The wants, needs, demands, and desires are quite closely related. However, we should look at their differences and how it impacts marketing. This is a seemingly simple concept. However, these subtle differences could help you understand some unique market situations. For example, McDonald’s is seen as a fast-food chain in the United States. However, it is just seen as a luxury brand in countries like China and India. Another example is that of Apple. Apple takes a lion’s share of around 92% of the total smartphone profits the just 20% share in the sales. Let us find out how!
What are ‘needs’?
Although we don’t put that much thought into how we decide about things. There are a lot of calculations going on inside the back of our heads. Specifically, let’s talk about the decision-making process for any purchase.
Just think about the moment when you decided to buy something. Where did it start? Usually, these processes start with a need. At the most basic level, we’re trying to satisfy ourselves. If there is some reason, we feel unsatisfied, we try to resolve it. If the state of dissatisfaction is due to the absence of something, we tried to get access to it. For instance, Let’s say that you’re hungry. This is a state of dissatisfaction that can be fulfilled by eating. Therefore, we can say that you need food.
However, it is not necessary to always get access to something to solve dissatisfaction. One of the ways of resolving it is to internalize our limitations. We make ourselves understand why we would not get it. For example, let’s say that you are fasting as a part of your diet. There would still be a need for food in your body. Your body craves food as it is totally natural. However, you have rationalized the process of fasting. Therefore, when you feel hungry, you tell yourselves that it’s for your own good.
The types of needs
There are five basic types of needs. Let us look at them one by one.
- Physiological needs.
- Safety needs.
- Personal needs.
- Social needs.
- Ego needs.
The most basic type of needs is physical needs. Physical needs are primarily driven by survival. Examples of physical needs are housing, clothing, nourishment. When we have fulfilled our physiological needs, then we have to fulfill other needs. Second, the most important need is safety needs. When we talk about safety, we are talking about our physical safety.
Subsequently, we come to the personal needs. Personal needs help us enjoy life better. Under these type of needs we have the freedom of expressing ourselves. Under this need, we also have other fundamental rights provided to us by our constitution. Fourthly, we talk about the social needs. Social needs are those needs that help us live in a society. We want to fulfill these needs in order to have a better quality of life. Last but not the least, we have the ego needs. Satisfaction of the ego needs help us feel better as it enhances our position in the society. We also feel better because it enhances our self image.
Wants
One of the ways to define wants is that ‘they are satisfiers of needs’. In other words, wants are specific ways to satisfy a need. For example, if you’re hungry, then your need is food. However. the way you satisfy the hunger could be a burger, a Spanakopita(a Greek snack), a Dosa(Indian snack), or Gimbap(Korean delicacy)! Thereby a burger becomes a ‘want.’ There’s another way to different needs and wants. The needs are usually internal to the person. They can be subconscious. On the other hand, the warrants are usually external to the person. A person is much more aware of the wants than they are of the needs.
An ethical issue in marketing is that of created wants. Usually, the wants are created from the needs. As we have discussed, that needs are spontaneously created. No one can force us to be hungry. However, there is a raging debate about falsely placed needs. One such area is that of technological needs. Research shows that technology has a role in blurring the line between wants and needs. For instance, do you really need that $1500 phone? Just think about it.
Marketing implications of the wants
It is the job of the marketer to understand what the customer wants. However, this work is not as easy as it seems. Firstly, the wants of the customers could be unlimited. For instance, a customer may want the all best feature possible in the product. Secondly, the customers may be looking for a very high value for the price they are ready to pay. This could create an undue pressure on the firms to provide products at a lower price even at the cost of quality.
Demand
Now let us look at how the demand fits into the picture of wants, needs, demands, and desires. We have defined wants as specific ways of fulfilling the needs. Similarly, we have to define demand as the wants for specific products. For instance, our need may be hunger, the want may be to have a burger. Consequently, we may demand a burger from McDonald’s. Now let us look at the formal definition of demand.
“Demands are specific ones for products backed by a willingness to pay and purchasing power for the same”
As a marketing manager, we can measure the demand from the data from the sales department. When a product sells more than your previous period, then we say that there is a higher demand for this. Similarly, when a product sells less than the previous period, then we say there is less demand. Alternatively, we can also say that there is less demand for the product. We can also compare demand with respect to the products provided by the competitor firms.
Types of demands
We can broadly classified demands into two types based upon their specificity:
- Primary demand
- Secondary demand
Primary demand can be thought of as the aggregate demand for some kind of consumer need. For instance, the total demand for biscuits could be the tons of biscuits sold in a region every month. When a new firm enters the market, it can do market research regarding the demand. The data that it receives would be the primary demand for the product. Similarly, when a firm does competitor analysis, it is more interested in the primary demand.
On the other hand, the secondary demand signifies the demand for a specific brand’s product. An example of this step of demand will be the total demand for the Oreo Biscuits. Here we know that we are talking about a specific biscuit brand.
Marketing implications of the demand
Demand is a very important concept in marketing. We had opened this article with an example from Apple Inc. Now let us discuss how they created the demand for their products using simple concepts of wants, needs, and demands. Firstly, Apple, under Steve Jobs put in a lot of effort to differentiate itself. This differentiation creates a brand name. The product design, its usability, and the unique features it stands out from the competition. Therefore, there is a very high secondary demand for Apple products in the market. Also, there is an interaction effect between the demand and the price of a product. Generally, products that have higher demand can be priced higher. This gives Apple an advantage in profitability. This is because they can price their products higher and still have minimal impact on the demand. Subsequently, Apple generated a 92% revenue share from just 20% sales.
Desires
In the simplest sense, the desire for a product is the craving that we may have for it. For example, when we long for an ice cream, we’re having a desire for it. The next question we can ask how is it different from wants, needs, and demand? A need is internal to the consumer, created due to some dissatisfaction or problem. On the other hand, want is a way of fulfilling the need. Demand is a specific product we want. However, desire is an emotion. It is closest in a way to needs. Usually, personal, social, and ego needs can be desires. However, there are some differences between needs and desires:
- Usually, desires are for something not easily available. The needs that have found some wants but could not become demands, will end up becoming a desire. For example, for hundreds of millions of Indians and Chinese who cannot afford to eat often at McDonald’s, it creates a desire. There is an aspect of desire to adopt the western culture that makes this brand an upmarket brand in these countries. On the other hand, in the United States, it is McD is a fast-food brand.
- Desires are more stable over time. You may need food when you are hungry. One day you may want to eat a dish and another day, you want to eat something else. However, your desire to have a meal at a coveted exotic restaurant would stay with you for long.
- Thirdly, unlike needs, we can create desires for a product. Marketing managers can stimulate desire by-product communication, promotion, or ads. Read more about product strategy in the marketing mix. At the same time, desire can also be done on other Ps of marketing. For example, we can use retailing to enhance the desire for a product through proper store design, lighting, music, etc.
Wants Needs Demands & Desires: key takeaway
The key takeaway is that best marketers understand the differences between wants needs demands and desires. They leverage this to market their products and services to their customers.