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Running Ahead: Marketing Orientation

ASSIGNMENT 1 Marketing Orientation

In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of

Master’s in Business Administration

Module code: STRMM055

Module Tutor:

Melvin Goh

Submitted by:

Dinesh

Word Count:

2886 Words

Due Date: 22 April 2019 Submission Date: 19 April 2019

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Running Ahead: Marketing Orientation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 3

Analysis of Marketing Orientation ............................................................................................ 3

Types of Orientation .................................................................................................................. 5

Production Orientation ........................................................................................................... 5

Product Orientation ................................................................................................................ 6

Sales Orientation .................................................................................................................... 6

Marketing Orientation ............................................................................................................ 6

Supremacy of Marketing Orientation ........................................................................................ 6

Marketing Orientation: A better approach for a better performance. .................................... 7

Positive influence of market orientation on businesses operational and monetary

performance ............................................................................................................................ 7

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 10

References ................................................................................................................................ 11
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Running Ahead: Marketing Orientation

INTRODUCTION

The business environment in each passing phase is becoming tougher for organizations and
they find it difficult to survive in competitive business without any fitting marketing plan and
strategies trailed by appropriate activities. Organizations cannot succeed in the market for the
long run unless the marketing approach is not adopted (Micheels and Gow, 2012). As long as
profit is required for organizational survival in competition, the importance of marketing
functions cannot be put aside. This always has high calling for a business direction that
essentially includes marketing as an orientation to have better visuals about future and
organizational operations to be certain of long-term survival. No organizations can ensure long-
term growth and survival in market if profit cannot be achieved (Anon, 2018). Surely this
highlights that business in order to strengthen its position in market needs to have marketing
approach and this cannot be possible without marketing orientation. In this essay several
orientations of business have been discussed and marketing orientation has been evaluated in
relation to others for understanding if marketing is more important and orientation regarding
this can help organizations running their business effectively in a competitive market.
Customers are the most important stakeholders and the ultimate determinants of business fate
in competitive markets which is the major cause for firms to adopt marketing orientation which
combines marketing activities as well as customers service related performance for increasing
satisfaction among customers (Dibb and Stern, 2000).

Analysis of Marketing Orientation

Marketing orientation is a management philosophy that adequately and productively enforces

an organization to follow certain behavior, which paves a way in creating an unmatched value
products or services for its customers, thus satisfying them, and therefore gaining the
sustainable and continuous superior performance in comparison with its competitors (Narver
& Slater, 1990, p.21). Marketing orientation gives an equal attention to both the customers’
needs and demands and to the companies’ objectives and goals. The following figure best
depicts the main area of interest for a marketing oriented firm.
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Running Ahead: Marketing Orientation

A marketing oriented firm places the company’s necessities and objectives as an apex priority
in spite of the fact that it perceives that these necessities can be met just through the procedure
of fulfilling the customers’ needs & demands (Houston, 1986). A marketing oriented firm
chooses its target market and manages its potential and core competencies to the fullest in order
to meet its goals and objectives. Furthermore, there are researches conducted in the past that
shows that a market driven organizations are more susceptible to innovation (Houston, 1986).
The study exclaimed that these marketing oriented firms are in a better position to foresee the
existing and the forthcoming needs and demands of the target customers, thus resulting into
innovation of products and services. There’s a realization that the customers at one point won’t
know what they want in the future, this is where the marketing orientation plays a crucial role.
It follows a 5 proposition that “market-pull” product development isn’t just the only correct
way available but “technology-push” absolutely has its benefits (Sharp, 1991, p-24). Moreover,
innovation emphatically influences firms' competitive advantage over its competitors as it
improves organizations’ responsiveness to new challenges, willingness to change, and new
product development while diminishing internal organizational resistance (Grinstein, 2008).
Marketing orientation has three main components namely, Customer orientation, Competitor
orientation, and Interfunctional coordination (Narver & Slater, 1990). The same has been well
depicted in the following diagram.
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Running Ahead: Marketing Orientation

Customer and competitor orientation include gathering all the necessary information like
customers’ existing and forthcoming wants and competitors core competencies and weaknesses
from the target market and further propagate the same through different inter-functional
departments (Narver & Slater, 1990, p. 21). These information then becomes a key input for
the marketing oriented firm in 6 order to excel form its competitors and satisfy their customers
in their target market (Narver & Slater, 1990).

