Making Products Psychologically Fulfilling

Consumers buy products to satisfy needs. These needs range from basic physiological ones (e.g., need for food) to higher psychological ones (e.g., acceptance by others, self-fulfillment). A product may satisfy more than one need and at more than one level. For example, an anti-bacterial soap may satisfy the basic needs for cleanliness and safety (with its germ-killing qualities) as well as a higher psychological need to feel like one is being a good parent (i.e. "because I am keeping germs away from my children"). This example also shows that satisfying a need may involve a causal link: being able to feel like one is being a good parent is dependent on having been able to provide a clean and germ-free environment. Such multiple layers of interrelated needs can be thought of as "ladders." The lower rungs of such ladders represent product benefits (e.g., cleans dirt, gets rid of bacteria) and the upper rungs represent needs satisfied by the product benefits, ascending from basic to higher psychological needs (see figure 1).

Building Ladders on the Internet

Traditionally, laddering research is done qualitatively. Ladders are constructed via an interviewer's continuously asking probing questions to consumers as to why they buy certain products. The disadvantages of qualitative laddering are small sample sizes and high costs. So we decided to see if there was an alternative.

To aid a major consumer packaged goods company in planning brand differentiation strategies, we fielded a study to develop ladders for six brands within a specific CPG (consumer packaged goods) category--and we conducted it on the Internet! The piping technology of online research allowed us to emulate the probing questions involved in traditional laddering research. Specifically, respondents answer a "why" question; and these answers are piped into a subsequent screen, which would ask them "why" (again!) they gave their previous response.

Despite initial skepticism from our client, the study turned out to be a huge success. The ladders that emerged for each brand were rich in consumer language, differentiated, and most importantly, informative to the client's developing its brand strategies. Following are two ways that laddering can be used:

(1) Using Existing Ladders

With this application, the key is acknowledging perennial consumer needs as they relate to a category or to specific brands. Using the previous example, if you're developing an ad for an anti-bacterial soap, you can be fairly certain that you're going to want to convey the product's germ-killing attributes as well as its ability to make the potential buyer feel like they're being a good parent. From there, by studying the ladders for specific brands, you can find insights into what can differentiate your offering or reduce its parity to the competition's.

(2) Creating New Ladders

Here, the idea is that expanding marketing opportunities may require the development of new ladders (or, in English, finding new relationships between needs and product attributes). To expand marketing opportunities, it can be useful to (1) introduce new ways to satisfy old needs, and (2) introduce new needs into a laddering structure. As an example of the first possibility, the need to spend less time cleaning the kitchen may be met by products with dirt-repelling benefits instead of traditional quick clean-up benefits. And, as an example of the second (introducing new needs), we can look to oil companies' premium gas, which has the benefit of making cars start easily and last longer. Who knew we "needed" gas that helps to maintain our cars, even as it fuels them? Now we do!