CONSUMPTION PATTERNS: NEEDS, WANTS, AND DESIRES - PART 2

Having taught marketing courses, especially Consumer Behavior, and being an Applied Anthropologist, I find that there is a simple paradigm you can use when considering your product and your customer.[1] Business is a transactional human activity that takes place in a “transactional environment.” The act of consumption is transactional taking place on the individual and the social level. To understand how and why business takes place the way it does, one must understand how the transactional system works. That is, one must look at the very nature and structure of the consumption patterns and their motivational roots.

The transactional environment may be divided into basic observational or transactions units.  A transaction is a dyad, a simple two-party behavioral structure of a “buyer” and a “seller.” It represents an exchange between the two parties that is “mutually” satisfactory in the moment. The key word here is ”satisfactory” which signifies that the exchange has taken place. “Mutually” implies that each party agrees that “what was exchanged” met their individual standard of “fairness”. “In the moment” implies that the transaction is bound by the time and place of the transaction, i.e. is an event resulting in behavior under specific circumstances. Every event is unique, yet every event pattern falls into one of three motivational patterns. These patterns together represent the Consumption Pattern.

A transaction event or situation arises when two or more parties[2], each decides that it wishes to exchange a quantity of A for a quantity of B. The transaction begins with individual party’s decision and ends when a “deal” or agreed decision is made to make the exchange and the exchange takes place.

The Consumption pattern consist of a buyer or consumer and a seller or producer of a physical good or behavioral service. The pattern is structural, that is an outside observer can witness the exchange and identify and label the part or role each party plays in the transactional event.

In a smaller or more traditional economy (transactional space), exchange may take place in a context of “barter” where the status/roles of the parties are complementary. In a barter economy, the individuals in the transaction occupy both the buyer and seller statuses and must play both seller and buyer roles in order to “make a deal”. Thus, every Buyer is also a Seller and every Seller is a Buyer. The exchange takes place when there is a mutual agreement on the relative value of the good/service A = the value of good/service B. Value varies based on the availability of A and B in the transactional space and is highly situational.

In modern and global society, we identify the “buyer” as the party that receives the product (a good and/service) from the producer in exchange for money (“an object of generalized value”) received by the “seller.”[3] The value of the exchange is defined as the “price” the buyer pays to the seller or the value demanded by the seller. Money is an agreed upon unit of measure that transforms the good or service provided by seller into a generalized “value” that the buyer can access at a time and place of his/her choosing.

Every “deal” has a purpose. That purpose is to support Life, that is the life of the parties to the deal, in some way.

Life has two basic requirements. First, a living body must survive its environment. That is, it must have the capacity to perform the basic function of life – self regulate itself within an external environment. To do this the individual must survive as a separate entity in its environment. Survival in itself does not constitute “life”. Life requires that the entity also contributes to the dynamic stability of its environment. When the entity can no longer contribute to its environment it dies, or ceases to exist.

What distinguishes life from non-life, is that its survival is dependent upon and requires that it contributes to environmental stability. Otherwise, if the entity fails to contribute to stability, the system must change or adapt in order to survive. Thus, the entity must be capable of replicating itself. 

Every transaction constitutes as “deal” and , as such, it has both an individual and a social psychological dimension. These dimensions begin with the customer as an animal with basic physical needs that can be satisfied by the physical environment. The individual acts as the “buyer” and Nature acts as the “seller”. These are the inherited biological requirements for survival  as a human animal with individualized needs.

As a human, however, we have a specific set of needs that can be satisfied by Nature by a certain set of products. There are other products in Nature that threaten the individual's survival. Humans must learn the differences. This means the individual must Choose between the products that Nature offers. 

Choice creates “wants” which are preferences among the products offered by Nature. Finally, as the individual grows and ages, her/his needs and wants change to accommodate his/her position or a status in its environment. These changes are part of the lifecycle.

An individual’s lifecycle is defined in terms of one’s biological age, physical characteristics and needs, and the social meanings and values attached those characteristics. These meanings and values create social status. The social meanings and values influence one’s choices in their social environment and their status in that environment. 

One's choices influence how others interpret one’s status. Status, in group terms, is based on the group’s shared values. To conform to the group, individuals must select among its available choices, those that conform to the group. Thus, they distinguish between those choices that satisfy a physical need and those that satisfy a social status need.

Choices that satisfy a social need become desirable choices because they identify one’s social standing in the wider socio-cultural system. We can define these choices as desires. As we proceed through the lifecycle and become identified with social groups, we find that the power relationship between BUYER and SELLER changes.

We find that the paradigm, NEEDS, WANTS, and DESIRES, repeats itself on each level[4]. But what and how it will satisfy the individual’s need in the buyer’s and seller’s roles changes with their status.

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[1] See my earlier essay, “Consumption Patterns: Needs, Wants, and Desires” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259495871_Consumption_Patterns_-_Needs_Wants_and_Desires

[2] “two or more” implies that there may a “supply chain’ through which the “end buyer” and “primary producers or seller” are connect through a “chain” of deals, e.g, buyer of bike + retail store + wholesaler+ shipper+ bike manufacturer. 

[3] “Money or generalized value” means that the object received by the seller fulfills the three basic functions of money – a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account.

[4] The study of Consumption patterns depends on the researcher’s focus e.g. the individual, family, community, social class, etc. They also express the power relation between buyer and seller.