Persuasive Essay: Small Businesses and Product Orientation Focus

This essay argues in favor of product-oriented small businesses, emphasizing the importance of product design and quality over customer orientation. It highlights how a product-focused approach allows businesses to develop economies of scale, reduce production costs, and efficiently produce products in mass numbers. The essay uses the example of Sony's Walkman to illustrate how technological advancements can be leveraged for a broader range of products and services. The author contrasts this with a customer-oriented approach and concludes that product orientation is more beneficial for small businesses. References include scholarly articles and online sources supporting the argument. The essay is written in a persuasive style, providing a clear thesis statement and supporting evidence.

Running Head: ESSAY
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Persuasive Essay
Business Culture and Ethical Dilemmas
(Student Details: )
12/11/2019

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Persuasive Essay
This essay is based on persuading the essay statement which suggests that small
businesses should aim to be product oriented, not customer-oriented. The writer of the essay
is in the support of the statement. It is because both the product is an important aspect and a
unique selling point for sustaining in any business industry. In this way, this essay will
describe, research and explore why small businesses should be more product oriented and
why it is useful for them (Bender, 2019).
As we know, small businesses can always choose whether to be a market or customer-
oriented or product oriented (Cross, 2019). In this context, a product oriented business always
emphasizes its efforts on their products like their strength. On the other hand, market-oriented
businesses always utilises market statistics for determining what exactly customers wish to
buy and thereby focuses on that particular data ( Hamilton & Webster, 2018). Although, both
the methods are having their own merits and de-merits yet modern small businesses usually
tend to use the product oriented business model rather than the customer-oriented business
model (Cross, 2019).
The author is suggesting that small businesses must focus on their product design as
well as quality as it is the most important aspect of any business whether it is big or small.
However, such small businesses must also focus on gaining as well as retaining customers as
much as possible ( Toni, 2011). While talking about overall gain, being product oriented is
recommended rather than customer-oriented from the sustainable business development
viewpoint. In this way, small businesses do not get worried about what customers want to
buy as well as what the market will sell into a specific economy ( Munoz, 2018). Therefore,
small businesses can solely focus on creating a perfect product that enables them to be master

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in one field. Being product oriented also allows small businesses to put all of the money as
well as efforts over the product design so that it works to specifics ( Harrison, 2014).
The author has found that small businesses should always aim to be product oriented,
not customer-oriented because it enables a technological development which can then be
utilised for a broader range of products and services. For example, Sony’s Walkman creation
is a great example of a product oriented business (Bender, 2019). The essay statement can
easily be explained with the help of the aforementioned example because this device was
actually created as a product to be sold rather than based on the customer needs of that time.
In this way, the product was successfully worked out. Subsequently, the used technology was
then utilised by Sony for further creating additional music listening devices ( Harrison, 2014).
However, if small businesses would have customer-oriented then they will place
customer satisfaction at the heart of each of their business decisions ( Hamilton & Webster,
2018). It is well-aware that when businesses use an approach to customer-relations and sales
where organizational staff concentrate on assisting customers for meeting their long-term
wants and needs ( Hamilton & Webster, 2018). In this way, for achieving long-term success
and goals, employees and management should align their team objectives around retaining
and satisfying customers. This customer-oriented approach is a strategic approach where the
wants and needs of an organization or salesperson are wholly valued over the customers
(Cross, 2019).
Ultimately, while calculating the efficacy of both the approaches, then it has been
found that small businesses should aim to be product oriented, rather than customer-oriented.
It is an advantage of economies of scale as it is easy to develop economies of scale more
easily for product oriented businesses ( Munoz, 2018). Apart from this, with product oriented
businesses, total production cost decreases and at the same time the total number of items

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produced increases. In this context, this approach seems more helpful for small businesses for
the reason when the focus of the business is specially directed then it allows the company to
produce its products more proficiently into mass numbers ( Toni, 2011). For increasing the
number produced, more measures can be evolved at a comparatively lower price. In addition
to that, it has been found that product oriented business for small businesses is very much
easier to adapt for the purpose of outsourcing their products (Bender, 2019).
In this way, small businesses can easily focus wholly on producing a single product as
well as making it the best product possible. When small businesses are doing this, then it
saves product costs and hence increases revenue and sales. In a nutshell, focusing on products
is always more beneficial for small businesses than focusing on customers’ needs.

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References
Hamilton, L., & Webster, P. (2018). The International Business Environment (4th ed.).
london: oxford university press .
Harrison, A. (2014). Business Environment in a Global Context. great clarendon street, united
nation: oxford printing press.
Munoz, J. M. (2018). Global Business Intelligence (first ed.). new york: routledge.
Toni, A. F. (2011). International Operations Management: Lessons in Global Business.
england: gower publishing limited.
Bender, J. (2019). The Advantages of Product oriented Businesses. Retrieved from Chron:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-productoriented-businesses-23110.html
Cross, V. (2019). Customer Orientation Examples. Retrieved from Chron:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/customer-orientation-examples-10201.html