What are Marketing Management Orientations?
It is not shocking that the marketing team wants to develop strategies that will help in building profitable relationships with their target customers. But what is the fundamental approach they should take to develop these strategies? How do they balance out various factors like customer needs, organizational strength, and societal requirements? More often than not they end up contradicting each other resulting in wastage of time and money for the marketing orientation. The marketing management orientation can be defined as the process that helps in identifying and selecting the appropriate strategies for managing customer relationships. The concept is quite simple but it’s difficult to implement. There are many theories, methods, tools, and frameworks available to help marketers do so.
5 Marketing Management Orientations
To avoid this, five marketing management orientations are developed to strategize and build profitable relationships with customers. They are:
i) Production Concept ii) Product Concept iii) Selling Concept iv) Marketing Concept, and v) Societal Marketing Concept.
Production Concept
The basis of this idea is that consumers will favor products that are available and highly affordable. Therefore the company must focus on improving distribution and production efficiency. The production concept is basically about getting products out in the market as soon as possible to maximize the chances of consumers buying them. It also emphasizes keeping low costs by reducing marketing expenses. It is one of the oldest marketing management orientations.
It finds its use in a commoditized marketplace where there are no significant differences between the competing products. For example, there are no significant differences between the cars produced by Ford and General Motors in the budget category. The only difference is that Ford’s cars are more affordable than GM’s. Thus, it can be used in a market where customers want the most affordable and easily available car.
Product Concept
It is the idea that consumers will favor the right products that offer the most quality, performance, and innovative features. Therefore, the organization should devote its energy to making continuous product development improvements. It also emphasizes building brand loyalty by delivering quality products at competitive prices. The focus is on getting customers to use your products or services as well as encouraging them to buy them again and again.
This orientation focuses on customer needs and wants, thus creating a need for people’s involvement in all stages of the marketing process like product design. It is very much applicable in marketplaces like amazon where consumers are making a purchase decision based on product features and benefits, such as laptops and cell phones. On the other hand, it can be used to create brand loyalty for products that are not easily replaced by new ones, like cars or refrigerators. For example, Ford has been successful in keeping its car prices low because of its focus on product improvement rather than product innovation.
Disadvantages of the product concept
Although it has its own advantage, companies adopting product orientation run the risk of focusing too much on their product and ending up in marketing myopia. Companies like Nokia, Blackberry, etc. failed due to not focusing on the underlying needs and customer wants.
Also, it is not always applicable in every situation. The focus on quality and performance makes it difficult to market products that are more basic or inexpensive, such as pens or pencils. Companies using this customer orientation may fail to be competitive if they cannot produce goods at a low cost. For example, Apple failed in its attempt to sell computers with high-quality features because it could not compete with cheap PCs made by companies like Dell.
It is difficult to apply in markets where consumers are less likely to buy the same product again, such as clothing or food. People may switch brands based on new experiences rather than the quality and performance of products. For example, many people who were satisfied with Apple’s iPod chose to buy other MP3 players after they found out that there was a cheaper model made by Sony which offered similar features at lower prices.
Selling Concept
It is the idea that consumers will not buy enough of the firm’s products unless the firm undertakes a large-scale selling and promotion effort. The Selling Concept is used in situations where the firm does not have a durable good, and it needs to sell its products through advertising through social media or other methods.
For example, Microsoft’s attempt to promote Windows Vista as a new operating system was hindered by the fact that many target consumers were reluctant to purchase an operating system because they did not believe that their computer would be compatible with it. Microsoft eventually realized this problem and began selling pre-installed versions of Windows Vista to computer manufacturers. With the aggressive selling of the operating system, Microsoft was able to overcome its lack of trust and increase sales significantly.
Reflecting on a company’s Product Concept and Selling Concept can help managers understand how they should approach the marketing of their products. For example, if a firm is promoting its product as being more durable than other competitors’, then it would be wise to a selling method that emphasizes this quality. However, if the firm has chosen to emphasize low prices, then it may be better off using a selling method that highlights price instead of focusing on quality.
Marketing Concept
It is a philosophy in which achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of the target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions better than competitors do. The concept of marketing can be traced back to the early 20th century. The term was first used in the United States by Thomas Adams (1883–1960) who founded a company that specialized in direct mail advertising for clients such as AT&T and IBM; he also wrote books on salesmanship and psychology. Marketing Concept, in contrast to marketing strategy, is a process of determining the strategies and tactics necessary to achieve organizational goals. The success of a marketing concept can be measured by how well it fulfills its promise and delivers on its potential. The marketing concept holds that customer value is created when companies create, deliver, and communicate customer value to their target customers. This definition does not focus on market share or profitability; rather it focuses on sales volume and customer satisfaction. The marketing Concept has four pillars: Market segmentation, Market Targeting, Differentiation, and Positioning. Any company which understands its customers’ needs and market wants will be successful in this internet era of business.
For example, Apple’s success can be attributed to its focus on providing customers with superior products and innovative software designs, which is very different from most companies that use the Product Concept as their strategy for success. Apple has positioned itself as the “Premium” alternative to other products on the market by emphasizing its unique design and ease of use over other companies’ capabilities in quality and price. By taking this approach, Apple gained an edge over competitors such as Dell and HP who were unable to match Apple’s price, quality, and design.
Difference between selling and marketing
The selling takes an inside-out view that focuses on existing products and heavy selling. The aim is to sell what the company makes rather than making what the customer wants. The marketing tales an outside-in view that focuses on satisfying customer needs as a path to profits. Selling is a business function that focuses on existing products and selling them to customers. Marketing is a business function that focuses on satisfying customer needs in order to increase profits. For example, the selling of a product could be seen as the end goal whereas the marketing might be seen as part of it, but not its final goal.
Societal Marketing Concept
It is the idea that a company’s marketing decisions should consider consumer wants, the company’s requirements, consumers’ long-run interests, and society’s long-run interests. In finance terms, it is the concept of moving away from the narrow stockholders’ approach towards a more inclusive stakeholders’ approach. We’ve written a comprehensive blog about the societal marketing concept and how companies should discharge their social responsibility here.
Conclusion
It is necessary to consider different orientations of marketing management in order to meet the needs of your organization. The most important aspect is that each market orientation has its own vision, mission, and goals. To implement this vision, it is necessary to have a team that knows how to work together with other teams. Please take some time today to explore the blog post one more time and let us know if you agree with this approach or any other!