The Importance Of Market Orientation

Market Orientation According to Naver and Slater (1990), market orientation is one of the organizational cultures which will lead to high performance of a business. This is because the business is able to provide customer superior value with lead cost and time. Market orientation includes customer orientation, competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination. Market orientation will lead to new product performance whether the new product is achieving customers’ expectation or out performing than their competitors (Zhang & Duan, 2010). From Zhang and Duan’s research (2010), market orientation is important than innovation orientation, because customers’ expectation was studied and innovation of new product was built according to customers’

Market orientation is an organizational culture but it does not increase satisfaction of customers. Customers are treated as big homogeneous population. Although market orientation makes company to know customers’ expectations and needs, there are not special treatments to specific group of customers. Due to this reason, customers think that company is doing their responsibilities to provide services or products to customers. Market orientation does not lead to high satisfaction of customers. However, market orientation does improve company performance. Market orientation treats customers as their assets and reason for the company to exist. It helps to identify customers’ need and produce the products that customers wish for. So, customers are willing to buy the products or services and indirectly increase the company sales and performances. In a nutshell, market orientation is not related to customers’ satisfaction but it will increase company

Salespersons and their managers are important in keeping good relationship with customers and providing them superior products and services. The effective way to motivate salesperson to be customer orientation is through their compensation plans. Salespersons are more customers oriented and hardworking if their compensation is related to customers. Company also gives training to salesperson to ensure them focus on their customers. Customer orientation is not only focuses on customers’ needs, it includes other stakeholders’ expectation too. The relationship between customer orientation and customers’ loyalty is strong. In other words, customer orientation can improve the customers’ loyalty (Homburg, Müller, & Klarmann, 2011). The salespersons that are close with customers will drive customers to continuously buy products from the salesperson. This is called building “Guanxi” with customers to achieve company goals. Salespersons provide special customer orientation according to each customer’s characteristic will improve their satisfaction. Although salespersons are important and effective in increase customers’ satisfaction, it brings disadvantages to company too. For example, company might lose their customers once the salesperson is leaving company. Company must aware to prevent this situation to