What is Motivation?

Hello and welcome back to my blog where I’ll be going over all things marketing and strategic communication throughout this semester! In today’s post, I will be focusing on motivation; what it is, the difference between intrinsic motivators vs. extrinsic motivators, and how businesses can use this method to create and foster loyalty with their customers. As part of our assignment this week we had to read the second chapter of our textbook, Loyalty 3.0 written by Rajat Paharia, entitled “Whoever Figures Out Motivation Wins”, which I will be pulling information from periodically throughout this post. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get into it!

Defining Motivation

What is motivation? To put it plainly it is what drives us to complete a task. But more specifically, it’s “internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role, or subject, and to exert persistent effort in attaining a goal” (Paharia, 2013, pg. 23). This mainly results from an intense desire or need, an incentive/ reward value, or the expectations of the individual/ their significant others (Paharia, 2013, pg. 24). 

Motivation comes in two forms, intrinsic and extrinsic, neither one being better or more beneficial than the other. Intrinsic motivation refers to completing a task for the sole purpose of finding enjoyment, purpose, growth, passion, or curiosity from it. These factors relate back to the idea of autonomy (“I control”), mastery (“I improve”), purpose (“I make a difference”), progress (“I achieve”), and social interaction (“I connect with others”), which make up the self-determination theory (Paharia, 2013). Whereas, extrinsic motivation refers to an external force almost influencing or requiring you to do something.

For me personally, I have had multiple intrinsic factors motivate me to work for specific companies or get involved in activities where I am able to connect/ network with others, gain valuable experience and skills, and even help me achieve my future career goals. These opportunities not only fueled my passion for marketing but it also fostered an environment that I wanted to return to and didn’t want to ever leave. One experience in particular was being a part of Liberty University’s advertising team, where I was able to not only gain skills crafting strategy, conducting market research, and building an integrated marketing campaign but I was also able to form friendships with people I still keep in contact with and cherish to this day.

The Importance of Brand Value

Value is also at the core of motivation, and is the key to building consumer trust and loyalty. To earn business from new customers and retain relationships with current ones, it is important to ensure that your brand is relaying value that directly addresses their needs and frustrations in a convenient, emotional, or transactional way (Maza, 2020). This in turn motivates customers to return to your brand because they know it will resolve their problem and benefit them in some way or another. Without value, relationships cannot be formed and customers are left feeling unimportant, stuck, and forced to look elsewhere to find a solution. 

Keep your eyes out for next week's blog post, where I’ll be covering the factor of utilizing big data in more depth!

Citations:

Maza, C. (2020, September 24). Customer value: Definition, measurement & how to increase it. Zendesk. https://www.zendesk.com/blog/customer-value/

Rajat Paharia. (2013). Loyalty 3.0 : how big data and gamification are revolutionizing customer and employee engagement. Mcgraw-Hill Education.