Is it a Want or a Need?
by heathercrawford ~ September 23rd, 2010. Filed under: Comm 101.In the material world we hear a lot of I WANT this and I NEED that. We automatically categorize want and need as the same thing, however they are not interchangeable in the business world. A want is something you desire, in economics this is called quantity demanded. It includes you’re willingness to buy goods dependent on price. Even though you may want to purchase an item that does not dictate if you will actually buy the item. For instance, to live human beings need water and food. Your life is not dependent that you buy a new car or those cute pair of high heels. A need is a requirement, but how do we define requirements? We have choice as to how we satisfy our wants, but do we have choice as to how we satisfy our needs? Marketers have the opportunity to influence how to satisfy both our wants and our needs. By creating barriers of confusion marketers are able to influence our selectiveness in the decisions we make. Their way of selling and branding a product can entice you to feel like you need to have the certain product, therefore creating a desire to want the item.
