Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory
Abraham Maslow, an eminent US psychologist, offered a general theory motivation, called the ‘Need hierarchy theory’. He felt that people have a wide range of needs which motivate them to strive for their fulfillment. Human needs can be categorized into five types : Physical needs, safety or security .eeds, affiliation or social needs, esteem needs and self actualization needs. These are briefly discussed below:
1. Physiological Needs. The needs that are taken as the starting point a motivation are called basic or physiological needs. These needs relate to the revival and maintenance of human life. They include such things as food, hang, shelter, air, water and other necessaries of life.
2. Safety Needs. These needs are also important for most of the people. anybody wants job security, protection against dangers, safety of property, . Crompton Greaves rides on safety concerns of customers.
3. Social Needs. Man is a social being. He is, therefore, interested in variation, sociability, exchange of feelings, companionship, recognition, livingness, etc.
4. Esteem and Status Needs. These needs embrace such things as -incidence, independence, achievement, competence, knowledge, initial’ e and success. These needs are concerned with prestige and respect of the individual.
5. Self-Fulfilment Needs. These are the need of the highest order. are generally found in persons whose first four needs have already been emailed. They are concerned with achieving what a person considers to be his win in life. For instance; getting India free from the British regime was the mission of Mahatma Gandk Sense of achievement may be concerne4 w making new products and doing unique things such as adventure sports.
The needs discussed aver can be arranged into a hierarchy. In oth words, the human needs have a definite sequence of domination as shown Second need does not dominate until first need is reasonably and third need does not dominate until two needs have been reasonal4I satisfied, and so on. The other side of the need hierarchy is that man is a wanting animal, continues to want something or the other. He is never family satisfied.
If one need is satisfied, the other need arises. Another point to note is that once a need or a certain order of needs is satisfied, it ceases to be a motivating factor. Lastly, the physiological and security needs are finite, but needs of higher order are sufficiently infinite and likely to be dominant in persons at higher levels in the organisation.
In practice, the need hierarchy may not follow the sequence postulated by Maslow. Even if safety need is not satisfied, the esteem or egoistic need may merge. Proposition that one need is satisfied at one time is also of doubtful validity. The phenomenon of multiple motivation is of great practical impor.. tance in understanding the behaviour of man. However, one or two needs or motives in any situation may be prepotent while others may be of secondary importance. Maslow’s theory helps marketers know how different products fit into customer need set. For a given consumer it might be interesting to look at the level of need and then to satisfy that need.
2. Perception. Petrosky and Yaroshevky’4 have defined perception as an essential stage of cognition that is associated with thinking, memory, and attention, directed by motivation, and has a definite emotional tinge. It is different from illusion which is an inadequate reflection of the object perceived. According to Oxford Advance Learner’s dictionary, perception is the process. by which we become aware of changes throu1h the senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. Berelsori and Steiner have defined perception as the process by which an individual selects, organizes and interprets information inputs to create a meaningful picture of the world , Thus, one consumer might perceive the advertisement by Bata (& bargain (because prices do not increase), the other consumer might take it mean that if the child’s foot size increases, the prices must increase, (and therefore the words ‘aren’t you glad our prices don’t’) would deter him fromBata school shoes.
