Introduction
The main aim of a consumer orientation is marketing whose goal is improvement in sales volume. Market orientation can be in a behavioral or cultural perspective (Kirca, Jaychandran and Bearden, 2005, 24). The cultural view emphasizes on a firm’s norms and value that support market orientation. The behavioral definition involves the interest in enterprise activities that generate market intelligence. Market-oriented companies thus focus on the market. Product orientation, on the other hand, emphasizes the skills, processes, designs and systems that support the output. (Forest time, 2017) It is also the company’s sole focus on the products only. Although both strategies are for the purpose of marketing, the market orientation strategy is the most modern approach that focuses on consumer satisfaction through value addition. This essay will critically analyze product and market orientation concepts, their pros and cons, and relevance in marketing.
Marketing Orientation
A marketing orientation strategy is an operational strategy that utilizes the organization of activities, products, and services offered, in respect to the wants and needs of the customers. Marketing orientation involves tools used in researching the market to determine the changes in the taste and the preferences of the users, and marketing testing, which would determine the focus of marketing strategy. Marketing orientation helps in analysis and understanding of the frequent changes in the needs of the customer as a result of increasing competition in the market.
The use of the strategy allows the product and service producers intensify their market research and design their products in ranges and from preferred by the consumer. It being a sales-oriented strategic approaches, it relies on the strength of branding and communication, plus it’s strategically used to pull the customers to the business by making them believe that the firm provide them with the services and products they need and prefer.
Positive aspects of marketing orientation
The fact that the strategy focuses on the production of the goods and services as required by the customer is one of the most positive aspects of marketing orientation. Marketing orientation puts the customer needs first and primarily focuses on the changes of their preferences in an individual product. In respect to wants and needs of the customers, the providers respond by coming up with products and services that match up the preference and diaries of the customers. The strategy allows for the satisfaction of the client, which in turn will equal reflected by repeat purchases and loyalty to the business.
The level of concentration of the marketing strategy allows for the adaptation of concepts in business that would guarantee that the needs of the customers are acted upon. The definition of roles in the company I made easy and the employees work hand in hand to ensure that the customers stay provided for sufficiently. The strategy allows for the production of products that focus on satisfying the customer, openness of survives and customer feedback. Through marketing strategy, the company management system can set rules by making customers the priority.
Marketing advantage and long-term profitability is another positive aspect of marketing orientation. When an individual product or service provider has enough knowledge on the market they serve, it makes it easy for them to deliver as per the expectations of the customers. He marketers of the provider company can develop impaction emotionally on a real appeal into promotions.
Negative aspects of marketing orientation
In market direction, the customer may remain underestimated. In the present market, the marker has increased owing to the growing competitiveness across all consumer brands. Through the internet, market orientation strategy can identify wants and needs of the customers. The system needs to be flexible enough fir it to relate to the highly informed customer in the market. The information on the client should enable the businesses to adjust to the changes in the client’s preferences quickly. While in the price or satisfy their consumer needs, the company failing to be up to date with the marketing orientation trends may suffer the case their suffering because of their separation themselves from other customers.
In every system, there exist the positive and the negative aspects of the system. In market orientation, there may exist a risk of the underestimation of the market under study. When the system is not well utilized, the company may collect useless information to reach out of the customers. Acting upon ineffective and corrupt data by the corporation may significantly impact on the business negatively as compared to when the data is not available at all. Marketing orientation requires staying utilized by advances firms that have enough meeting resources, and segmentation between the workers of all departments for it to be effective.
Marketing orientation poses the challenge of flexibility to the business to quickly respond to the constant changes in customer preference. The product and service providers may be put into a disadvantaged position if it fails to have flexibility in taking into account the external factors and incorporating them with the internal factors
Product orientation
The operational strategy utilized in product direction primarily takes into account, focus on its products as well as the skills, resources, knowledge and systems that support the operations leading to the delivery of the product. In product orientation, the tools utilized in the operational strategies involve the research on the product, product testing which in turn gets used in product focusing. The product orientation approach looks into the manufacturing or the delivery of much superior product or service.
The providence of great goods and services are used as baits to attract customers to the business because the property or services are exactly what they need. Product orientation helps greatly in guaranteeing the development and maintenance of quality, the safety of the product while at the same time working towards investment of new technology in the product and service delivery.
