University of Northampton: Market Orientation Report (MKTM028)

This report delves into the concept of market orientation, a crucial business philosophy emphasizing customer needs. It explores the core components of market orientation, including customer orientation, competitor orientation, inter-functional coordination, and organizational culture. The report examines how these elements contribute to a company's success by fostering customer satisfaction, analyzing competitors, coordinating internal functions, and cultivating a customer-centric culture. It also highlights the importance of a long-term perspective and shareholder value creation. The report provides real-world examples to illustrate how companies implement market orientation strategies and gain a competitive edge. The analysis includes a critical evaluation of market orientation in relation to other business orientations, providing a comprehensive understanding of its significance in modern marketing.

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Components of market orientation
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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Market Orientation.....................................................................................................................2
Components of Market Orientation...........................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
In today’s scenario, marketing is the main element that ensures the success of the
organization. The concept of marketing focuses on process of generating, communicating and
supplying value to the customers to manage the relationship with the customers and
maximising the benefits provided to the organization and its stakeholders. It focuses on
analysing the needs and expectations of the target customers and providing the satisfaction in
an efficient and effective manner. Through the process of marketing, the organization
identifies its target market and combines the goals of the organization with the expectations
of the customer to provide the overall satisfaction to the target customers and thus ensuring
the success of the organization. It examines the needs and expectations of the customer and
delivers the products and services according to the expectations of the target market.
Market orientation is a business philosophy, which focuses on identifying the needs of the
customer and accordingly designs the products and services to meet the expectations of the
customers (Dibb and Stern, 2000).
Market Orientation
It involves two or more departments fetching in the activities geared towards emerging and
understanding the customer’s current and future needs and the factors affecting them. It
Identifies needs of
customers
Transformation of
information to design
developers
Provides overall
satisfaction to
customers

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shares the information across the other departments and then collectively focuses to meet the
selected customer needs. Market orientation is different from the philosophy of product
orientation because in case of production orientation approach the focus of the organization is
to sell the products and services offered by them while in case of market orientation the
organization focuses on the needs, wants of customers, and then deliver accordingly. It helps
the organization in earning higher profits and thus increasing its market share. Market
orientation helps the organization in making the customers aware about the product and
services and providing them with the benefits of the same. It is consider as synchronised
marketing campaign between the supplier and consumer. Competitive analysis is considered
as a significant constituent of market orientation. It collects the information through market
research, consumer survey and focussing on the group of prospective customers to identify
their needs and preferences as well as gaining insight of competitor’s strength and weakness
(Kiessling, Isaksson and Yasar, 2016).
The organization that follows market orientation considers customer as their main ingredient
for success of the organization. It focuses on delivering quality service and product to the
customer to provide overall satisfaction to the customers and achieving higher level of
profits. After the introduction of e-commerce services the customers gathers and are aware
about the detailed information of the products to compare and select the best product or the
service. Companies with marketing orientation are known as customer centric as they work
according to the demands of the customer and are highly approachable towards customer
(Raju, Lonial, and Crum, 2011).
The supremacy of market orientation in organization success because it is observing that
market orientation leaves a positive impact on the success of the organization. By using the
market intelligence, the organization progresses continuous improvement in the products and

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services and delivers the quality products to the customers. It helps the organization in
sssproducing innovative products according to the changing demands of customers and
ensuring the survival of the organization. Marketing orientation helps the organization in
generation of intelligence, which delivers the suitable information about trends, and
participants in the market i.e. the current needs of customers, abilities and strategies of
competitors and the trends in the market (Drummond and Ensor, 2005).
Marketing orientation helps the business in earning long term profits by considering the
customer needs as primary focus it will provide overall satisfaction to the customers and thus
ensures repurchase of the product by the customers which provides long term profits to the
organization and ensures that the customer is loyal towards the brand . By adopting market
orientation, the organization has a strategic vision of the needs of the customers and thus
providing the clarity in the roles of employees. Implementation of market orientation
provides the deep insight of the market to the employees and thus helps them in effectively
market its product. Market orientation helps the organization in achieving long-term
profitability by consistently understanding the marketplace and delivering the quality
products creates loyal customers for the organization, which in turn increases the profitability
of the organization (Hooley, Piercy, and Nicoulaud 2012).
By adopting market orientation the strategic mistakes can be avoided, as the organization will
be know well in advance when to launch its new product and when to use innovative
technology this ensures that the company do not waste its resources. When a company is
market oriented, it keeps the customer in mind during all the phases of product development
So that they are able to bring the innovation which is required the customer. Through a
proper market orientation, the organization can spot the emerging trends and can adopt the
changes in trends before the competitor does that to expand its market share and thus ensure

