The profits, it is said, are in the adjectives. Claims-based meat products yield a higher margin than plain ol' chops or patties or breasts. But brands that aim only at the top of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs are missing the bigger picture.

If you haven't given Maslow a second thought since your undergrad psych class, here is a Cliff Notes-type summary of the concept.

In business, Maslow’s hierarchy is most often part of a course of study on marketing, whose practitioners craft plans to move customers and consumers to a higher, usually more profitable, level. But as food anthropologist Kevin Ryan noted in his FoodStuff newsletter, the true message of Maslow is that customers' and consumers' needs are moving up and down the hierarchy all the time.

“Even though it’s presented as a hierarchy, Maslow never intended for it to be seen as a ladder. People don’t progress to the next level and no longer need the previous. Instead, people are constantly circulating between levels, occasionally progressing upward, while still needing the foundation.

"Too often, brands get to a point where they message only higher-level needs and assume the rest have been satisfied. This is a mistake. A healthy portfolio satisfies a variety of needs," wrote Ryan, CEO of Malachite Strategy and Research, a CPG-focused strategy and innovation consulting agency.

These concerns come to the fore as consumers feel their economic circumstances are negative, despite macro-economic data that point to a solid and growing sector. Inflation has cooled — but personal interest rates haven't yet. That number includes the rates on credit cards and car loans, for example, and they are not included in traditional measures of inflation.

Consumers are carrying record levels of household debt, and the credit card portion of that debt is the fastest-growing category. The federal Commerce Department reports that personal interest payments (excluding mortgage payments) as a percentage of personal consumption spending is at its highest level since the Great Recession.

Ouch.

Faced with that kind of budget-juggling challenge, the profits may be in the adjectives but the sales are in the basics.

Companies, like Cargill, that are large enough to tout products in every available marketing channel, ride out these shifts in the economy relatively easily. Other companies have staked their brand at the top of the Hierarchy of Needs, and "sometimes consumers must be reassured that their basic needs are met," Ryan noted.

Doing so doesn't mean creating a brand-new product line and value proposition. A marketing message that emphasizes the basic needs that even a value-added meat product meets would make a difference.

So what is that message your company is putting out to consumers? Does it recognize their basics needs for nutritious, safe food, or does it solely focus on convenience or even luxury?

If the latter, these times call for a re-evaluation of your strategies.

Maslow v. the adjectives

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