Positive aspects of product orientation
In product direction, there is the guarantee of quality o the product and services offered. The approach allows the business to analyze and understand the concept of product quality through the drafting of an effective product-oriented performance model. Product orientation does not focus on the needs and preference of the customer, but rather it explicitly focuses on creating a product that the business sees as perfect for the market. The product to be delivered is designed to work on specifics as a lot of effort is directed towards their modeling to be perfect in the market (Sharp, 1991)
Product orientation allows or the development of a wide range of goods for the market by utilizing and developing technology that is used in the modeling o the product. The development of the product at a particular time does not necessarily focus on the consumer’s preference at that point. The success of the product is often seen when the product approach is used in a business system
The development of economies can quickly be developed when product orientation is used. The cost of running the operations can be reduced as the system focuses on an individual product and since the focus is specific to a particular direction, the product can be manufactured in the most efficient manner and favorable qualities on cost.
Negative aspects of goods orientation
When using marketing course, one may miss on opportunities in the market quickly. The property and services offer by the company may be the beast for the customers, but the customers tend to, but what they prefer and not necessary what is best for them. An approach that is entirely product-oriented may cost the companies significantly when trying to develop the best product. Many pleased marketers sell the privileges of their products, rather than the characteristics, to capitalize on consumers’ feelings and emotions. It is well comprehended that sex sells, even though it the approach sells features and not the benefits of their products, and so penetrating the market m not be that easy (Sharp, 1991)
Product orientation can result to narrow branding as the products made mostly do not have explicit messages and image limiting the sales. The provider should be able to have a clear and detailed information on what they offer in line with what the customer needs. (Hong, Song and Yoo, 2012)
Steps a business may take to adjust its orientation
In any setting, in the consumer orientation spectrum, it may not be easy separation the marketing and the product direction as the two tend to intertwine for the success if the system. Taking Gillette and an example of a company that utilizes marketing orientation and Sony that uses the product orientation approach. When launching Walkman, the steps business take to adjust its orientation include;
Carrying out market research into what consumers want to understand their preference and in turn, allow the provider to shape the services in a way that will serve the customers better and in turn increase sales
Organizing and carrying out product research in line with the results of market research which is done before determining the kind of goods needed and the potential market for the product.
Performing qualitative market research to understand fully how the customers take new ideas and how they think of them. It helps in identifying gaps during service and product delivery and hence working on them
Testing the newly launched products in new small markets before venturing into the wider markets to minimize chances of failure and correct any issue before a primary market is ventured into.
The evaluation of the present perception of the customers regarding the product is also taken into account to be sure on where and when to improve on the product and technology offerings.
Challenges that this may cause
Adjusting the orientation of a business is done from time to time to ensure that it stays in line with the changes in the market, ensure optimal customer satisfaction and increased sales to the business. The main problem that is mostly experienced id the cost of practicing the approaches and the matter research that are required in the producing firms (Sharp, 1991)
Adjusting to the present market is another issue that greatly affects the business as the company would need to be shaped in line with the changes in the market based on their objectives, ideas and the needs of the customers in general. (Craig-Lees, Joy and Browne, 1995)
The use of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Matrix (SWOT)
When a company decides to use the product or the marketing orientation, the SWOT analyses matrix may be of great help.
Strengths
The business should be able to determine the kind of sales and customer services that are present in the target business market. This helps in determining what the market wants and how they consider the services the company offers as compared to the competitors. The strengths that may be looked into include product availability and customer service and perspective.
Weaknesses
Determining the weaknesses of a business enables the company to understand the market from the customer’s perspective in terms of how and what they see as short comings in the business. The threats of a business are a consumer’s advantage and the business should work as much as possible to deal with them. Types of weaknesses include mishandling of customers and inconsistency
Opportunities
Opportunities should be taken into account by a business as they are the basis of future strengths. The business should determine the opportunities it has to increase the sales and market share, and the strategies it uses in exploiting the opportunities. Opportunities include the improvement of corporate culture and exceeding consumer expectations.
Threats
Threats in a business are future weaknesses and hence should be deal with in their initial states to prevent them from affecting the businesses as weaknesses. The business should consider all the treats from every source and come up with strategies to deal with them. Threats include losing customers and increased competition
By taking into serious consideration the SWOT matrix, the strategies of market and product orientation can be highly effective and results realized very easily.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as much as businesses tend to incorporate the two orientation approaches in their business for success, the marketing approach makes a greater impact and ensures success as compared to the product orientation approach. Product approach takes its advantage in the fact that the approach can get the benefit of experiencing economies of scale within a short period but in general, the focus that the marketing approach gives, to the preference and the needs of the customers allows it to have the upper hand.
Marketing approach greatly helps startups and other businesses in their initial steps of advancing that may not have a reliable marketing research tools in their early stages of development. They can understand the need for the customer and the market and in turn avoid the development of products that old not be preferred, and cause loss to their business at this financially critical time in business.
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