Literature Review: Marketing Strategies for Different Market Segments in UK
Business organisations are constantly seeking ways to enhance their performances in order to compete actively and aggressively in the market. Profit-seeking organisations have long recognised the importance of creating value in the products and services they offer to the customers all in the common objective to deliver commercial goods efficiently in order to increase the satisfaction of the existing customer-base. Aside from inculcating loyalty among the members of the clients and customers of a business organisation, companies are likewise aware of the need to widen and extend the reach of the company’s products and services to new markets in order to increase its share on clients and customers. Strategies, plans and techniques in the areas of operations, communication and marketing, sales, supply chin, logistics, research and development, performance measurements as well as social and corporate obligations and responsibility are continuously improved all for the benefit of the target market. Once companies become successful in these organisational and managerial areas, sustained economic development is envisioned. This paper aims to present a discussion that illustrates arguments and debates regarding the importance of the concept of “market-oriented” companies in the current business environment. Existing literatures are reviewed regarding the organisational and managerial characteristics of market-oriented companies along with illustration using a sample company that exhibits the traits and attitude of being a market-oriented business organisation.
A number of existing literatures indicate the importance of being a market-oriented in the business environment among profit-seeking organisations (Jaworski & Kohli, 1993). These arguments are along with the claims of other experts regarding the limitations of being market-oriented since competing business organisations are likewise implementing market-oriented practices. According to DeGeus (1988), Dickson (1992) and Slater & Narver (1995) aside from having the market orientation needed in the business environment, companies should be able to imbibe faster-learning approaches relative to that of their competitors in order to ensure the success of their organisation. Business scholars continue to engage in debates regarding the important managerial as well as organisational characteristics that contemporary companies should exhibit to guarantee success.
According to Lukas, Hult & Ferrell (1996) organisational learning will ensure the future success of business organisations contrary to traditional inclination and view towards the business organisations’ existing resources such as labour and capital as the primary means of achieving the performance goals and objectives of companies within the business industry. Others emphasized that information and knowledge are the main features of economic success (Bell, 1973). From these arguments and claims it could be assumed that being market-oriented leads to competitiveness in the business arena and that companies should be market-oriented in order to succeed (Day, 1994). As such, change is encouraged among business organisations for further development highlighting the relationship between being market-oriented and devising means to increase company performances. Moreover, the arguments further indicate that being market-oriented is only a start in initiating and ensuring success in the business environment (Slater & Narver, 1995).
Competitive advantage encourages business firms to invest on researches that will define their target customer groups that they believed they could serve best. Every business person is determined to know what kind of work they would and would not do for their customers and, in turn, they carefully learn how to fulfill the needs of each kind of customer in their target markets. Hessan & Whitely (1996) emphasised the idea to take advantage of the competitive situation not just by being better in how that product gets sold, serviced, and marketed at the customer interface. It requires that companies create breakthroughs in how they interact with customers, and design a way of interacting that makes an indelible impression on customers, one that so utterly distinguishes them from others that it becomes a brand in itself.
Organisations that capitalise on customers’ active participation in organisational activities can gain competitive advantage through greater sales volume, enhanced operating efficiencies, positive word-of-mouth publicity, reduced marketing expenses, and enhanced customer loyalty (Lovelock & Young, 1979 and Reichheld & Sasser, 1990). Rather than going after every potential source of revenue, companies eliminate useless assets that do not add value for customers’ satisfaction. Business organisations implement bureaucratic policies and procedures for the benefit of the staff, customers and the company in general. According to Bowers, Martin & Luker (1990), if consumers somehow become better customers — that is, more knowledgeable, participative, or productive — the quality of the service experience will likely be enhanced for the customer and the organisation.
Companies employ detailed business plans and strategies in order to gain several benefits from its competitors such as increased profits and enhanced customer relations as company objectives. Gaining customer loyalty is a corporate challenge today in this increasingly competitive and crowded marketplace because of the eventual profitability it will provide. The changing business world allowed customers to change as well. Company management had shifted their focus on their clients or customers so as to stay successfully in business with the need to completely reformulate their conventional business aims and purposes from being process-focused to customer-centred. With the advent of technological innovations, logistical decisions about delivery operations, stockholding, warehousing and economies of scale get more complex solutions in today’s business environment.
Indeed, making a business successful in a particular setting demands crucial and detailed studies and examination of the factors that will generate the best results that will serve the aims and objectives of the company. In this light, owners of big business organisations operating in a competitive business environment should be in constant look out with its competitors and the overall status and events in the industry. Taking advantage of the opportunities and intensifying the strengths while minimising the risks and weaknesses of a business firm greatly helps in predicting the success in business enterprise.
Examination on the business strategies and plans in order to answer to the demands of clients and customers through efficient delivery of such needs will not only increase the profit of an organisation but will likewise gain the trust and competence of the clients and customers. Efficient management of delivery options in a particular company and looking into the problems encountered in operating the business may enhance the likelihood of a business corporation to attain its goals as enterprising organisation.
References:
Bell, D. (1973). The Coming of Post-Industrial Society, Basic Books, New York, N.Y.
Bowers, M.R., Martin, C.L. & Luker, A. (1990). Trading places: Employees as Customers, Customers as Employees. Journal of Services Marketing, 4 (Spring), 55-69.
Day, G. (1994). `The capabilities of market-driven organisations’, Journal of Marketing. 58, 37-52.
Degeus, A.P. (1988). `Planning as learning’, Harvard Business Review, 66, 70-74.
Dickson, P.R. (1992). `Toward a general theory of competitive rationality’, Journal of Marketing, 56, 69-83.
Hessan D. & Whiteley R. (1996). Customer Centered Growth: Five Proven Strategies for Building Competitive Advantage. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.
Jaworski, B. & Kohli, A. (1993). `Market orientation: Antecedents and consequences’, Journal of Marketing, 57, 53-70.
Lukas, B., Hult, G.T. & Ferrell, O.C. (1996). `A theoretical perspective of the antecedents and consequences of organisational learning in marketing channels’, Journal of Business Research, 36, 233-44.
Slater, S. & Narver, J. (1995). `Market orientation and the learning organisation’, Journal of Marketing, 59(3), 63-74.
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