control and certainty
This archetype is all about looking to tradition and time-honoured standards. Structure, function and professionalism are key values for The Ruler.
For example:
- brands that provide insurance (play to the needs of security and certainty)
- brands that provide financial services, especially future-based like wealth management and superannuation
The Caregiver: nurturing and caring
In the context of this need, Caregiver brands demonstrate how they help people feel safe and looked after.
- Car brands like Volvo, whose promise is safety for families
- Tire brands like Michelin
The Jester: fun and frivolity
This archetype is motivated by bringing joy. While it might feel at odds with Safety, when carefully executed by tapping into core insights, this can be a powerful differentiating archetype in this space.
- Progressive Insurance is an excellent example of a brand that deals with peoples’ needs for security, but uses humour, tapping into the insight that “people hate insurance companies”.
- The kiwis have given us many examples of taking very serious content such as the NZ Human Rights Commission tackling racism with humour (check this one out below), anti-drink driving and even tackling online safety for under 18s with this stand out number.
Love / Belonging
When our physiological and safety needs are met, we seek out connection with others. This is about forming relationships, because we are social beings and need a certain level of engagement with others.
An example to illustrate this is Tom Hanks’ character, ‘Chuck’, in the movie Castaway. Chuck finds himself stranded on a deserted island after his plane crashes. As a sole survivor, he must find food and water, create shelter from the elements and ensure he’s protected from any danger. Once he has these things in place, he craves social connection. So he creates Wilson. You know the rest.
At this level of the hierarchy, things like friendship, community, trust, acceptance, affection, love and intimacy come into play. Brands that are about interpersonal relationships need to demonstrate authentic understanding and create genuine, lasting connections. They tend to encourage community or actively facilitate it.
The Regular Guy / Girl: we’re all better together
The ‘everyperson’ archetype is about connecting with people, creating community and having a good time together.
- Food or beverage brands that bring people together (e.g. family fast food brands, Coca Cola)
- Mobile phone services
- Social media platforms and communities (groups, memberships)
- Community services, meetup groups centred on special interests
The Lover: richness and intimacy
This archetype is driven by creating intimate and rich experiences. They’re about luxury and the finer things in life.
- Specialty subscription boxes centred on beauty, self-care (which are about love for the self, and feeling part of something special)
- Premium food and beverage brands like gifting chocolate (which are about showing appreciation for others)
- Products and services in the gifting space (premium online gift stores, boutique florists, etc.)
The Hero (the courage to save the world) and The Outlaw (radical freedom and change)
Fighting for a cause by rallying people together. Heroes will typically find a way within the boundaries of what’s acceptable – they’ll stretch limits. Outlaws aren’t afraid to break the rules, so they will push right through limits and are provocative in doing so.
- Many not-for-profits and charities that rally the community to come together and fight for the common good (e.g. Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, Charity:Water).
- Similarly but acted out differently, Outlaw brands will fight for a cause and leverage change using community in a more radical fashion (e.g. Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace).
Esteem
As we move higher up the hierarchy, we set our sights on personal growth and development. The needs around Esteem, Maslow actually separated into two:
1) looking inward to feel good about themselves (dignity, achievement, independence)
2) looking outward for approval from others (recognition, status, prestige)
Brands that play to Esteem need help to elevate one, the other, or in some cases, both. Celebrity endorsement is commonly used here to communicate associations between brands and status. It’s a powerful level for brands to play, as affinity with brands in this space is about ‘what it says about me’.
Unsurprisingly, many luxury brands play to this need.
The Ruler: control and certainty
In the context of the Esteem need, The Ruler brand is very much about showcasing status and prestige, as it is helping its customers say to others “look at me”.
- Watches and jewellery brands (looking to make a statement about quality, legacy and position within society)
- Luxury car brands, like Mercedes
- High level mastermind groups with high investment, exclusivity and premium features
The Regular Guy / Girl: we’re all better together
Here the goal is to bring people together to achieve a common goal, anything relying on the community effect to succeed
- Fitness classes (e.g. CrossFit) which focus on personal growth and achievement
- Group workshops and classes
The Lover: richness and intimacy
Here the Lover also taps into the rich experience their customer will feel having used their product / service, but also what it says to others about them.
- Designer fashion brands, like Chanel
- Beauty brands like Frank Body
- Activewear brands like Lorna Jane
- Wellness services, such as spas, health retreats which focus on inner development
The Sage: knowledge and truth
The Sage archetype’s drive is to seek truth through knowledge. Brands that play here help people gain recognition, demonstrate independence, act as a symbol of prestige or status.
- Brands in academia (seeking recognition, prestige, symbols) like Harvard, Oxford, etc.
- Media brands like The Economist or The Guardian
The Magician: transforming dreams to reality
The Magician is motivated by making dreams come true, through understanding the ways of the universe. Magician brands help people transform, so play to the Esteem need by helping them achieve a new version of themselves.
- Beauty products and services (think those in the age-defying space) where customers seek either approval from others about their transformation, or feel good about themselves (or both)
- Health and wellness services (personal training, therapy,
- Coaching and consulting services
Self-Actualisation
The top of the pyramid is characterised as one seeking to reach their full potential. This is about peak fulfilment for a happy life and can be expressed in a number of ways.
Creative, athletic, academic, economic are broad examples, but to each individual, it could mean something that to them is of the highest importance. Brands that play here help their customers to reach this highest potential – they help them master their craft. In this way, it’s an incredibly powerful place for a brand to be playing such a role in a person’s life. It takes time to build such trust and affinity and as such, brand loyalty is an almost unbreakable bond.
It might feel a bit rich for a brand to say they help people self-actualise, but those which genuinely do share common traits: they’re spontaneous, creative, interested in solving problems, have a strong moral compass and are unbiased and objective. Of course, any of the Archetypes could be relevant here, as each strive for some form of better ‘life’ through either freedom, ego, order or social change/connection.
One example of a brand which plays credibly here is Nike. As a Hero archetype, they help their customers achieve their personal best, from the elite athletes they sponsor to the layperson with a personal goal in their sights.
These are just a few examples of the connection between Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Brand Archetypes. Identifying both your brand archetype and which level of needs your product or service predominantly fulfils will help you on your way to crafting clearer messages that motivate your audience.
If you’re three parts intrigued and one part confused AF, book a strategy session with me and we’ll get to the bottom of it for your brand.
