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I Want What I Want - Decoding the 16 Core Human Desires

“You cannot create a desire; you can only direct it”

  - Eugene Schwartz

Let's cut to the chase. The real power behind successful marketing comes from the market itself, not from the ad copy. An ad cannot generate desire for a product; it can only tap into the hopes, dreams, fears, and desires already present in people's hearts and guide those existing desires toward a particular product. This is the copywriter's role: not to create these desires, but to channel and direct them.  

Our goal in developing our marketing strategy is to identify the desires already present in our prospects, determine how our offerings can fulfill those desires, and craft a narrative that links these preexisting desires to what we provide.

The question then is: what does your prospect desire?

Stephen Reiss (author of the book ‘Who Am I’) and his colleagues aimed to address this issue through research, surveying thousands of people to understand universal human motives, desires, and the intrinsic feelings associated with each other. Their findings proposed 16 universal human desires, from which 16 universal goals can be derived. The concept is that everyone values these basic desires to some extent, with individual differences arising from how we prioritize and express them.

16 Universal Desires that Drive Behavior

Power

Independence

Curiosity

Acceptance

Order

Saving

Honour

Idealism

What insights have you gained from reflecting on these 16 universal human desires and motives? Did you allow yourself to recognize a part of yourself, no matter how small, within each universal desire? Once you become consciously aware of your authentic desires and motives, you naturally experience a sense of freedom and responsibility that comes with that knowledge. What actions and changes are you willing to make in your daily life to bring those authentic desires into reality?