Access to drinking water is a need for all people.
The notion of necessity derives from the Latin word necessitas . As can be seen by consulting the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) , the term has multiple uses and meanings.
To cite a specific case that allows us to delve deeper into the scope of the concept, a need arises when there is an impulse that is impossible to control that leads individual efforts to be directed in a certain direction. It is also used in other circumstances to describe the lack of objects or emotions of an emotional nature that are essential for subsistence or the lack of nutritious products or primary goods that cause hunger or physical imbalance of some kind.
Nor can we fail to remember that this notion can serve, on certain occasions, to mention the natural process based on the evacuation of urine or the expulsion of excrement .
Necessity as a mobile
Needs are typical of every living organism and consist of a sensation caused by the idea that we are missing something, whether on a material, organic or sentimental level. It is one of the fundamental components in life, not only human but also of other species, it is the need that leads living beings to mobilize in search of objectives that serve to satisfy what they consider they need.
A tree that, in the face of a drought, extends its roots to reach deeper, where the water is, acts based on a need, in the same way that elephants travel for several days in search of water.
Classification according to hierarchy
If one collects information related to needs, one will see that several scholars have organized needs into hierarchies.
The American psychologist Abraham Maslow , for example, classified them as physiological needs (a group that includes food, liquids to quench thirst, clothing and housing); security needs (obtained from protection and care systems and bonds), belonging needs (group where affection, friendship and love appear); self-esteem needs (related to prestige, the ability to stand up for oneself and achieving success); and self-actualization needs .
Another perspective also supports the classification of needs as essential and occasional . The first, in turn, branch into quality needs (when the subject knows the generic and appropriate good to cover his need) and quantity needs (when the subject can infer what quantity of goods he will require to satisfy his need).
Marketing works to convert consumer wants into needs.
Marketing and necessity
In the field of marketing , need is related to the desire to achieve a certain product or brand. Therefore, marketing campaigns work to activate, stimulate and provoke human needs. In this sense, marketing does not create needs (which already exist), but rather detects them and transforms them into business opportunities.
It should be noted that we speak of emotional needs to refer to those things that a person considers vital to feel comfortable with themselves and their environment; These needs vary with age and the characteristics of each individual and in many cases they can respond to certain emotional disorders. This occurs in those people who are not able to clearly discern between those things they believe they need and what they really lack. Sometimes it happens, for example, that those adults who have suffered some trauma due to feeling unprotected as children, continue looking for that security that they feel they lacked. In these cases, the person must undergo therapeutic treatment in order to adequately discern between their needs and their perception of them.