The Marketer's Handbook: Reassessing Marketing Techniques for Modern Business



MARKETING CONCEPT

Application: Strategy, organizational development

The Concept

The marketing concept suggests that the buyers and the market, not exclusively the operations of the firm, should be at the centre of management’s attention; and that, by putting attention on the market, long-term profits can be achieved. Over the years it has been called “market-orientated” or “customer-led” but is the antithesis of the internal orientation of many firms. Some are sales-led, some fascinated with technology or product enhancement while others are monopolies, preoccupied with internal rivalry. These approaches can be successful for a time, generating funds for owners, until market conditions change. If new regulation is passed or an aggressive competitor changes market dynamics, or the industry reaches market maturity firms without a market orientation can fail.

This simple concept is in all marketing text books and can sound like wishful thinking by marketing theorists, keen to press for greater influence for their discipline, because, in practice, the experience of many marketers is almost the opposite; that the function is not appreciated or allowed to contribute as it might. They become absorbed with changing daily priorities, tactical rather than strategic work, and the need to engage in internal politics to protect the contribution of their function. But this ...