Physiological Needs In Marketing

1490 Words6 Pages

Although need concept is not a new concept and maybe has a record as long as human life, but it has been introduced in marketing on early 60s for the first time. Theodore
Levitt published an article under the title of “Marketing myopia” in 1960, argued that the product which meets customer needs will be more successful. Marketing Myopia suggested that businesses will do better in the end if they concentrate on meeting customers’ needs rather than on product (Levitt, 1960).
Since then, the concept of need became one of the key concepts of marketing. Some philosophers have denied “need” because they believe it has contradictory with human independency. They argue accepting the existence of need implies human being for achieving perfection is …show more content…

We answer a human being doesn’t have just physiological needs.
Rather have psychological needs. What make some product or brands successful in the market is psychological needs not merely physiological ones.
Herein, what we mean by physiological needs differs from economic theories. We considered customer physiological need as what referred to functional role of product.
In economic literature physiological needs interpreted as food, clothing and shelter. But in this article, our purpose is what a product serves primarily. For instance, the physiological role of a car is transportation. We know transportation as physiological need of a customer that a car can satisfy it. Levitt concentrated on this level of customer need. But with increasing competition, entering new brands and rivals to the market, and innovation, psychological needs became more important. In fact, the core product of different brand was relatively same so what make the brands different referred to factors that related to psychological needs. In this paper, we are going to show that there are two paradigms in customer need which have shifted from physiological …show more content…

(Abratt, 1989; Albert, S, Whetten, 1985;
Balmer, 1998; Bernstein, 1984; Gioia, D. A., Schultz, M. and Corley, 2000; Hatch, M.
J. , Schultz, 1997)
The researches about identity image and reputation in marketing and management have considered the marketing from company view not customer. So need concept has not been highlighted in these researches. But from the customer side has an important meaning which related to his needs: security. Have a good record and history as identity, image and reputation implies trust for the customer. Individuals need to be sure that what they buy, endure as they expect and afraid of being cheated. The most convenient way to achieve it, is to buy a product that have a distinct identity and good image and reputation in the market.
1.1.3 Psychological paradigm
1.1.3.1 Individual view
In individual view, psychological factors are engaged to satisfy customer needs but this is an inner process. It means need satisfaction takes place internally. The criteria for assessing a brand and assessment of need satisfaction are psychological and subjective.
In 1985, personality theory has been entered into the business atmosphere. Brand personality has evolved based on personality theory in psychology. Personality

Open Document