Contribution to BOLA by Charles Dennis

The Marketing Concept

To achieve success companies must go further than mere customer satisfaction: they must do it better than competition ....... The modern marketing concept can be expressed as:

'The achievement of corporate goals through meeting and exceeding customer needs better than the competition.'

[Jobber 1995]

This is the 'approach or concept which can be used as the guiding philosophy for all of the activities of an organisation. ........ Peter Drucker once wrote "There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer." At its simplest, if you do not have any customers for the product or service your business offers, then there is no reason for continuing existence.'

[Adcock et al 1995].

CUSTOMER SOVEREIGNTY

A business exists to add value (or profit) by satisfying customers. In the context of a university ' customers' could include:

• Students
• Local Authorities (pay fees and grants)
• National Government (funding)
• Employers
• Feeder Schools and Colleges

Everyone's job in a business exists to serve customers such as these - or to serve those who serve the customer (or to contribute to profit, e.g. by saving costs - thus serving an 'internal customer')

'This is customer sovereignty: it places the customer effectively at the top of the organisation chart. The substance and credibility of this customer - centredness will daily be put to the test in all sorts of ways (e.g. how long to answer the telephone, promptness of delivery, product quality). The performance and integration of all these activities requires management and training. They cannot be left to chance.'

[Adcock et al 1995].

A deeper understanding of marketing orientation can be gained by contrasting the market-driven business with an internally orientated business, as in the following table from Jobber, 1995:

URL www.bola.biz/marketing/concept.html
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