Marketing definitions and concepts

¶ … Marketing

Discussion of the Marketing in the 21st Century

The fundamental precept of marketing is that the customer comes first, and drives the development of systems, processes, and resources all pointing back the customer. It is a management philosophy asserting the existence and legitimacy of the firm ultimately depends on satisfying customer needs, Marketing Renaissance (2005). Putting the customer at the very center of all strategies is a noble goal, yet in reality thousands of companies never attain this change in philosophy because the marketing concept itself is tactical. At its best the marketing concept is evangelical and looks for change at the most fundamental levels of contact, specifically at each interaction with a customer, sometimes called the moment of truth. The marketing concept can permeate organizations' strategies and become the most critical driving force in any organization, yet the ability of companies to achieve this level of focus is lower than many of their mission statements would have you believe.

Measuring the Pay-back of following the Marketing Concept

For those companies courageous enough to adopt the marketing concept as a cornerstone of how they do business, there is a growing body of research that shows the positive correlation from companies relying on the concept of putting customers first does lead to higher revenues, profits and long-term viability. The quantification of the contribution of marketing concepts is well underway in millions of companies as analytics and the measure, monitor, modify mentality has permeated global business at the end of the last recession. Narver and Slater (1999) have found positive correlations between long-term business performance and customer orientation. Deshpande' and Farley (1999) have also found a significant correlation or relationship between customer and competitor orientation and the ability of companies to achieve lasting profitability and revenue growth.

Despite proven correlations between higher sales and customer concepts being integral to a company's culture, it is only the first step in implementing the marketing concept according to Ajay K. Kohli, Bernard J. Jaworski (1990). The next step according to these researchers is the ability to focus away purely from incremental sales and focus on profitability and the lifetime value of customers, which is the true basis of success for any company adopting the marketing concept and in turn aligning all processes, products, people and resources to align with the concept's key values.

Variations in the Marketing Concept vs. Selling

Levitt (1975) brings an excellent distinction to the differences between organizations that create the marketing concept as a core part of their organizations vs. simply using key values from the concept as an accelerated sales strategy. Levitt (1975) remarked in his landmark article Marketing Myopia that "selling focused on the need marketing on the needs of the buyer. Selling is preoccupied with the seller's need to convert his product into cash; marketing with the idea of satisfying the needs of the customer by means of the product and the whole cluster of things associated with creating, delivering and finally consuming it."