There may be features of your products and services that you take for granted, but are untapped and powerful buying incentives for your customers.

Just for a second, forget about price, quality, and service. Then ask the expert on motivation - psychologist Abraham Maslow. OK - so you can't actually ask him, but you can use his famed Pyramid of Hierarchal Needs to unearth those hidden incentives.

The idea is:

The further down the pyramid you go, the stronger the motivation. For example, if you were selling in-home oxygen tanks, the biological appeal - the ability to prolong life - would be stronger than the safety appeal - fire prevention features.

A Quick Needs Overview

Here are some specific need examples.

Biological
Food and water
Shelter
Sex
Sleep

Safety
Protection
Security
Order
Stability

Belongingness
Love
Affection
Acceptance

Esteem
Achievement
Status
Responsibility
Reputation

Knowledge
Learning new facts
Expanding one's mind
Searching for meaning

Beauty
Creating beauty
Observing beauty
Owning beautiful objects

Self-Actualization
Personal growth
Fulfillment
Developing talents

Before we go any further, bear in mind that Maslow's original pyramid only had five tiers. Although Maslow never officially added more, he did say that Knowledge and Beauty are also strong motivating factors - so revisionists added them. Later he suggested Transcendence as the tip of the pyramid.

Market from the Lowest Legitimate Tier

This all goes back to our cave-dwelling ancestors. Anything that would allow them to stay alive and avoid danger - say the thundering feet of a dinosaur - grabbed their attention. Everything else was pretty much fluff. So if you want attention, make your strongest marketing appeal from the lowest believable tier.

Note that I used the word believable. No matter how much the makers of children's toys would like to market their products as biological necessities, they realize it would be foolish to try. But this hasn't stopped hoards of other businesses from creating trivial products and services and marketing them as necessities. The tactic is to create an atmosphere of false fear - if you don't have a surge protector, lightening will inevitably strike while you are completing your doctoral thesis, your computer will fail, and you will have to start from scratch.

Most consumers can see through such claims, many will be insulted, and the marketing campaign may create an unintended backlash.

Consider the decades-long mantra of the funeral industry: If you don't spend several thousand dollars on funeral goods and services, you didn't really care about the deceased. In other words, they tried to move the buying motivation from Beauty to Belongingness (love). It worked for a while, until hostile consumers rose up.

There's also a lot to be said for sincerity - meaning that you and your company really do care about fulfilling certain needs that your customers have. It's a pretty good feeling to know that you're making money and improving lives at the same time. Think of making a profit as a way of expanding your business so that you can help more people.

Maximize the Tier you're in

Really think about the tier your offering falls into - you might be surprised. Consider networking for a minute. On the surface, it seems like a Belongingness activity, but many networking opportunities are based on Biological getting and not Belongingness giving.

If your product or service naturally falls into one of the lower tiers - promote features and benefits that highlight those needs. For example, if you sell power tools, be very specific about the safety features and their benefits.

Move Down a Tier or Two by...

1. Tweaking your Offering into a Lower Tier

Make modifications to your existing offering. Tweak your product into a lower tier that is more motivating to buyers. Manufacturers of many consumer products, such as cars, add safety features - with the added benefit that the car makes an appeal at a stronger motivational level.

Consider the following example.

A homebuilder in a highly competitive market created a development designed to mimic the classic post-WWII small American town - complete with white picket fences, front porches, a central park with a gleaming gazebo, and a town center with small shops. The developer even hired a community events director.

While other developers were advertising features, architecture, landscaping, and setting (Beauty and Esteem), this developer was advertising with the tagline: The number one problem in America is loneliness - move to a community where you can belong (Belongingness). The tagline wasn't just ad candy. Prospective buyers were able to drive through the community and see the warm neighborly atmosphere for themselves.

By doing this, he appealed to an instinct more basic and thus stronger than beauty and esteem. While other builders were savagely competing for market share, he had his own comfortable niche and four years of brisk sales.

2. Creating a New Offering for a Lower Tier

Can you create a new product or service, based on your current offering that reaches consumers at a more basic level? The new examples of this are manufacturers of packaged foods with little or no nutritional value (soft drinks, cookies) that are now adding vitamins and promoting the health (Biological) benefits.

If you sell kitchen utensils, what about a line of blunt-tipped knives (Safety)? What about creating a community of consumers who use your products (Belongingness)? Membership in a customer loyalty program is an example. Successful blogs and forums also create a community among a limited number of users.
3. Creating the Impression of a Lower Tier

In contrast to the funeral industry, consider high-end cosmetics. The industry has a legitimate claim on the Beauty tier, but not on the Esteem tier from which it markets. Billions of dollars in annual advertising create the impression that the more one spends on cosmetics, the more self-esteem one will have. It works.

However, there are some serious ethical considerations in creating a false sense of urgency by marketing from a tier that your offering doesn't legitimately occupy.

The Effect of the Overall Need Environment

Finally - I'm sure you've noticed that there's always an overall consumer mood. For example, during robust economic times, when Biological and Safety needs are satisfied, companies with offerings in the upper five tiers enjoy healthy growth. In less secure times companies that satisfy lower tier needs perform well. There isn't much your company can do about it except modify existing products or create new ones.

Look at the offerings you have right now, look at the tiers of Maslow's pyramid, and ask yourself where your offerings fall. If they naturally fall low on the pyramid, take advantage of it. If they don't, look for ways to adjust your products and services so that they appeal to a more basic need. Remember to market biologically, not logically.