Marketing

Viewpoint
The importance of marketing
Richard C. Leventhal

Richard C. Leventhal, of
Leventhal Research LLC, is
Editor of the Journal of
Consumer Marketing.
E-mail: rcleventhal@hotmail.comDeveloping a marketing orientation: taking the necessary steps
In these times of constantly shrinking budgets and increased competition, why should a
company continually invest in seeking the mosteffective marketing strategy that it can
develop? A market-driven strategy allows a company to truly understand its market and the
customers that are the basis for this market. This effort allowsfor a more effective integration
of all activities that may impact customer value, which in turn affects both
return-on-investment and profitability.
An effective marketing effort is based uponinformation, which can be used in terms of
developing sound business strategies, increase your return-on-investment, allow for more
successful innovation, lead to better branding efforts, increase theeffectiveness of your
promotional efforts and strengthen your web marketing efforts.
The old adage that ‘‘the customer is always right’’ may not always be accurate, but it is a
good place to start.Marketing is not a short-term solution, as it takes considerable effort to
build both a market-organizational culture and strategies. Also, measuring marketing efforts
solely in terms of financialperformance does not really tell us whether real progress is being
made towards developing a successful market-driven strategy. Cutting your marketing
budget to realize short-term cost savings andbolster profitability may actually work against
being able to achieve strategic goals and enhancing perceived customer value.
In order to achieve a true market orientation, a company needs to make thecustomer the
epicenter of its business perspective. At the same time, those within the organization must
also become involved, and become supportive, with these marketing efforts.
A true competitive...