What are Consumer Staples?

Consumption needs refer to the desire and willingness of consumers to obtain various consumption materials (including services) in order to realize their own requirements for survival, enjoyment and development. Consumer demand and desire for consumer goods in the form of goods or services. Constrained by the external environment and the personality of consumers, it directly or indirectly induces consumers 'purchasing motivation and affects consumers' purchasing behavior. Can be classified from different perspectives. ^[1]

Consumption needs

Right!

Consumption needs refer to the desire and willingness of consumers to obtain various consumption materials (including services) in order to realize their own requirements for survival, enjoyment and development. Consumer demand and desire for consumer goods in the form of goods or services. Constrained by the external environment and the personality of consumers, it directly or indirectly induces consumers 'purchasing motivation and affects consumers' purchasing behavior. Can be classified from different perspectives. ^[1]

People's consumption needs include the need to eat, wear, live, use, walk, burn, culture and entertainment, medical care and so on. Consumption needs and their satisfaction depend on the level of productivity development. Production has not developed to a certain degree, not only that certain needs cannot be met, or even impossible.

For example, during the primitive society, even slave society and feudal society, there was no need for some modern consumer goods. Consumption needs are an extremely important part of the entire needs system. The first premise of all human existence and the first premise of all historical development is: "People must be able to live in order to 'create history'. But in order to live, they first need clothing, food, shelter and other things." . To meet the needs of society, we must develop production. Consumption needs can be divided into material needs and cultural needs according to their types. The so-called material life needs refer to people's life needs in terms of food, clothing, housing, use, and behavior. The so-called cultural life refers to people's needs for education, learning, science, art, journalism, publishing, sports, tourism, and entertainment.

Consumption needs can be divided into basic living needs (that is, the need to maintain subsistence and labor reproduction, also called survival needs), enjoyment needs (that is, to meet a part of the needs other than people's survival needs), and development needs (even people's talents) , Intellectual and physical strength, personality needs to be fully developed).

Consumption needs are included in the general human needs, and are reflected in the direct needs of consumers for consumer goods (consumer materials) in the form of goods and services. Consumer behavior is not only derived from general human needs, but also with the basic characteristics of consumer demand. With the development of social production, science and technology, and culture and art, consumers' various psychological needs in order to improve their material and cultural living standards are constantly emerging.

(I) Diversity

Because different consumers have different degrees of differences in age, personality, nature of work, national traditions, religious beliefs, lifestyle, living habits, cultural level, economic conditions, hobbies, emotional will, etc., the objects of consumer psychological needs and Satisfaction methods are also diverse, and the choice of leading needs is inconsistent. For example, China has a large population and diverse consumption habits. In terms of food, Mongolian, Uygur, and Tibetans in pastoral areas are accustomed to eating dairy products, such as milk tofu, dried milk, cheese, and yogurt, which are very rich in variety. For reasons of faith, the Hui people only eat meat such as cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese. Residents of northeast China are accustomed to eating beans and noodles. Some ethnic minorities in Yunnan like to eat raw or half-baked meat. For another example, under the premise of meeting the basic material needs, young intellectuals usually have the habit of purchasing desks and bookcases when they get married, while young workers are less likely to buy these furnitures when they marry, and instead use decorative cabinets and dressing tables. For another example, young people like movies and dance as a modern art form, while most elderly people prefer local opera.

Facing the diverse and diverse needs of consumers, industrial and commercial enterprises should determine market goals based on market information and their own capabilities, and provide consumers with as many types of goods as possible. The diversity of consumer needs can only be realized if we can "buy hundreds of customers in department stores" and fine-tune our mouths, and at the same time pay attention to advocating consumption concepts and consumption forms that are in line with national conditions, civilization and health.

