Marketing Beyond Consumer Demand: Shaping Needs and Wants

Marketing is often perceived as a tool that simply reflects the needs and wants of consumers. However, a more nuanced understanding reveals that marketing actively shapes and influences these very needs and wants. This article explores the different strategies and techniques employed by marketers, from understanding consumer needs to training them into customers.

Understanding Consumer Needs

Marketing begins with the crucial step of researching and understanding what consumers need and want. This involves collecting data through various methods such as surveys, focus groups, and market analysis. By identifying these needs, businesses can tailor their products and services to better meet consumer demands.

For instance, a company might discover through surveys that a significant portion of its target demographic is seeking healthier alternatives to their current snacks. This insight can lead the company to develop new, healthier products that address this specific need, thereby enhancing their market position.

Creating Demand and Influence Perceptions

Marketing strategies go beyond merely understanding needs. They often aim to create or enhance demand for a product by highlighting features, benefits, or emotional appeals that consumers may not have previously considered. Advertising can position a product as a solution to a problem or a means of enhancing lifestyle. Through branding and messaging, marketers can shape how consumers perceive a product or service.

For example, a luxury car brand might use storytelling to create an image of elegance and sophistication, making the car seem not just a means of transportation but a symbol of high status and lifestyle. This emotional connection can drive demand and influence perceptions beyond what a simple product description could achieve.

Trends and Innovations

Marketers also play a crucial role in identifying emerging trends and consumer behaviors. These insights can lead to the development of new products or services that consumers may not have explicitly requested but find appealing once introduced. Stay-at-home culture, for instance, led to a boom in smart home technologies and video conferencing solutions.

Feedback Loop: Two-Way Engagement

Effective marketing creates a dynamic feedback loop where consumer responses inform future marketing strategies and product development. This two-way engagement ensures that marketing is not just a one-way reflection of consumer needs but a collaborative process that continuously shapes and refines those needs and wants.

In summary, while marketing does reflect consumer needs and wants, it also actively shapes them through various strategies and techniques, demonstrating that marketing is not merely a reactive process but a proactive one.

The Two Approaches to Marketing

There are two fundamental approaches to marketing and sales: 'chasing the customer' and 'training the customer.' Approach one involves working with a fixed product and letting consumer demand dictate the supply. However, this can artificially limit one's audience and does not maximize potential.

Approach two involves training the customer, a strategy I learned from my pickup artist friends. This approach posits that everyone can be a potential customer and that marketing should be strategic and entertaining. Steps include:

1. Great Promotion

Effective promotion should entertain the entire potential audience, not just the target market. Humor can be a powerful tool in cross-promotion. For instance, a Chik Fil-A sign might be placed in high-profile locations, such as an airport or bus stop, to capture the attention of a diverse audience.

2. Strategic Placement

Placement of marketing material should be strategic and engaging. For example, a television show like Ted Lasso using an iPhone in the series demonstrates the usage of the phone as a part of the storyline, making it an entertaining and engaging experience for the audience.

3. Product Illusion

The product itself should be designed to create an illusion that addresses the customer's needs, wants, and desires. For instance, a tech company might launch a new smartphone with features that appeal to various segments of the market, from smartphone enthusiasts to first-time users.

4. Price and Cost Management

The price of a product should be managed by the company, not the marketer. Marketers should focus on promoting the product and developing a story that makes the customer want and need it. Pricing should be fair and based on market value, not arbitrary decisions that can harm the business.

In conclusion, while marketing reflects consumer needs and wants, it also actively shapes them through strategic and entertaining approaches. By understanding and training customers, marketers can create a more engaging and dynamic relationship between the product and the consumer, leading to greater success and satisfaction.