Ever tried to work out why people do the things they do? Or more interestingly for business why they buy the things they buy? Imagine if you had a good understanding of what is really going on inside people’s heads. If you could connect the hot buttons with the dots. You would be an amazing marketer because you could create almost magical cut-through on demand. You could influence people to come to some quite bizarre beliefs, decisions, and purchases.
They might end up believing things like their single vote actually matters in a democracy with millions of voters. They could end up wanting to buy around 5 cents worth of sugary fizzy water for $2 or more over and over and over again. They might spend hours per day on line gazing at pictures of cats and publishing mundane aspects of their lives for the viewing pleasure of a large number of acquaintances they will never meet again. They might replace their perfectly good cars every 21 months for no rational reason other than the next new version was available. They might try over and over again to lose weight by eating different things and signing up for exercise programs they will never continue long term. Wait a minute - I have done every single one of those things (or wanted to). Expected my vote to matter, drank Coca Cola, trolled Facebook and tried various diets to lose weight. I am not Robinson Crusoe here.
People make really, really weird decisions about stuff all of the time. I have and I am sure you have. But here is the most fascinating part.
Every purchase decision we make makes enough sense at the time for us to hand over our money.
This is Part 1 of a three-part series to begin to explain why. Together we will unpack a simple and effective framework for understanding some of the complexities of human motivation.
CAPFUL needs are a hierarchy
CAPFUL is our contemporary evolution of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The acronym stands for six needs: Certainty, Achievement, Prestige, Fulfilment, Unusual and Love. In the picture left the various needs can be grouped in different ways. The needs on the left are externally focused. They are also more human-centred. The needs on the right are more internally focused and abstract. The needs at the bottom are related to primal survival. Those at the top correspond to self-actualisation. The pairs of needs at each of these three levels tend to conflict with each other: For example needing Certainty tends to conflict with craving the Unusual. The other conflicts will be explained the follow-up parts to this article.
The complexity of the human condition means all of us share all the needs. But we prioritise our needs differently. For most of us, one or two needs are the most compelling. We also act to meet them in our own unique way. In the DISC personality framework Dominant types commonly seek to meet their prestige needs by assuming positions of authority. In contrast, the Influencer types may engage in displays of conspicuous consumption. Supporter types may simply want to get away from it all to confirm to themselves they are special because they choose to be independent. Conscientious types can seek accreditation from third parties to validate their expert status. Understanding why different customer groups seek to satisfy their different needs in similar ways is very powerful for designing stand out customer value propositions to emotionally cut through. Because industries tend to orient around a single CAPFUL need there is often an opportunity to target meeting an unmet CAPFUL need in most markets.
Certainty is our most basic need. It is wired into us for basic survival. We want safe products. Satisfaction guaranteed. Instant results. Easy support. Safety, satisfaction, instant and easy are all ways to emotionally cut-through for customers who prioritise certainty. Many financial services providers target fulfilling customers’ certainty needs. After all have an innovative bank is a bit like having a creative accountant. It just doesn’t seem prudent. Or does it?
Kabbage is a little different from other financial service providers. According to The 50 Best Fintech Innovators report, Kabbage is the largest online provider of certain types of loans to small businesses in the US and UK. Certainty is not what Kabbage is all about. It is about helping small businesses take advantage of opportunities by providing extra working capital fast. Kabbage is a lot like a traditional lender in some ways. In other ways it is very unusual.
Kabbage automatic loan approval takes 7 minutes
Kabbage provides businesses with up to $250k as a line of credit for 6 or 12 months in 7 minutes. It does this with an automated online approval process. The process considers business volume, age, number of transactions and credit score. But strangely, social media activity, seller channel data and shipping data is also relevant. Fees are 1.5%-10% of the outstanding loan balance each month. This fast, unsecured approach to debt finance contrasts to the slow, safe process of more traditional lenders.
Kabbage has worked out a way to meet the conflicting needs of certainty and the unusual for its customers. It provides a fast way to get access to working capital (= certainty). The validation for a loan application includes different data from novel sources to help each business qualify (= unusual).
Unusual relates to our need for novelty. When things are too predictable we can become bored, stressed or feel constrained. News is news because it is new. The more sensational the better. News that cuts through are stories changing how we feel. In many cases it seems they don’t even have to be true. Even the New York Times reported on the QAnon phenomena, despite traditionally being regarded as ‘the national newspaper of record’ in the US.
QAnon is the umbrella term for a sprawling set of internet conspiracy theories that allege, falsely, that the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who are plotting against Mr. Trump while operating a global child sex-trafficking ring.
Journalism is not the only domain addicted to novelty. Popular music changes because we want to hear new music. Fashions change largely because we want to change our look. For example, FraganceX offers 1236 different brands of Popular Perfume & Cologne Brands. Around 100 new scents are released every year but few ever catch on. One scent with seemingly eternal allure is Chanel No 5. In 2016 it was a top 5 best seller. It is now 98 years old! On the other side of the gender divide is Old Spice.
We're not saying this body wash will make your man smell like a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it.
Old Spice was first released in 1937. The brand was rejuvenated in recent years with a comprehensive campaign to position the products as being for men rather than boys. The video above was significant in Old Spice’s resurgence because of its quirky humour.
Humour is another way to meet our need for the unusual and the campaign went viral. Part of what made this compelling was how the marketing messages managed to deliver both novelty and certainty. The second video below describes more of the logic behind the campaign and the other parts of the brand promotion contributing to overall sales dominance in the category.
In this article, the CAPFUL framework was introduced outlining the six basic human emotional needs. The key takeaway is how cut-through was achieved in two very different verticals. In both cases normally conflicting needs were simultaneously met. Kabbage delivered certainty around working capital finance in with some unusual twists to in a remarkable customer value proposition. Old Spice combined humour with a traditional message to get remarkable promotional cut-through. In the next part of this article this idea of meeting conflicting needs will be expanded to cover the higher-order needs of love and prestige.
Robert Dew is a Founding Partner at CapFeather Global with more than 2o years of corporate consulting and university lecturing in Innovation, Customer Strategy and Customer Experience. His PhD related to improving creativity in strong corporate governance environments. He tends to struggle with people who are too focused on certainty needs because he is a junkie for the unusual.