wants and demand
There are five steps in every marketing process. Out of those five, four are concerned with understanding customer needs and wants. Understanding those will lead to developing customer focused marketing strategy that will create a profitable relationship with customers which is a key to the success of the business. In this strategy, understanding needs, wants and demands of customers is critical.
Human needs, wants and demands are closely related. Humans are the product of a bundle of desires and our wants are infinite. Some of those wants are natural and are the result of our feeling of deprivation. In this case we call them needs. This deprivation can be physical, such as the need for food and water, social, in the need for a sense of belonging to a society and personal in the need to self-expression. Those needs are part of the human makeup and cannot be artificially created.
Wants change with time, place and the individual. It is determined by someone’s culture and personality and therefore wants are not always the same. It is not critical to human’s life but rather complementary. If a want is always satisfied, it becomes a need. When financially we are able to satisfy our wants, those wants become demands.
Regarding the three products we are discussing here, a person suffering from dehydration will need a drink to hydrate, but will want Gatorade. This want is influenced by the constant advertisement of Gatorade whether on TV, radios or in schools and universities. In this situation, the approach will be: I need a drink, but I want Gatorade.
In the case of Nike, a person will need sports shoes but will want Nike. The company markets itself as more than just good athletic gear. It promotes itself as a way of life and as a “Just Do It” culture. This marketing strategy drives customers toward wanting a Nike not any other brand of sports shoes. For people that can afford it, this will become a demand since it gives the sense of importance and raises the status of the person in their environment.
iPod is becoming a need for new generation. Young people are hungry for self-expression and an iPod gives them just that.
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