It is in the nature of humans to desire more, both for betterment and indulgence.
In our profession, there is a clear cut concept between Want and Need. Need is something essential that you can’t live without. Want is something which enhances the personal preference and life experience in something which satisfies Need. For example, we all need a pair of shoes to protect our feet for walking, but you want a brown one while I want a red one. As simple as that.
For a long time, marketing focused on identifying and addressing unmet needs. However, anyone who has been through years of market research would know that finding an unmet need in today’s world is akin to finding a new gold mine. This approach is no longer relevant. As society evolves, our desires often outpace our actual needs.
This shift slowly uncovers the true power of Branding & Marketing & Media: the ability to take a fleeting, surface-level desire, a "want," and weave it into the fabric of one's identity and emotions, turning it into a "need." It's the quiet force which shapes perception, bends reality, and creates a world where what was once optional becomes indispensable.
The secret is not in identifying an unmet need, but in making people believe they have an unmet need. You don’t need a car at the price of a house just to get you from point A to point B, but you might need a car which allows you to signal to the world your place in it. That is the belief of “need” for a Mercedes.
Do these needs always exist there in people’s mind before they are actually communicated? As Henry Ford famously said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” People didn’t know they needed a car until it was introduced, and now, a century later, we can’t even imagine how inconvenient our life would be without them. The reality is that, most of us often don’t know what we need.
The very concept of “need” has become fluid and malleable, evolving with every new idea, product, or breakthrough that enters our lives. We think we’re deciding our “needs” and defining our “wants”. But more often than not, we’re simply reacting to what’s been put in front of us, presented as the next big thing we can't live without. With the complex media and influencer landscape of today, it’s hard to say that our needs emerge solely from within us. In fact, they’re often planted—strategically, skillfully, and persistently.
Without the diamond ring, the marriage proposal would be incomplete. When did a diamond ring become a symbol of love and commitment? Step by step, DeBeers strategically cultivated this idea into our culture and forever changed the perception and the position of diamonds in the jewelry market. Research showed that, in 1940s, only 10% of the engagement rings held a diamond. However, after DeBeers launched its famous campaign “A diamond is forever” in 1947, that number had skyrocketed to 80% by 1990s, and today, it is close to 90%. All over the world, people are convinced that a successful courtship must end with a diamond.
“Need” is only a perception.
People can easily sacrifice their actual needs for what they perceive as “need”. Imagine people save up their meal money, endure the discomfort or even go to the extreme of selling their own kidney just to buy a latest piece of clothing, a fashionable bag or a new tech gadget. In such cases, the desire for individual expression and lifestyle aspiration simply outweigh the immediate necessity. They say: “Flying Economy because Business Class is 10k for 6 hours but a Birkin is 10k for Life”.
“Wants” are products of scarcity, “Needs” are products of abundance. Sounds a bit counterintuitive, doesn't it?
When resources are scarce, wants offer the illusion of choice in a world with limited options. When our resources are abundant and survival is no longer a driving force, we often create “artificial needs” to fill the void and give our lives a new sense of purpose.
"The boredom economy" is a prime example. In the boredom economy, products and services are often designed to distract, entertain, and occupy time, giving people something to do when they feel disengaged or restless. Blind box is the recent phenomenon that perfectly captured it. According to the 2023 report on the development of the collectible toys industry issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ National Academy of Economic Strategy, China’s collectible toys market is rapidly expanding and entering the ranks of a 100 billion RMB industry. Statistics show that the sector increased from 6.3 billion RMB in 2015 to 34.5 billion RMB in 2021, and is projected to reach 110.1 billion RMB by 2026 (Source). People love to escape the monotony and mundanity of their lives by filling it with some sort of novelty and surprise driven by the blind box experience.
“I want that”
“I need that”
They may sound similar, but their impact is worlds apart.
Most of what we perceive as essential today was once an idea that wasn't necessary, until someone had the vision and the skill to convince us otherwise.
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