Editing Marketing (section)

==Concept==
The "marketing concept" proposes that to complete its organizational objectives, an organization should anticipate the needs and wants of potential consumers and satisfy them more effectively than its competitors. This concept originated from [[Adam Smith]]'s book ''[[The Wealth of Nations]]'' but would not become widely used until nearly 200 years later.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.netmba.com/marketing/concept/|title=Marketing Concept|last=NetMBA.com|website=www.netmba.com|access-date=8 November 2017}}</ref> Marketing and Marketing Concepts are directly related.

Given the centrality of customer needs, and wants in marketing, a rich understanding of these concepts is essential:<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Weeks|first1=Richard|last2=Marx|first2=William|date=Autumn 1968|title=The Market Concept: Problems and Promises|journal=Business & Society|volume=9|pages=39–42|doi=10.1177/000765036800900106|s2cid=154456073| issn = 0007-6503 }}</ref>

: ''[[Needs]]:'' Something necessary for people to live a healthy, stable and safe life. When needs remain unfulfilled, there is a clear adverse outcome: a dysfunction or death. Needs can be objective and physical, such as the need for food, water, and shelter; or subjective and psychological, such as the need to belong to a family or social group and the need for self-esteem.
: ''[[Wants]]:'' Something that is desired, wished for or aspired to. Wants are not essential for basic survival and are often shaped by culture or peer-groups.
: ''[[Demand]]s:'' When needs and wants are backed [[Purchasing power|by the ability to pay]], they have the potential to become economic demands.

[[Marketing research]], conducted for the purpose of new product development or product improvement, is often concerned with identifying the consumer's ''unmet needs''.<ref name="Hague, 19-20">{{Cite book |title=Market Research in Practice: How to Get Greater Insight From Your Market |last1=Hague |first1=Paul N. |last2=Hague |first2=Nicholas |last3=Morgan |first3=Carol-Ann |publisher=Kogan-Page |year=2013 |location=London |pages=19–20}}</ref> Customer needs are central to market segmentation which is concerned with dividing markets into distinct groups of buyers on the basis of "distinct needs, characteristics, or behaviors who might require separate products or marketing mixes."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=W.R.|date=July 1956|title=Product Differentiation and Market Segmentation as Alternative Marketing Strategies|journal=Journal of Marketing|volume=21|issue=1|pages=3–8|doi=10.1177/002224295602100102|s2cid=49060196|url=http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2664/435c9eb4169c9e6afffa8bd0d08684d853d3.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220165315/http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2664/435c9eb4169c9e6afffa8bd0d08684d853d3.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 February 2019}}</ref> Needs-based segmentation (also known as ''benefit segmentation'') "places the customers' desires at the forefront of how a company designs and markets products or services."<ref>{{Citation |title=What Comes Next? Survey Analysis and Segmentation |date=12 January 2017 |url=https://hub.wiley.com/community/exchanges/discover/blog/2017/01/11/what-comes-next-survey-analysis-and-segmentation |work=Discover the Future of Research |publisher=Wiley}}</ref> Although needs-based segmentation is difficult to do in practice, it has been proved to be one of the most effective ways to segment a market.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ahmad|first=Rizal|date=May 2003|title=Benefit segmentation|url=https://www.warc.com/fulltext/JMRS/78268.htm|journal=International Journal of Market Research|volume=45|issue=3|pages=1–13|doi=10.1177/147078530304500302|s2cid=220319720|issn=1470-7853}}</ref><ref name="Hague, 19-20" /> In addition, a great deal of advertising and promotion is designed to show how a given product's benefits meet the customer's needs, wants or expectations in a unique way.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Introduction to Public Relations and Advertising|last=du Plessis|first=D.F.|page=134}}</ref>