Tag: needs

Do You Really Need That?

Do you?

One of the key things in marketing is to identify and meet the consumers’ needs profitably. However, it is necessary to identify the types of such needs beforehand. Customers have different types of functional, symbolic, and hedonic needs.

To start off, a functional need tends to be the most basic and the simplest need which is required for survival. It motivates the search and purchase of goods which cater to the practical needs and to the consumption-related problems of the consumers. Symbolic needs are related to the way we perceive ourselves or to how we want the others to perceive us. It is a motivator to purchase in order to communicate a certain message about ourselves or to relate to an affinity group. A hedonic need adheres to the sense of pleasure and reflects our inherent desires.  

Brands’ products always try to cater for such different consumers’ needs. They try to appeal to their customers by providing them with the adequate products. This is mostly due to increase the customers’ brand loyalty and to develop positive relationships with them.

Some brands like Harley Davidson build communities around their products in order to appeal to their customers’ needs of belonging to a certain group. Some customers might purchase a product just as a marker of their social status and to signify where they stand in the society. In fact, most of the consumers’ purchases of the luxury goods tend to be due to their hidden desire to actually belong to such affluent groups as discussed in the previous post.   

Purchasing products might be due to a lot of reasons. It is important for each brand to understand their consumers beforehand and the real reasons behind their purchases. This would increase the customers’ retention and their loyalty to the brand as well.

Brands; A Means of Belonging?

Are you willing to stand for hours in line for the brand new IPhone?

Has it ever occurred to you that a brand might provide a sense of belonging? That merely buying a product has a symbolic value or communicates a specific message about you? Well, as it turns out, there are a lot of people who are willing to purchase a product to achieve this very need, the need to belong.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the need of “self-actualisation” resides at the very top of the pyramid. It’s defined as the highest need that a person might strive to achieve after achieving the basic ones such as food and shelter, etc. Brands have certainly become a tool to achieve and to foster such sense of belonging & acceptance.

Most brands have resorted to brand belonging as a method to build communities around them and to create loyal customers. How would we explain the huge crowds of people waiting in line to purchase the new IPhone model? And what would be the reason behind a group of people wanting to purchase a Rolex watch instead of a regular watch which has the exact features? 

 Brands have become a reflection of the person’s personality, attitude, social status, & wealth in the society. Owning a Tesla reflects wealth with a care about the environment, an IPhone shows that you are innovative, and a Rolex shows that you’re affiliated with a wealthy niche in the society. Each brand is managing to build its own community or tribe to forge meaningful connections with its customers.

The products we choose have become a symbol of who we are and what we stand for in our lives. So how much can we really tell about a person through the brands they consume?