The Creation of Customer Satisfaction

The creation of customer satisfaction is accepted as being of major importance in business (Perreault & McCarthy 2000). The importance is based on the understanding that a business exists to make profits and that a business makes profits when customers buy the business's product or service. Without customers handing over their money to the

In other cases, marketing activities create wants that are not based on obvious needs. For example, there is no obvious need for a person to purchase cologne or perfume. That is, it is not essential to a person's survival to smell good. However, people do have a psychological need for acceptance and to be desired (Belch & Belch 1999). It is this less obvious need that motivates people to buy perfumes and colognes. This shows that all purchase behavior has basic consumer needs as its basis.

The most important benefit of establishing customer relationships is that it is a source of advantage that other companies find difficult to duplicate (Daft 1997). If a consumer has a long relationship with a company and feels that the company understands their needs, this can create a high level of loyalty to a company (Belch & Belch 1999). This is something that keeps the consumer from going to the competition. In addition, the company's knowledge of the consumer allows them to cater for their needs even better. Without this knowledge, other companies cannot achieve the same result. In this way, a business that builds effective customer relationships is better able to achieve customer satisfactions and gains an ongoing source of competitive advantage. This results in profits in the current time, while also allowing the company to be more certain of future profits.

The definition of wants includes that needs are shaped by culture and individual personality. Another way that needs are shaped is through marketing and advertising. The purpose of marketing is not to create needs, but to fill a need that already exists (Belch & Belch 1999). Consider the case of McDonald's. People need food but they do not specifically need McDonald's. McDonald's creates a product that meets the need for food and their marketing efforts then create a desire for their particular product. Lotus makes classic sports cars, with their product meeting an individual's need to feel elite. However, Lotus do not actually create the need to feel elite, they simply provide a product that meets this need. Overall then, organizations create products to fill certain needs, while their marketing activities create a want for that product.

The creation of value cannot occur with only a focus on the overall impression or image of the company, because value is not created in this way. Value is created by the services or features made available to the customer. This means that just focusing on the bigger picture will not allow the organization to add value. In turn, the organization misses out on a major source of increasing its effectiveness.

The first component of attitude is cognition, which is what the consumer either believes or knows about the product (Neal, Quester, and Hawkins 1999). The total amount of information the consumer has about the product is the cognitive component of consumer attitude. The more positive information they have, the more favorably they view the product. The reason that a focus only on the broader perception of the product or brand is that consumers do not only gain knowledge about the product by the image created. They also gain knowledge by their own interaction with the company and brand.

With customers expecting a lot from companies, and with customers almost always demanding low prices, the question is raised as to how companies can continue to make money. Once, a good strategy for a company might simply involve selling a product for a higher price than it costs to make. This strategy is a simple recipe for making money. However, as competition increases, companies tend to find ways to cut costs and reduce their prices. At some point, prices get pushed so low that little room remains for making profits. This is where adding value becomes an important strategy for companies (Neal, Quester & Hawkins 1999).

What happens if consumers want to buy the product, but cannot find it anywhere? In this case,

Some common words found in the essay are:
Quester Hawkins, Perreault McCarthy, Practical Marketing, Overall Amazon, Relationship Marketing, Brown Adam, Belch Belch, , McDonald's McDonald's, Basic Marketing, marketing strategy, product service, customer satisfaction, image perception, relationship marketing, neal quester hawkins, neal quester, consumers buy, quester hawkins, hawkins 1999, quester hawkins 1999, happens consumers buy, consumers buy product, creation customer, creation customer satisfaction,
Approximate Word count = 3566
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)