(Two) developmental

Consumption needs are diversified from a static distribution point of view, from low to high, from simple to complex from a dynamic point of view. With the development of the commodity economy and the improvement of spiritual civilization, psychological needs will continue to generate new objects. Once consumers meet a need, they will no longer be affected by the incentives of that need, and desire and seek other more Needs at a higher level, and continue to evolve to new needs.

From the historical changes of the "three major pieces", we can see the developmental nature of people's consumption needs. In the 1970s, Chinese people saw watches, bicycles, and sewing machines as the "three big pieces" of the family. They entered the 80s. The new "three big pieces": color TVs, refrigerators, and washing machines brought another surprise to our lives. In the 1990s, Chinese people focused on improving the quality of life. What were the "three big pieces" at this time? Some people summarize it as air conditioners, computers, and telephones, others say it is private homes, cars, and modern communication equipment, and more people think that today's Chinese consumption has become diversified, and it is difficult to agree on the "three major pieces". determination. Looking back at the trajectory of the development and change of household durable consumer goods, we can see the fact that in just 30 years, China s urban household consumption has gone from the old three to the new three and is striving for more quality and taste. life. The common name of "three big pieces" with age marks will also disappear from people's memories. For another example, from the 1960s to the 1990s, the clothing situation of urban and rural residents also changed greatly. The monotonous blue color, gray color, black color, and yellow color among young people have gradually disappeared. Down jackets, fur clothing, wool Shirts, jackets, bodybuilding pants, woolen coats, windbreakers and suits are on the rise. Consumption of various leather shoes, travel shoes and sports shoes supporting fashion, as well as ties, headscarves, socks, glasses, etc. has also doubled. Tourism and photography in service consumption have also developed rapidly, adding new colors to people's lives.

As far as different needs are concerned, when a certain need is met to a certain degree, another new need arises. There can be no absolute satisfaction at any time. In this sense, need is endless. Consumer needs evolve with the development of society. With the reform and opening up, some regions and individuals became rich first. In the 1950s, the consumption of some urban and rural residents mainly pursued "eat and wear warmth", and in the mid-1980s to the 1990s, "eat and talk about nutrition, wear and talk beautifully, "Living and speaking spaciously and using high-grade" has become a new trend in consumer psychology in society.

Needed development has a lot to do with changes in objective and realistic stimuli. Changes in socio-economic and political systems, changes in morality, changes in the living or working environment, and even changes in publicity and advertising can prompt consumers to produce what they need. Transfer and change. Industrial and commercial enterprises recognize the characteristics of consumer demand, and must use the degree and trend of consumer demand development as the standard in production and operation to provide products with better performance, higher quality, lower cost and more uses. If the style and function of the product are consistent for several years, decades, or even decades, it will hinder the normal development of consumer demand.

(3) Inducibility

Consumers decide what kind of consumer goods to buy, which consumption method to use, and how to consume, which depends not only on their purchasing power but also on the control of their ideology. The surrounding environment, social ethos, interpersonal communication, publicity and education, literature and art, etc., can promote new needs for consumers. Either from one need to another; or from potential needs to real needs; from weak desires to strong desires. Therefore, the needs of consumers can be formed by guidance and adjustment, and can also be dissipated or changed due to external interference. Advertising in a society with a well-developed commodity economy is likely to "flood" and be an indispensable guide for consumers. A movie can make a certain fashion household name and swept the world; a piece of news can put a certain commodity in the eighteenth floor of hell, a rare turn forever. For example, most people like to eat fresh live fish and hate frozen fish. A popular science article puts it out that the reasonably frozen fresh fish is no less valuable than unfrozen fresh fish, which dispels consumer concerns. For another example, for a period of time, Chinese leaders advocated new and colorful clothing, demanded that the boring situation in the past be changed, and also advocated that people wear suits. These initiatives, coupled with the cooperation of the clothing sector, have changed the clothing habits of the Chinese people. It can be seen that the inducibility required by consumers does exist.

