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A marketer may highlight a need but not create it.For example someone is in the dessert and has a few bottles of water left. If they are crossing a very large dessert they will NEED much more than this. A marketer may come along and highlight this problem for them and sell them water long before they themselves would have recognized the need on their own. But the point is the need was always there, it was just hidden.Also take a teenage girl that thinks she NEEDs to look skinny from reading so many magazines. I would call this a WANT although to her it may seem very much like a NEED.Marketing can also of course stimulate a large WANT, e.g. most people want a new iPhone5 but they of course do not NEED it. The underlying need is for a mobile telephone.Many companies go broke because they are trying provide the market something that it neither needs or wants. They then try to fix this with marketing but it is often the product that needs to change to better fit what people really need and want.
We use a number of elements from psychology and neuromarketing too much to explain here. I will tell you that traditional marketing and creating a need no longer hold true.What do people want? Well, last year about2M1/2" drill bits were sold, but nobody that bought a drill bit wanted a drill bit; all of them wanted a1/2" hole. People buy holes; results or changes in lifestyle.We teach our clients that people usually have a critical need for something or that they need to be compelled.When your water heater bursts in the middle of the night and you need a plumber to fix it; that is a compelling need.When you decide to do a bathroom remodel, you have a compelling need; you are calling this a "want."Regardless, the consumer (80% of them) are then making a purchase based on emotion and feelings. (Emotions are different than feelings. Emotions are neutral, think of them like water that can get hot or cold, but the taste never changes. Feelings are like adding flavor and sugar in various degrees that are either pleasing or not pleasing to the taste.) These include things like trust, liking or other things that may impact your desire.Then their is value; which includes things like differentiation and psychological or feature hooks. People tend to leave these decisions until the last.I may have a critical need for a drill bit, the packaging and messaging received may impact your emotion and feelings and finally you may also make judgements on the merits of the product.While I may be able to manipulate your desire to purchase many different ways we are discovering through science that the brain may or may not react as expected and traditional theory on why consumers purchase is being blown out of the water. Influencers such as smell, visual stimulus and many other factors are impacting why a person may purchase and even be subconsciously impacted. --- The result is your actual want or need may be psychologically out of your control.When, in testing, consumers are given specific suggestions and then turned loose in a store with cash, almost all will buy even without a need or want. So, the traditional thought process that says we need to create a need and fill it have now been proven to be absolutely wrong.A salesman can easily create a buying response if they are a good storyteller and create specific emotional responses and feelings in the customer that result in a purchase without either need or want. You buy because you liked the story and feel a relationship with the salesman. This is one of the reasons we know that a face-to-face interaction with the consumer by an expert salesman in almost900% more effective than online marketing.You don't need to gamble, but if I put a lemon scent in the air you are many times more willing to take that risk. I have not created the need to take part in risky behavior. If I flash images at you in a certain order I know that in less than15 seconds I can trigger a response to purchase. When people make a15 minute sales video that drones on about features and benefits of a product and I know that if I make the same sales video I need only a few seconds to make you purchase using selective triggers and the rest is fluff. Those come from testing and research in various fields.Bottom line, no longer are we creating needs for products through old fashioned marketing like it was taught in school. I don't need to give a logical explanation of the product and create a need; I can use other methods to make you purchase and those messages are cemented in the neural patterns of your brain forever.
Yes for example Coke created need for refreshing drink instead of simple water. we all know that was false marketing that can lead to health issues.
if you look at luxury brands marketing they create status that you have to carry to be part of that class.
"Demand or need creation" is a science that comprises human psychology, sociology, anthropology and also deals with the "hidden persuaders - ideas and thoughts, deep inside us, that persuade us to make buying decisions. Without going into details, I can say that marketing communications strategies, based on knowledge of consumer profiles, can certainly create a need!
One tactic that is often used is the concept of "Content Marketing." All the buzz these days, Content Marketing is really just another way of getting information in front of the consumer at the right time, in the right way and at the right stage of the research and buying cycle. Or at least that's what I think. (See more on this at Why Every Small Business Needs to be in the Content Marketing Business).
In the research stage you don’t want to sell – you want to inform and educate. Marketing can uncover a need by creating and distributing thought-provoking content in the form of white papers, webinar content, email marketing, ebooks, and blog posts. They may have analysts write about relevant data and best practices. They may exhibit at tradeshows and demo products that will address the consumers need. And especially in the B2B world, creating a little bit of anxiety by challenging the status quo is a way to create/uncover need (vis-a-visa "The Challenger Sale" for example).
So what do you think? Does marketing create or uncover a need? And what tactics do you use to do it? Let me know below.
Yes of course, marketer can create need. A marketer who understand how to create need can succeed in the market e.g. water which is sold in the market but before12 t15 years it was not sold but need has been created by different approach like filter water, R.O.water and unfiltered water creates this and that disease etc and customer accepted and now it is sold one of the best product in the market, but who thought before15 years that water will be sold and people were not living at that time?
Marketers cannot create needs but they can identify and target the customers to achieve success
Needs are directly related to buying power of consumers and their requirement
So marketers can only increase sales but not needs
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