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MARKETING |
Wants and Needs“Professional marketers agree that understanding your target market is the key to a successful marketing mix and strong positioning. We can deploy the best marketing strategy ever, but if we do not pay close attention to our target, we'll be firing it off in the wrong direction.”
Understanding customers is the heart of marketing. All the major failures in the history of marketing can be traced to a lack of knowledge about customers' needs and wants. If you don't know the needs and wants of your customers, how can you possibly satisfy them? Marketing 101, Don Sexton, PhD As consumers, we justify our buying decisions by stating a need: I need a new pair of shoes! If a business sets out to meet this need, they will likely not succeed, because I don't really need the shoes: I want them. The successful business hears that I need shoes and sets about meeting my wants. It's easy to see the role that wants play in retail purchase decisions. The same principle is in effect when we are involved in any marketing exchange. The same people who buy shoes based on wants also volunteer, upgrade skills, form partnerships and provide funds. No matter how logical the needs are, it is wants that tip the scale in favour of the purchase or buy-in. Therefore, literacy agencies need to address the wants of our stakeholders as we are able to meet them. For many of us, focusing on wants requires a major shift in thinking. Another important consideration is that need does not automatically create a successful market. The fact that we offer a product – literacy upgrading – that is stigmatized, makes our marketing even more challenging than if we were selling an unimportant but popular program, say, Hang-Gliding 101. As literacy statistics bear out, need has very little to do with the potential success of our programs. We have to identify the wants that are linked to those needs and meet them. When adults have further training at the college or an apprenticeship as a goal, they may need upgrading in one of our programs, but they may not want it! Often satisfying a learner's wants in our program is a far greater challenge than meeting their needs. Fortunately, marketing offers a solution to this quandary: identify the segment of the population that has a need for your service but whose wants are not being met or not met well. Then ask the following questions:
For example, supposing your community has a moms and tots program that is very popular with single mothers. This would be a social need that your competitor is already filling. However, you might see that this same group of parents is under-represented in your literacy program. Therefore, you could address a different set of wants around increased education and training. |
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CLO gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided by the Ontario Government under Employment Ontario and the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills (OLES) and the technical support provided by the National Adult Literacy Database in developing this web site.
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