What is the marketing concept? Explain the importance of customer orientation and use examples of your choice to discuss companies who have successfully adopted a customer orientation.

The first 200 words of this essay...

What is the marketing concept? Explain the importance of customer orientation and use examples of your choice to discuss companies who have successfully adopted a customer orientation.

Marketing could be described as an 'all embracing function that links the company with customer tastes' (as in a-z of business studies, third edition, by D. Lines, I. Marcouse & B. Martin, page 171). The concept of marketing focuses on getting the right product, to the right place, at the right time.

Marketing has to deal with decisions based on these factors through their findings in market research and through the marketing mix. The marketing mix (often referred to as 'The four p's') deals with the afore mentioned areas as well as focusing on 'promotion'. It is easy to get the idea that each 'p' is as important as the rest, as this is the view in most textbooks, however many marketing organisations would not agree with this, as many of them feel the single most important factor in the marketing mix is 'Product'. The argument for this is that, the product itself is the main focus of the customer and as such, a customer-orientated organisation would need to focus more