After learning about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I started thinking about the past 2 years and how the pandemic affected all the levels of our needs, and how that can explain some of our behaviour changes as consumers. So, I’m just sharing some thoughts here…bear with me.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I personally experienced stock shortages in London. We couldn’t find the most basic grocery items and sometimes it took a good week to buy a carton of milk. Not having our normal access to food obviously caused a lot of stress as well, and so the first level of “psychological needs” was completely compromised. As consumers, I guess our behaviours changed by the way we started attacking stores, overbuying, and stocking up on anything we could get our hands on.
Shortly after that was when I actually started getting worried about my health and the possibility of getting sick, and many people around me were concerned about their job security and financial stability (didn’t feel too bad to be unemployed at the time). So, there went our sense of “safety” … I don’t know about everyone else but my household broke a record in the number of oranges, ginger and garlic bought in a month.
The next phase was lockdown and working from home where we didn’t see friends and family for months. Thank God for zoom, but it still didn’t satisfy our need for “love and belonging” in the same way. Looking back, I guess that’s when everyone started baking banana bread, buying jigsaw puzzles, or redoing their kitchen…and perhaps a record low in the sales of personal grooming/makeup products.
In terms of “esteem” needs, it was personally very difficult for me to feel a sense of confidence or achievement after the 4th series I binged on Netflix. I remember there was a boom in online clothes shopping at the time especially fancy leisurewear, and maybe that was one of our ways of feeding this need and trying to feel better about ourselves?
And finally, the need to “self-actualise” which had no chance considering all 4 levels before it were pretty shaken…. I decided to move to do my masters. Interestingly, I’ve noticed that so many people have made serious life altering decisions or discovered new passions they want to pursue in the past year. Based on Maslow’s hierarchy, in order for each of the needs to be met, the ones before it need to have been met first. Perhaps because the first 4 levels of our needs were so challenged during the pandemic and the progression to satisfying our need for self-actualisation wasn’t as natural and smooth, we resorted to dramatic measures to satisfy it. As consumers this could mean that certain circumstances can drastically/oddly challenge our standing attitudes, making us more vulnerable to persuasion/conditioning in those times.
What do you think?
