It is any good service or idea that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or need

In marketing, satisfying customer needs and wants is the easiest way to increase profits and sell more products and services. The definition of desire in marketing is finding what the consumer is longing for and needing. Marketing strategies look to fulfill different needs to get the consumer to buy the product. Often several needs are fulfilled at the same time to build stronger client satisfaction. The following consumer needs examples illustrate the desires that buyers have and what key points marketing strategies should target.

Fulfill Consumer Need

Fulfilling the consumer needs start with understanding what your product does and how it helps people. Taking the time to fully research and understand how you help consumers is the best way to properly target marketing campaigns. Proper targeting generates the best sales results. Consumers fall into what is referred to as the "Awareness Pyramid" with people at the base of the pyramid unaware of their need or your product. As people move up the pyramid, they understand more about how your problem solves the need.

The better you can target those at the top of the pyramid, the higher your sales conversions become because your product directly solves what the person wants immediately. For example, a person who doesn't have back pain is at the bottom of the awareness pyramid while someone with a serious injury is at the top and a likely candidate to buy chiropractic services.

Adding Value With Inclusions

Consumers may have more than one need or have a need plus a desire. This is where adding inclusions with the initial sale help to give consumers more bang for their buck. The strength of the sale is solidified with other offerings. Inclusions could be any number of things. For example, a car wash could include a free interior vacuuming with every sale. It's an inclusion that gives the consumer a better final experience while still fulfilling the need of getting the car clean. Sometimes inclusions are discounts for additional purchases at that time or on the next purchase.

Optional Pricing Structure

Everyone wants to get the best possible price for anything they buy. This is human nature. In some cases, lower pricing solves the need of the buyer. But pricing structures can solve a variety of needs even if the actual cost isn't reduced. For example, a child needs braces but the parent is unable to afford orthodontics. A payment schedule could solve the need of the parent's budget while solving the need of the child dental issues. The orthodontist doesn't need to lower the price of the service, and in fact, can add on a fee for the financing.

Ease of Use

Providing convenience and ease of use is a significant solution offered in today's marketing strategies. While having a product that is easy to use is beneficial and helps sell the product, how the order is delivered is a key consideration for many consumers. Being able to buy groceries online and have them delivered is a convenience that may also solve the need for a senior citizen who is unable to rely on transportation to go to the store.

The idea of making the purchase easy for the consumer goes a long way toward generating higher sales. New marketing tactics for auto sales involve companies that take the salesman and his manager out of the process, eliminating arduous negotiating. This makes the entire experience of buying a car more convenient and pleasant for many people.

Build a Relationship

Many customers choose to do business with companies that they feel "know them." Consumers who choose to deal with brick and mortar companies often do so because they don't want to feel like a number. These are relationship seekers who want to walk in and conduct business without having to explain everything every time. Small insurance agencies and credit unions take this approach to compete with the big conglomerates that have too many customers to keep track of. Even online companies are working to improve the relationship experience of consumers who want to feel like the company cares about them.

Learning Objectives

• Explain how the marketplace addresses customer wants and needs by creating opportunities for the exchange of products, services, and experiences
• Describe the role marketing plays in facilitating the exchange of value

What Is Marketing?

Marketing is a set of activities related to creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for others. In business, the function of marketing is to bring value to customers, whom the business seeks to identify, satisfy, and retain. This course will emphasize the role of marketing in business, but many of the concepts will apply to non-profit organizations, advocacy campaigns, and other activities aimed at influencing perceptions and behavior.

The Art of the Exchange

In marketing, the act of obtaining a desired object from someone by offering something of value in return is called the exchange process. The exchange involves:

• the customer (or buyer): a person or organization with a want or need who is willing to give money or some other personal resource to address this need
• the product: a physical good, a service, experience or idea designed to fill the customer’s want or need
• the provider (or seller): the company or organization offering a need-satisfying thing, which may be a product, service, experience or idea
• the transaction: the terms around which both parties agree to trade value-for-value (most often, money for product)

Individuals on both sides try to maximize rewards and minimize costs in their transactions, in order to gain the most profitable outcomes. Ideally, everyone achieves a satisfactory level of reward.

Marketing creates the goods and services that the company offers at a price to its customers. The entire bundle consists of a tangible good, an intangible service, and the price is the company’s offering. When you compare one car to another, for example, you can evaluate each of these dimensions—the tangible, the intangible, and the price—separately. However, you can’t buy one manufacturer’s car, another manufacturer’s service, and a third manufacturer’s price when you actually make a choice. Together, the three make up a single firm’s offer.

Marketing is also responsible for the entire environment in which this exchange of value takes place. Marketing identifies customers, their needs, and how much value they place on getting those needs addressed. Marketing informs the design of the product to ensure it meets customer needs and provides value proportional to what it costs. Marketing is responsible for communicating with customers about products, explaining who is offering them and why they are desirable. Marketing is also responsible for listening to customers and communicating back to the provider about how well they are satisfying customer needs and opportunities for improvement. Marketing shapes the location and terms of the transaction, as well as the experience customers have after the product is delivered.

Marketing Creates Value for Customers

According to the influential economist and Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt, the purpose of all business is to “find and keep customers.” Marketing is instrumental to helping businesses achieve this purpose. It’s a way of thinking about business, rather than just a collection of techniques. It’s much more than just advertising and selling stuff and collecting money. Marketing generates value by creating the connections between people and products, customers and companies.

How does this happen? Boiled down to its essence, the role of marketing is to identify, satisfy, and retain customers.

Before you can create anything of value, first you must identify a want or need that you can address, as well as the prospective customers who possess this want or need.

Next, you work to satisfy these customers by delivering a product or service that addresses these needs at the time customers want it. Key to customer satisfaction is making sure everyone feels they benefit from the exchange. Your customer is happy with the value they get for what they pay. You are happy with the payment you receive in exchange for what you provide.

Effective marketing doesn’t stop there. It also needs to retain customers by creating new opportunities to win customer loyalty and business.

As you will learn in this course, marketing encompasses a variety of activities focused on accomplishing these objectives. How companies approach and conduct day-to-day marketing activities varies widely. For many large, highly visible companies, such as Disney-ABC, Proctor & Gamble, Sony, and Toyota, marketing represents a major expenditure. Such companies rely on effective marketing for business success, and this dependence is reflected in their organizational strategies, budget, and operations. Conversely, for other organizations, particularly those in highly regulated or less competitive industries such as utilities, social services, medical care, or businesses providing one-of-a-kind products, marketing may be much less visible. It could even be as simple as a Web site or an informational brochure.

There is no one model that guarantees marketing success. Effective marketing may be very expensive, or it may cost next to nothing. What marketing must do in all cases is to help the organization identify, satisfy, and retain customers. Regardless of size or complexity, a marketing program is worth the costs only if it facilitates the organization’s ability to reach its goals.

Check Your Understanding

Answer the question(s) below to see how well you understand the topics covered in this outcome. This short quiz does not count toward your grade in the class, and you can retake it an unlimited number of times.

Use this quiz to check your understanding and decide whether to (1) study the previous section further or (2) move on to the next section.

What is anything that can be offered in the market to satisfy a want or need of the customer that may be tangible or intangible?

How do you satisfy customer needs in marketing?

What is the best way to market a product or service?

What does the customer want from the product/service what needs does it satisfy?