Category need
Category need, for most product categories, originates mainly from market
changes (for new categories) and arises from a person ’ s overall or
temporary circumstances (for new and existing categories). Traditional
advertising can have some effect on category need by stimulating a perceived
need. However, this is more a matter of suggesting the category
need. If there is not an underlying motive to be tapped, ‘ selling ’ this
need will be all but impossible. For example, the successful introduction
of passenger mini-vans by Chrysler (now Daimler-Chrysler) would
not have been possible if there was not an already reasonably strong
motivation for such a practical vehicle. Only rarely can advertising create
a motivation as such. Rather, it positions the category as a better
way of meeting an existing motivation. In the case of mini-vans, it was
the motivation of incomplete satisfaction with alternatives for family
transportation.
Various forms of promotion can help accelerate category need, making
it occur earlier, although usually only to a fairly minor degree. This
is one of the reasons couponing and other price promotions are almost
always a part of new consumer product introductions, and why direct
marketing as a means of delivering a very targeted promotion can play
such an important role in the introduction of an innovative service or
product for a business. Accelerate is the key term here. None of this really
sells the category need so much as it attempts to speed it up.
Overall, both the advertising and promotion components of IMC have,
in general, only a relatively minor influence on category need (as we see
in Figure 10.2 ). Again, this is only a general effect, for one may certainly
find specific instances of successfully selling or accelerating category
need with either advertising-like or promotional-like messages.