• Media
    • Exclusive
    • Buzz
    • Movers & Shakers
    • Events
    • International
  • FOCUS 2021
  • Television
  • Advertising
    • PR
    • Mobile/Digital
      • Marketing
  • Radio
  • OTT
  • Print
  • Cable & DTH
  • Brand Stories
  • Leaderspeak
  • STRAIGHT TALK
  • My Column
Friday, February 26, 2021
MediaNews4U
  • Media
    • Exclusive
    • Buzz
    • Movers & Shakers
    • Events
    • International
  • FOCUS 2021
  • Television
  • Advertising
    • PR
    • Mobile/Digital
      • Marketing
        • Market Analysis
  • Radio
  • OTT
  • Print
  • Cable & DTH
  • Brand Stories
  • Leaderspeak
  • STRAIGHT TALK
  • My Column
No Result
View All Result
MediaNews4U
  • Media
    • Exclusive
    • Buzz
    • Movers & Shakers
    • Events
    • International
  • FOCUS 2021
  • Television
  • Advertising
    • PR
    • Mobile/Digital
      • Marketing
        • Market Analysis
  • Radio
  • OTT
  • Print
  • Cable & DTH
  • Brand Stories
  • Leaderspeak
  • STRAIGHT TALK
  • My Column
No Result
View All Result
MediaNews4U.com
No Result
View All Result
Home Exclusive

How Alderfer’s E.R.G. Theory can inform Post – Coronavirus strategy for brands

by Editorial
February 27, 2020
in Exclusive, Featured, My Column
5 min read
How Alderfer’s E.R.G. Theory can inform Post – Coronavirus strategy for brands
Share Share ShareShare

Psychologist Clayton Alderfer’s E.R.G. motivational theory of human behaviour offers marketers a potential framework for charting steps forward in uncertain times – Nanyang Business School’s Mansur Khamitov talks through how brands can map out a positive path forward.

The likelihood of new behaviours and lifestyle norms/patterns formed during the outbreak sticking once things return to “normal” is quite high.

Brands should be mindful of any signals or displays arising from their communication efforts which may be viewed as encroaching or otherwise compromising the fundamental safety and security of their customer base.

One of the most successful recovery strategies are those that enable consumers to “heal” and rebuild. This article is part of a special WARC Snapshot focused on enabling brand marketers to re-strategise amid the unprecedented disruption caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Read more.

While the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) situation is still far from reaching its peak and continues to disrupt brands’ ambitions and plans, there are certain classic theories and frameworks that can offer some guidance in the post-coronavirus era. Thinking beyond the current predicament, when things return to relative normalcy, where does that leave brands and their 2020 ambitions?

One such framework that can be fruitfully applied is the E.R.G. motivational theory of human behaviour, developed by a psychologist Clayton Alderfer in his seminal Organisational Behavioural and Human Performance article. The framework is based on a three-fold conceptualisation of basic underlying human needs: existence, relatedness, and growth. While existence needs include all kinds of required basic material, safety and physiological desires, relatedness encompasses needs which involve the desire people have for establishing and maintaining important interpersonal and social relationships.

While it does categorise needs into lower-order ones (e.g. physiological- and safety-based existence needs) and higher-order ones (e.g. growth needs related to personal development), the critical difference between this and other popular needs-based frameworks like the one by Maslow is that E.R.G. does not assume lower-level need satisfaction as a prerequisite for the emergence of higher-order needs. Hence, it offers a more realistic account where multiple needs dynamically co-exist and interact.

Applying this framework highlights several notable takeaways for brands and marketers moving forward. The first phase lies in understanding the impact of this unprecedented chain of events on consumer behaviours:

Changing desirability of relatedness

The first pattern that surfaced can be traced to the risks of today’s ever-connected mobile and sharing economy. Increased globalisation and excitement about all-things shareable sought to increase social capital, boost community, enable meeting new people, build trust (including “stranger” trust), and foster social inclusivity.

Somewhat ironically, flagship global airlines were among the first to feel the heat with some notable players like Cathay Pacific and Asiana Airlines letting a number of their employees go on unpaid leave while encouraging their staff and passengers to reduce interactions, limit public activities, and practice social distancing. Relatedly, Grab Share was one of the first suspended options in Singapore – leading people to wonder whether and when the feature would be coming back.

