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False needs analysis essay

Hoyer and Macinnis define the need as an internal state of tension caused by disequilibrium from an ideal/desired physical or psychological state. This tension leads to some outcomes that are necessary to serve the need. In other perspective, needs lead to certain goals which can be described as an outcome that one would like to achieve. It is hard to distinguish needs from wants because the line between these two is not clear. In order to survive, humans only need a certain amount of products and services or basic needs, whereas everything else could be defined as a want.

However, depending on different social, economic and cultural status and personal beliefs, values, lifestyle the needs can differ as the importance of other than basic needs increases. What is more, different goals might be set in order to satisfy the same needs and different products or services might represent the same need. With the development of marketing, the “ seller’s market” has transferred to “ buyer’s market”. In old days, customers’ needs decided what the market looks like; however, nowadays, large proportion of market is organized by the marketers.

In brief, it’s “ customers should buy what we offered”. As a result, false needs appear. Marcuse describes false needs as, “ needs that are superimposed upon the individual by particular social interests in his repression: the needs that perpetuate toil, aggressiveness, misery, and injustice” (Marcuse 5). He hold the critical views that the satisfaction of false needs might make the individual “ euphoria in unhappiness” since the needs are predetermined and controlled by external forces but rather imposed upon him/her as satisfactory.

False needs form in the shadows, when customers are not really conscious of the process. Marketers creating false needs and selling the products those consumers actually do not need. That because the needs are objects of desire. From another aspect, as goals can be divided into concrete goals or abstract goals, it may approve opportunities to marketers to create false needs. Abstract goal of customers can be “ healthy body” or “ happy life”, which are not concrete goals or needs to pursue certain things.

In that case, marketers have chances to offer them products which they consider can be used to achieve their abstract goals. In fact, sometimes the products don’t work or even the goals are impossible to reach. The false needs products are always communicated or advertised in a rhetorical excess way that contributes them to be necessities rather than just wishes to own them. In many cases, they are described as they would serve particular needs, but they actually do not. Types of false needs Needs could be categorized as physiological, safety, social, egoistic, and self-actualization needs.

Another way to categorize is social and nonsocial (according to relation to other individuals) or as functional (solves consumption-related problems), symbolic (related to sense of self) and hedonic (related to stimuli). False needs exist in every type of them. Physiological needs are the basic needs of an individual that are needed in order for him/her to survive. But functional food is a specific need, it is a food where a new ingredient(s) has been added to a food and the new product has an additional function (often one related to health-promotion or disease prevention).

Although, most customers can get enough vitamins, minerals and other elements through the food and even overconsumption of them might lead to various diseases. These products are advertised so heavy, that people actually start to think about them as a part of their physiological needs, and then it becomes a necessity (a need for dietary supplements). In another word, functional food is a kind of psychological suggestion, and the need of them is a false need. But indeed, their marketers created a successful market since customers want safety and physical well-being after they have achieved beyond a basic living standard.

People want to be safe, if accidents happen, they want to remedy. However, some of the insurances are made under false assumptions and become false needs. One of the insurances provided is flight insurance. This is type of insurance that pays benefits in for loss of life or serious injury while on the aircraft. However, the possibility to get into plane crash is 1 to 11 million and it is an extreme possibility that your life and health insurance will pay you off. Flight life insurances became popular after the 9/11 attack and are based on false assumption by some customers that plane travel is dangerous.

The need of customers, who buys such insurance, is to secure the financial situation of them and their relatives; however, flight insurance clearly fails to satisfy this need. Steve Jobs once said: “ people don’t know what they need until you show it to them. ” As in the past years industrial and technological revolution made it possible for more and more people to satisfy their basic and security needs, customers start to attain higher class products. This led to positive invention emerging in the variety of new products created by the business and the marketers.

Smart phone is becoming one of the most practical and efficient tools for communication and connection of individuals. Obviously, the reason why smart phone gain such huge success is because it adapts to the trend of social development and the changing demand of consumers. At first phones served the social need to make socializing easier. Now various additional functions made them better and phones can help to satisfy various needs, from finding restaurants to playing online games, even to self-actualization by updating your blog every day. The more needs are served the more needs appear.

