which form do you prefer?

-a variety of customer needs
-various customer needs


Of the two, which form do you prefer? which is more natural?
Personally, as a non-native, I like the second one better always.
It sounds more concise.

Besides, the more 'of ' there are, the more I get lost in sentences.

How about "various needs of customers"?

Hmm..That's fine, I didn't think of that.That sounds most natural to me.
But, for now, I'm more interested in the 'a variety of' and 'various' difference.

I think you'd have to see this in a sentence (or paragraph) before choosing the "more natural" form.

What Guest says is right. You can't make such a judgement without seeing it in context. This is particularly true here because the phrases actully refer to different things. The former refers to the variety the latter to the needs.

Neither is "more correct" than the other; they are simply appropriate to different sentences.