What are the Advantages and disadvantages of marketing orientation?

Answer 1

A company with a marketing orientation has a strategic focus centered on awareness and understanding of the marketing concept. The marketing concept indicates that building long-term customer relationships requires putting the needs and wants of the customer first. Customer needs should drive the research and development process. This is opposite the product orientation, which makes the product the first point of emphasis. Customer-Centric Alignment

A major cultural advantage of adopting the marketing orientation in your business is that you can can employees at all levels involved in one strategic mission of customer satisfaction. This requires top management emphasizing the needs and satisfaction of customers as top priorities. If all employees commit to providing what customers want, your business should do better developing quality, well-received products and earning profits on them over time.

?Adaptability

Another significant advantage of a marketing orientation is that your company likely has its ear to the market to garner more immediate feedback from customers. This helps you improve service but also make product or service adjustments generally desired by customers. Companies that make the product the focus are often too busy focusing on product research and development that they lose sight of what customers need or want in a solution.

?Technological Advances

A knock against the marketing orientation, and a benefit cited with a product orientation, is the ability to more quickly upgrade products with advanced technology and quality features. Though more responsive, companies that do not make product improvements a focus may not have the ability to adapt as quickly to provide these quality benefits to customers. This can serve as a deterrent to cutting-edge buyers who want to get in on the latest product advances.

?Production Efficiency

Another potential drawback of a customer-centric strategy is less emphasis on perpetual improvement of production processes and efficiency. New equipment and production processes emerge all the time in industries and if your company is not constantly watching for these improvements, it can fall behind. Production efficiency is critical to maintain low costs and generating strong profits. Even with a marketing orientation, your business should watch for opportunities to upgrade on production.