Satisfy Customers' Online Self-Actualization
In 1943, Abraham Maslow proposed in "A Theory of Human Motivation" that people seek to fulfill their instinctive needs according to hierarchy in terms of their potency. The lower the need is on the pyramid, the more powerful it is. The higher the need is on the pyramid, the more-distinctively human it is (see Figure ).
Starting at the bottom are physiological needs — the need to sustain oneself via food, clothing and shelter. Once those needs are met, individuals can concentrate on safety needs — the need for personal security. Next are social needs, such as love and belonging, followed by the need for esteem. Last is self-actualization — the instinctive need for personal growth and fulfillment.
The virtual environment will be a tool to provide all these needs, eventually giving more people access to achieve some of the higher goals in the hierarchy that they wouldn't necessarily have achieved offline. The 40th-level half-elf in World of Warcraft is an example of a person achieving aspects of self-actualization online, including achievement and growth. This path to self-actualization was unobtainable in the real world.
Gartner has developed a four-stage generation model to help companies determine where their value propositions are positioned to satisfy one or more of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
No comments:
Post a Comment