Industrial and commercial enterprises should not only meet consumer needs, but also inspire and induce consumer needs, that is, to guide the development and change of consumer needs with scientific values, concepts of happiness, and consumption through various effective ways, to make them more rational and change. Backward consumption habits harmonize material consumption and spiritual consumption and gradually optimize the consumption structure and demand structure.

(4) Periodic

Every consumer has some needs that will not be generated within a certain period of time after being satisfied. But it will reappear over time, showing the characteristics of a cycle. However, this recurring demand is constantly refurbished in form, and only in this way will the content needed be enriched and developed. For example, women's headscarves have changed between long, square, and triangular styles for many years; leather shoes have always been turned between square, round, pointed, flat, middle, and high heels. This periodicity is often compatible with the functions of biological organisms and the cycle of natural environment changes, and is also related to the life of the product, social customs, purchasing habits, work and leisure time, and time to obtain fixed income. For example, the cyclical changes in the sales of many goods are determined by the natural season; the busy and busy hours of the store business are related to the working day and payday of the consumer; the fashion cycle of clothing echoes the changes in social fashion and so on. Therefore, the study of periodicity is of great significance to the planning of enterprises to strengthen production and management. Industrial and commercial enterprises can arrange the production, supply, purchase, sale, adjustment, and storage, including commodity types, sales time, sales methods, sales targets, and sales locations, according to the development and change law of the required cycle.

Generally speaking, mental products often do not have the cyclical pattern of repeated consumption. Although tourism can be "revisited" and reading can be "unforgettable," the production of mental products should not be repeated and imitated, otherwise it will be unsaleable. For example, if the movie is the same subject, and the actor image is the same, the director's technique is the same, and the plot content is the same, the consumer (audience) will feel boring.

(V) Scalability

Flexibility is reflected in the level of consumer pursuit of psychological needs, the number of items and the degree of strength. In real life, the needs of consumers, especially those that are satisfied with spiritual products, have great flexibility, which can be more or less, sometimes stronger and weaker. When objective conditions limit the satisfaction of needs, the needs can be suppressed, transformed, degraded, staying at a certain level, or meeting some needs of different natures simultaneously or partially in some possible way. In some cases, people will only meet one need and give up others. For example, thousands of revolutionaries, for the liberation of all mankind, gave up many needs of individuals and families; students in the college entrance examination review stage, in order to learn a good knowledge to meet the college entrance examination, gave up traveling, watching movies, TV, novels, playing football And the need for rest.

The flexibility that consumers need is the adaptive behavior that people use to resolve "need conflicts." When producing and operating industrial and commercial enterprises, they must start from the actual consumption level of our consumers and the characteristics of national consumption history and consumption habits, and pay attention to the organic combination of meeting material needs and spiritual needs. First of all, the most basic needs should be solved, and the degree of satisfaction in science, culture and education needs to be gradually improved. Less flashy things, more consumer benefits.

(6) Times

Consumers 'psychological needs will also be affected by the times and the environment. Different times, consumers' needs and consumption habits will also be different. Unwilling to lag behind the times and change with the surrounding environment is a common psychological characteristic of ordinary people. For example, in the 1980s, China had a close relationship with the former Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union girls used to wear Blaki (sweaters) are extremely popular in China. The introduction of jeans and travel shoes to China in the 1980s quickly affected the consumption habits of our people. As another example, with the general improvement of economic conditions and the popularization of scientific knowledge, Chinese consumers now pay more and more attention to physical health. Generally, consumption habits that are beneficial to human health are always actively absorbed and adopted, and consumption habits that are not good for human health. Adopt a firm attitude of rejection. In this regard, the scientific propaganda of consumer knowledge greatly influences the choice of people's consumption habits. Doctors say that the body absorbs too much fat, which can cause cardiovascular disease and also induce cholecystitis and pancreatitis, so that people will consciously change their original eating habits. The emergence of the above-mentioned circumstances all indicate the characteristics of the times.

