Question

From a managerial point of view, marketing is about identifying and satisfying customers’ needs. Critics, however, suggest that marketing goes beyond identifying needs but actually creates undesirable needs. For example, critics contend that young women are filled with body image concerns because marketing messages directed at selling products to these women are filled with images of impossibly thin, beautiful women. The underlying message is that there is a link between thinness and popularity and leads young women to strive to live up to artificial stereotypes, and perhaps indulge in destructive eating behaviors. In another example, critics cite examples of marketers advertising $200 sneakers to economically disadvantaged youth who feel that they need to buy those sneakers to feel good about their self-esteem. In the end, they end up spending far more money on expensive sneakers that they really do not need.

What do you think? Does marketing shape consumer needs and wants or does marketing merely reflect the needs and wants of the consumers?

Answer 1

Marketing shapes consumer needs and wants”

As human beings, we all need to eat, drink, breathe, sleep, and need shelter. We all have some needs and wants. Marketing has a strong influence on what the customers buys. Nowadays there are many companies compete each other, because of our needs and wants. They try to satisfy our needs and wants by doing so many ways, example by advertisements, sales promotion, direct marketing, sales promotion, etc.Through Advertisements people are made attracted to products and services or we can say demand for those products and services is crested in their mind.

Marketing merely reflects the needs and wants of consumer”

As customers, we always want quality products, which satisfy our needs and wants. Customers are looking for products and services with best combination of price, quality, and availability. As a human, we are different. There are segmentation by age, gender, nationality, lifestyle, income, and many others segmentation. Marketers provide the goods and services required by consumers.Firms will give importance to producing those goods and services that are most required by customers and it will help in satisfying the needs of customers and also help the firms earn high profits.

Conclusion

According to my view marketing shape consumer needs and wants because the items that consumers need that are necessities, they would buy even if there wasn’t any marketing towards that product. An example of this would be soap, toilet paper, toothbrushes, etc. Even though there are different brands that make these products, consumers would still buy them without any marketing tactics involved. When a consumer sees a product on commercial it was most likely that they do not want it before the commercial was seen. But after the commercial, it makes the consumer want to obtain that product, thus creating an undesirable need. For instance, when the iphone 5s came out, I did not need a new phone. After seeing the commercial for the latest apple product, it made mewant to get that phone even though I did not need one. Since a majority of the people around me has an iphone it made me want to purchase the new phone in order to fit in with the society. Therefore, marketing creates needs and wants for consumers instead of satisfying customers’