"THE AIM OF MARKETING IS TO KNOW & UNDERSTAND THE CUSTOMER SO WELL THE PRODUCT OR SERVICES FITS HIM & SELLS ITSELF"

Product vs Sales vs Market Oriented

Product Oriented:

A product orientated company believes that its product's high quality and functional features make it a superior product. Such a company believes that if they have a superior product customers will automatically like it as well. The problem with this approach is that superiority alone does not sell products; superior products will not sell unless they satisfy consumer wants and needs.

Example:

Gillette Company focuses on producing the best possible disposable razors at an economic rate. Thereby, they distinguish their products with high quality razor blade, ease of use and right pricing strategy. Yet another classic example is the Ford Motor Company, where Henry Ford had made only model of car in black colour irrespective of the perspectives of the consumer.

Sales Oriented

Have you ever had someone come to your door and try to sell you a product or service? Or maybe you've walked by a kiosk in a mall and been hailed by a salesperson offering you a 'demonstration' of a product? Chances are that your house is littered with items that are a result of sales-oriented companies convincing you that you 'needed' a particular product.

A sales orientated company's focus is simple; make the product, and then sell it to the target market. This type of orientation involves the organisation making what they think the customer needs or likes without relevant research. However as we know sales usually aren't this simple. An effective marketing strategy requires market and marketing research, prior to product development and finally an effective promotion strategy.These approaches usually are done through door-to-door sales, phone calls, and other face-to-face interactions with potential clients or prospects. The sales force is usually the most important asset of the company and is the main driver of its success and profitability.

For example, the sales-oriented approach could involve developing a software package and then using either advertising or individual sales people to convince a business owner this product is beneficial to his business.

Market Oriented:

A market orientated company puts the customer at the "heart" of the business; all activities in the organisation are based around the customer. The customer is truly king!. A market orientated organisation endeavors to understand customer needs and wants, then implements marketing strategy based on their market research; from product development through to product sales.

Once sales have begun further research will be conducted to find out what consumers think about the product and whether product improvements are required. As markets continuously change, market research and product development is an ongoing process for a market orientation company.

Example:

If a car company engages in market orientation, it will research what consumers most want and need in a car rather than produce models meant to follow the trends of other manufacturers.

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A small discourse on Apple’s Orientation: Product or Market Oriented?

Hello reader, 

A small discourse on Apple’s Orientation: Product or Market Oriented?

Apple’s current product portfolio includes the Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and their own software which include the operating system run on all of their products, iTunes Store, Apple Store and iCloud. Apple has continued to bring innovative products that would pave the way for the new standard of technology since its founding of the Mac.

Due to its focus on releasing innovative products, Apple Inc. has been branded as a product oriented company; however Apple spends a lot of time and effort on figuring out what the consumers want through their intensive market research which convinces some to believe that they are indeed a market oriented company. I will bet that Apple is heading towards a market oriented approach in the past few years and will continue to do so.

Apple Inc. continually focuses on the development of their products and makes them innovative, attractive and competitive with other competing brands which makes them product-oriented but as I said being a product-oriented company has its downfall.

Apple Inc. since its founding has focused on developing and innovating their products using a product oriented approach but in recent years, there are reasons to believe that they are using a market oriented approach due to the fact that they use an intensive market research to produce their products, their recent products starting from the iPhone 5c also suggests that they are starting to become a market oriented company.

With these in mind, I can safely assume that Apple indeed uses a product oriented approach, but when Tim Cook took over the position of CEO, they have changed towards a market oriented approach listening to the consumer’s wants and needs but without sacrificing their competitive edge.

They are continually innovating their products but are also starting to see the importance and impact of listening to their consumers. Though they are deemed to shift from a market leader to a market follower, they are still continually topping their past records of sales with their new products. This is due to the fact that they are starting to fit their products to what the consumers want.

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Cadbury– The leader of the market segment due to its marketing strategy

Cadbury– The leader of the market segment due to it’s marketing strategy..!

Cadbury has a power house lineup of products. In fact, several of our readers will be surprised when they read the different varieties and markets where Cadbury is present. A company might have 1 or 2 cash cows, but Cadbury has several with the lions share of the market. Some in the chocolate business are Dairy Milk, Bournville, Five Star, Perk, Cadbury Eclairs. In the biscuits segment is the premium Oreo. In beverages there is Bournvita that again is one of the leaders in milk additives. Halls as a mouth freshener as well as a remedy during cold is used across India. Thus, with such a strong line of products, Cadbury is bound to lead the chocolate industry. Due to its products, Cadbury is the leading name of chocolates across the world and has presence in all 7 continents.

How do Cadbury segments its market..?

The segmentation of Cadbury products is based on mix of demographics, behavioural & psychographic factors; like on the basis of Income & occasions. You will find people of all age groups and demography enjoying Cadbury products. Cadbury’s product offerings are mostly based on the production capacity, pricing of the various packs, packaging designs, and storage facilities at the outlets, occasional & situational demands, celebrity endorsements and many other factors.

Although Cadbury has targeted people from all age groups but it has distinguished its product offerings to specific class of consumer groups. For example, Cadbury Temptation and Bournville are meant for higher end consumer groups who are willing to pay more & Cadbury Silk is targeted to the people who can’t resist chocolates.

Considering all the above factors, Cadbury has targeted different segments within the market as:

Break segment -

This segment describes products, which are normally consumed as a short break and often with tea or coffee. For example, Cadbury Perk.

Impulse Segment -

These products are most often purchased on impulse while consumers are walking buy or shopping for other household goods. They are strategically placed at eye-level or near the checkout counter so that consumers can make an unplanned purchase. For example Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury Silk, etc.

