Needs, wants and demands

Needs, wants and demands are a part of basic marketing principles.

Needs: Needs are the basic and mandatory requirements to human beings. For instance, food, clothes, shelter, health, education, security etc. Human needs are the state of felt deprivation. Marketers play no roles in creating needs, they are natural default requirements of every human beings.

Wants: Wants are the form human needs take as they are shaped by social, cultural and individual personality. Wants are largely dependent on needs but are influenced by social, cultural and individual personality. Wants are not mandatory part of life. For instance, a person can eat any food to feed himself but he wants to eat fast food, fried rice, Indian foods etc.

Demands: demands are desires/wants backed by ability to pay. For instance a BMW car can be a demand of a millionaire but only a desire for a poor person. Ability and willingness to pay are perquisites of demand. Human beings have unlimited wants but resources are limited. It’s not possible that each human being get the desired things in the world. Wants are wishes of humans, buying power will convert these wants to demands.