Question from MBA Finance - Marketing

What are the different types of needs? Pull out examples from the case below to illustrate them.

The Vaishnodevi temple nestles amidst the mountains of the lower Himalayas. It is located on top of a hill. The 14 km trek up to the shrine is an arduous one and can easily challenge even a healthy person. You could either choose to sit atop a mule or walk barefoot though, these days, a helicopter service has become popular. Still every year, lakhs of pilgrims ignore the pain to their bodies and choose to trudge atop the mountains on foot to have a darshan of Vaishno mata.

This was Ravis first visit to the famous temple. He was about forty, in great shape thanks to a 5 km morning jog. Though he could have easily afforded other options, he chose to travel to the shrine on foot. As he was climbing up the narrow road that wound up to the temple, his thoughts turned to other things. It was customary on the part of Hindu pilgrims to give up something when they visited a notable temple. Some promise to stay away from harmful elements like alcohol. A few smart alecs find enterprising ways of getting around these customs. Some of them make promises not to eat stuff that they are sure they would normally not encounter in their lives.

Ravi had decided to give up smoking. Smoking is the most difficult of all addictions to give up. The great writer Mark Twain had once quipped It is very easy to give up smoking. I have done it so many times. This time, up in the cold, salubrious climes of the Himalayan foothills, he found himself brave enough for the task. He hoped the blessings of the Goddess would also help him get over the obnoxious habit.

Ravi never really understood why he smoked. He hated the fumes which crowded past his airways to his lungs. Often they made him cough. Sometimes he even got mouth ulcers. Still, he found it difficult to kick the habit. He would inevitably reach out for a cigarette when he was alone. The funny thing is he also smoked in a group with his friends.

Early in his marriage, his wife had once asked him why he smoked. He had been baffled for an answer. It makes me feel cheerful. He had replied and playfully offered a pull to his spouse, knowing well she would refuse.

He had picked up his habit in school. He remembered how he and a few of his friends would quietly sneak off into the alleys that surrounded his school and buy Capstan cigarettes from a shop. The shop keeper had strategically placed his shop a little away from the main thoroughfare so that the students would not run the risk of being caught by their teachers. Often that meant harsh punishment in school. That did not deter him and his group of friends, none of whom liked school. Smoking a cigarette, at least back then, felt so glamorous and liberating. With the cigarette pressed between their lips, they felt like Vijay of Deewar, the movie which had been a smashing hit during his childhood in the seventies and had made a superstar out of the great Amitabh Bachhan. Superman Vijay, who could take on twenty men with his bare hands, smoked a bidi in that picture and looked impressive in his dock workers blue uniform.

BA ZC411 (EC-2 Make-up) Second Semester 2019-2020 Page 2

Still, he hated the smoke and was only delighted when the shopkeeper, who had got to know the students offered them cheap lozenges to suppress the smell of smoke. This he usually did for free and endeared himself to this group of customers.

In college, he continued the habit. Now it seemed like the man thing to do. He also learnt creative ways of making smoke curls as he exhaled. Amongst his friends, they would hold competitions about who could hold the smoke for the most extended duration. His friend Prateek, whose abilities in such games was near legendary, later suffered a stroke in his thirties and only barely managed to survive. There was a feeling among the male students that girls found smokers attractive. He was enormously disappointed to learn later, that was not the case. His wife told him she found them smelly and obnoxious and generally avoided being around a smoker.

The habit had continued in his sales career. He and his fellow friends in sales joked how tobacco companies these days ran their businesses from the revenues they got from the tribe of salesmen. Their consumption of cigarettes spiked around month-end as pressure mounted to meet their sales targets. He did not understand this phenomenon. Was he smoking to release stress? He did not find any information anywhere, which would even suggest that nicotine served to reduce the effects of the stress hormone. So what was it? Or was smoking an outlet for his anger on himself? Was it a punishment he was inflicting on himself for not meeting his targets or for not achieving his lifes goals? This line of reasoning explained why his smoking tended to go up under challenging months. Still, something was missing. And now that he was quitting the stick, he would probably never know why he virtually smoked away his youth.