Some more Maslow-related stuff, building on yesterday's post on human drivers (and evidence that there's always new stuff to learn).
Just out of interest, I looked up Abraham on Wikipedia to see what it had to say, and discovered that in limiting myself to 'Maslow = hierarchy of needs' had missed out on his 'peak experience' work. And, more interestingly, the Being Values' he associated with these.
For Maslow, these B-Values were qualities possessed only by the truly self-actualised individuals able to experience moments of peak experiences.
Which provides some useful direction when thinking about the values/qualities a brand might wish to embody/dramatise (not all of them, I would suggest!) in order to engage those that hanker after such self-actualisation and peak experience (as most of us do).
Maslow's list is as follows (I can't find any more real detail in terms of meaning, but they are pretty self explanatory...and pretty archetypal...which is maybe the missing link I was looking for before)...
- Wholeness
- Perfection
- Completion
- Justice
- Aliveness
- Richness
- Simplicity
- Beauty
- Goodness
- Uniqueness
- Effortlessness
- Playfulness
- Truth
- Self-sufficiency
Useful in their own right, but what about thinking in terms of combinations: so what does 'justice' + 'playfulness' mean, or 'beauty' + 'effortlessness'. Could open up some interesting areas of exploration.
