Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

Can Marketers create needs?

M. Habibur Rahman Tarik

Department of Business Administration
Bangladesh Islami University
Dhaka-Bangladesh

Can Marketers create needs?

Introduction
In increasingly competitive markets, consumers have a greater choice over
where they buy their goods and services. Consumer needs or wants are the
drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. For an organization to meet its
business objectives, it has to find out what consumers require and then
identify the best way in which it can satisfy these needs and wants. Creating
a competitive advantage can be difficult. A unique marketing strategy with
clear

objectives

is

vital

to

ensure

effective

promotional

activity.

Marketing and marketers

Marketing is the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value
to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. Marketing identifies
unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines measures and quantifies the size of
the identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints which segments
the company is capable of serving best and it designs and promotes the
appropriate products and services.
In the 11th edition of Marketing Management, Philip Kotler describes the
most important concepts of marketing in the first chapter.

They are:

segmentation, targeting, positioning, needs, wants, demand, offerings, brands,

value and satisfaction, exchange, transactions, relationships and networks,
marketing channels, supply chain, competition, the marketing environment, and
marketing programs. These terms make up the working vocabulary of the
marketing professional.

Marketings key processes are:

(1) opportunity identification,
(2) new product development,
(3) customer attraction,
(4) customer retention and loyalty building, and
(5) order fulfillment.
A company that handles all of these processes well will normally enjoy
success. But when a company fails at any one of these processes, it will not
survive.
A marketer is a person or company that engages in promoting goods or
services for financial gain. The marketer is tasked with generating customer
interest after surveying the customer's behaviour and attitude towards a
certain product line. Most companies have an in-house marketing department
which takes care of all the publicity needs of the company.
As per definition given by the business dictionary, marketers is `a Person
whose duties include the identification of the goods and services desired by
a set of consumers, as well as the marketing of those goods and services on
behalf of a company.

Need and Want

"Need" is something that is essential for survival like food, water or shelter.
"Want" is something that one doesn't really need, but if he had it, it makes
his life a bit better. Sometimes, the word "need" is exaggerated,

Can Marketer create needs?

It is controversial issue, both those who believe that marketing create needs
and those who believe that marketing does not create needs but only satisfy
it have real examples! The marketing function is to search needs and then
satisfy it! But the issue that some companies create needs, so we should not

call it Marketing, because none of the marketing function is creating needs,

therefore we should call it something else, Someone says it should be called
Ultra Marketing! Or New Marketing!
AS a marketer company cannot create needs because needs are the state of
felt deprivation but it can identify customer needs and create value for them.
The marketing philosopher Philip Kotler says:
Marketers do not create needs: Needs preexist marketers, marketers along
with other societal factors, influence wants. Marketers might promote idea
that Mercedes would satisfy a persons need for social status. They do not,
however, create the need for social status. (Philip Kotler, Marketing
Management: eleventh edition, chapter one, page no.11)
But now a days companies do more! They educate people and give them reason
to buy their products and this is what people might call it creation of needs
people purchase something when they need it, if they think they do not need
the product they may not purchase it. How many people today in Banlgadesh
need I-pod? How many people really need Mobile + Internet + Camera + TV all
in one set? How many people really need to go to space? They dont need it at
all, but they go. Can we call it marketers created their needs?
Creation of need is not the function of marketing, so we should to accept a
more powerful tool than marketing, and we should search how to give it a
suitable name.

Marketers will advertise for items which the consumers seem to be wanting.
These advertisements will make the product seem more important to have
and make the product seem to be a need than a want.
Established firms, it's essential to be able to satisfy the needs of customers.
As they say, a satisfied customer is a profitable one. To be able to satisfy

the customer's needs, the firm thus tries to understand it's customer's
needs and then attempt try to deliver it. On the other hand, new firms or
marketing these
However, Days also attempt to 'create' needs. By doing so, the customer
have a reason to buy the product. The basic reason customers purchase
anything is they need it. However if customers have a perception that they do
not need it, they may not purchase the product. Hence marketing these days
have evolved to create needs for customers. Marketing these days does not
only mean existing customers, which have needs but also non existing
customers, which have no needs.

Conclusion
Since there doesnt seem to be a definitive answer for the question of
creating need by the marketers. We may conclude the issue as under:

Customers and prospects have needs.

Marketing identifies or uncovers those needs through market research

(surveys, focus groups, and competitive analysis).

Then its marketing's job to expose (or exploit?) those needs and
communicate the value of potential solutions.

New product features and benefits help address needs. Emotion then creates
desire (Just look at the company Apple - do we really all "need" an iPad? We
certainly all desire one.)
..