Maslow in reverse

Leslie Butterfield (Ingram Partnership) wrote an article in yesterday’s Creative Section of the FT (20th April) titled “New Age Philosophy”.

He made a number of interesting observations about marketing to the 50+. The one that caught my eye was his proposition that the Maslow model is now going in the opposite direction.

Remember Maslow and his hierarchy of needs? His proposition was that once we (humans) have sorted out our survival issues of food, security and warmth we move onto the more interesting things of self-esteem and self-actualisation. The sort of things that makes marketers’ mouths water.

Butterfield suggests that with all of the problems of terrorism, crime and the general falling apart of society we are now getting much more interested again in the basic survival things. This proposition helps explain the “cocooning” in car design and less risky financial services products.

If this theory is correct then I wonder what impact the risks of flying and the thought of 5 hour check-in times will have on travel products and services.