Types of Orientation

Production Orientation

The moto of production-oriented companies is to manufacture maximum as per their capacity.

Until late 20th century companies were production oriented. In such company’s production
manager plays a key role. This companies focus on to maintain productivity with low cost.
They thought that customer’s needs were not important and selling had limited role. Their
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Running Ahead: Marketing Orientation

prime focus was on R & D, production and management of money. Hence, they could not
understand customers’ needs.

Product Orientation

It is about inventing new things and ideas. It involves to make the existing product better and
better or innovate new product to solve the problems with current product. The leaders in such
firms concentrate on advantages and quality of product. This firms put more efforts on
customer satisfaction, feedback and their needs. By focusing on customer’s requirements such
companies build relationship and loyalty of customers.

Sales Orientation

It is related to sell or push produced goods in the market even if sometime at the cost of
customer satisfaction and loyalty. Sales team is forced to sell whatever is produced or supplied.
Since, the strategy does not work on customer’s needs it results in customer turnover. In sales
orientation, achieving sales target is the success and the customers are of secondary
importance. They hire good sales people to cope with customer’s resistance to buy a product.

Marketing Orientation

MO is a process to understand, communicate and develop a product as per customer’s needs.

The customer is the central point of product development (Drummond and Ensor, 2005).

Supremacy of Marketing Orientation

Slater et al (2010) suggested that marketing orientation involves marketing performance with
some focused aspects of business and these are advertisements and promotion, high
performance for achieving sales target, arrangement and implementation of strategies for
expediting business growth to achieve more sales and more profits in business. Varadarajan
(2015) holds the same view and further highlighted that marketing orientation never limits the
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Running Ahead: Marketing Orientation

concept of customers’ satisfaction and their requirements from business and most essentially
with help of marketing orientation, satisfaction among customers becomes higher since
customers are actually informed about availability of their products and they also get to
understand whether the products and services are on par with their needs understood by the
brands they are associated with. Therefore, the purpose of customer orientation becomes
justified. This view is also supported by Winer and Dhar (2014).

Marketing Orientation: A better approach for a better performance.

A better organizational performance is a multifaceted structure which not only involves

superior financial performance but also other micro level achievements like better individual
behavior in an organization (Liao, Chang, Wu, & Katrichis, 1995 – 2008). There are many
studies conducted in the past which conclude that marketing oriented approach has a
tremendous positive impact on every single dimension of an organization, from a better
financial results to a better individual behavior in an organization (Liao, Chang, Wu, &
Katrichis, 1995 – 2008). As businesses constantly thrives to achieve a sustainable cutting edge
over its competitors through creating a product which is perceived by the customers as of great
value and through continuous improvement, they need to install an organizational culture that
motivates such behavior and that maintains the competitive edge in the market. Market oriented
approach helps in doing so (Zeithaml et al, 1996). Also, a market oriented firm fabricates a
cutthroat advantage by generating intelligence and communicating the same within the inter-
functional departments and thus ensuring a high level of responsiveness to the customer need
and demands (Lonial, Tarim, Tatoglu, & Zaim, 2008).

