Olive Garden is the restaurant that can fulfill the love/belonging need in Maslow�s Hierarchy of Needs. Why would a purveyor of food want to also say it can satisfy your need for love and belonging? The restaurant wants to deliver that message because it has many competitors that offer similar services. The ad tells consumers Olive Garden can satisfy more needs than the competition, and that�s why you should eat there.
�When you�re here, you�re family� is the message Olive Garden wants you to know about their restaurants. That slogan, as well as the powerful imagery in the ad communicates Olive Garden�s ability to satisfy the need for love/belonging, which �relates to our interactions with others [Marketing, p. 93].� The ad opens by portraying a family of a daughter, mother and grandmother. The family has the Maslow love/belonging need because grandmother is visiting, and the three women need to interact with each other. The mom says this need can be fulfilled by going to �our Olive Garden.� The ad then cuts to the family eating at Olive Garden and having a wonderful time. At the end, the daughter looks into her grandma�s eyes and expresses how �cool� it was �hanging out, just the three of us,� as grandma touches her arm affectionately. The family�s need for love/belonging has been satisfied by going to Olive Garden.
The firm could have settled by only portraying the food as a need it and no other restaurant can satisfy. We all need food to live, and that is why physiological needs are the first level in Maslow�s Hierarchy of needs [Marketing, p. 93]. Olive Garden knows consumers can go anywhere to satisfy their need for prepared food, from Hatfield�s on Melrose to the hot dog case at 7-Eleven. The restaurant needed to give consumers reasons to go to Olive Garden and not those other places. The new manicotti with shrimp or chicken is portrayed appealingly, prepared in a unique way, and there is the ever-present Olive Garden reminder about the �unlimited salad and bread sticks.� Why did Olive Garden need to tell consumers it can also satisfy the love/belonging need? Because �good marketers add value to their products or services by nudging people up the needs hierarchy and offering information on as many of the pyramid needs as they can [p. 94].� The firm uses this ad to turn the need for food into the want to go to Olive Garden. The firm chose to add even more value for consumers than unique prepared food by appealing to a need that was higher up on Mazlow�s Hierarchy: the need for love and belonging.