Main Characteristics Of A Marketing-Oriented Organisation - Essay Example

The basic orientation of a company can be reflected by strategies, structures, and cultures. Each of these must be integrated so that a clear corporate position can be ensured through marketing efforts.Stensrud (1998) also claims that it takes a well-orchestrated effort to develop a marketing orientation. In order to accomplish this feat, there are several key factors that must be carefully taken into consideration. First of all, a company must have access to capital. Secondly, they must emphasize the importance of long-range planning and spend strategically.

There must also be appropriate distribution channels, middle managers who know what they are doing, up-to-date systems, and the ability to stick to new strategies. Leaders must be put in place that can handle the new system that comes along with a marketing-oriented organization.According to Answers.com (2010), the needs of consumers need to be focused on rather than the needs of the company that is producing a good or service. This means that an integrated and goal-oriented philosophy needs to be followed by the organization as a whole throughout the process.

In fact, the needs and goals of the consumer need to be achieved before the needs and goals of the producing company in order for the producing company to be successful in even reaching its goals according to the idea of the marketing concept. Selling reached an extreme level of difficulty after World War II since it could no longer be achieved by hard selling. This is because the variety of products increased following the war. Furthermore, the level of discretionary income of consumers had increased and, therefore, those consumers could afford to use a little more freedom in their purchase decisions.

This was further complicated by the fact that organizations were not able to accurately predict the changing needs of consumers (NetMBA 2010.