Four Orientations

How does a company choose their sales and marketing philosophy? A company will select their philosophy by deciding on how to harness their internal strengths to reach their consumers. What part of their arsenal will they use? Companies adopt one of four philosophies when deciding on how to create an organizational marketing process. The four philosophies are production, sales, marketing and societal marketing orientations.

Production Orientation

The first philosophy we will discuss is production orientation. An easy way to understand this term is to reference Henry Ford, the original manufacturer of American cars. Production orientation is a philosophy that focuses on the internal capabilities of the firm rather than on the desires and needs of the marketplace. Ford created one type of car and stated that the consumer could have it in any color as long as it was black!

Firms that use this philosophy believe that they are utilizing their firm's strengths in the best way. They look internally and decide on how to proceed depending upon their own capabilities. The one problem with this type of philosophy is that it does not take into consideration whether their product or service actually meets the needs of the consumer and market. If a firm is a new inventor as with Ford, they are able to be successful. If a car manufacturer kept this production orientation today and limited any type of options to the consumer, they would surely be out of business very quickly! Could you imagine if you could not change the rims of your car or add a DVD player?

Ford followed a product-oriented philosophy by offering just one car option, the Model T

Sales Orientation

A second philosophy a company can adapt is sales orientation. Sales orientation is when a company believes that they will sell more product or services if very aggressive sales methods are used to gain higher sales. The central theme of sales orientation is about making items and making money. Sales oriented companies rely heavily on promotion and a highly trained aggressive sales force. An example would be a door to door salesman or a mall kiosk. Again, the problem with this type of philosophy is that it again does not focus on what the customer and market requires. It is too caught up in pushing their product or service with a polished sales technique.