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long-term survival of the organization. It helps the organization to build a strong market base
by having loyal customers and thus enhancing the reputation of the company as an early
innovator (Anis, Belaid and Kamel, 2011).
The cross- functional strategy applies in organizations helps the organization in building
long- term shareholder value as all the departments work together towards a common goal in
an efficient manner and thus providing the higher benefits to its shareholders. It helps in
protecting the interest of the shareholders by providing additional benefits to them and giving
a better experience. This helps in building the trust of the shareholders (Laukkanen,
Tuominen, Reijonen, and Hirvonen, 2016).
After the detailed description of market orientation now in the further paragraphs there will
be description of components of marketing orientation and their effect on the organization. It
will include the components of the Market orientation .i.e. Customer orientation, Competitor
orientation, Inter-functional coordination and the organization culture.

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Components of Market Orientation
Customer orientation promotes an incessant, active disposition towards meeting the
customers’ requirements. This approach focuses providing the customers with total
satisfaction and nurtures continuous innovation in the organization performance. In this
organization places the highest authority on providing superior customer value. It is consider
as the most fundamental part of corporate culture. In this, the information about the needs of
the customers and requirements is regularly collected and the policies of the organization
directly aim towards creating satisfied customers. The organizations that are customer
Market
Orientation
Customer
Orientation
Organization
Culture
Inter-functional
Coordination
Competitor
Orientation

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oriented aims to build long-term relationship with the customers and make continuous efforts
to improve the level of satisfaction of the customers. In relation to above context Tesla
motors are highly customer oriented as they focuses on the customers who were high end
affluent, demands the luxurious sports car and after scanning the needs of the customer Tesla
launches its model 3 to cater to the needs of the customer it provides the customers with high
mile warranty and the only company that directly sells its products and provide services to its
customer. Tesla promotes highly customer centric approach and thus focusing on the needs of
the customer and making the products accordingly (Liao, Chang, Wu, and Katrichis, 2011).
Competitor orientation focuses on the analysing the strength and weakness of its potential
and existing competitors to generate new ideas, which helps the organization in maintaining
its competitive edge. When an organization is competitive oriented it constantly compares its
strategies to its competitors and evaluates its performance which includes efficiency in
production, pricing of the product, delivery time, its market share, innovation in the product
and mainly the customer satisfaction. In this approach, every organization attempts to
maximise its advantages on the cost of its competitors. Analysing the strategies of its
competitors helps in upgrading one’s own organization strategies and thus leads to
responding to the environment in a better way. In relation to above context Apple has always
remained on the ball in terms of keeping ahead of its competitors. Apple is well known as an
only luxury brand in the technology industry and able to charge premium price for its
product. Its competitive strategy helps it to position its product in the market place and helps
in maintaining the competitive edge over the others (Dwyer and Gilmore, 2017).
Inter-functional coordination defined as cooperation of various internal business functions to
achieve the overall objectives of the company and assure its receptiveness towards the
fluctuating environment. It helps in improvising the performance of the company by sharing
the resources and the information among various departments. It is consider as the important

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function of market orientation. Inter-functional coordination leads to generation of new ideas
as there is coordination among the departments and the management positively response
towards the ideas given by the employees at all the levels. It enhances the performance of the
organization as thus collaborating the efforts of all the departments at all the level. Inter-
functional coordination helps to solve the issues hampering the success of the organization
through the contribution of all the departments in an organization. In relation to the above
context, Earlier Samsung focuses on autocratic leadership styles and does not focuses on the
suggestions given by the other employees which does not lead to coordination among the
departments and the generation of the new ideas then Samsung shifts towards inter-functional
coordination involving interaction and collaboration among all the departments and thus
generating the ideas which ensures further improvement in the process of the company and
thus ensuring coordination among all the departments at all the levels. Adopting such
approach helps the organization to guide all the employees to work in united direction and
thus promoting efficiency in expanding market share (Mujahid, 2018).
Organization culture emphasize on adopting the culture that collectively focuses on providing
the satisfaction to its customers. The employees at all the levels are collectively responsible
for carrying out the activities that ensures success of the organization. In such culture the
senior manager, considers customer satisfaction as its highest priority and the reward system
is set according to the performance of the employees towards satisfying the customers. It
consists of the values, belief, and behaviour of the companies its structure and the control of
the organization. In relation to the above context, Walmart adopts the culture in which leaders
believe that all the associates of the organization have an important voice and play a crucial
role in driving the business. It is believe that the associates are the best idea generators for the
organization. Walmart associates make the corporate strategy a reality and consistent efforts
are applied to make the customer experience special. The Walmart defines its culture as “our

