In the middle of a meeting for a marketing team someone shout “we need to create customers need”
Wait, “Create a customer need?! How come!
Of course that you have listened to Cold play’s song “Fix You”, in this song Chris Martin “the lead vocalist” says that “When you try your best, but you don’t succeed, when you get what you want, but not what you need”
Hang on a second! “Get what you want, not what you need”?! What is the difference?
For a decade, marketers think that what people want is what they need, actually it’s wrong.
If we want to describe the word “need” it will be “felt of deprivation”, it’s a human nature such as hunger.
A need could be physical needs such as food, social need such as belonging or individual need such as knowledge.
If we want to describe “Want” it will be “A need that depends on culture or personality”.
Let’s take an example, if an Egyptian guy is feeling hungry and he has two options to eat, first one Egyptian food and the second one is Chinese food, so:
The need: Hunger “Human nature”
The want depends on culture: Egyptian food.
The want depends on personality: Chinese food.
So, should the marketer focus on need or want?
The marketing process starts with marketing research to know the marketplace, needs and wants, then marketing strategy and planning to decide how to reach these customers, then marketing communications to communicate with the target segmentation such as advertising, at the last stage in the marketing process is to capture value in return.
So, the marketing research department should focus on need and want, and the marketing communications should focus on want and demand.
What is demand?
It’s a want based on purchasing power.
So, the last step in the marketing process “Capture value in return” should focus on demand “people who have the power of buying”.
What do you think when someone in the marketing department told you “We will create need”?