Every human being instinctively needs something, even if they don’t consciously know it. As a business owner, you will need to learn to tap into these basic human needs to publish effective advertising. But first, you will want to understand what these basic needs are.
This article is part four of the Advertising 101 series—you can find the rest here (101, 102, 103). Now, let’s jump into the eight human needs. I based these on the “Life Force 8” from the book “Ca$hvertising.”
1) Survival, enjoyment of life
2) Enjoyment of food and beverages
3) Freedom from fear, pain, danger
4) Sexual Companionship
5) Comfortable living conditions
6) To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses
7) Care, and protection of loved ones
8) Social approval
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Survival, enjoyment of life. Everyone wants to survive in life, even thrive. You will have to position your product as something that will help them either survive or thrive in their life. Understand your target demographics and where they exist on the pay scale of life. If they are not very wealthy, what they want for survival is different from someone who is rich.
Enjoyment of food and beverage. Think about your favorite fast food joint. How is their advertising? Does it always seem to make you hungry? There always seems to be someone happily eating in these commercials, correct? That is part of appealing to your need to enjoy food and drink. We don’t just want to eat to survive; we want to enjoy every moment of the meal.
Freedom from fear, pain, danger. “Fear sells,” as I wrote in Advertising 101. You want to appeal to the need for people to be more intimidating, stronger, and fearless. We are all scared of something, and we will find products that make us feel as though we can beat our fears.
Sexual companionship. Sex sells—I didn’t need to tell you that. Sex appeal is probably the number one way to sell a product. The human brain loves to think about sex, so positioning your advertising in this area can earn you easy views. However, how do you make your copy stand out? More on that later.
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Comfortable living conditions. Who wants to live in a crappy apartment or house? Most people want to live in a friendly, clean environment. They also wish to have widgets and gadgets that can make their life easier and more comfortable. These are first-world problems, but ones your business can help solve.
To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses. This category is a massive moneymaker because appealing to someone’s ego can be big money. Whether it is a housewife, businessman, or firefighter, almost every variety of human wants to be better than someone else. It is human nature to want to stand out from the pack. How do you position your product to give people that feeling of being elite?
Care and protection of loved ones. As we make our lives more comfortable, we want to ensure we take care of our loved ones. We will buy products and services to provide comfort and protection to those closest to us.
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Social approval. We learn at an early age that we want to belong to the pack. If our group of friends is wearing a specific type of shoes, chances are we will want to buy that type of shoe. As advertisers, we need to follow social trends and be aware of the “next hot thing.”
Now that we have a brief understanding of human needs, how will we best leverage these needs in our ad copy? First, intimately learn your audience. As I wrote in “New Business? Identify, Target, and Mesmerize Your Audience,” you should know everything about your audience.
In that article, we talked about creating an avatar of your target person or persons. When appealing to basic human needs, you want to ask the questions to your avatar, specifically about what they want in life. Let’s build our avatar and ask them some basic human needs questions.
Bobby is a 25-year-old information technology professional. He makes $80,000/year in a small, southern state. His pay is above average for his region and his age—he is doing well in life. He lives by himself in a small house that he rents. He has no personal issues but wants to find a girlfriend and eventually start a family. Let’s ask Bobby some questions?
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1) Survival, enjoyment of life. Bobby seems to be inside all day and doesn’t go outside much. How can we help Bobby get out and enjoy his life more?
2) Enjoyment of food and beverages. It seems Bobby will always be eating at his computer. How can we combine eating out with meeting beautiful women?
3) Freedom from fear, pain, danger. What are Bobby’s fears? If we had to guess, he has a fear of dying alone. How do we help Bobby overcome this fear with our products?
4) Sexual Companionship. This need is Bobby’s number one goal in life, to become sexually attractive and find a beautiful spouse. What is Bobby’s confidence level? What is his sexual experience? Can we give him courses and research on how to appeal to women? How can our product help him stand out amongst other men? This topic is where we want to spend some of our research dollars.
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5) Comfortable living conditions. Bobby lives in a small house, alone. However, he wants to appeal to the opposite sex. How can we help him build a living environment that appeals to women? Ultimately, his future dates will need to find his home comfortable.
6) To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses. Bobby doesn’t go out much and doesn’t have many male friends. However, he will need to present himself as the superior male to attract the woman of his dreams. What products will Bobby need to have to present himself as a “winner?” Does he need a fancy car, a nice watch, or sophisticated clothes?
7) Care, and protection of loved ones. Bobby always wants to make sure his mother is taken care of. He goes to visit her every day after work. What products can help him ensure she is well-cared for? Is there a camera system, alert system, or other automated awareness systems that can help give Bobby a piece of mind?
8) Social approval. Bobby has done his best to avoid social contact. He now understands that he will need to integrate into life to find the woman of his dreams. How do we help Bobby reintegrate into society? Does he need courses on human interaction, how to listen, or how to dance? How about a class on how to take a woman on a date?
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As you can see, these lines of questioning can become very engaging and spiral out of control. However, going down these rabbit holes can help you position your product to appeal to your customer.
Remember, you want to drill down to your customers as best you can. They call this “niche down.” If you try to appeal to a broad audience, you appeal to no one. Your products can stay the same; your advertising can change for the particular avatar you pitch to.
For example, in Bobby’s case, you can run your ad on a gaming site or IT professional message board. You have found Bobby’s niche and can go there directly; this is why everyone needs to start a blog or other social business.
When you build your audience or niche, you will attract a particular specialized group. Businesses want to “niche down” into their target demographics to produce the most effective advertising possible.
It is a symbiotic circle and one that both businesses and influencers want to build their brands. Understanding human needs are vital to both businesses and influencers. We need to connect with our customers and audiences at the basic human level. This focus on details will create the best advertising and products for them, and the most profit for us. Good Luck!
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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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