Take home segment -

This segment describes products that are normally purchased in supermarkets, taken home and consumed at a later stage due to its sheer quantity, for example Bournvita.

Part of this segment is called the gift segment, where the consumers will take home a box of chocolates in the form of a gift for someone else, for example the Cadbury Celebrations box.

Why they are leaders of their segment..?

The smartest tactic that Cadbury has done over the years with products like dairy milk and celebrations is that these chocolates are positioned for gifting. In fact the recent Bournville, has a complete focus on the gifting position. Due to this smart strategy Cadbury has safely differentiated itself from majority of its competitors. It has positioned itself as a symbol of good times & a spontaneous brand that is carefree, meant for special as well as real moments in life.

Marketing strategy of Cadbury

Promotions – Indians love sweets. From Bengalis to Punjabis to South Indians, each of us wants sweets. Youngsters love sweet, and old people want a nibble from time to time. Thus it is no surprise, that a smart marketer like Cadbury has a tag line “Kuch meetha ho jaye” which means that lets have something sweet. It is no surprise that people always have some Cadbury’s stocked at home. Or they gift a Cadbury dairy milk or Cadbury Celebration box to their loved ones.

The promotion of Cadbury for each of its products is different. For Bournville, Cadbury has kept the position that you don’t buy a Bournville, you earn it. For Cadbury celebrations, the positioning is of gifting. Cadbury celebration has a major commercial customer base, where the chocolate is brought in bulk and given to employees, clients or vendors. Eclairs has a low cost position, Bournvita has a strong health positioning, Perk has a youngster position, so on and so forth.

Competitive advantage – Distribution and brand equity are two major competitive advantage for Cadbury. Cadbury is making its product available from pops & moms store to high-end departmental stores, which is only possible due to its extensive distribution channel creating competitive edge over others. The main competitive advantage of Cadbury comes from its ability to market its products through altering the theme & functionality of the products on continuous basis. Also smartly designing its promotion & communications to handle the controversies & educate customers more about the confectionaries had helped the company to spread positive word of mouth resulting from negative marketing.

Placement and distribution – The distribution of Cadbury is fantastic and widespread. It is present strongly in all urban areas as well as A, B and C category towns. The rural marketing of Cadbury is known to be weak but that is because demand there is also weak. Cadbury follows the same mantra of FMCG marketing that is ‘breaking the bulk’. The Cadbury chocolate Bournville is manufactured in England. Recently there was an advertisement, which promoted that Cadbury buys only the best cocoa beans from Ghana for its chocolates. These chocolates are then distributed across the world. Cadbury is present in 200 or more countries. Once the chocolate reaches in bulk, it is broken down as follows.

Company >> C&F agent >> Distributors >> Retailers >> Consumers

As you can see, due to the channel, the distribution costs of Cadbury are high. But based on the demand in the market, the costs were going to be high anyways. That is something that has to be taken into consideration during the distribution of products. In the end, Cadbury has a very strong presence in the market, and you can be rest assured, that if you want to have a Cadbury, it will be within 2 minutes reach from you in any of the local retail shops.

 Thank You!!

Market Orientation

Market orientation is a company philosophy focused on discovering and meeting the needs and desires of its customers through its product mix. Unlike past marketing strategies that concentrated on establishing selling points for existing products, market orientation works in reverse, attempting to tailor products to meet the demands of customers. In essence, market orientation can be thought of as a coordinated marketing campaign between a company and its customers.

The following could be consider as the benefits provided if an enterprise uses Market Orientation as their strategy: 

* It focuses on Customer satisfaction.

* It further focuses on constantly monitoring what the customers' needs.

* It provides the company an advantage against it's competitors.

* It is a constant process by which data acquired from by all the levels of organisation are analyzed to understand the need of customer on a regular basis.

It is simple to use as it can be used by all kind of businesses, for example:

1) A steel utensil manufacturer may conduct survey's from it's traders and distributors regarding the needs of the customer and manufacture products accordingly. It has been observed that due to the use of steel products in induction cookers, etc. The various kind of demands of the utensils which could be used for such cookers have increased. 

2) KFC is one more example, their specialty in chicken products in famous all around the world. However depending on the needs of Indian customer's for Veg products. They started providing veg products also in India.

3) Cafe Coffee Day could also be considered as a great example of analyzing what the market needs and providing products based on the market.    

You may have come across various cases when the company's has failed to understand the need of customer's or consumer's or user's and ended up losing their customer base. Few of the best example being:

1) BlackBerry

2) Orkut

3) Nokia

Further, in a macro dynamics our country is focusing more and more in Service Oriented business. To substantiate the same the following  are the details:

  1) India’s technology and BPM sector has a growth rate of  23.72 per cent as per  Nasscom Techsci Research. As we all know IT sector is mainly depends on what the customer needs. All the apps, ERP's,etc are developed to satisfy the customer's needs.

2) Online food ordering and delivery service firm Swiggy, owned by Bundl Technologies Private Limited, has raised US$ 15 million in a fresh funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners along with existing investors SAIF Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Accel Partners, and Apoletto Asia. It reflects to the fact that depending the customer's need of food delivery the company developed the app.

3) Taxi service aggregator Ola plans to double operations to 200 cities in current fiscal year. The company, which is looking at small towns for growth, also plans to invest in driver eco-system, such as training centers and technology upgrade, besides adding 1,500 to 2,000 women drivers as part of its pink cab service by women for women. It reflects the fact that the need to own the car as compare to using the rent a cab facility was targeted by the company.

Hence, it could be said that market orientation in this competitive market is very important to acquire market share.