Current consumption needs have the following development trends:

1. Consumption needs structure is becoming more advanced

With the increase of per capita income and consumption level, consumers' demand structure will gradually become more advanced. This trend has become prominent in developing countries at a stage of rapid growth. Take China as an example. In recent years, China's GDP has maintained a rapid growth momentum. Correspondingly, the income level and total consumption and structure of urban and rural residents have also continued to grow rapidly. By the end of 2003, China s per capita GDP exceeded 1,000 US dollars. According to statistics released recently by the People s Bank of China, by the end of April 2004, the balance of savings deposits of residents of all financial institutions had reached 11.9 trillion yuan, which had begun to have a strong Purchase potential; farmers' income has also been greatly improved, and they have the ability to purchase thousands of yuan of goods.

According to the current income status of Chinese residents, household consumption has gradually entered a new cycle of consumption. This new cycle is marked by the spread of household appliances in rural areas, and the gradual entry of housing, cars, and computers into urban households. Corresponding to this, China's residents' consumption structure is also in an important transition period. In the coming period, the consumption demand of urban residents will change from a well-off society to a more affluent transition period, and people's consumption concepts, methods, content, and the relationship between supply and demand in the consumer goods market will undergo major changes. The proportion of general consumption such as food and clothing in total consumption will further decline, and consumption of housing, transportation, and services such as communications, computers, education, and tourism will greatly increase. Moreover, with the increase of world economic trade and the mutual penetration of cultures among countries, the internationalization of domestic consumption has begun to emerge.

2. The need for high emotional consumption and the trend of emotional consumption

With the high marketization of economic activities and the rapid development of high-tech waves, people's lifestyles have changed drastically. Fast-paced, high competition, and high tension have replaced the smooth, stable, and idle work style; high-tech products such as food processors, dishwashers, personal computers, mobile communication tools, and modern office equipment have poured into homes and workplaces, Make people more and more use the machine as the object of communication. The popularity of the Internet has broken people's time, and the taste of the "global village" is getting stronger and stronger. Corresponding to a new lifestyle, people's emotional needs are also becoming stronger. As Nasbitt, a famous American futurist, said: "Every time a new technology is introduced into society, human beings will inevitably have a balanced response, that is, it will produce a high emotion, otherwise the new technology will suffer Exclusion. The higher the technology, the stronger the emotional response. "As a high emotional need to compete with high technology, it is directly manifested as a consumer's emotional consumption trend in the consumer field.

Western marketing theory believes that the development of consumer demand can be roughly divided into three stages: the first is the "quantity consumption era"; the second is the "qualitative consumption era"; the third is the "emotional consumption era". At the perceptual consumption stage, what consumers value is still the quantity and quality of the product, but how close they are to themselves. They buy goods to satisfy one kind of craving, or to pursue the matching of a particular product with their ideal self-concept. Driven by the needs of emotional consumption, the goods purchased by consumers are not necessities of life, but are emotional goods that resonate with their psychological needs. This purchase decision often uses psychological and emotional standards, with "buy just like" as action-oriented. For example, the market survey results of relevant US institutions show that when American women purchase clothes, they focus on the feeling of wearing, and less than 43% of those who pursue the so-called "latest fashion style". In the Japanese market, sensual goods are becoming the new fashion. Therefore, the trend of perceptual consumption is a reflection of the high-emotional needs of human beings in a high-tech society. It is a prominent reflection of modern consumers paying more attention to high-level needs such as spiritual pleasure, personality realization, and emotional satisfaction.

In recent years, the sensibility of Chinese consumers' needs has gradually increased. In line with this, visionary companies are more and more focused on the appeal of perceptual differentiation and personalization in product design and promotion. For example, all kinds of color screen mobile phones at present; computer manufacturers such as Lenovo and Shenzhou have changed the stereotyped and monotonous appearance of traditional computers, and designed colorful computers such as color shells, curved shapes, and transparent styles to cater to the perceptual preferences of different consumers. .

