Market orientation

Market orientation
See also
Business architecture Product portfolio Strategic position Personal selling Product concept Sales planning Strategic agility Harvesting strategy Multi-channel distribution

Market orientation is a business strategy which focuses on understanding market dynamics and customer needs in order to create value for customers through products and services. Market orientation involves a company's ability to identify customer needs and preferences, develop appropriate solutions to meet those needs, and communicate effectively with customers. This strategy involves gathering and analyzing customer data, customer feedback, and market trends in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of customer needs. Additionally, this approach requires the company to be proactive in responding to customer needs and feedback in order to create a competitive advantage. Companies who are market-oriented are often more successful in creating products and services that meet customer needs, resulting in increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Example of Market orientation

• Market Intelligence: Companies that are market-oriented focus on gathering market intelligence, such as customer data, feedback, and trends, in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of customer needs.
• Product Development: Companies use market intelligence to create products and services that meet customer needs and preferences. This includes developing products and services with features that customers desire and pricing them competitively.
• Customer Relationships: Companies that are market-oriented take a proactive approach to developing and maintaining relationships with customers. This includes gathering customer feedback and responding quickly to customer needs.

By focusing on understanding customer needs and market dynamics, companies can create products and services that meet customer needs and gain competitive advantage. Market orientation requires companies to invest resources in gathering and analyzing customer data, developing customer relationships, and creating products and services that meet customer needs. As a result, companies who are market-oriented are often more successful in creating products and services that meet customer needs, resulting in increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Formula of Market orientation

Market orientation can be described as a combination of three elements: customer orientation, competitor orientation, and inter-functional coordination. Customer orientation focuses on understanding customer needs, wants, and preferences in order to develop products and services that meet customer requirements. Competitor orientation involves understanding competitors’ strategies, products, and tactics in order to gain an advantage in the market. Inter-functional coordination involves the coordination of efforts among different departments such as marketing, sales, engineering, and finance in order to effectively create and deliver customer solutions.

When to use Market orientation

Market orientation is an effective strategy for businesses of any size and in any industry. It is especially beneficial for businesses that need to remain competitive in highly saturated markets or that require a certain degree of customer loyalty to be successful. Additionally, market orientation is especially beneficial for businesses that offer products or services with a long lifecycle, as it helps to ensure that the products or services remain relevant and attractive to customers throughout their lifecycle.

Types of Market orientation

There are three types of market orientation that companies can adopt in order to be successful; customer orientation, competitor orientation, and inter-functional orientation.

• Customer orientation is a market orientation that focuses on understanding customers’ needs and wants. This orientation involves gathering and analyzing customer data and feedback in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of customer needs. Additionally, this approach requires the company to be proactive in responding to customer needs and feedback by creating value for customers through products and services.
• Competitor orientation is a market orientation that focuses on understanding the competition in order to seek a competitive advantage. This orientation involves researching and analyzing the competition in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses and develop strategies to gain an advantage over them. Additionally, this approach requires the company to be proactive in responding to the competition by creating products and services that are better than those of the competition.
• Inter-functional orientation is a market orientation that focuses on the collaboration between different functional areas in order to create value for customers. This orientation involves working together between different departments within the company in order to develop an understanding of customer needs and develop appropriate solutions. Additionally, this approach requires the company to be proactive in responding to customer needs by creating products and services that are tailored to meet customer needs.

Steps of developing Market orientation

To ensure successful market-orientation, there are several steps that must be taken. These include:

• Gathering customer data: This involves collecting data from customers through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and other research methods. This data should be used to identify customer needs and preferences.
• Analyzing customer data: Once the customer data has been collected, it must be analyzed in order to identify patterns, trends, and insights. This analysis should be used to develop a better understanding of customer needs and preferences.
• Developing appropriate solutions: Once customer needs and preferences have been identified, appropriate solutions must be developed to meet those needs. This could involve developing new products or services, or making changes to existing products or services.
• Communicating with customers: In order to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty, it is important to communicate with customers in order to understand their needs and preferences. This could involve sending out surveys or conducting interviews.

Advantages of Market orientation

• Improved customer understanding: Market orientation involves gathering data from customers and analyzing it in order to gain a better understanding of customer needs. This information can be used to develop products and services that better meet customer needs, resulting in increased customer satisfaction.
• Increased customer loyalty: By understanding customer needs and responding proactively to customer feedback, companies can create a competitive advantage and increase customer loyalty.
• Increased market share: Companies who are market-oriented are more likely to develop products and services that meet customer needs, leading to increased customer satisfaction and a higher market share.

Limitations of Market orientation

• Data Gathering and Analysis: Market orientation requires companies to gather and analyze customer data and feedback in order to identify customer needs and preferences. This process can be expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to implement in large companies with complex systems. Additionally, the data collected may not be accurate or representative of the entire market, resulting in inaccurate conclusions about customer needs.
• Intangible Benefits: Market orientation can result in tangible benefits, such as increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and profits. However, some of the benefits of market orientation are intangible, such as increased customer trust and improved relationships. These benefits are difficult to measure and quantify and may not be easily visible to the company.
• Short-term Focus: Market orientation is often focused on short-term gains such as increased sales, rather than long-term goals such as brand building. This short-term focus can lead to a lack of innovation and can prevent companies from adapting to changing customer needs and preferences.

Other approaches related to Market orientation

There are several other approaches that are related to Market orientation. These include:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): CRM is a strategy focused on building strong, lasting relationships with customers by providing personalized, high quality service and support. Companies who use CRM are able to better understand customer needs and behaviors, which allows them to create and deliver more targeted products and services.
• Product Development: Product development involves creating and launching new products and services that meet customer needs. Companies that are market-oriented are often more successful in creating products that meet customer needs and are able to quickly respond to changes in customer needs and preferences.
• Pricing Strategies: Pricing strategies involve setting prices for products and services that meet customer needs and preferences. Companies that are market-oriented are better able to set prices that reflect customer needs and market dynamics.
• Marketing Strategies: Marketing strategies involve creating and executing campaigns that target specific customer needs and preferences. Companies that are market-oriented are better able to develop and execute campaigns that meet customer needs and are more successful in generating sales.

In summary, Market orientation is a business strategy focused on understanding customer needs and preferences in order to develop products and services that meet those needs. Additionally, there are several other approaches related to Market orientation, such as Customer Relationship Management, Product Development, Pricing Strategies, and Marketing Strategies, which are all aimed at creating value for customers.

Suggested literature

• Kohli, A. K., Jaworski, B. J., & Kumar, A. (1993). Markor: a measure of market orientation. Journal of Marketing research, 30(4), 467-477.