While this move by Grab elicited somewhat mixed consumer reactions including understandable urges to avoid panic, many individuals were fast to praise the move on online forums along the lines of “Good call Grab!”, “No more sharing economy?!”, or “Please stop ALL Grab services immediately!”. Some even went as far to say “If [you] ban Grabshare, then ban MRT and buses also. What’s the difference between people together in a car and people together on the train/bus?”

Taken together, this signals changing desirability of relatedness and highlights that in a context like this, social interactions, interpersonal connections and mingling, while otherwise typically desirable, may backfire. While it takes years, multiple touchpoints, and numerous efforts to build up reputation, people are quite fast to rush to conclusions when it comes to perceived protection and safeguarding of their basic security and safety needs, and any seemingly infallible brand and its reputation can be dealt a major blow within a short span of time.

Therefore, given the changed state of desirability of relatedness, brands should be mindful of any signals or displays arising from their communication efforts which may be viewed as encroaching or otherwise compromising fundamental safety and security of their customer base.

 A reprioritisation of needs

One notable development is how many people have become considerably less materialistic, possessions oriented, and status-driven. Notably, luxury and non-necessity brands suffer the most during such situations. Burberry, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen Michael Kors, Versace Jimmy Choo, Coach, Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman and the like all slashed their forecasts and cut back on their ambitions as reported in a recent piece by the New York Times.

Unsurprisingly, the global luxury goods sector is bracing for impact not only because of lack of tourists or store closures but also, and importantly, because of lower foot traffic among locals. This opens up a clear and compelling possibility for non-luxury segments to tap into this reprioritisation of needs. While temporarily foregoing luxury and discretionary pursuits in favour of basic necessities would be logically predicted by E.R.G. theory, once it’s all over I won’t be surprised if there’s a resurgence of luxury brands, with people rewarding themselves and their loved ones for having underwent the crisis and coping with the waves of relative uncertainty.

To best prepare themselves, luxury brands may already want to start crafting their campaign messages, drawing attention to how their customers and their loved ones have grown both emotionally and psychologically and how they symbolically deserve to be rewarded as a result.

Emerging new lifestyle norms

Proliferation of e-commerce, online grocery shopping and delivery, automation, virtual classrooms, teleworking and AI-enabled healthcare is here to stay. Enabling and facilitating existence needs related to safety, security and physiology have increasingly come to the forefront and are widely seen as taking their rightful place.

 Planning the path to recovery and normalcy

 Adopting a forward-looking perspective, it would be important for brands to send a resilience-type message wherein brands that walk the talk to rebuild communities and help society bounce back in the aftermath would be the ones to benefit.

The optimal brand tone derived from the E.R.G. framework would be to display that you care, are empathetic, and at the same time are here for consumers to move on with their everyday lives, fast-tracking temporarily foreshadowed satisfaction of growth and relatedness needs beyond pursuit of basic existence needs.

Having said that, this is a little bit complicated and sort of a grey zone for brands, requiring very careful and gentle navigation. If you don’t talk about it, or at the very least acknowledge it somehow, you risk appearing indifferent and cold. However, if you do talk about it, you risk appearing insensitive, trying to take advantage, and/or alienating a certain portion of your customer base.

As a case in point, my own research on negative events suggests that one of the most common grievances consumers have with brands are those where consumers feel that their personal values and freedoms have been violated while one of the most successful recovery strategies are those that enable consumers to “heal” and rebuild. Some recent examples of how brands may successfully take on a very active community recovery role are the likes of Alibaba, JD.com, and Tencent in the evolving Covid-19 situation.

They appear to have been instrumental in temporarily or permanently taking in thousands of impacted and displaced workers, providing or funding community guidance apps and programs including elements of counselling, investing into tech solutions to accelerate future emergency responses, helping people get back to work and school (whether physically or virtually) as well as re-establishing compromised supply chains.

Brands may be powerless to stop crises from happening, but they can certainly do more to help people stay positive, optimistic, and forward-looking. If you as a brand treat customers and clients graciously during the crisis and its aftermath, don’t be surprised when they stick with you when normalcy returns.

Focusing on the “heal and rebuild” angle, recent research findings by a colleague of mine at Nanyang Business School suggest that even post-outbreak, people in affected countries (and particularly in high-density cities) are likely to remain stressed and frustrated. One way for brands to restore their sense of equilibrium is by enabling such individuals to exert control in their own lives by buying practical, utilitarian products.

