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Implementing the Marketing Concept One Employee at a Time: Pinpointing

Beliefs about Customer Focus as a Lever for Organizational RenewalChris T. Allen, Edward F. McQuarrie, and Terri Feldman Barr, 1998 [98-125]

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In the last decade researchers have established a clear connection between proper implementation of the

marketing concept and SBU-level performance outcomes. Thus, the question of how one might go about

changing the organization to make it more market oriented (and thus realize performance benefits) is

emerging as an important extension of the work on market orientation.In this paper, authors Allen, McQuarrie, and Barr advocate renewed attention to organizational culture in

order to understand change mechanisms. Drawing on the five-way taxonomy for conceiving culture

developed by Deshpande and Webster (1989), they support the organizational cognition perspectivewhich

emphasizes the subjective beliefs of individuals within the organizationas an important paradigm forunderstanding change. Consistent with this perspective the authors propose a customer-focus construct that

is formulated at the level of the individual employee or manager, rather than at the level of the division or

SBU.

Study and FindingsThe authors present a measure for the customer-focus construct and test its predictive validity. Data were

collected from 120 people at six companies in the chemical, software, and diversified business equipment

sectors. The respondents ranged from senior managers to hourly workers, with job responsibilities in diversefunctions. Notably, the majority of respondents did not work in marketing or sales.The results indicate that the customer-focus scale developed here is a distinct unidimensional measure.

Participants from diverse occupational communities varied in their expressions of customer focus in ways

that one would expect. Additionally, customer focus proved to be a meaningful predictor of both customer

contact and confidence about customers. Together, customer focus and customer contact form the core of aframework for approaching organizational change through an emphasis on modifying beliefs and actions.

Managerial Implications

Organizational renewal has become a common quest in the post-downsizing era. A compelling case can be

made for the idea that individuals' beliefs and actions must be targeted as key to the success of the changeregimen. Successful renewal entails a mutual, simultaneous shaping of beliefs and behavior, and cultivating

a focus on customers can be seen as one valid path to organizational vitality. Thus, this study is intended to

revive interest in customer focus as a primary leverage point both for putting the marketing concept into

practice and for effecting organizational renewal. The authors' definition of customer focus as an individual's beliefs about the value of direct customer contact

for achieving desired performance outcomes in his or her own job provides specific meaning for a phrase

that is not well defined in literature dealing with the marketing concept. Their customer-focus construct can

be embraced across functions and levels in any organization. Indeed, by adopting the total qualitymanagement distinction between internal and external customers, it is possible for all employees to conceive

of themselves as implementers of the marketing concept.

Chris T. Allen is the Arthur Beerman Professor of Marketing, University of Cincinnati. Edward F. McQuarrie is

Associate Professor, Marketing Department and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, Santa ClaraUniversity. Terri Feldman Barr is Assistant Professor, Marketing Department, Miami University.

Reference

Deshpande, Rohit, and Frederick E. Webster, Jr. (1989), "Organizational Culture and Marketing:Defining the

Research Agenda." Journal of Marketing 53 (January), 3-15.

http://marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-what-is-marketing.html

Since its introduction in 1950s the marketingconcepthas been criticized, broadened, and blamed for the currentdecline in the competitive world. Have critics failed to recognize what marketingconceptreally is?

The MarketingConceptwas created in the 1950s just after the World War II, more precisely in the 1952 annual

report of General Electric. This conceptappeared when the variety of products increased and the sales of the

products were not based just on the way to sell it or the price to sell it, but based on the questions: what do

customers want? And how can we keep our customers satisfied?

Since its creation the MarketingConcepthas been applied in most of companies, this conceptis based on the

philosophy of Adam Smith who wrote in 1776 in The Wealth of Nations that the needs of producers should be

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considered only with regard to meeting the needs of consumers. It means that it is the demand which induces the

supply, so the supply has to listen to the demands needs.

For the US marketer Philip Kotler, the MarketingConceptholds that the key to achieving organizational goals lies in

determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfaction more efficiently and

effectively than the competitors. It means that a company has to create some products based on what the customers

want. The aims ofMarketingConceptare to satisfy customers and to keep them, because according to the Customer

Service Institute, it costs as much as five times as much to acquire a new customer than keep an existing one. To

reach these objectives companies had to create tools.

Keywords - modern conceptofmarketing, production conceptmarketing, right conceptmarketing,

the marketingconcept.

More abstract from The evolution and implementation of the marketing concept[...] The dominant classification of the marketing mix was created by Mc Carthy. According to him the company

arranges four instruments to reach its objectives: the product, the price, the distribution (the place) and the promotion.

(Mac Carthy, 1960), these parameters are named the four P's. Since its introduction the Marketing Concept has been

criticized, but today it is still use. Through this essay we will study how the Marketing Concept was born? Then we will

show what the weak points of the Marketing Concept are, and what are the sectors that can not use the tools of the

Marketing Concept. [...]

[...] Moreover, it is maybe the best example of an application of Marketing Concept. For Deng and Dart, The

Marketing Concept is a business (and political) philosophy that holds that long-term profitability (and electoral

success) is best achieved by focusing the coordinated activities of the organization toward satisfying the needs of a

particular market segment(s). This definition means that for the election campaign all the politicians promise to vote

laws when they will be president, but these laws are just products consumer needs; and the marketing research are

opinion pool. [...]

[...] The Marketing Concept is introduced in all the sectors of the company not just in the marketing department. The

Marketing concept is one of the concepts the more used in the Marketing Strategic and the Marketing Management,

these two departments based their decision on the customers needs, and how satisfy them. It is also used in the

Sales Department, because one of the objectives of the sales department is to get a satisfied customer. To reach thisaim, companies develop After Sales Service, a free assurance on the product; sales assistants give advices to

customers to do the good choice Thanks to these different services the customer will be satisfied; he will maybe

come back later to buy another product. [...]