The Maslow model is the subject of a great deal of research. What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? Don’t they describe human motivation? No; they form a list of physical, emotional, and spiritual needs that are not necessarily hierarchical as the celebrated pyramid implies, nor do they necessarily belong in a ranking order. [i] And they do not explain behavior, as Maslow himself has explained.[ii] Likewise, attempts to find relationships between satisfaction, success and attention have met with only partial success.[iii] These mistaken assumptions cause significant confusion, perhaps partly due to Maslow himself. The usefulness of the Hierarchy is not in explaining human behavior, but in understanding the multi-dimensional, inter-causal nature of our existence.
Maslow’s Effect on Marketing
It is in marketing where Maslow’s Hierarchy revolutionized modern segmentation and advertising efforts. It forever humanized marketing and sales as an experience and fulfillment of needs.[iv] Product marketing changed forever, from pushing product usefulness to advertising associative customer self-perception. We market life styles and profiles now. We associate products with needs and aspirations. We demonstrate reputation and need fulfillment.
Foreign luxury cars, for example, sell the image of intellectual savers who value understated quality. To reject the car’s appeal, one must reject the profile. Never mind that some American-made cars equaled or bettered the cost/quality ratio years ago. Reputation and perception changes slowly absent significant events.
As a result of Maslow, the advertising industry transformed itself to profile and survey potential customer segments, associating key self-perceptions with product inclinations. Imagery and voice-over are similarly tested. We are no longer marketing the product, but the motivations and needs behind the product.
While mass customization and adaptive logistics and delivery channels are effective sales and cost drivers, even targeted long tail marketing enjoys greater effectiveness if it remains squarely focused on character.
Structure: the other application
Maslow Hierarchy of Needs reconstituted
But Maslow has the potential to contribute more to the organization than just marketing campaigns and a more humanistic approach to employee development. It defines essential elements in optimizing organizational charts and structures. For we live in a world of complexity where we shall learn only through trial and error. Participation is central to living. Relationships define the essential building blocks of life. Emergence is systemic and co-authored.[v] What could be a more appropriate organizational structure than one which characterized adaptive, creative, well-adjusted individuals?
Organizations and Individuals
We are safe in comparing individuals with organizations since they are both sentient complex systems. They are both organisms living in a complex world. The fascinating observation is that if we inject components of actualized individuals into an organizational structure, we find that we have also injected the components of a complex system. They are essentially the same.
Each perspective brings with it its own language and perspective, but the essential structure is foundationally identical. What results is a quicker, more nimble and creative organization. In the current language of management science, we immediately find increased empowerment, engagement, productivity and creativity.
In addition to utilizing more traditional methodology in improving businesses and their products and efficiencies, we find Maslow can spearhead growth and profitability in ways where those purely management perspectives struggle.
The above drawing is a symbol of organizational structure. Contact me for execution and implementation methods that fit your culture.
References
 | Motivation and Personality |
 | Man’s Search for Meaning (4th Edition)[Revised & Updated] |
 | Principles of Marketing (13th Edition) |
Endnotes
[i] M Wahba and L Bridwell, “Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the need hierarchy theory,” Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 15, no. 2 (4, 1976): 212-240, http://psycnet.apa.org/?fa=main.doiLanding&uid=1976-26106-001.
[ii] Abraham Harold Maslow, Motivation and Personality, 3rd ed. (HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), 27-28.
[iii] Frank K. Gibson and Clyde E. Teasley, “The Humanistic Model of Organizational Motivation: A Review of Research Support,” Public Administration Review 33, no. 1 (February 1973): 89-96, http://www.jstor.org/stable/974790.
[iv] Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong, Principles of Marketing, 13th ed. (Prentice Hall, 2009).
[v] Peter Reason and Hilary Bradbury, The SAGE Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice, 2nd ed. (Sage Publications Ltd, 2007), 6.
