Marketers talk a lot about motivating consumers to do something, whether it’s to purchase a product, use a service, or support an idea or cause. However, motivation is not really the beginning. To truly motivate consumers, you first have to understand their values.
[See our previous blog for motivation as a strategy: Would You Rather Persuade, Manipulate, or Motivate? Three Selling Strategies]
Values are the fundamental principles or standards that drive an individual’s judgment of what is valuable or important in life. Values, therefore, define the desirability of something. The amount of time or money a consumer is willing to spend to acquire or achieve something depends on the values of that individual: Values define worth which motivates consumer behavior. Marketers can more effectively achieve the desired consumer behavior if they understand the consumers’ values and use those to connect to their customers.