Making Maslows Hierarchy
of Needs Work for YOU!

Let's start with a brief introduction of maslows hierarchy of needs. It's a model that shows 5 levels of fundamental human needs in sequential order. This means that a person cannot achieve the second need unless the first need has been met.

Here's a quick summary of needs:

Physiological Need

These are your most basic needs for human survival such as food, air, water, sex (reproduction) and temperature range fit for humans (homeostasis).

Safety Need

When your physiological needs have been met, the next one is the need to feel secure. This just means people yearn to create a steady, predictable environment. This can mean a number of things such as financial security (job, savings), health (doctors, supplements), insurance against catastrophe, and overall personal security (protection from government intrusion).

Need of Love, Affection and Belongingness

The next hierarchy of needs is about establishing a sense of belonging by receiving and giving love. Maslow states that we seek relationships to avoid feelings of loneliness. There are 3 primary types: Friendship, Family, and Intimate relationships.

Need for Esteem

The fourth class is the need for respect and self-esteem.

Maslow states there are two types of esteem. The lower one is the need for fame, status recognition, and respect from others. The higher order esteem is about self-respect, and the need for mastery, confidence and independence. If this need isn't met, a person can feel inferior, helpless and weak. The latter one is a higher one because it doesn't rely on outside factors, rather on inner strength.

Need for Self-Actualization

When all 4 Maslows hierarchy of needs have been met, then then a person can focus on doing what he/she is 'born to do'. At this stage a person can direct their focus on living their potential. At this stage the person looking to develop themselves and/or looking for a challenge.

"Self-actualization is idiosyncratic, since every person is different...the individual (must do) what he, individually is fitted for,. What a man can be, he must be"~ Abraham Maslow, Towards a Psychology of Being

Strategy for Change

So, how does maslows hierarchy of needs work as a change strategy? It allows you to identify where you are along the hierarchy and draw conclusions on human behavior. Advertisers use this all the time!

For instance, when a person has a lower level need that hasn't been met, it's usually relatively easy to identify a hungry, lonely, person lacking self-confidence. Therefore, advertisers try to fill in those needs by promoting the product to fill a certain need.

• Physiological - child abuse hot-lines, roadside assistance (most people at this level have little resources to pay, so they are usually government services).
• Safety - all types of insurance, banks, any type of security system (car, home, safe, etc).
• Belongingness and Love - online dating websites, 1-900 numbers, family themed restaurants.
• Esteem - beauty products, luxury cars, fashion items (sunglasses, etc), sport drinks.
• Self-Actualization - Universities would fall under this category. The majority of the population are not self-actualizers so there's very little money to be made, unless they are big ticket items.

You can use maslows hierarchy of needs model to your advantage to understand how people are selling something to meet a need that hasn't been met. Instead of purchasing on impulse, you can make conscious choices to complete that need yourself; with the help of others of course. On the other hand you can use this to fill needs for other people.

Self-Actualization Characteristics

It's people that are:

• Aware of their surroundings
• Comfortable with solitude, content with themselves
• Display Compassion, wanting to help others
• Accept and embraces the differences of others
• True to themselves, doesn't distort the truth
• Acts on their own convictions, not peer pressure
• Curious, always asking questions to learn
• Open to new ideas, willing to try, create and do new things
• Relaxed with clean sense of humor
• Interdependent - person who is independent but realize a team can do more

When a person is seeks self-actualization, it may not be clear what they want. For people at this stage, it's best to go out and experience more of life to give a better answer.

Updates to Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

Over the years, this has been updated to include higher order needs (or motivations):

• Cognitive - seeking knowledge and understanding.
• Aesthetic - appreciation of beauty and art.
• Transcendence - help others achieve self actualization.

In conclusion, maslows hierarchy of needs isn't a perfect model for human behavior. However, it does give us a solid framework to examine fundamental human behavior. Marketers use this all the time to sell products and services, so know that and use this to your advantage.

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