About Marketing Orientation
Marketing Orientation

Application Of The Concept

Articles About Implementing A Customer Service Focus

See Also

 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:

  • Quantitative marketing research - such as; surveys and questionnaires
  • Qualitative marketing research - such as; focus groups and advisory panels
  • Market research and industry research - such as; Porter 5 forces analysis
  • Face-to-face meetings with customers
  • Face-to-face meetings with frontline staff - sales reps, clerks, and receptionists
  • Customer complaints department
  • Customer hotlines - Web and telephone
  • Visits to customers' facilities
  • Frequent user programs and databases
  • User groups - Beta testing
  • Conferences

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:

  • Extensive use of various marketing research techniques
  • Broad product lines
  • Emphasis on a product's benefits to customers rather than on product attributes
  • Use of product innovation techniques, such as; brainstorming, concept testing, and force field analysis.
  • The offering of ancillary services like credit availability, delivery, installation, and warranty
  • Customer satisfaction and complaint monitoring procedures, including; exit interviews, customer complaints database, and Web and telephone information hotlines.
  • Organizational structure in which the marketing manager reports directly to the CEO.


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