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.

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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 on the product rather than the other areas of the marketing mix. The marketing mix details the general approach to marketing the ‘four p’s’ as follows…

  • Product
  • Price
  • Place
  • Promotion

 

This is generalised as this for simplicity as marketing encompasses all aspects of what the firm aims to do with the product. This idea of the marketing mix is to simplify the task of marketing, as this simplifies it for the purposes of other areas of the company, for example the board of directors. The problem of over simplifying the marketing concept can lead other areas of the organisation to reject marketing as an unnecessary part of the business, when in fact the marketing is often regarded as the central force behind the business (especially marketers themselves). In my opinion, the implementation of a fifth ‘p’ would be greatly beneficial. The ’p’ I have in mind is People. As with the other elements of the marketing mix this ‘p’ would not only focus on itself but will be integrated with the other elements to give a positive approach to customer orientation, which at the end of the day should be a major objective of the business, which helps to build, maintain or gain entry to the market. Marketers may not agree with me on this, as the idea for a product and the customer needs are found through market research, which is a separate function of marketing itself. However, I find that using the additional ‘p’ could give the organisation the competitive edge as not only are they carrying out market research, but they are also focusing on the customer in the marketing mix, giving a more positive customer orientated approach to their business. This should have an interesting effect on the market as long as other companies don’t catch on to the idea it could possibly give the business a competitive advantage. A company who is more customer orientated has the advantage of knowing what the customer want and giving it to them.

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The Marketing process can be illustrated as a diagram referred to as the Marketing Model. This is a framework used to make marketing decisions in a scientific manner. It is derived from F.W Taylor’s method of basing decisions on scientifically gathered research evidence. The five stages can be shown as this diagram:

Corporate objectives

        1)         Marketing objectives

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