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values in action” and every associate expected to behave consistently in accordance with the
core values of the organization (Glassdoor for employers, 2016).
Long-term perspectives component of market orientation states that the organization must
focus on earning long- term gains rather than focussing on the short -term profit. It emphasise
to improve the market performance rather than focusing on internal efficiencies. The
decisions must consider by long- term deliberations rather than short- term suitability. This
approach states that organization should take steps that help the organization in attaining
long-term profits and ensure the survival of the organization. In relation to above context,
Deloitte focuses on achieving long term profits for the company and thus protecting the
interest of stakeholders and all the other people associated with the company . It ensures to
enhance the experience of its customers as well as stakeholders leading to long- term survival
of the organization (Grinstein, 2008).
Thus from the above discussion it is concluded that market orientation helps the organization
in enhancing the experience of the customer and thus ensuring the long-term survival of the
organization and protecting the shareholders.

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References
Anis,B.B., Belaid,R., and Kamel,M.(2011)Market orientation, corporate social responsibility
and business performance. Journal of business ethics, 99(3), pp.307-324.
Dibb,S., and Stern,P.(2000) Further thoughts on the marketing trifid: The case of marketing
orientation. Journal of marketing education,22(3),pp.214-224.
Drummond,G., and Ensor,J.(2005) Introduction to marketing concepts.1st ed. Butterworth-
Heinemann: Oxford.
Dwyer,O.M., and Gilmore,A.(2017) Competitor orientation in successful SMEs: an
exploration of the impact on innovation. Journal of strategic marketing,DOI:
10.1080/0965254X.2017.1384040.
Glassdoor for employers. (2016) Learn from the best: How Walmart builds its corporate
culture[ online]. Available from: https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/learn-best-
walmart-builds-corporate-culture/ [Accessed 29/10/18]
Grinstein,A. (2008) The relationship between market orientation and alternative strategic
orientations. European journal of marketing, 42(1/2), pp.115-134.
Hirvonen,S., and Laukkanen,T.(2016) The moderating effect of the market orientation
components on the brand orientation-Brand performance relationship. Springer link, pp.185-
186.
Hooley, G.,Piercy,N., and Nicoulaud,B.(2012) Marketing strategy and competitive
positioning . 5th ed.FT prentice hall p.8.
Kiessling,T., Isaksson,L., and Yasar,B.(2016) Market orientation and CSR: Performance
implications. Journal of business ethics, 137(2), pp.269-284.

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Lancaster,G., and Massingham,L.(2011) Essentials of marketing management.1st
ed.Oxon:Routledge.
Laukkanen,T., Tuominen,S., Reijonen,H., and Hirvonen,S.(2016) Does market orientation
pay off without brand orientation? A study of small business entrepreneurs. Journal of
marketing management, 32(7-8), pp-673-694.
Liao,S.H., Chang,W.J.,Wu C.C.,and Katrichis, J.M.(2011) A survey of market orientation
research(1995-2008). Industrial market management, 40, pp.301-310.
Martin,H., Custance,P., and Lindgreen,A.(2016) Market orientation.London:Routledge.
Mujahid,B.M.(2018) Impact of firms customer orientation on performance: The moderating
role of interfunctional coordination and employee commitment. Journal of strategic
marketing, 26(8), pp.702-722.
Raju,P.S., Lonial,S.C., and Crum,M.D.(2011) Market orientation in the context of SMEs: A
conceptual framework. Journal of business research, 64, pp.1320-1326.
Uk Essays. (2013) Competitor orientation the customer orientation marketing essay. [online].
Available from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/competitor-orientation-the-
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