What Marketers Can Do To satisfy Customers Needs?

The nature of today’s business world depersonalizes its customers. People are referred to as “buyers”, shoppers”, “payers”, “non-responders”, “early adopters”, and “eyeballs”. Too often what is lost is the nuance that makes customers human. All human behavior is driven by emotion. In a crowded market place, these needs push us toward what feels right. We feel, then we think, and as a result, we buy. Traditional market research relies on rational, self-reported data to understand behavior, but neuroscience reafﬁrms that customers do not act rationally. To truly understand why customers do what they do, we must look deeper. It is subconscious emotional needs that guide customer behavior.

So, how do we tap into these needs?

From a practical standpoint, gathering deep emotional insights can be achieved by partnering with trained researchers (in human behavior) who can engage customers through the use of projective questioning and creative activities that take participants out of their rational world and into their emotional realm and by developing an ongoing dialogue with customers about their lives, not just about their transactions.

Research can be conducted in-person and online; both methodologies provide an opportunity to gather deep emotional insights and each comes with unique beneﬁts. While In-person research offers the opportunity to observe the customer in their environment, analyze non-verbal reactions and often lends itself to longer, more intimate discussions. Online research offers cost and time efﬁciencies and access to a greater breadth of demographics and volume of participants. Online communities, or groups of like customers, can be established and utilized over time to continue to engage customers and understand their evolving needs. Ideally, both in-person and online research should be conducted to achieve depth, breadth, and continuation of emotional insights.

Equally as important as knowing which research methods to use is knowing what to look for.
Our emotions-based Needs Continuum offers an operating principle. It is a comprehensive framework that breaks down our core emotional needs.

Marketers can use the Needs Continuum to understand which of the six core needs:
- Control;
- Self-Expression;
- Recognition;
- Growth;
- Belonging;
- Care.
Its products or service addresses and then tailor its marketing and product development to meet it—at every point of contact.

Successfully meeting high-value customers’ deeper needs drives long-term loyalty and sustains and grows the bottom line. However, gaining this understanding requires a boots-on-the-ground approach.
A business must be willing to look outside of the four walls of its organization to meet its customers.
As we saw with Airbnb, real understanding also requires a long-term commitment.
Engaging customers at different points in time and allowing for the full experience of being human provides an ongoing and accurate picture of who they are and what they need.