Maslowvian marketing

“Human beings,” writes [Drew Eric] Whitman, “are biologically programmed with the following eight desires…”

1. Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension.
2. Enjoyment of food and beverages.
3. Freedom from fear, pain, and danger.
4. Physical 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.

By creating ads that appeal to these things, you are tapping into Mother Nature, harnessing the power of our inborn motivators to compel and sell.

via Very Good Copy

Trust boosts purchase potential. And transparency boosts trust.

I love this example from the Nudge newsletter:

This is especially true in food, but sectors have opportunities.

Peel back an element of your sector people assume the worst about, are suspicious of, or want made clearer.

Buyers are willing to pay more for things sellers are willing to charge less for.

Why?

Because the seller enjoys making it.

From the abstract for the paper Production enjoyment asymmetrically impacts buyers’ willingness to pay and sellers’ willingness to charge:

Buyers are willing to pay a higher price, are more likely to click on ads, and are more likely to choose a product or service when the seller signals that they enjoy producing it.

In contrast, sellers are willing to accept lower prices, and actually charge less, for products and services they enjoy producing.

Both buyers and sellers make the inference that production enjoyment leads to higher quality products/services, but only buyers rely on this inference when forming their pricing judgments relative to sellers.

Pricing is hard. The fulcrum is value.

Consumer sentiment isn’t great, Bob.

According to the Behind the Numbers podcast the animal spirits at play include:

• Expected unemployment growth
• Tariff/economic uncertainty
• Expected inflation (see above)

in particular, people are really concerned about the constant changes and the constant movement of economic policies and consumers are finding it very difficult to deal with this uncertainty. It makes it really difficult to plan.

Humans really don’t like uncertainty.

BeReal
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That’s right, the drop everything and take a pic app snagged themselves a TikTok exec and

announced the launch of its native advertising platform in the United States

The goal is to pull a Snapchat and “focus on positivity”

ad formats are meant to mirror the user experience, according to the brand. Targeted in-feed ads are integrated into the flow of the platform’s content for low-friction engagement, while takeovers offer brands exclusive ad placement for one full day.

Of note in the Marketing Dive post, 40 million monthly active users, heavily Gen Z

So…what is the tariff rate on China now?

I shared 125%, but I’ve also seen 110% and 145%.

Seems like the messaging on this could have been better.

Had a great time @ Grok Conf (unrelated to the AI model)

Some of my notes from the various talks:

• Write more
• Your work is only as good as the team & clients around you
• Internet is in a liminal space | Have fun & be weird
• Play with the things you are scared of
• When you’re holding a bag of money and your client says “hey, be careful with that bag, or I’ll kill you,” things become really clear
• Clients don’t want design, they want design experiences that function as conversations with a trusted partner
• Aim for high conceptual fidelity
• Make your brand a complete thought

This is true for more than concert tickets

They have to believe that when they expend a tremendous amount of effort leaving the house, getting in the car, parking the car, and buying the ticket…that it was worth the effort. Deep down everyone believes their time is important and how they spend it is important.

Almost every purchase decision represents the only one of those things someone will buy for a period of time—short or long.

Brand reputation is built on where that decision ranks on each person’s regret-reward scale.

Aim for reward.

About those tariffs, they’re on hold. For now. Kind of.

For 90 days, it’ll be 10% on everyone. Except China, who gets all the tariffs at a new 125% rate.

Like TikTok, this deadline might be performative. It’s all about the deal.

(that picture in the second link, oompa loompa in chief)

When thinking about the assets you’re going to create as part of your marketing mix—whether images, video, words, audio, whatever—make sure you are using different pieces to come from different angles. Each piece can appeal to a different audience—or different facet of your audience.

Is playlist design the new branding exercise?

a new study, researchers found that when background music at a workplace is out of sync with what workers need to do their jobs, it can affect their energy, mood – and even performance.

Public Regard curates playlists as part of their design process.

via ScienceDaily

Consumers are sophisticated, they know when they’re being marketed and sold to.

Even though people want to buy things to solve their problems and satisfy their desires, we also have powerful filtering mechanisms that shift attention away from messages that are “selling” to us.

Rather than a direct benefit-oriented sales approach, an indirect method is used to spark interest, build trust, establish shared identity, and prove authority before the offer is made.

You might say all those pieces of the indirect method are part of brand building.

via Leading Expert

We should all strive to approach our work with this belief from Khalilah Olokunola

Today I consider myself an Impact Architect. I only build that which brings impact.

It rhymes with the concept of being a superstar in your role that sports teams (go Celtics!) talk about.

Every little thing it does is magic, because…

It reduces decision friction.

Or, as Why We Buy says:

[because] eliminates our brain’s natural tendency to overthink a decision.

Instead, it signals the mental heavy lifting has already been done, so the brain shortcuts to accepting what comes after as a valid reason. And we’re more likely to comply when something’s justified.

A classic example:

Based on my kids, real-time generative AI produced entertainment should be the preferred medium for Generation Alpha

Common request format: I want {novel iteration} of {common format}

They try to find something that matches the (multimodal style) vision in their head

(Generations are still garbage)

We talk about this with clients a lot, and currently have a company thinking about switching to us because their current partner relies too heavily on promos.

The danger isn’t in discounting itself. It’s in conditioning. When buyers consistently see 20% off, they don’t view it as a bonus — they start viewing full price as a penalty. Over time, your standard pricing feels inflated, and loyalty shifts from brand to bargain.

The balance will (likely) get harder in our post-tariff world.

Sales and promotions are tools in your toolkit. But they shouldn’t be the introduction.

via Buyology