Consumer and Needs Research

All activities of the organization are primarily aimed at meeting the needs of the target audience. The purchasers of an enterprise can be individuals and families, as well as other companies. Each of the company’s clients uses the acquired characteristics and properties of the product to satisfy their own needs, whether it be the consumption of a product for personal purposes or the purchase of it for resale or use in the production of other goods.
The concepts of needs and requirements. Needs theory
To understand consumer motivation, one should consider the meanings of the concepts of need and need.
The need is a feeling of discomfort, not associated with a lack of any particular product or item. Sometimes the need is a state in which you do not want to lose already existing benefits.
The need comes after the need becomes objective, and the person realizes what kind of goods he lacks to attain peace of mind and balance.
J.M. Keynes divides needs into relative and absolute. Relative needs appear simultaneously with the desire to assert themselves, to be no worse than others, to gain some advantage. Such needs are inherent to people with middle and high income. Absolute needs are paramount and appear regardless of the thoughts and material wealth of people. Absolute needs are manifested in the desire to meet the physiological needs that occur periodically in each person.
A. Maslow developed a hierarchical theory of needs, within which basic needs were concentrated, concentrated in the form of a pyramid, illustrated in the figure.
Consumer and Needs Research
As can be seen from the figure, the first two levels of needs are basic. Such needs include hunger, thirst, housing needs and stability. Physiological needs are the most basic and paramount. After satisfaction, they fade into the background and give way to the need for comfort and safety. The first two levels of needs are called innate. They are inherent in all people.
The next three levels of need come after basic needs are met.
Social needs are caused by the need of people to unite in groups and communicate with each other.
The need for respect is due to inner arrogance and the demands of others around the same assessment of their own actions and personality.
The needs for self-realization and self-expression are the highest level of the pyramid and represent the individual’s need to attain some position in society at the expense of their unique abilities.
These needs are called acquired and depend on the nature, social environment, income level, position in society.
Each product offering acting on the market is able to satisfy one or another need. In this regard, consumers view the product as a set of certain properties and characteristics that have customer value. Moreover, the consumer value or utility of the product has its own level of significance for each client. There are cumulative and marginal utility.
The cumulative utility is assessed after the consumer consumes all the goods offered to him.
Marginal utility is characterized by the degree of satisfaction that arises after consuming the last unit of production.
In this connection, the law of diminishing marginal utility works, which states that each next consumed unit of goods brings the consumer less satisfaction than the previous one.
Consumer concept and consumer classification
Studying consumers and needs As a consumer, you can consider an organization or an individual customer whose needs coincide with the company’s production proposals. Consumers may be end-users purchasing goods for personal use, or they may act as intermediaries participating in the process of product distribution.
End users complete the process of commodity-money exchange and thus are of particular value for the development of market relations.
In order to earn the respect of consumers and take their market share, it is necessary to have a clear idea about the features of the target audience, whose attention is planned to attract.
The standard classical classification of consumers is based on socio-demographic characteristics and divides the general target audience into separate groups according to the following criteria:
Floor. This indicator is important for products that differ by gender, and the product being introduced will be useful to either women or men. For example, clothes, underwear, accessories, perfumery, etc. In this case, communication messages should take into account the sex of potential customers.
Age. This criterion is important if the products are intended for individuals of a certain age.