Customer Needs

This lesson's working definition comes from OpenStax's Principles of Marketing. In its account of the exchange process, the buyer "has a want or need" and is "willing to pay money or provide other personal resources to satisfy this need or want." So a customer need is a problem to solve or a desire to satisfy: something a person or business lacks and is willing to trade value for. The same text warns that needs are not always easy to read. Some customers have needs they are not fully aware of, and others cannot put their needs into words at all. The American Marketing Association's definition of marketing, "institutions and processes that create, communicate, deliver, and exchange offers carrying value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large," points the same direction: marketing exists because customers have needs that offerings can satisfy. A practical test falls out of this: would the customer trade money, time, or effort to close the gap? If yes, it is a need worth marketing to. OpenStax also separates the buyer from the user: the customer purchases the product, while the consumer uses it, as when a grandmother buys a toy for her grandson.

A need is the essential; a want is the specific form you would like it in. OpenStax's Principles of Marketing makes the same point from the other side: "marketing does not create needs; rather, it opens consumers' eyes to their wants." Hunger is a need; the burrito you choose at lunch is a want. The same need can wear many wants: two commuters both need to get to work, and one wants a monthly bus pass while the other wants a parking spot near the office. In practice the line is blurrier than the definitions suggest, and OpenStax lists five types of customer needs that show why. Stated needs are what the customer asks for, like telling a salesperson you "need a new phone." Real needs are what the request actually means, such as long battery life or a better camera. Unstated needs are what the customer expects but does not say, like good service from the carrier. Delight needs provide the "wow" factor that makes one offer more desirable than another. Secret needs are motives the customer will not admit, such as wanting a phone as a status symbol. The lesson to draw: responding only to the stated need may not satisfy the customer.

A useful way to group needs is by what they are about, and the grouping lines up with the value types OpenStax names when it discusses customer value. Functional needs are about what the product does; OpenStax describes functional value as "what the product does for the customer in terms of solving a particular want or need." A student who needs a backpack that carries a heavy laptop without tearing has a functional need. Emotional needs are about how the buyer wants to feel; OpenStax describes psychological value as how much the product allows the customer to feel better. A new parent who needs to feel calm at the end of a long day has an emotional need. Social needs are about connection; OpenStax describes social value as how much owning the product allows the customer to connect with others. A rider who needs to feel part of the weekend group ride has a social need. Few purchases are purely one kind. A commuter bike is functional because it gets the rider to work, emotional because the ride makes the rider feel free, and social because it keeps the rider in the conversation at the shop. The marketer who designs for all three creates more value than the one who designs for one.

OpenStax's Principles of Marketing is blunt about how hard needs are to read: "some customers have needs of which they're not fully aware; others can't articulate their needs." That is why needs are found rather than assumed. Observation means watching what customers actually do, because what people do often differs from what they say. Conversation means asking, and asking again; OpenStax says the marketer must "probe further" when an answer is vague, such as a customer who asks for an "inexpensive hybrid vehicle." Feedback means reading surveys, reviews, complaints, and returns for what fell short. The SBA's Business Guide names the formal toolkit, surveys, questionnaires, focus groups, and in-depth interviews, and notes that asking consumers yourself gives a nuanced understanding of your target audience; that formal study is market research, which is its own topic in this subject. The honest note is that needs are not fixed. They differ across people, which is why OpenStax says marketers "must increasingly respect individual preferences," and they drift over time as lives, seasons, and trends change, which is why the SBA advises keeping up with current trends. The uncomfortable truth follows: a business that guesses needs guesses wrong often. The fix is not cleverness; it is listening.