Positive influence of market orientation on businesses operational and monetary

performance

For a SME (Small and Medium Enterprises), manufacturing is one of the key determinants for
its growth, success and profitability in a long run (Vickery et al, 1993). There are four main
components which determines operational excellence in a manufacturing firm – manufacturing
cost, quality, delivery, and flexibility (Hayes and Pisano, 1994). There’s always a need or an
urgency to reduce the manufacturing cost so that not only the firm has an opportunity to
increase its profits but also levy some benefits to the customers by reducing products selling
price and have a competitive advantage over its competitors (Miller and Roth, 1994).
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According to Subramanian & Gopalakrishna (2001), market orientation has a strong dominance
over all the four components mentioned earlier. According to them, market oriented
companies’ are more likely to comprehend the value of providing better products or services
(i.e. better quality products as compared to its competitors) to its customers with the reduced
manufacturing cost. For this purpose the manufacturing firms will implement operational
excellence programs like TQM, lean six sigma, kaizen, Toyota production system (TPS) in
their firms (Subramanian & Gopalakrishna, 2001). Moreover market oriented firms adopt pull
production system rather than push production system, which is commonly adopted by the
production and selling oriented firms, thus reducing the chances of incurring inventory carrying
cost (Timsit, Castiaux, Truong, & Kling 2015). Furthermore, reducing the products absorption
cost (Timsit, Castiaux, Truong, & Kling 2015). Timely product delivery too plays an important
role in complete customer satisfaction (Gaur, & Vasudevan 2011). Market orientation helps the
firm to ascertain right delivery schedule, comprehends the significance of timely delivery and
streamlines the supply chain in order to ensure timely product delivery (Gaur, &Vasudevan
2011). Market orientation plays a leading role in this too; for e.g. customer orientation helps to
find out the delivery expectations of the customers. Competitor orientation helps the firm to set
a benchmark in terms of delivery schedule, which indeed motivates the firm to excel in
comparison to its competitors. And inter-functional orientation helps to communicate the
objective to all the relevant parties across the organization. Thus streamlining all the
departments to one common objective i.e. total customer satisfaction (Morash and Clinton,
1998). Also firms cannot be flexible in terms product mix unless they comprehend their clients’
needs, have a decent learning of their contenders' present and future strategic moves, their
capabilities, and have synchronous function within the firm. Market orientation helps in doing
so as it propagates a culture which is driven by innovation and continuous improvement (Gaur,
& Vasudevan 2011).

This according to Anon, (2018) gives clear notion that marketing orientation is the main aspects
which could enable a firm to focus on products for ensuring that growth is possible subject to
increase in sales and profit based on products of the firm. Therefore, marketing orientation is
the key focus which can optimize customer services for multiplying satisfaction among
customers and sales growth as stated by Felix, (2015). Laukkanen et al,.(2016) argued that
marketing plays subordinate roles to other business orientations because marketing does the
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Running Ahead: Marketing Orientation

task of getting products accepted in markets and this follows the proper arrangement often
ensured by other orientations. Mandal, (2017), argued with this notion and stated that
Marketing orientation is the prime requirement which an organizational culture does proliferate
and promote for confirming that business is adequately thoughtful on satisfaction of customers
and profit-making is the most vital objective which helps firms to understand that only market
orientation is helpful in strengthening position in markets whereas other orientations are fully
effective in presence of better marketing approach that is again effective with help of marketing
orientation in organizations in competitive industry (M’zungu et al., 2015). Therefore, among
all types of orientation, marketing orientation is the most leading cause for customers’
satisfaction and successful survival in the industry.

MO tend to lead performance improvement because it is the organisational culture which

encourages the patterns necessary to create exceptional value for clients and hence,
uninterrupted profit for the business (Dalgic et al.,2013).MO moulds organisations to
concentrate more on retention than acquisition and hence, profit rise than sales.MO is important
for corporate leaders to succeed for cooperation between the divisions of marketing, production
and R & D.

Characters of MO for international market are greater ability to generate market intelligence
and circulate it to relevant decision makers in all departments and response quickly to the
information/market intelligence (Dalgic et al.,2013).

Investment in technology is required but not adequate for gaining customer relationship
management (CRM). In pursuit of it, top management in hotels should lead effectively and
work on motivation of staff members with their engagement in MO (Padilla-Meléndez at
al.,2014).
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Running Ahead: Marketing Orientation

Conclusion

There is a general belief that MO is the supreme orientation than other business orientations.
Organizations which combine MO with other orientations do even better than organizations
adopt only MO (Grinstein, 2008). No single strategic orientation does guarantee for success in
all situations. Firms should deal with multiple strategic orientations (e.g. Boso et al.,
2013;Cadogan, 2012; Laukkanen et al.,2013). Right proportion between MO and other
orientations is needed to improve performance in organizations (Grinstein, 2008).
Organizations are always eager to serve their customers for ensuring their highest level of
satisfaction. This becomes possible in presence of a suitable orientation. There are several types
of orientations in business and these are customer orientation, customer service orientation,
product orientation, marketing orientation, competitor orientation, organizational culture, inter-
functional coordination. Organizational culture promotes performance and marketing as
effective tools for value creation and satisfaction of customers in competitive markets (Ngo
and O'Cass, 2012). Marketing orientation is, therefore, most important and has supremacy over
all types of orientations when successful business operation and survival in markets are
concerned.
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Running Ahead: Marketing Orientation

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