5 core motivations powering personalized marketing

Personalization is a hot topic in martech, but the concept is nothing new. Lester Wunderman, known as the creator of modern direct marketing, outlined similar strategies in his 1996 book “Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay.” Chapters like “The Consumer, Not the Product, Must Be the Hero” and “Communicate with Each Customer or Prospect as an Audience of One” emphasize the benefits of tailoring communications to individual consumers — the essence of personalization.

While technology has made personalization easier to implement at scale, the underlying psychology driving its effectiveness remains the same. At its core, personalization taps into five fundamental human motivations that help brands acquire and retain customers.

1. Relevance and personal connection

We all seek to feel understood as individuals. Personalizing marketing makes people feel the brand knows and caters to their unique preferences, interests and needs to foster a stronger personal connection. 

Think about the last situation you were in where you were introduced to someone new. More than likely, you picked up on nonverbal cues and steered the conversation toward topics you had in common with the individual. This is similar to what brands known for personalization are doing. 

Picking up on our digital and physical footprints is something Amazon has become very good at understanding and putting into action. Amazon excels at this through features like “More items to consider,” “Pick up where you left off” and personalized deals. Up to 35% of Amazon’s sales come from personalized recommendations, and those shoppers are 56% more likely to be repeat buyers, which boosts average order value and customer revenue.

Dig deeper: How to boost marketing engagement with behavioral science triggers

2. Sense of belonging

When brands align messaging with a consumer’s values and social identity, it builds commonalities and a sense of belonging — making people feel the brand “gets them.”

Outdoor apparel company Patagonia cultivates this connection through its activism and sustainability content, immersing environmentally-conscious customers in that shared community. Patagonia’s activism and commitment to sustainability resonate with customers who share these values.

In addition to selling outdoor gear and apparel, Patagonia’s website has a “Stories” section with content related to Culture and the Planet. In this section, consumers can learn more about activism and how to get involved. They can also see what Patagonia is doing related to Community, the Climate and more. 

3. Emotional engagement

When brands employ personalization, they evoke positive emotions helping consumers feel special, valued and appreciated. This emotional engagement strengthens customer attachment and loyalty to the brand.

Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign is an example of a brand leading the charge in building emotional engagement. The brand challenges and redefines traditional beauty standards by highlighting regular women rather than models in its advertising. 

When the first iteration of the campaign was presented to the world in 2004, Dove took a risk by focusing on women’s insecurity. Armed with data from the National Organization for Women, Dove found 78% of girls were unhappy with their bodies by the time they turned 17 and 70% of female college students said they felt worse about their bodies after looking at magazines targeted at women. 

Rather than plan on fear and shame, which other beauty brands deployed, Dove chose to focus on empathy. And it worked. As a result of the campaign, Dove saw a 10% sales increase in the first year of the campaign. 

This year is the 20th anniversary of the Real Beauty campaign and Dove is continuing to research how beauty affects women. They commissioned a study to examine AI’s impact in perpetuating unrealistic beauty standards.

Dig deeper: How marketers can use cognitive biases to influence customer decisions

4. Simplicity and ease of use

To drive consumer adoption, brands must ensure their products and services are easy to understand and use. Financial services has many overly complex rules, regulations and ways of interacting with companies. 

One of the brands that has done a great job at simplifying financial transactions is Venmo. The company was started by two former University of Pennsylvania roommates, Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail. 

After graduating, the two planned a get-together in New York to discuss new business ideas. Unfortunately, Iqram forgot his wallet in Pennsylvania. Andrew ended up picking up the tab for Iqram that weekend. The act of paying back Andrew sparked a dialog about why the transaction wasn’t done by phone. There you have it — the birth of Venmo.

Anyone who has used Venmo can attest to how easy it is to use and understand. Users must connect their bank account, credit card or debit card to their Venmo account. Then, they can send, receive and manage money through a mobile app. 

Making payments is as easy as entering the recipient’s username, phone number, email address, payment amount and description. Simplicity and ease of use speak for themselves. By taking the complexity out of peer-to-peer payments, Venmo has attracted over 78 million users.

5. Association and alliance

Once brands get numbers 1 through 4 right, the next step is building association and alliance, otherwise known as loyalty. By providing thoughtful, personalized experiences, brands can create a feeling of reciprocity. 

One brand that stands out in terms of building loyalty is Apple. Since its introduction, Apple has been known for exceptional user experience (UX). Rather than put technology at the forefront, Apple designs products using a human-centered design approach.

This methodology puts a user’s needs at the forefront of the design experience to deliver products that are functional, intuitive, delightful and seamlessly integrated into users’ lives. With this focus on UX, innovation, quality, a sticky ecosystem and great service, Apple fosters customer advocacy and loyalty.

Personalization works because it aligns with core human motivations for relevance, belonging, emotional connection, cognitive ease and reciprocity. By understanding and optimizing for these psychological drivers, brands can build stronger, more loyal customer relationships.

Dig deeper: The CMO’s practical guide to personalization