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The concept of marketing orientation was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s at Harvard University and at a handful of forward thinking companies. It replaced the previous Sales Orientation that was prevalent between the mid 1950s and the early 1970s, and the Production Orientation that predominated prior to the mid 1950s. Since the concept was first introduced in the late 1960s, it has been modified, repackaged, and renamed as "customer focus", "the marketing philosophy", "market driven", "customer intimacy", "consumer focus", "customer driven", and "the marketing concept". APPLICATION OF THE CONCEPT Customer focus can been seen as a process that involves three steps. First customer wants are researched, then the information is disseminated throughout the firm and products are developed, then finally customer satisfaction is monitored and adjustments made if necessary. The process can be applied at the individual level (called Personalized Marketing ), the group level (called Market Segmentation ), and occasionally at the mass level (mass marketing). The larger the group size, the more difficult the concept is to apply. Techniques that firms use to understand the customer include:
Richard Heiens of the University of South Carolina Aiken published a detailed overview of the market orientation concept in the Academy of Marketing Science Review (2000). In this article, the author examines the choices between a competitor and customer focus. A marketing oriented firm will typically show the following characteristics:
ARTICLES ABOUT IMPLEMENTING A CUSTOMER SERVICE FOCUS SEE ALSO
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