Saturday, November 26, 2005

needs can "NOT" be created!!!


We had a debate - "needs can be created", I disagree.
In my opinion there are some needs which are inherent in (almost) all humans, like the need to look good, the need to become faster, stronger, the need of more convenience, the need of love, affection, communication, the need to explore, go places, the need to learn etc.

I strongly believe that products are just made to satisfy these needs. For example - the need to communicate has been satisfied by - sending messengers, having pegions, letters, phone, pagers, mobile & so on - the products keep on changing but the need that they address has always been the same.

Similarly, there are expressed needs & there are unexpressed needs or hidden needs, & what the marketer can do is create products to satisfy the expressed needs & discover & ignite the unexpressed needs, for example - humans have always appreciated music but they were not aware that it can be listened while moving but then Sony invented walkman & the rest is history

One more example is that humans always had the need of capturing life's moments, they made paintings on walls of the caves then one day a company created camera, from then the product has been modified many times to make it easier & better for people to satisfy their need of convenience & capturing life's precious moments & mobile with camera is an extension of company's effort to satisfy the underlying needs of people.

my conclusion is - needs can not be created, they are there inside the humans & marketer's task is to find them convert it into products & satisfy them & constantly improve the products to satisfy them in a better way.
What do you say???