Abstract
Many leading marketing textbooks discuss how the “marketing era” evolved in the 1950s and beyond when companies began to emphasise a customer focus and the marketing concept. While the idea that there was ever a “production era”, where consumers merely accepted what companies could produce, has been largely debunked by Ronald Fullerton (see Fullerton 1998) and others,1 I wonder whether marketing practice in 2000 and beyond has really evolved in the way that marketing scholars would have hoped. According to the textbooks, we are currently in the “marketing era” where the customer is better served. Certainly, much good academic work has been done on market orientation, starting with key conceptualisations of what it takes for a firm to be market oriented (e.g., Kohli and Jaworski 1990; Narver and Slater 1990). Additionally, there is ample evidence that market orientation has a positive long-run impact on firm profitability and performance (e.g., Day 1994; Hunt and Morgan 1995; Javalgi et al. 2005).
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References
Day, G.S. (1994). “The capabilities of market-driven organization”, Journal of Marketing, 58(4): 37–52.
Fullerton, R.A. (1988). “Marketing’s evolution and the myth of the ‘Production Era’”, Journal of Marketing, 52(1): 108–125.
Hunt, S.D. and R.M. Morgan (1995). “The comparative advantage theory of competition”, Journal of Marketing, 59(2): 1–15.
Javalgi Rajshekhar G., Thomas W. Whipple, Amit K. Ghosh, and Robert B. Young (2005). “Market orientation, strategic flexibility, and performance: implications for service providers”, Journal of Services Marketing, 19(4): 212–221.
Kohli, Ajay K. and Bernard J. Jaworsk (1990). “Market orientation: the construct, research propositions, and managerial implications”, Journal of Marketing, 54(2): 1–18.
Narver, John C. and Stanley F. Slater (1990). “The effect of a market orientation on business profitability”, Journal of Marketing, 54(3): 20–35.
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© 2013 Charles R. Taylor
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Taylor, C.R. (2013). Seven Simple Rules to Better Customer Service. In: Kitchen, P.J. (eds) The Dominant Influence of Marketing in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137322630_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137322630_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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