Marketing and Customer Orientation

From the response of the consumers, companies make enhancements in their products as per the necessities of the consumers. From the approach or the associations with the consumers, companies get a chance to gratify their consumers and build up a competitive edge. This mechanism facilitates companies to stay with and goes ahead from their competition. Therefore, consumer relationships help the companies to make a competitive edge. (How to build a customer-centered organization to gain competitive advantage)

| Societal marketing orientation is the idea that an organization exists not only to satisfy customer wants and needs and to meet organizational objectives but also to preserve individuals’ and society’s long-term best interests.

This essay will start to explore and define the meaning of customer orientation in depth. The marketing concept and the marketing mix will help discover after what it means to be a customer focused firm. This will occur through the scrutiny of the term in respect to product, price, place and promotion.

The segmentation has been done on the basis of buying behavior of the customers. Knowledge of segment buying behavior can help redirect marketing resources for profit gain.

As every customer has unique needs and expectations towards certain products, the ultimate goal of market segmentation is to organize customers into groups which allows targeting of customers with similar needs of and response to the products. The key is to minimize differentiation within each segment

Marketing improves people’s living standard, according to a statistic state that the GDP of Australian has a growth rate from 2010 (2.25%) to 2014 (2.73%), and it is forecasting to increase in 2016 ("Australia - Gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate 2020 | Statistic", 2016). A growing trend of marketing creates more work opportunities for people. Based on that, more people operating marketing activities successfully for a business, and the total output of the business tend to increase significantly while the worker’s salaries increase. It rises the national income in a long- term ("Importance of Marketing for the Economic Development of a Country", 2013)

Market segmentation is essential for creating value of the product in the minds of customers and consumers. Market segmentation is the process of dividing the target market into subgroups of people who are homogeneous in respect to their needs and wants. The people in each subgroup are expected to react in similar way towards a product or service (Kumar & Sharma, 1998). A product can be divided into two types; consumer product and industrial product. Market segmentation of consumer products is done on the basis of age, sex, education, income etc. Where, segmentation for industrial products is based on size of the business, location, procedure and purchasing etc. (Bose, 2006). According to Bose (2006) market segmentation is effective when company can reach segments for promotion and distribution, the segment is large enough to generate sufficient profits, buying power of the targeted segment is measurable and there is a noticeable variation in the nature of demand.

Market segmentation, where the market is divided into different groups of consumers with based on their needs and wants. The market segmentation helps to concentrate the marketing energy in order to identify the demand and target of segment and increase competitive advantage within the segment. Market segmentation allow companies to differentiate their customers and behaviours in order to adjust their marketing mix strategy to cater the need of different market segments. There are four segmentation bases, which are geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral segmentation (Sulekha, 2013).

Companies need to understand their customers in order to satisfy their needs and run a successful business. Since all customers are different from each other and therefore might not have the same needs and wants, market segmentation is a key tool in marketing. Market segmentation can be defined as “The process of defining and subdividing a large homogenous market into clearly identifiable segments having similar needs, wants, or demand characteristics. Its objective is to design a marketing mix that precisely matches the expectations of customers in the targeted segment.” ( http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/market-segmentation.html#ixzz3pCQjsWYr)

Throughout this course I’ve had to learn to adopt a more customer centric approach to marketing. A customer centric approach involves formulating strategies that are largely concerned with extending and promoting benefits to customers. An approach of this caliber requires managers to take responsibility for the customer experience prior, during and after a sale. Businesses who make the most of a customer centric approach can add value by differentiating themselves from competitors who do not offer the same experience. Furthermore, employing a customer centric approach will allow businesses to build customer satisfaction as well as encourage lifetime customers. As longtime

The marketing segmentation concept allows a company to focus on a specific group of customers that it is best prepared and suited to satisfy. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, selecting a target market enables a company to tailor its offerings to more specific customer needs and preferences (Schewe & Hiam, 1998, p. 200). When a company focuses its efforts and capital (both tangible and intangible) on a more narrowly defined set of needs, it is more likely that the customers will get the product they desire. Companies that use the marketing segmentation concept typically have a more intimate knowledge of the customers they target, and customers usually relate better with companies that understand their interests. As such a relationship is built.

Market orientation refers to how the end market receives the value added product. To be successful a value chain must be receptive to the demands of the market orientation. This can be monitored through customer feedback processes. (Sturgeon, 2001)

Therefore, many companies start adopting new customer product strategy that can seduce and engage more the customer.

Businesses can develop new products based on either a marketing orientated approach or a product orientated approach. According to Jaworski and Kohli (1993), marketing orientation is ‘the organization-wide generation of market intelligence pertaining to current and

Approach – A detailed analysis was carried out to consider how the organisation has adopted a customer-oriented approach as their key strategy for improved business. This includes factors like increased loyalty of the customers,