The Application of Social Networking as a Marketing Platform to Young Adults - Adoption, Usage, and Global Impact of Broadband Technologies - page 189

Figure 4. Awareness levels of various social networks

desire to satisfy his or her needs. This desire, or
internal driving force to satisfy a given need, is
known as 'motivation'. Motivation is therefore
produced by a state of tension that exists as the
result of an unfulfilled need (ibid).
The arousal of a need stems from the presence
of a stimulus causing recognition of that need.
Environmental arousal occurs when specific cues
in the environment activate a consumer's need.
Advertisements, for example, often generate a
psychological imbalance in the viewer's mind,
arousing the need to counter that imbalance (Solo-
mon, 2004). Once aroused, the need produces a

drive state in which the consumer experiences
emotions and physiological arousal, leading to
goal-directed behaviour in which the consumer
seeks to act in a way that will relieve the need
state. Most common examples of relieving the
need state result in consumers actively searching
for information and/or discussing products with
other consumers (Cant et al , 2006).
Figure 6 details Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
with associated examples, as well as the transitiv-
ity of those examples to an online environment.
Figure 6 illustrates how physiological needs
must first be satisfied before the need for secu-

Figure 5. Subscription to social networks