Need vs Want Essay

There are N number of products under various categories in the market. But how many of them are successful is a fact that needs to be analyzed. The customer can view only the end product. But the actual fact behind the success of the product is invisible to the customer. One of the most important factors that lead to the success of the product is Marketing. The term marketing revolves around three basic principles –â€Å"Needs, wants and demands†. It is very important to understand the difference among the three before identifying the needs and wants of our examples Mountain dew, Nike shoes and IPod. Needs: Human needs are basic requirements Human needs are the basic requirements and include food clothing and shelter. Wants: Wants are a step ahead of needs and are largely dependent on the needs of the human beings. For example, you may want chocolates but the basic need is food. Demands: A step ahead of wants is demands. When an individual wants something which is premium, but he also has the ability to buy it, then these wants are converted to demands. Having understood the difference among needs wants and demands, let us analyze the Needs versus Wants of Mountain Dew, Nike Shoes and IPod. A product becomes successful when the customer is attracted by it. The first striking feature is how the product is presented. The attractive green color label and the name of the product scores rightly. Added to it, it is marketed by famous film stars like Salman Khan and Mahesh Babu. This advertising factor alone will drive people to buy Mountain Dew. The customer’s basic need here in this context would be a drink which has good taste, which is small and affordable, which has the reasonable quality for the money that he pays. This need factor is changed to want when this product is visually appealing and instigates one to buy this product. This appeal is created by the label, logo and the advertisement as stated earlier. Branded products are the most wanted in the market at any given point in time. But one has to understand that the brand got established in the market with its quality. Nike is an example of such a top range product which has the skill to meet the customer wants and needs. The customer’s need of shoes aligns to a point where he gets the much wanted comfort. Nike will be the first choice as the name itself serves as the guarantee. There are variety of designs and features across the product balancing the comfort factor as well. They help enhance the physical strength by best enabling the body, perform its best while exercising and jogging. The world’s best athletes who represent in Olympics go for Nike. This exemplifies the quality and the comfort which fulfils the wants of the customer. Yet again Nike fulfils the customer’s needs being comfortable and affordable, wants being fashionable and varieties to choose from. The customer feels great and proud to use the product because the shoes not only reflect one’s reputation but also prove to be appealing and performing. The factors discussed for the above two products holds good for IPods as well. Apple product holds the highest brand value in the world market. The company was a pioneer in introducing a device which is small, compact and portable yet offers mobile on the go music. Music addicts’ and lovers’ needs were rightly understood and thus the product made a history in its reputation and sales. An individual who wants to stay connected to music would need a quality device which enables him or her listen to music. Besides meeting this common expectation, Apple made listening to music interesting but adding its own flavor of brand, quality, style and varieties. The product comes in so many customized fashions that everyone would have one to choose from. The wide range of products like iPod shuffle, iPod nano, iPod mini, iPod touch, iPod shuffle etc, it satisfies a wide range of customers form different categories as well. Not just the product, even the accessories are so stylish and they serve multipurpose apart from music that people would want to buy an iPod in their lifetime once. Such needs and wants of the customers made the company grow beyond just meeting the customer’s expectation and come with new features every time. All these summarize and narrow down to the fact that for a company to be successful and to survive in the market race for a longer time maintaining its reputation and quality, it has to always be able to meet the needs of the customers, which are the basic requirement of the product like purpose, quality and affordability, and wants of the customers, which would reflect their personality, style, pride and reputation. Ultimately the customer decides if he or she buys the product. In order to convince the customer buy the product, there has to be the perfect balance of the needs and wants requirements. All the three example companies have understood this basic principle and have made a perfect blend of the requirements to offer the best product to the customer. When a customer is impressed with a product, he or she establishes a bond to the company which cannot be broken than easily. Both the company and the customers are mutually benefitted by this. Company makes profit and the custom er is happy!!!