Wants and needs are the most confusing words in marketing today. A want is those things that people buy for luxuries, meaning that they can live without them, but they want to get them to make their lives interesting. A good example of a want is a car, whereas people can live without cars, they buy them to determine the kind of lifestyles they desire. On the other hand, a need is what people want for survival, such as food, and people cannot live without it. A need may not be regarded as a need to all the nations, and as much as one country may refer to some things as wants, they can be a need to other countries (Kotler et al., 2015). Besides, social marketing can excellently convert needs to want and build long relationships with their consumers.
Marketers can use social and interactive marketing by realizing the problems associated with needs and then asking the consumers question about the problem and the consequences of the problem as well. By doing so, consumers are given a chance to discover what kind of solution is needed to solve their problem, and this makes them to consider a want over a need. For instance, marketers can use social media to convince the importance of having a laptop or a smartphone as the best weapon to call for assistance during war or misunderstandings, making everyone own a smartphone for security reasons.
The best way to build a long-term relationship is advertising how affordable and efficient the want is in consumers’ lives. Besides, it becomes important to give them the pleasure they want with the product, by showing how safe it is to connect to the internet and alert security personnel on security matters. After realizing a want can serve them efficiently, they demand for it time and time again.
References
Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L., & Armstrong, G. (2015).Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU.
