Consumer Psychology During Pandemics

Beyond Social Media Show Segment Transcript

Mark Schaefer wrote a great post that’s something that people want to take into consideration as we navigate the coronavirus pandemic.

You’re familiar with with Maslow’s Hierarchy Hierarchy of Needs, right? The psychologist Abraham Maslow had created this concept called the Hierarchy of Needs, where all human beings have basic physiological needs at the very bottom.

So you need air, water, food, sleep, shelter, clothing, reproduction. And then the next rung up on the on the ladder, basically, or the next level of the pyramid is your safety needs. So you need personal security and employment, resources, health, property.

Then you need love and belonging, you need esteem on top of that. And then at the top of the pyramid is self-actualization. Desire to become the most of what you can be, right?

This post that Mark Schaefer talks about is in this current context, we need to be thinking–your business, as business people, as marketers–we need to be thinking about the business in the context of what’s going on right now. And thinking about it in terms of this model of the Hierarchy of Needs, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Consumer psychology is now focused on, rather than the top of the pyramid–self-actualization, where a lot of marketing messages have been–people are now homed-in on the bottom two aspects of the pyramid. Their physiological needs, they need shelter, they need sleep, they need clothing. And their safety needs. They need health, they need security.

And so how is your messaging aligning with the current consumer psychology?, is the point of this blog post. I think it’s very valuable read in thinking of what you need to, to stay top-of-mind, what kind of messages you’re putting out there and are they aligned with the current consumer psychology.