Back to School: 4 Marketing Theories to Better Understand Your Target Audience

While everyone is talking about the latest tech trends like AI and ChatGPT, we wanted to take a step back in time and dive into the History of Marketing and all the powerful theories that have shaped it.

New technologies can certainly help us work more efficiently, but do classic marketing theories, some over 50 years old, still have something to teach us today?

Spoiler alert: The answer is yes!

Let’s explore together 4 major marketing theories, handpicked to give you a fresh perspective, help you build your brand strategy, and better understand your audience.

Why revisiting the major marketing theories is a good idea

So what can these classic marketing theories taught in college and business school, or featured in iconic books like “Marketing For Dummies,” really offer us today? 😃

Better understand your audience’s behavior

Marketing theories are generally based on research and real-world observations—not just hypotheses. They aim to provide valuable tools for analyzing a specific market or understanding consumer behavior, both at a segment level and for the wider audience.

By using these theories, you’ll gain deeper insights into the motivations, attitudes, and behaviors of your target market—helping you design more persuasive marketing campaigns that are more impactful and effective.

Avoid costly mistakes

That’s right—leaning on marketing theory often pays off by helping you dodge expensive strategic blunders caused by a lack of market knowledge, client insight, or competitor awareness.

Anticipate market trends

Marketing theories help anticipate market trends and spot new growth opportunities. For example, the Diffusion of Innovation theory can highlight the key moments when your product or service is ready for mass market adoption.

Boost your profitability

By leveraging proven marketing theories, you can develop more profitable marketing strategies—by maximizing advertising ROI, identifying the most effective distribution channels, and delivering products and services that truly address your customers’ needs.

Which are the most relevant marketing theories for e-commerce and brand building?

AIDA Method

The AIDA method is a powerful persuasion technique often used in marketing to convince customers to buy a product or service.

AIDA stands for:

Attention

This step is about capturing the customer’s attention, usually with a compelling headline, hook, or impactful visual.

Interest

After grabbing attention, your next move is to spark the consumer’s interest by presenting key features and benefits of your product or service.

This stage is about arousing the consumer’s curiosity and making them want to learn more.

Desire

Once the customer is interested, you need to ignite their desire by showcasing unique benefits and explaining why your offer beats anything else on the market.

Action

The final step is encouraging your prospect to take action—meaning buying your product or service. This can entail clear, persuasive calls-to-action, special offers, or purchase incentives.

By leveraging the AIDA model, you can create targeted marketing strategies that speak to your customers’ needs and desires at every stage of their buying journey.

SWOT

The SWOT method is a strategic analysis tool that enables companies to assess their market position and outline the steps needed to boost their performance.

SWOT stands for:

Strengths

The first step is to identify what your company does best—your assets, market advantages, and key wins.

It’s about pinpointing what sets you apart from competitors.

Weaknesses

The next step is uncovering areas you need to improve—your gaps, shortcomings, or any internal issues that could impact your performance.

Opportunities

Here, you identify opportunities your business can seize, such as emerging market trends, new technologies, or shifts in regulation.

Threats

Lastly, you pinpoint threats facing your business—from competitors, market risks, to changes in the economic or political climate.

In summary, SWOT helps you evaluate your current business situation by mapping out your internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats.

This analysis empowers you to decide which actions to take to build on your strengths, overcome weaknesses, leverage opportunities, and deal with threats head-on.

It’s a cornerstone of strategic business planning and can reveal the most effective ways to create a focused & effective marketing strategy.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s hierarchy is a psychological model that outlines fundamental, ranked human needs. This theory is widely used in marketing for understanding customer motivations and needs so you can create more relevant campaigns.
Here’s how the Maslow Pyramid can shape your marketing approach:

Physiological Needs

Physiological needs—food, water, and sleep—are the most basic human priorities.

If you sell products or services meeting these basic needs, highlight how your offerings uniquely address them, for example, by emphasizing quality and availability.

Safety Needs

Once the basics are covered, people focus on safety.

Customers want protection from physical and emotional risks (like disappointment). Your communications should focus on reliability, durability, and the peace of mind your products provide.

Social Needs

Social needs involve relationships and a sense of belonging. You can meet these needs by offering products or services that encourage connection and community.

If your products aren’t directly related to social bonding, opt for fun, out-of-the-box communication—as Kinder did with its campaign featuring the chocolate bar Kinder Country.

To address people’s need for social connection, you could also focus on highlighting your community of followers and promote the sense of mutual support found there.

Esteem Needs

Esteem needs include recognition, self-worth, and respect from others.

You can answer this by spotlighting products that encourage creativity and hands-on involvement—like cooking kits, DIY supplies, and craft products.

You can also inspire self-value by encouraging clients to celebrate their achievements—be it professional or personal milestones reached with your products.

Self-Actualization Needs

Self-actualization is about fulfilling personal potential and ambitions.

Support your clients’ aspirations by offering products or services designed to help them reach their goals.

By applying Maslow’s theory, you can design customer journeys and marketing strategies that speak directly to where your customers are in their needs hierarchy.

Studying this pyramid of needs is a great way to refine your marketing strategy and dramatically boost your marketing campaign success.

The 4Ps

The 4Ps Marketing Mix theory is one of the most recognized concepts in marketing.

Developed by marketing expert Jerome McCarthy in the 1960s, it encourages a deep dive into your four key elements: product, price, promotion, and place.

Your product is everything you offer—whether it’s goods or services.

Quality, design, features, branding, and packaging all factor in when creating an offer that meets your customers’ needs.

The second element—price—refers to the amount customers are willing to pay for your product or service.

Price should reflect your costs, competition, and market demand.

Promotion covers all the actions to build awareness and drive sales. Advertising, promotions, PR, and direct marketing are all methods to put your product in front of potential buyers.

The fourth P—place—addresses distribution channels, whether they’re retail stores, e-commerce platforms, distributors, or wholesalers. The aim is to strike the perfect balance among the 4Ps, so you meet customer needs while maximizing your business’s sales and profits.

Conclusion

In summary, proven marketing theories such as AIDA, SWOT, Maslow’s pyramid, and the 4Ps provide essential tools if you want to better understand your audience and build a powerful strategy. These timeless concepts have stood the test of time and continue to guide marketers in

analyzing trends, identifying threats and opportunities, evaluating business strengths and weaknesses, and setting clear, achievable goals.

By bringing these theories into your e-commerce marketing efforts, you can enhance your effectiveness, grow your profitability, and achieve your business objectives faster.

In short, these foundational marketing theories are invaluable for brands looking to win in the online space.

Time to put them into action!