The most basic concept underlying marketing is that of human needs. Human needs are states of felt deprivation. They include basic physical needs for food, clothing, warmth, and safety; social needs for belonging and affection; and individual needs for knowledge and self-expression. Marketers did not create these needs; they are a basic part of the human makeup.

Wants are the form human needs take as they are shaped by culture and individual personality. An American needs food but wants a Big Mac, fries, and a soft drink. A person in Papua, New Guinea, needs food but wants taro, rice, yams, and pork. Wants are shaped by one’s society and are described in terms of objects that will satisfy those needs. When backed by buying power, wants become demands. Given their wants and resources, people demand products and services with benefits that add up to the most value and satisfaction.

Companies go to great lengths to learn about and understand customer needs, wants, and demands. They conduct consumer research, analyze mountains of customer data, and observe customers as they shop and interact, offline and online. People at all levels of the company—­including top management—stay close to customers:5

Target’s energetic CEO, Brian Cornell, makes regular unannounced visits to Target stores, accompanied by local moms and loyal Target shoppers. Cornell likes nosing around stores and getting a real feel for what’s going on. It gives him “great, genuine feedback.” He and other Target executives even visit customers in their homes, opening closet doors and poking around in cupboards to understand their product choices and buying habits. Similarly, Boston Market CEO George Michel makes frequent visits to company restaurants, working in the dining room and engaging customers to learn about “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” He also stays connected by reading customer messages on the Boston Market website and has even cold-called customers for insights. “Being close to the customer is critically important,” says Michel. “I get to learn what they value, what they appreciate.”

Consumers’ needs and wants are fulfilled through market offerings—some combination of products, services, information, or experiences offered to a market to satisfy a need or a want. Market offerings are not limited to physical products. They also include services—activities or benefits offered for sale that are essentially intangible and do not result in the ownership of anything. Examples include banking, airline, hotel, retailing, and home repair services.

More broadly, market offerings also include other entities, such as persons, places, organizations, information, and ideas. For example, San Diego runs a “Happiness Is Calling” advertising campaign that invites visitors to come and enjoy the city’s great weather and good times—everything from its bays and beaches to its downtown nightlife and urban scenes. And the Ad Council and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration created a “Stop the Texts. Stop the Wrecks.” campaign that markets the idea of eliminating texting while driving. The campaign points out that a texting driver is 23 times more likely to get into a crash than a non-texting driver.6

Many sellers make the mistake of paying more attention to the specific products they offer than to the benefits and experiences produced by these products. These sellers suffer from marketing myopia. They are so taken with their products that they focus only on existing wants and lose sight of underlying customer needs.7 They forget that a product is only a tool to solve a consumer problem. A manufacturer of quarter-inch drill bits may think that the customer needs a drill bit. But what the customer really needs is a quarter-inch hole. These sellers will have trouble if a new product comes along that serves the customer’s need better or less expensively. The customer will have the same need but will want the new product.

Smart marketers look beyond the attributes of the products and services they sell. By orchestrating several services and products, they create brand experiences for consumers. For example, you don’t just visit Walt Disney World Resort; you immerse yourself and your family in a world of wonder, a world where dreams come true and things still work the way they should. And your local Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant doesn’t just serve up wings and beer; it gives customers the ultimate “Wings. Beer. Sports.” fan experience (see Real Marketing 1.1).

Similarly, Mattel’s American Girl does much more than just make and sell high-end dolls. It creates special experiences between the dolls and the girls who adore them.8

To put more smiles on the faces of the girls who love their American Girl dolls, the company operates huge American Girl experiential stores in 20 major cities around the country. Each store carries an amazing selection of dolls plus every imaginable outfit and accessory. But more than just places to shop, American Girl stores are exciting destinations unto themselves, offering wonderfully engaging experiences for girls, mothers, grandmothers, and even dads or grandpas. There’s an in-store restaurant where girls, their dolls, and grown-ups can sit down together for brunch, lunch, afternoon tea, or dinner. There’s even a doll hair salon where a stylist can give a doll a new hairdo. American Girl also offers “perfect parties” to celebrate a birthday or any day as well as a full slate of special events, from crafts and activities to excursions. Much more than a store that sells dolls, says the company, “it’s the place where imaginations can soar.” A visit to American Girl creates “Fun today. Memories forever.”

Consumers usually face a broad array of products and services that might satisfy a given need. How do they choose among these many market offerings? Customers form expectations about the value and satisfaction that various market offerings will deliver and buy accordingly. Satisfied customers buy again and tell others about their good experiences. Dissatisfied customers often switch to competitors and disparage the product to others.

Marketers must be careful to set the right level of expectations. If they set expectations too low, they may satisfy those who buy but fail to attract enough buyers. If they set expectations too high, buyers will be disappointed. Customer value and customer satisfaction are key building blocks for developing and managing customer relationships. We will revisit these core concepts later in the chapter.

Marketing occurs when people decide to satisfy their needs and wants through exchange relationships. Exchange is the act of obtaining a desired object from someone by offering something in return. In the broadest sense, the marketer tries to bring about a response to some market offering. The response may be more than simply buying or trading products and services. A political candidate, for instance, wants votes; a church wants membership and participation; an orchestra wants an audience; and a social action group wants idea acceptance.

Marketing consists of actions taken to create, maintain, and grow desirable exchange relationships with target audiences involving a product, service, idea, or other object. Companies want to build strong relationships by consistently delivering superior customer value. We will expand on the important concept of managing customer relationships later in the chapter.

The concepts of exchange and relationships lead to the concept of a market. A market is the set of actual and potential buyers of a product or service. These buyers share a particular need or want that can be satisfied through exchange relationships.

Marketing means managing markets to bring about profitable customer relationships. However, creating these relationships takes work. Sellers must search for and engage buyers, identify their needs, design good market offerings, set prices for them, promote them, and store and deliver them. Activities such as consumer research, product development, communication, distribution, pricing, and service are core marketing activities.

Although we normally think of marketing as being carried out by sellers, buyers also carry out marketing. Consumers market when they search for products, interact with companies to obtain information, and make their purchases. In fact, today’s digital technologies, from online sites and smartphone apps to the explosion of social media, have empowered consumers and made marketing a truly two-way affair. Thus, in addition to customer relationship management, today’s marketers must also deal effectively with customer-managed relationships. Marketers are no longer asking only “How can we influence our customers?” but also “How can our customers influence us?” and even “How can our customers influence each other?”

Figure 1.2 shows the main elements in a marketing system. Marketing involves serving a market of final consumers in the face of competitors. The company and competitors research the market and interact with consumers to understand their needs. Then they create and exchange market offerings, messages, and other marketing content with consumers, either directly or through marketing intermediaries. Each party in the system is affected by major environmental forces (demographic, economic, natural, technological, political, and social/cultural).

Figure 1.2

A Modern Marketing System

Each party in the system adds value for the next level. The arrows represent relationships that must be developed and managed. Thus, a company’s success at engaging customers and building profitable relationships depends not only on its own actions but also on how well the entire system serves the needs of final consumers. Walmart cannot fulfill its promise of low prices unless its suppliers provide merchandise at low costs. And Ford cannot deliver a high-quality car-ownership experience unless its dealers provide outstanding sales and service.