Which of the following describes a selling orientation approach to marketing?

Business orientations are classified into the following groups: Production Orientation, Product Orientation, Sales Orientation, and Market Orientation.

Production Orientation

Production orientation dominated the business landscapes of the industrial revolution and mid-1900’s; this is where a company is heavily focused on streamlining production processes and concentrating on improving efficiencies with little focus on anything else. Scenario: we can build a car for you, but it comes in black only.

Product Orientation

Production orientation is an approach to business that centres its activities on continually improving and refining its products. All efforts are put into making the product better.  Scenario: we can offer you non-chip paint on your car.

Sales Orientation

Some businesses see their main problem as not selling enough of the product or services which they already have available, hence predominantly focusing on sales and selling techniques. As a result, these organisations operate as Sales Oriented companies.

A sales orientated business pays little attention to customer needs and wants and is more concerned about selling. Scenario: if you sign up for the car now we’ll throw in a sunroof.

When a business bases its ability to make profits by using powerful selling techniques to persuade people to buy its products, rather than on customer needs.

Market Orientation

This is a culture rather than an individual process. It’s the norms, mindsets, values and behaviours of employers; alongside the structure, systems and control of the organisation. Marketing oriented businesses define their activities as service activities carried out towards the satisfaction of their customers.

In other words, they define their operation as a service business with customer service being the most important activity. They are driven by customer needs which are identified in their objectives. Scenario: we’ll make your car in whatever colour you choose.

A marketing orientated approach means a business reacts to what customers want. The decisions taken are based on information about customers’ needs and wants, rather than what the business thinks is right for the customer. Most successful businesses take a market-orientated approach.

Most markets are moving towards a more market-orientated approach because customers have become more knowledgeable and require more variety and better quality. To compete, businesses need to be more sensitive to their customer’s needs; otherwise, they will lose sales to competitors.

Take the current global car markets; the idea that car manufacturers can create a product and sell its features to the eagerly waiting buying public is no longer an option. With an increasingly global economy and more and more choices for consumers, companies must be willing to adapt their market orientation to stay competitive.

When to use it?

Use market orientations when you want to understand, anticipate and satisfy your customer needs. You may already be operating somewhere in-between orientations. Companies can be anywhere on the spectrum as well as having different products at different orientations.

What does it achieve?

• A sense of what customers want
• Links customer’s needs to company capabilities
• Builds relationships
• Creates vision
• Greater internal marketing and communications
• Tracking and information systems for further research and evaluation

Key steps:

• Audit and analyse the current orientation
• Decide on strategy
• Implement a full marketing mix
• Evaluate and control

Top Tips:

Being marketing orientated is more than just being customer-led. It requires the full support of the organisation in order to be fully implemented in the long term and may need a complete change in a company’s culture.

Marketing Orientation is a technique which focuses on meeting the customer requirements, their desires and wants and then designing an apt product. Many popular brands like Coca-Cola and Amazon have used this orientation approach to expand their market share and retain a lot of their customers for a long term. 

The orientation approach varies from product to market to customers. The main process involved in it is research and market scanning. It is significant to understand what the customer really wants. Their primary demands, immediate needs and even long term needs have to be combined and analyzed. 

Companies usually adopt analytical tools for understanding the patterns and behaviors of the customers. Once the company knows what the consumer wants, it can meet every demand and satisfy the customer. Product developers always look for something that will help them add something new to the product and make it more customer oriented. 

The advantage that marketing orientation has for companies is that it remains updated with all the latest technological advancements and spends a fair share of money over the innovations. 

The characteristics of Marketing Orientation are:

1. It is totally customer oriented. The main focus area is the wants of the customers and to be profitable companies need to satisfy the customers.

1. It also helps the companies analyze the threats and competitions. Sometimes companies cannot find out the threat it might face in the future. Using marketing orientation is a great way to analyze the potential threats.

1. Product innovation and modifying the product according to the needs of the customers is the main goal.

1. Following a marketing orientation approach is a great way to develop coordination among the teams and the departments.

There are 4 main stages that make up the marketing orientation process. These stages are- Initiation, Reconstitution, Institutionalization and lastly Maintenance. The first step focuses on the potential threats, second one is about embracing the changes, third deals with action and the last one is about meeting the customer demands. 

Implementing all these 4 stages in a well organized manner is important to successfully complete the marketing orientation strategy.

Also Read | Outbound Marketing

Advantages of Marketing Orientation

Here are some advantages of Marketing Orientation:

1. Nowadays, customers have all the information about the market trends and products. They know what is good for them and companies cannot make a fool out of them by selling any worthless thing. 

Using a marketing orientation approach for designing the products is a successful way to understand the needs of the customers and make what they want. These techniques help the company meet its long term objectives.

1. Sometimes companies feel that the customer demands are impractical. But still the customer has all the knowledge. Sometimes, customers want less costly products and companies adopt cost effective processes. 

So, in short, a marketing orientation approach helps in meeting the not so practical demands of the customers as well.

