Understanding need.states and their role in developing successful marketing strategies

This paper examines the concept of Need.States, a framework for understandi ng consumer behaviour and attitudes. It describes their role in the develop ment of brand imagery, advertising, store layouts, packaging and other elem ents of the communications mix. Need.States take account of the situations individuals found themselves in at a particular point in time i.e. their mood, attitude and feelings, as we ll as the dynamics of the circumstances or the shopping environment. They a re the inner and outer influences (or triggers) impacting on an individual that result in a purchase or usage decision. The research approaches used to develop Need.States in a category are discu ssed.