Marketing Orientation

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

For write-ups on other topics of marketing and sales management, refer: (Marketing Management Overview) http://marketing-management-overview.blogspot.com/, (Marketing Management Tasks) http://marketing-management-tasks.blogspot.com/, (Market research) http://market-research-function.blogspot.com/, (Market Segmentation) http://market-segment.blogspot.com/, (Advertising) http://advertising-mass-communication.blogspot.com/, (Sales Promotion) http://sales-promotion.blogspot.com/, (Sales/Selling Process) http://selling-process.blogspot.com/, (Negotiation Skills) http://negotiating-skills.blogspot.com/, (Negotiation Tactics) http://negotiation-tactics.blogspot.com/, (Objection Handling) http://objection-handling.blogspot.com/

Decision on Organizational Orientation to Marketing

It is necessary that the companies choose right kind of orientation to their marketing efforts. Things are continuously changing in terms of

Business and social changes
Customer related changes
Changes in manufacturing and marketing organizations

Therefore, the organizations should select their marketing orientation considering these factors.

Business and Social Changes

Globalization
Liberalization
Privatization
Relaxation of governmental controls over businesses
Advances in information technologies
Fierce local and global competition
Retailing boom
Emergence of "brick and click" retailers over earlier only "brick" retailers or only "click" retailers
Consumer awareness
Industry and business convergence

Customer Related Changes

Increased consumer awareness
More purchasing power
Information explosion
Plentiful products/services and their varieties: alternatives explosion
Ease of buying
More consultative buying due to information availability and information exchange

Changes in Manufacturing and Marketing Organizations

Accuracy in market research
Effective product development process
Advanced manufacturing technologies and capabilities
Advanced information technologies
Effective communication using Internet
More effective advertising/promotion campaigns
Ease of maintaining closer relationships with customers

Types of Marketing Orientation

Depending upon the above mentioned factors, from time to time, companies choose their marketing orientation. How the marketing orientation has been undergoing various shifts will be clear by knowing about the various marketing orientations that existed and are still emerging.

Production orientation

It is the oldest type.
Assumption is that customers will prefer easily available low cost goods.
The emphasis, therefore, is on improving production efficiencies.
Then the orientation is: we produce efficiently, we will flood and dominate the market (with inexpensive products), our product is widely available and so, you will take it because it beats the competition.

Product Orientation

Here the assumption is that the customers prefer quality, performance and innovative features in a product and therefore, prefer to buy them.
Therefore, organization's priority is to continually improve these three factors in a product. Product improvement is constantly in focus for product oriented marketers/organizations.
They believe that the superior features of the product will automatically bring the customers to their door steps.

Selling orientation

Here the assumption is that the customers don’t buy or don’t buy enough unless one sells them.
So, the marketers should do aggressive promotion and selling and thus they will be able to sell more even if the customers had not thought of buying in the first place.
Marketer should sell more things to more people to make more money and more profit.
Selling effort has to be adopted in cases where the organization has over capacity to produce more than the market demands.
It believes in selling what it makes rather than producing as per the market demand.

Marketing orientation

Start with the customer and not from the product as is the case with product and selling orientation discussed earlier.

It is customer oriented.

Study what the customers want and develop and produce those goods/services.

Marketing orientation, thus, is more capable of providing more value for money (VFM) to the customers. Refer: http://lean-organization.blogspot.com/ (Lean Enterprise) and http://customer-orientation.blogspot.com/ (Customer Orientation)

Customer focused approach may be reactive (reacting to customers’ expressed needs) and also proactive (based on study of customers’ latent needs).

Reactive approach will result in some minimum innovations in the products and services whereas proactive approach may result in high level innovations.

It will be good idea to have a total marketing orientation consisting of both- reactive as well proactive approaches.

Holistic orientation

Real effective marketing is an outcome of a large number of interdependent factors. They all need to be management in an integrated/unified manner.
Holistic marketing looks at marketing as a total process starting from within the organization and reaching to its customers and in turn making sure of achieving organization’s twin objectives, namely economic value addition (EVA- which is more than just making the conventionally understood profit) for the organization while simultaneously providing more value for money (VFM) to the customers.
These various interdependent factors relate to: relationship marketing, integrated marketing, internal marketing and performance marketing and these four factors put together is holistic marketing.
Relationship marketing aims at building closer relationships with the customers by knowing them better and delighting them on a long term basis.
Integrated marketing aims at integrating the four famous marketing activities or the four Ps as marketing mix tools. These four Ps are: product, price, promotion and place.
Internal marketing aims at inculcating an environment of marketing throughout the organization. Not only various sections of marketing department but every department of the organization must think in “customer” terms and adopt necessary marketing principles.
Performance marketing aims at maximizing the economic value addition to the organization and value for money to its customers. It also aims at satisfying the requirements of social, legal, environmental and ethical expectations.

Books Authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar (available online from Nuubuu and Amazon)

HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness)
Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers (Volume 1)
Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers (Volume 2)
Desert Survival: Complete Treatise (Complete Guide with Expert Solution for Trainers to Conduct the Game)
Landing on Moon: Complete Treatise (Complete Guide with Expert Solution for Trainers to Conduct the Game)
Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)
HSoftware (Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
Competencies and Competency Matrix
Essentials of Work Study (Method Study and Work
Measurement
Essentials of Time Management (Taking Control of Your
Life)
Essentials of 5S Housekeeping
Essentials of Quality Circles
Essentials of Goal Setting
Essentials of Anger Management
Essentials of Assertive Behavior
The Romance of Intimacy (How to Enhance Intimacy in a
Relationship?)
Good People (Dream of a Boundary Less World) Novel, a
refreshingly different love story
Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
Stories Children Will Love (Volume 1: Bhanu-Shanu-Kaju-
Biju and Dholu Ram Gadbad Singh)
Travelogue: Scandinavia, Russia

Marketing Orientation

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Marketing Orientation

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