Why use VLOOKUPs

Im trying to understand why you would use a VLOOKUP when you can use a pivottable and drill down into the information you want with a filter etc?

My understanding of Vlookups is to look up certain values and when excel finds that value, bring back the data in a column of your choice... But of course a filter would do the same on a pivot etc.

Can someone give me a good practicel example where a VLOOKUP is superior over a pivot table?