3 Consistency of consumption and lifestyle

The so-called lifestyle refers to the overall mode and basic characteristics of all activities that people carry out to meet the needs of survival and development. Because people's psychological and behavioral activities are very complicated, and social connections and relationships are also multifaceted, people's lifestyles must be multifaceted and multilevel. Including labor lifestyle, consumption activities, family lifestyle, social interaction lifestyle, cultural lifestyle, leisure lifestyle and so on. Among them, the consumer lifestyle is not only an important part of the overall lifestyle system, but also has a close relationship with other lifestyle subsystems.

At present, while fully enjoying the high-level material enjoyment brought by a highly developed material civilization, people are gradually realizing that high consumption does not mean the joy and happiness of life. Because human needs are social, their happiness comes from many aspects, and it is difficult for people to be truly satisfied with material enjoyment alone. Therefore, there is no direct correlation between consumption and human happiness. The most important factor in determining the happiness of life is the satisfaction of family life, followed by a satisfactory job, the ability to freely exert talents and build a harmonious friendship. Based on this understanding, modern consumers are increasingly inclined to unify and coordinate consumption with other aspects of the lifestyle, grasp and evaluate the lifestyle as a whole, and focus on improving the overall quality of the lifestyle.

4 Trend of integration of consumption and environmental protection

This trend means that consumers demand that their own consumption activities are conducive to protecting the natural environment on which human beings live, maintaining ecological balance, feeding and avoiding excessive consumption and consumption of natural resources, and achieving sustainable consumption.

Under the background that the concept of sustainable development is becoming more and more popular, modern consumers' environmental awareness is increasing. Consumers in various countries are beginning to realize that the earth's resources are limited, and excessive consumption will not only leave piles of rubbish, damage the environment, but also cause human self-destruction. To this end, consumers in different countries regard the protection of natural resources and the ecological environment as their responsibility, link consumption with the living environment and socio-economic development, and consciously incorporate personal consumption needs and behavior into environmental protection norms. " The concept of "green consumption" has begun to gain popular support.

Therefore, protecting the environment has become a basic consensus of modern consumers and a global consumption development trend.

5. Living sympathy, co-creation, symbiotic consumption trends

The new century brings us a brand new era of high consumption. As consumers in this era, in the high-consumption society of the 21st century, a new consumption tendency will emerge, that is, together with business operators, to create new life values and lifestyles in a life-sense, co-creation, and symbiosis trend. Consumers living in the 21st century have the characteristics of high income, high education, high information, high living ability, and high international sense. Corresponding to this, their consumer needs will also present five new characteristics: first, aesthetics, that is, the consciousness and artistry of beauty; second, knowledge, that is, education and science; third, physical, that is, somatosensory or five-sensation The fourth is the brain sensibility, that is, the six sensibility is functional; the fifth is the psychosocial, that is, spiritual and religious. Consumers with these new needs will have their centers of life value and life consciousness shifted from material to spiritual, and health, education, entertainment, culture and information will become new growth points.

In the process of paying more attention to and pursuing spiritual consumption, modern and future consumers will no longer regard consumption as a pure consumption of goods or services, and will no longer be passive in accepting unilateral inducements from business operators. And manipulating, buying goods from the limited variety and styles designed and provided by manufacturers, but asking as participants to work with companies to develop "life" that can resonate with them in accordance with new consumer awareness and consumer needs. "Sympathetic" products, open up a "life co-creation" market with consumers to create new values and lifestyles. In this process, consumers will give full play to their imagination and creativity, and actively participate in the design, production and reprocessing of goods, including spiritual products and physical products, and display unique modifications through creative consumption to reflect their own value. For greater sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.

In short, with the development of the times and changes in the social environment, the structure, content and nature of the needs of modern consumers are also constantly changing. Only by analyzing and understanding the changes and trends of consumer needs in a timely manner can we grasp the basic trends of consumer psychology and behavior as a whole.