How Alderfer’s E.R.G. Theory can inform post-coronavirus strategy for brands

Psychologist Clayton Alderfer’s ERG motivational theory of human behaviour offers marketers a potential framework for charting steps forward in uncertain times – Nanyang Business School’s Mansur Khamitov talks through how brands can map out a positive path forward.

While the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) situation is still far from reaching its peak and continues to disrupt brands’ ambitions and plans, there are certain classic theories and frameworks that can offer some guidance in the post-coronavirus era. Thinking beyond the current predicament, when things return to relative normalcy, where does that leave brands and their 2020 ambitions?

One such framework that can be fruitfully applied is the E.R.G. motivational theory of human behaviour, developed by a psychologist Clayton Alderfer in his seminal Organisational Behavioural and Human Performancearticle. The framework is based on a three-fold conceptualisation of basic underlying...

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