In fact, many of those needs are false needs. The availability of all the modern products to most of the individuals created a different need – the need for individualization and exclusivity. Equipments and service for cars, different color cases for phones, design offers for everything – they make products unique and a part of prestige. However, even cars made of silver as a mirror or islands made as a summer-house, they are false needs. Marketers came up with various solutions for people who need to serve their egoistic and self-actualization needs.

Implementation of false needs There are several characteristics of goals and needs that marketers should take into account when developing new products. Introducing new needs might be a successful way to increase the sales of the product; however existing needs should also be taken into account when developing new products. False needs also follow these disciplines. Firstly, all the needs are dynamic. That means that needs are never fully satisfied and as soon as we satisfy one need, others emerge. It is a self-perpetuating cycle.

Marketers who develop successful false needs either introduce new needs or avoid the conflict with already developed products which satisfy the same need. Once upon a time, people had clocks, whose basic function is to know the time. Marketers faced a challenge how to create new needs for this product as mobile phones were able to provide same function and even more. That is how clocks became extremely accurate and lots of them do not need a battery. Furthermore, watches have become a kind of style and serve the accomplishment needs. On another hand, new products appeals to multiple various needs and goals.

Marketer have offered and satisfied consumers’ versatile needs and goals, even some needs are additive needs which are false needs. For instance, iPhone, which meets the demands of communication and connection of people and satisfy the functional, symbolic and hedonic needs of individuals at the same time, and it also serves both the social and nonsocial aspects as well. Also needs exist in hierarchy and that means that some needs are more important than others. With the development of the society and the influence of commerce, people’s view to life and value has changed a lot, especially among young person.

The hierarchy of needs also changed, that provides opportunities to false needs. In turn, false needs promote the change of hierarchy. Some teenage believes that the need of a game machine is beyond the need of food, they prefer to spend living expenses for such kinds of needs which they don’t need actually. Marketers are able to observe the market trend and make the right decisions to produce and promote new products, especially use the power of advertising and mass media. Another way to develop false needs is arousing the need for the product internally and externally.

Plenty amount of marketing strategies are based on making connection and building relationship between the product/brand with consumers, making consumers think that they are involved. For example, some ads, logos or brand images make individuals match those with their self-concept or goals. Specific segmentation based on needs and goals make marketers invent new products and service more efficiently. With the focusing on the certain group, digging consumers’ features, marketers can tailor new products, needs and even goals to fit them perfectly.

For example, there is whole grain breakfast for people who pursuit a healthy body; there are customized cars in each price stage. The more segmentation of false needs marketers created, the more chances customers adopted them. False needs also can conflict, by making product part of a fashion or trend marketers can make it even more popular and avoid the product conflicting with personal beliefs or goals. As more and more people are concerned about environment, the need to be environmentally friendly is part of a trend and public belief.

That means that even though some people think that fast powerful gasoline cars are the way of their style and self-esteem they might consider using electric car instead. That is a part of approach-avoidance conflict. Marketers can make sure their false needs products are less avoidable or more approachable than other products and the need for the product does not conflict with other needs. Some needs are created in a way that even though they are not necessarily suited to other needs, they develop a new and unique need. Credit cards are part of consumers’ lives and though it might fail to serve the goal of save money.

A need to consume was created by many marketers in different sectors and credit cards just give them a chance to spend more. Hence an avoidance-avoidance conflict is created here and customers both want to avoid “ no money” and avoid debt. Thus, the need to have a credit card appears and being in debt seems as a better option than being short on cash and the need to consume is also satisfied this way. However when inventing a new need or product, marketers are easily falling for their subjective-oriented thoughts and neglecting the deep research about the real market situation, competitors and consumers.

As a result, the company which plan to develop and invent new needs usually own an advanced R&D department, leading it to the pure pursuit of high tech and unique creation. When marketers introducing new products, they must make sure that the need they are creating is truly unique and other products are not as strong as theirs in satisfying those needs. In addition, an excellent communication department is also important, as to convince customers to form these false needs. Conclusion The prime reason the false needs exits is that they make profits.

In many aspects, false needs are regards as immoral and unhealthy commercial activities. To some extent, false needs create resources waste, environment pollution, abnormal value and excessive competition. Marketers are also accused of creating these kinds of needs. Nevertheless, the result of successful false needs is that customers accepted them and consume them; it is an inescapable outcome during the development of market. At the same time, the false needs, together with goods, advertising and media, establish the social prosperity and material civilization.

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