As discussed in our last post, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is one tool you can use in your marketing toolkit as you develop advertising campaigns. This post discusses how to promote your business using the Hierarchy of Needs. Specifically, I will create one specific hypothetical advertising campaign for a financial institution; in this case, a bank.

Example Of An Advertising Campaign

As I mentioned above, in this hypothetical example our client is a bank. On the surface a bank offers services such as: checking accounts, loans, safety deposit boxes, brokerage accounts …and a whole host of other services. However, in this advertising campaign exercise I want to focus on using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to develop a marketing campaign that is designed to attract new customers looking to open a saving account.

• Campaign -Encouraging parents to open a savings account for their children.
• Target Audience – Current bank customers who are parents of younger children.
• Media Used – In-branch posters, teller-helpers, statement stuffers, small landing page on website.

Three needs we will engage:

• Safety – I am concerned about child’s financial future.
• Love – I love the kids, so I want to do right and make sure they have a good future. Ties in with ‘duty’.
• Esteem – Maslow discusses two “subsidiary sets” of self-esteem need. “These are, first, the need for strength, for achievement, for adequacy, for confidence in the face of the world, and for independence and freedom. Secondly, we have what we may call the desire for reputation or prestige (defining it as respect or esteem from other people), recognition, attention, importance or appreciation.” It is the first type of esteem – the inner directed – that we will address in our campaign.

Our Target Audience

Next let’s consider our prospect. Although we are aiming at “parents” I find it is more effective for me to envision the actual decision-maker when creating the campaign. I don’t ignore the role of the influencer, but I find it easier to focus on the decision maker. For this campaign, I envision the mother as decision-maker, although I’m sure many fathers walk their kids to the bank to open their first account.

Our mother cares about her child but also knows that it is on her shoulders to take care of the family. Right here we can briefly consider the second half of the esteem need. She is not going to get a ‘pat on the back’ from anybody from opening up an account for her child. It’s one of the thousand little tasks she’ll take on in raising the child that will never draw a compliment.

Because of this they may feel even more alone, even though she has a strong sense of duty associated with the decision. Of course, she is possibly going to look at her friends and family as primary referral sources, but if she is new in town she may not have many strong referrers. Your campaign may be especially effective at parents who have not been in the community a long time.

Here is what you must do:

1. Acknowledge their alone-ness. (Esteem)
2. Acknowledge the importance of the decision. (Esteem)
3. Acknowledge the threat. (Safety)
4. Acknowledge the family (Love)

You need to do this with your:

1. Headline
2. Photo
3. Subhead or Tag Line
4. Body Copy
5. Combination of all of these.

Wow, there’s a lot to a simple ad, isn’t there?

Only if it’s done right. In our next post, we’ll look at some possible headlines, copy and photos.