Strategic Marketing Basics

Many kinds of company cultures have been observed over time.

 

Reminder:  a company culture is a set of professional values, shared by all the players in the organization (management, employees,...), strongly influencing beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.

 

First of all was the well-known production orientation, linked to the first equipment industries: implementation of  standard efficiency-based manufacturing processes resulted in access to mass products at prices acceptable to consumers. Rationalization of industrial processes resulted in standardized, unsophisticated products which suited the needs of the time.

 

Example : Ford Model T

 

Product orientation followed, based on the idea that consumers would prefer a product offering the best objective performance. This type of companies or organizations focus on technical quality without taking into account customers’ concerns. This led to a few successes (BIC, MERCEDES,...) but also to a number of failures due to unnecessary or outdated products, or too expensive prices (CONCORDE, KODAK,...).

 

Sales orientation appeared in large companies in the 1960s. The XEROXs, IBMs and TUPPERWAREs of that time are good examples. This perspective is partly internal, partly external : it involved a strong an efficient sales force capable of “charging” customers and consumers of products, the company being so convinced that “what we produce is perfect and thus should be sold”. But no consideration for customer satisfaction after the sale. This model collapsed after the emergence of competition from the Far East (first the Japanese) and entrepreneurial companies that met the great, arrogant leaders head on.

 

In these three scenarios, marketing is seen as an ancillary function, with a negligible  influence on the enterprise. Marketing departments are just helping with the sales of products that are supposed to be “good for the customers.”

 

Customer orientation has today become one of the valid culture models in most circumstances. It considers that "the main task of the company should be to deliver satisfaction” profitably and more efficiently than competition. The role of the marketing function is here fundamentally different: its goal is to continuously discover, understand, exploit and entertain customers’ needs and expectations. Another role is to coordinate and motivate all the players in the organization to satisfy these needs and expectations.

 

Examples : Toyota, Airbus, Arcelor, L’Oréal

 

Another company culture developed over the last 25 years defined as "societal orientation". Interesting in more than one way since it is the outcome of a new generation of “responsible” entrepreneurs, but it is also a gauge for better competitiveness. The idea is that the purpose of the company is not only to satisfy its customers but to serve society as a whole. In aiming at such a goal, the company will be ahead of the main trends (or even be the trendsetter). In this kind of company, marketing plays a role of permanent stimulant for innovation and creativity.

 

Examples : Apple, Ecover.

 

Last but not least, another type of organizational culture emerged, linked to on line business. Let's call it a "wiki orientation", meaning that users can enter the company system and bring on a permanent basis their own ideas, suggestions and even correlated products or services.

This is an ultimate step in creating and allowing intimacy between the company and its customers.

 

Examples : Ebay, Facebook