Looking for a product or service online everyone has the internal drive towards some aspects more than others. Understanding human needs can be tricky. With our uncurious bias, we tend to think others may need what we need!
Successful businesses know how to look, find and fulfil the needs of others. What drives people to the web today may not drive them there tomorrow!
According to Harvard Business School professors Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria, all human beings have four Core Human Drives influencing their decisions and actions.
The Drive to Acquire
Businesses fulfilling this need are creating physical objects, selling under the idea of status, power, and influence. If you are a retailer, broker or consultant – your company promises to make clients wealthy, famous, influential, or powerful – your brand voice should be connected to this drive.
The Drive to Bond
Business with a mission to help in forming relationships with others, either platonic or romantic. Within this umbrella, we can find restaurants, conferences, and dating services. Brand communication should be built around the promise to make clients attractive, well-liked, or highly regarded.
The Drive to Learn
How to satisfy curiosity? There are various businesses aiming to fulfil this need. Book publishers, courses providers, and training workshops. In the communication, we can see the promise to make clients more knowledgeable or competent.
The Drive to Defend
The whole variety of companies has a mission to help clients protect themselves, their loved ones, and their property. This group of businesses includes home alarm systems, insurance products, martial arts training, and legal services. Brand communication enhances the need of keeping people safe, eliminate a problem, or prevent bad things from happening.
Josh Kaufman added one more to the list. According to him, the fifth drive is related to feelings. In this case, however, the feelings are not related to the bond with others, but mostly to fulfil their own needs, to feel good with themselves through the sensory stimulus.
The Drive to Feel
The desire for new sensory stimulus, intense emotional experiences, pleasure, excitement, entertainment, and anticipation. Businesses built on the drive to feel include restaurants, movies, games, concerts, and sporting events. Offers that promise to give us pleasure, thrill us, or give us something to look forward to connecting with this drive.’ (Kaufman)
A market will form to satisfy any new need. Period.
Whenever a group of people have an unmet need in one or more of these areas, someone will come up with the idea to fill the gap and satisfy the need. The clear identification of the main drive is the best guarantee of creating an attractive service or product.
Can you connect with more than one drive? YES.
Would your company potentially benefit from it OR you’d spread too thin?
Source: https://personalmba.com/core-human-drives | Photo: by Katie Moum @Unsplash