1. When the research work is completed, a lot of data is compiled and this data can be used in the later stages as well. After the sale is made, customer services are offered. This data can be utilized in after sale services for customer satisfaction. It increases the brand value as customers give positive feedbacks 

5 Marketing Orientation Approaches 

“Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.”

~ David Packard

Both marketers and marketing analysts can design marketing strategies for the company but deciding the perfect marketing orientation approach for the whole organization is a time taking and complex process. There are 5 approaches of Marketing orientation given below:

5 Marketing Orientation Approaches

An organization following a production orientation will do mass production and all product related processes will be streamlined. The main assumption of this approach is that customers always value the prices. 

Therefore, organizations following the production orientation approach will lower the prices so that the prices meet the customer requirements. Since, product price is the main factor in production orientation, organizations want to make effective marketing strategies that ensure that the resources are focussed on lowering the cost in every possible way. 

One of the main issues with this technique is that- by focusing only on prices, companies often ignore the needs and wants of the target customers and therefore customers remain unsatisfied. 

Companies just think that customers need the cheapest priced goods and nothing else.

Pros- Mass production, economies of scale advantage, lower prices of goods

Cons- Customer needs ignored, Quality aspect ignored, sometimes initial costs are high

Societal Orientation is a rather new concept. As people are learning more about how the society operates, what it offers, the world that we live in and many other aspects, they are increasingly switching to a societal marketing oriented approach. 

Organizations are following a new philosophy which is environmentally related. An organization following this approach will plan its processes, products in such a manner that the impact it has on the society and where it operates remains friendly and positive. 

Mostly the pharmaceutical companies, chemical companies and science related industries opt for societal orientation. If we compare this orientation with the rest then it is obvious that it will be difficult for industries following societal approach to survive in the competitive market. Mostly for the MSME this approach can prove to be non-profitable.

Pros- helps in building brand value and image, ethical and environmentally friendly

Cons- less profitable, difficult to survive market competition, messages become distorted.

Just like the name suggests, this marketing approach focuses on the market and the niche customers. Even before beginning the production and sales, priority is given to the market conditions and customers. 

The end product is created keeping in mind the customer and the result shows how important the customer is for such organizations. Organizations following the market orientation approach have properly organized internal teams and culture that focuses only on the customers of the company. 

It is evident that the latest innovations, technologies are also neglected if the customers do not want them. Nowadays, we can see the shift of many organizations towards the market orientation approach as buyers hold a lot of information about what they expect and what they want. 

In short, customers have become kings.

Pros- Loyalty towards old customers, customers are always satisfied, investments in research and developments for the customers.

Cons- purely a reactive strategy, does not account for new tech and innovations, the market is never constant.

An organization following the sales orientation approach will focus all of its resources and skills on selling the product to its customers. Obviously customers are given priority in terms of selling of the products but not in terms of considering their demands and needs. 

The main aim is to sell the product. All the final products are handed to the sales and marketing team to find the potential buyers for them. Sometimes companies feel they are not selling enough products so they switch to the sales orientation technique and adapt all the techniques that will help them sell more. 

Selling more means more profit margin. But one thing that companies should consider is the way they sell the products to the customers and ignore their demands will not work out in the long run. 

Soon customers will feel that they are not getting what they want and they will switch to next. But it is not the case for every industry type. Some industries have been very successful after using this approach.

Pros- High sales, short term profit margins very high

Cons- Not good for long run, high cost on sales techniques, customer needs are risked

Companies often confuse product marketing orientation with production marketing orientation. But in fact, both are completely opposites. The main aim of this approach is to ensure that products are continuously improved and innovations are being done to make it more attractive than the competitor products. 

The main area of focus of production orientation was price and product orientation. This is the biggest point of difference between both. It focuses on the quality of product and not selling cheapest goods to the customer. 

All the superior and premium product companies follow the product orientation approach. But by focusing on the product it is not a guarantee that the company will consider the demands and needs of the customers. 

Therefore, selling the product under this orientation approach is a big challenge. Finding the perfect niche can be difficult.

Pros- Quality, innovations in the product, investment on research and development of the product.

Cons- Obsolescence is the biggest drawback, target market is difficult to find, customer needs can be ignored, market opportunities are sometimes missed.

Also Read | Role of Price Theory in Marketing

Examples of Marketing Orientation

Here are some real industry examples of Marketing Orientation :

Amazon has successfully used a marketing orientation approach and analyzed that the customers do not want to pay the delivery expenses. Therefore, they have brought various offers for the customers like Prime Service, nominal delivery charges etc to prevent high delivery costs.

One of the most famous shoe brands in the world Nike has also followed the marketing orientation approach and identified its niche. It focuses on customer satisfaction and fulfilling their demands in the most diligent and well mannered way.

Intel is another popular brand that followed the product orientation approach and then shifted to market approach in 2005. It started to manufacture customized products based on customer needs and demands. It all happened after the new CEO Paul S Otellini came in.

Marketing Orientation is basically about the connection and network of the buyer and companies which companies have to identify the needs of the customers. Every company that has adopted this technique has proved to be more dynamic, attractive and profitable in the market. 

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