I have been reading “The New Media Marketing Manifesto” by John Grant.
It’s not about new media as in digital, but new marketing. I am early on it so can’t really judge it at this stage but wanted to comment on something I’ve encountered early on.
There is a section on two hierarchies or pyramids: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the ABC classification of people by income groups. What I think the author does is to think that just because these ideas have the same structure (or shape, i.e. the pyramid) that the rungs or levels are equivalent. He assumes that people on the bottom level of the ABC pyramid must sit at the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid. I would suggest that the people he refers to in the UK don’t sit at the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid because this level refers to the extreme basic need for food and shelter which at the very minimum comes from state or private provision in that country. Even the people at the lowest level of his geo-demographic pyramid are several rungs up Maslow’s hierachy requiring “belongness and care” and “esteem” needs.
Arguments and ideas really benefit from having visual explanations such as pyramids. We need to make sure that we maintain rigour when using them and ensure that our arguments go deeper than visual or stuctural similarities.
