Ideas for Demand Segmentation based on the Total Need for a Product
Traditionally, marketers have been interested in cracking demand by making more sales using tools like increased sales force, increased visibility and by direct marketing tools. These have been instrumental in increasing the bottom lines of most of the organizations.
A backward integration of the same demand would arise into need generation.
A simple
difference between the need and the demand for a product or service is that DEMAND has to be backed by the ability to actually buy, whereas NEED only requires the willingness to buy the product or service.
For example, a beggar dreaming for air travel can be considered as a case of need: though he dreams of it (willingness), he doesn't have the money (ability) to pay for it. In such cases of need without demand, marketers are not interested.
Now comes the case of a businessman aspiring for air travel. He posesses both mentioned ingredients, ability as well as willingness. And marketers are interested here since that creates demand. Cracking demand as per your wish is the job of marketing people.
Now the question is, can you crack demand also from the point of need generation? Can we segment the total available demand in a given market?