 Sources

  • Alderfer, Clayton P. (1969), “An Empirical Test of a New Theory of Human Needs,” Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 4 (2), 142-175.
  •  Khamitov, Mansur, Khamitov, Mansur, Yany Grégoire, and Anshu Suri (2020), “A Systematic Review of Brand Transgression, Service Failure Recovery and Product-Harm Crisis: integration and Guiding Insights,
Tags: Post - Coronavirus strategy for brandsPsychologist Clayton Alderfer

Related Posts

Unemployment emerges as India’s biggest worry, pushes COVID19 to 2nd spot in February: Ipsos survey
Featured

Unemployment emerges as India’s biggest worry, pushes COVID19 to 2nd spot in February: Ipsos survey

by Editorial
February 25, 2021
0

New Delhi: According to the February wave of the Ipsos What Worries the World global survey, Unemployment has emerged as...

Read more
Nielsen rolls out id resolution system for global attribution measurement
Advertising

Nielsen rolls out id resolution system for global attribution measurement

by Editorial
February 25, 2021
0

Mumbai: Nielsen (NLSN) today announced a new approach that moves away from third-party cookies to privacy-centric, people-based identifiers for Attribution....

Read more
TAM AdEx: Ad Volumes of Retail sector on Television plunged by 35% in Y 2020 over Y 2018

TAM AdEx: Life Insurance Ad Volumes in Print witnesses 34% growth

February 25, 2021
ASCI guidelines boon or bane for Influencers?

ASCI guidelines for Influencers; boon or bane ?

February 24, 2021
Vishwanath Shetty, Pocket Aces

Branded content at Pocket Aces have observed a 50% year-on-year revenue growth: Vishwanath Shetty, Pocket Aces

February 24, 2021
Shahir Muneer, Founder and Director,Divo

Influencer marketing is here and well to stay, with the number of brands and adoption to it increasing day by day: Shahir Muneer

February 24, 2021
We firmly believe that alone we can do little but together we can do a lot: Ankur Gupta, Golden Shine Trust

We firmly believe that alone we can do little but together we can do a lot: Ankur Gupta, Golden Shine Trust

February 24, 2021
ASCI’s mandate is to look at advertising content and make sure that it is honest and non-offensive, and fair: Manisha Kapoor, ASCI

ASCI’s mandate is to look at advertising content and make sure that it is honest and non-offensive, and fair: Manisha Kapoor, ASCI

February 23, 2021

Subscribe to Newsletters

Trending

MX Player ropes in Sidd Mantri as Senior VP, Product
Featured

MX Player ropes in Sidd Mantri as Senior VP, Product

by Editorial
February 25, 2021
0

Mumbai: MX Player has roped in product expert/ leader Sidd (Siddharth) Mantri as Senior VP - Product, who is responsible...

COTT Week 7: Live Telecast was the top show with 47.42 Million unique viewership.

COTT Week 7: Live Telecast was the top show with 47.42 Million unique viewers

February 25, 2021
India will account for 76% of the Disney+ base in APAC and 40% of revenues this year: MPA

India will account for 76% of the Disney+ base in APAC and 40% of revenues this year: MPA

February 25, 2021
Ruchika Varma, Chief Marketing Officer, Future Generali India Insurance

We are a brand that leads with empathy and genuinely addresses customer needs: Ruchika Varma

February 25, 2021
Asianet to telecast a new serial “Santhwanam“ from 21st September

Asianet to telecast a new serial “Santhwanam“ from 21st September

September 19, 2020

Contact Us :

UPLIFT MEDIANEWS4U DIGITAL PVT LTD

No. 82, Aram Nagar 2, JP Road

Versova, Andheri West

Mumbai – 400061

Umanath.V
+91-99400-17868
umanath@medianews4u.com

© 2019 medianews4u.com

No Result
View All Result
  • Media
    • Exclusive
    • Buzz
    • Movers & Shakers
    • Events
    • International
  • FOCUS 2021
  • Television
  • Advertising
    • PR
    • Mobile/Digital
      • Marketing
  • Radio
  • OTT
  • Print
  • Cable & DTH
  • Brand Stories
  • Leaderspeak
  • STRAIGHT TALK
  • My Column

© 2021 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.