The Role of Strategic Marketing : Essay

STRATEGIC
MARKETING

ESSAY ON STRATEGIC MARKETING - MARKETING ORIENTATION
Marketing orientation is a philosophy commonly used within corporate world that
stresses upon determining the needs and wants of customers with a view to fulfil them in due
course of time. A company which has marketing oriented approach emphasizes upon
manufacturing, designing and distributing only such products and services that can provide a
high level of satisfaction to customers. This ensures the sustainability of business enterprise in
long run and a strategic marketing approach adopted by entity to remain profitable in
marketplace. In other words, it can be said that marketing orientation refers to the generation of
market intelligence across the organisational premises keeping in consideration the present as
well as future demands of consumers (What does Marketing Orientation really mean?, 2019). It
is a type of business orientation which is superior to the other types due the element of fulfilment
of customer needs and wants being included in it. This knowledge is to be disposed across all the
departments of enterprise in order to tap the advantage of such approach for the company. Also,
it is essential that the response of adopting a marketing oriented approach is evaluated in context
of organisational premises. This business model evaluates the response of an enterprise to the
needs and demands of customers. The strategic decision taken under this philosophy revolves
around the fulfilment of consumer needs instead of doing what the business perceives to be right
for customers. Many large and successful business organisations are now adopting this approach
to gain a strategic edge in marketing.
The Contingency Theory Approach towards marketing orientation prescribes that
business must gain an insight into the behavioural characteristics of people so as to gain deep
knowledge of their needs, demands and preferences. This theory largely establishes a strategic
link between the analysis of external environment of business and sustainability of enterprise in
marketplace. It indicates that forces like organisational culture and approach as well as its
external environment has a large scale impact upon the functioning of business entity. This
theory has three variables namely, contingency, response and performance variables. As per the
ideology of this theory, contingency variables define the extent of industry rivalry and
technological changes. Response variables largely comprises of the overall structure of
marketing function in the form of interdepartmental co-ordination in company (Marketing
Orientation, 2018). Lastly, performance variables consist of market share, growth rate and
customer loyalty of organisation. Contingency theory establishes a link between all the three
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