Audience Motivations

The Audience Motivations framework reveals what truly drives people — the emotions and instincts behind their choices. It maps out key drivers like comfort, cost, pride, fear, and compassion to help you understand not just what your audience does, but why they do it.

The framework distilled: Focus on what really drives your audience.

By identifying which motivations matter most, you can shape messages and experiences that connect on a human level — sparking curiosity, building trust, and inspiring action.

Every decision is emotional before it is rational. Whether a person buys a product, supports a strategy, or resists a change, they are responding to a motivation that can be understood, mapped, and strategically addressed.

The Audience Motivations Framework helps organizations decode those motivators into a usable model. It categorizes the emotional and rational forces that influence behavior into ten primary drivers, ranging from fear and guilt to pride, comfort, and opportunity.