“Marketing is the process of promoting products or services to attract and retain customers by creating value and fulfilling their needs and wants.”
SOW: Okay, this sounds simple enough. But let’s make it real with an example.
🖊️ Example: Selling a Pen
- Students — affordable pens, bright colors, fun designs.
- Working professionals — reliability, style, comfortable for signatures.
- Luxury collectors — limited editions, craftsmanship, status.
Different customers buy the same product for different needs, price points, and reasons.
- Sustainability — made from recycled ocean plastics 🌊
- Technology — doubles as a stylus for tablets
- Longevity — more ink, writes longer than competitors
- Aesthetics — minimalist, looks good on the desk
- Emotion — “the pen I’ll use to sign something important”
- Feel — ergonomic grip for long writing sessions
🌀 Needs vs Wants vs Demands
SOW: Wait… what’s the difference? 🤔
- Need — basic human requirement, universal & essential.
Marketing focus: identify problem => product is the solution.
Example: record information quickly. - Want — a specific way to satisfy a need (culture, taste, personality shape this).
Marketing focus: shape the desire.
Example: reliable black gel pen. - Demand — wants backed by purchasing power (ability + willingness to pay).
Marketing focus: pricing & forecasting.
Example: desire for a gel pen under ₹10.
🌍 The Bigger Picture
SOW: Okay, I get it now. Marketing = connecting what you sell with what people actually want (and can pay for).
Without marketing, even the best product is invisible. With smart marketing, even an average product can go viral. That’s why companies often spend more on marketing than on making the product itself.
- Marketing = making the right people know, like, and trust your product.
- Understand needs → wants → demands before you price or promote.
- Different segments want different things — position your product to fit one clear need.
✨ What’s next?
Episode 2 will cover the main types of marketing (traditional vs digital, inbound vs outbound, content vs paid). If you liked this style, I’ll keep writing like this — messy thoughts + real examples + tiny experiments.
SOW: Cool, that’s for Episode 2. For now, I’m happy that my imaginary pen already feels like a real business idea 😂