Market Orientation and Sales Management - Essay Example

Market Orientation and Sales Management Market Orientation and Sales Management Introduction What is meant by a market-oriented organization? Marketing is the way through which a company or an organisation interacts with both potential and current customers. An actively dynamic and communicative organisation seeks ways to understand their customers’ needs. Hence, birth products that are specifically tailoured for their clientele base in addition to, the product efficiency and functionality (Kumar, Weitz & Harish, 1994). There are three identifying ways of market-oriented companies: 1. They actively find out what the client base wants. Therefore, they will invest in research and surveys that will be coupled with asking customers for opinions as they want to identify what it is that current and potential customers are looking for in goods and services. 2. Create a thrill for their services and products: picture company A has come up with a prototype of a product. Unless they monopolise the market, there is an almost absolute chance that a similar product exists in the market. So, how does company A work towards ensuring their product finds a niche in the market? They can build anticipation for this new release by communicating the unique features while coupling this with the benefits to be accrued by the potential consumer (Kumar, Weitz & Harish, 1994). More excitement can be built by differentiating their products and providing more than is expected. Returns on these investments will be realised because when the clientele is satisfied with the performance of one product, they will be excited for the next release (Jeffrey, 1992). 3. Response to the market feedback: when market oriented organisations have a blueprint of the present and future needs of what the customers want, they meet and exceed those desires. Apple, which seeks to understand what customers want and delivers, for example, when its customers ask for gadgets with sleek designs. Apple responds with beautiful devices that are attractive and sophisticated (Deshpande & Webster, 1989). Benson P. Shapiro, a professor at the Harvard Business School proposes that market oriented is not only about getting close to the customer, it is much more (Shapiro, 1998). Deshpande and Webster (1989), Narver and Slater (1994), Shapiro (1988) assert that the importance of a market oriented business culture is very crucial to scholars and managers alike. They indicate it is valuable because it focuses organisations on continuously collecting information about target-customers’ needs and their competitors’ abilities and applying this information to create continuously superior customer value. A thin line exists between market oriented and marketing oriented. Kohli and Jaworski (1990), Narver and Slater (1994) claim that a relationship emerges between market orientation and performance with this taking a central role in discussions about marketing management and strategy. However, according to researchers, creating a market orientation is only the first step to customer satisfaction (Jeffrey, 1992; Lancaster & Withey, 2007). They say that a market oriented can achieve maximum effectiveness if only it is accompanied by a spirit of entrepreneurship, an appropriate organisational climate presented in terms of structures, processes, as well as, the incentives for implementing the cultural values (Deshpande and Webster, 1989). Jaworski and Kohli (1991) note that market orientation is an all-inclusive organisation of the intelligence relating to the present and future customer needs, distribution of the intelligence throughout all the departments and the organisation’s wide responsiveness to it. Narver and Slater (1994) suggest that market orientation is multi-dimensional covering customer orientation, competitor orientation, inter-functional coordination, long-term focus, and profitability. Some scholars also say that market oriented, market driven, and customer focus are synonyms (Babin, Mehta, Anderson & Hair, 2008). The information pertaining to all the important buying influences permeates every corporate function. Thus, a company can be said to be market driven only when it understands its markets and the people who will decide to buy its products (Jeffrey, 1992). The correct dissemination of information, at all levels of execution is, therefore, equally important. For example, in some industries, the retailers and other members of the distribution channel will have a tremendous influence on the choices that customers make. To be of utmost importance, therefore, customer information must focus beyond the market research, sales, and the marketing functions and permeate every corporate function. Consider an organization A in the manufacturing industry. For the organisation to be market oriented, all its branches need to be synchronised to afford a certain kind of informational echelon aimed at achieving the organisation’s mission statement, profitability, and customer satisfaction (McDaniel, Lamb & Hair, 2011; Lancaster & Withey, 2007). An analysis would show that when the manufacturing department does not get credible feedback on complaints or compliments on quality, it would lack a basis for improvements on the product and the production processes (Drummond, Essor & Ashford, 2010). If the technologists fail to pass on information, marketers will not have information leading to consumer misinformation and legal suits will follow or very low profit margins for the company. Thus, the importance of inter-functional coordination, or using information to create value, cannot be overemphasised. So, what is the role of sales in achieving market orientation? Because customers, market, and products change rapidly, once a company has developed a marketing strategy, it needs to apply the “Seven P Formula” in order to continually analyse and re-evaluate its business activities. These seven are price, product, promotion, place, positioning, packaging, and people (Babin, Mehta, Anderson & Hair, 2008). To achieve superior performance, a business must acquire and sustain competitive advantage. Hence, understanding your customers is paramount to assessing the organisation and its competitiveness. Lancaster and Withey (2007) analyse the importance of asking critical questions like if the present product or service is suitable or appropriate for the market and the consumers today. Compared to the competitors, are the products superior in any significant way to others available in the market? Are the services/products been offered in the right market place? How price elastic is the products? How does an organisation understand its customers and develop brand loyalty? A market-oriented business ought to analyse the responses of clients to its products and services (Drummond, Ashford & Ensor, 2010). The sales department should be involved in deriving new and convenient ways that suit customers such as modes of payments, deliveries, and reception. In a market-oriented business, the customer is the king and thus, the business must always strive to stay ahead of its competitors in customer satisfaction while doing this in a manner that is ethical, pocket friendly, and legal. Consider again a company A. People will form their first impression about it within the first 30 seconds of seeing its products and compare it with those of its competitors. Thus, the packaging cannot be gambled with. Drummond, Ashford, and Ensor (2010) explain that packaging refers to the way the product or the service appears from within. Grinten & Riezebos, (2012) elaborate how packaging and positioning involve virtually everything the customer would want to lure them to purchase the said product. Essentially, the business is obliged with finding out how the competitors do business in terms of packaging, promotions, and professionalism. For example, if Company A understood its opponents operations, it would take advantage of the opponents’ weaknesses and use them to its advantage. For example, because IBM was selling highly sophisticated high-tech equipment, it was only natural that ordinary customers would need to have a high level of confidence in the salesperson credibility and communication (Smit & Donaldson, 2007). The management, therefore, institutionalised a dress code that oozed with professionalism. One that boasted of dark suits, dark ties, conservative hairstyles, shined shoes, and well-kept fingernails. That way, a consumer’s confidence on buying the products would be boasted by how they are presented (Grinten & Riezebos, 2012). Attribution theory, according to McCulley, (1996) and Kyriakopolous (2000), they suggest that customers think of you as a single attribute, which is either positive or negative. That said, sometimes it is service, quality engineering or excellence that discerns the organisation and gives it competitive advantage. The figure 1 below illustrates the interrelationship between market orientation, competitive advantage, and business performance. Figure 1: Market orientation along with its competitive advantage and performance in business (Narvey & Slater, 1994). Additionally, there is a difference between marketing to a business and marketing to a consumer (Geiger, Plinke & Kleinaltenkamp, 2014). When it is B2B, these businesses will work as smart in order to save money and time and, thus, the buying will be very objective and logic, while B2C will be based more on emotions. To ensure the consumer’s satisfaction and competitiveness a business must strike a balance. When marketing to a B2B, one ought to focus on the logic of the product (McCalley, 1996). It will be achieved by focusing on the features of the product at hand rather than personal emotion. One needs to focus on comprehending the organisational buyer, how they operate within the limitations of their organisational procedures while keeping in mind that the B2B market is thirsty for knowledge and information. In view of the interrelationship between pure sales focus and the long and term market orientation, as earlier discussed, Frambach, (2001); Geiger, Plinke and Kleinaltenkamp, (2014) consider the figure 2 below. The figure shows market orientation as the principle cultural foundation of a learning environment that is intertwined with customer satisfaction, sales growth, and new product success, a challenging environment and profitability while creating customer loyalty. Figure 2: Market orientation (Narver & Slater, 1994). Conclusion According to Proctor, (2000) and Frambach, (2001), businesses are tasked with attaining profitability in line with their mission statement and consumer satisfaction (Bruno, 1992). While parallels can be drawn along business-to-business and business-to-consumers operations, certain fundamental similarities can be seen in the market orientation. Most importantly, there needs to be a synchronisation between departments in an organisation coupled with effective communication between the workforces of all ranks. A market driven culture will also support the value of thorough market intelligence and the necessity of functionality-coordinated actions that are directed towards gaining a competitive advantage (Jaworski & Kohlil, 1991). References Bruno, R J., 1992. The Evolution to Market-Driven Quality. Journal of Business Strategy, pp. 15-20. Deshpande, R., Webster, F E., 1989. Organizational culture and marketing: defining the research agenda. Journal of marketing, 53, pp. 23-37. Donaldson, W., & Smith, L., 2007. FCS Marketing Communication L2. Cape town: Pearson. Drummond, G., Ensor J., & Ashford R., 2010. Strategic Marketing. California: Routledge. Frambach, R. T., & Nijseen, E. J., 2001. Creating Customer value Through Strategic Marketing planning: A management Approach. Springer Science & Business Media. Chicago: Routledge. Grinten, van der J., & Riezebos, R., 2012. Positioning the brand: An Inside-Out Approach. CA: Routledge. Hair J., Anderson R., Mehta R., & Babin B., 2008. 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