According to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, people have a deep-seated need for self-creation, mastery, discovery, and connection.

Apply this theory to the technology experiences you produce for your users, and suddenly the Hierarchy of Needs starts to make a lot of digital sense as well.

Starting at the base of the pyramid, we can apply Maslow’s concepts to your “technology experience” stack and come away with some really useful insights:    

1. Physiological: Fundamentally, if your systems aren’t stable they won’t be useful. More importantly, how well do they perform? Are they fast? Are they predictive? Users who get frustrated with your technology will quickly move to a competitor.
2. Safety: Your users need to be absolutely sure your systems are trustworthy enough for them to invest in. If the data your systems provide is not consistently trustworthy, your users’ trust in you will be broken. And there’s no faster way to damage your brand than by shaking your customers’ confidence.
3. Belonging: More than ever before, people look to social networks and their peers for information and connectedness. How are you leveraging your users’ technology experience to improve their sense of belonging? Does a human respond when customers ask for online help? Are you responding to tweets and posts? By creating a responsive, human online presence you’ll bolster your customers’ sense of connectedness with your brand.
4. Esteem: Technology can make your users feel like experts and reward their experience with your brand. How are you rewarding and recognizing your brand loyalists (especially your brand advocates)? How are you supporting those activities that improve your relationship with these coveted users?
5. Self-Actualization: People have a deep need for self-creation, sharing, mastery, and connection. Technology is the best way to facilitate, encourage, and empower these things in the context of your brand and your industry. How can you empower your community of users with technology?

The ultimate goal of marketing is to earn brand advocacy. (More on this in our Move, Touch & Inspire blog post.) Using Maslow’s decades-old Hierarchy of Needs is a smart, strategic way to approach some of today’s technology challenges.