Marketing Orientation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing Orientation - Essay Example Both the methods are commonly employed. In this paper, we will employ the Narver and Slater methods to establish the scale for market orientation. Though both the said scales have their own advantages and disadvantages, the Narver and Slater scale has specific specialties to match the needs of a large organization. In the course of the study, the method will be employed for studying the McDonald's Restaurant chain which is very common and the questionnaire suggested by Narver and Slater was used to check the market orientation of this company. Market orientation of a firm has been found to have a strong and positive link with the performance of the company by a number of researchers (Matsuno, Mentzer and Ozsomer, 2002). There are also other research outcomes which are not in favor of such positive link (Han, Kim and Srivastava, 1998). A similar study of the same nature on small sized companies and retailers indicate that the retailers are more customer oriented compared to the small companies. Overall, though there are disputable claims on the market orientation on the performance of the company and the extent to which they are related, the counter claims do no augur well with the results that have been obtained in the field over a period of time. With a large economic growth and integration over the last decade, the effectiveness of the market orientation has been more pronounced on the performance of the company. Therefore, a number of methods have been evolved in order to measure the market orientation and to correlate performance vis--vis market orientation. Measuring Market Orientation Market orientation is measured using a number of methods. The works of Deshpande (1993) and that of Wrenn (1997) have helped in evolving a framework for the purpose. Market orientation, according to Narver and Slater (1990), comprises of three dimensions, viz., customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional coordination. While the suggestion of Kohli and Jarowski on Market orientation looked at a complete process of the company and the impact of market orientation on the entire process. If the impact on every one of the processes is gauged then the same can be the metric for market orientation. The method suggested by Narver and Slater has been adopted in this paper. This divides the entire framework of measurement into three dimensions. A questionnaire has been suggested by the researchers that comprises of fourteen different questions primarily grouped under the three heads already cited. The method employs a seven factor scale that will help in judging the size of the orientation by summing the response for every one of the identified factors. This works as a perception of the person on the specific factor and the company's orientation as viewed by the customer or the employ or the vendor. This provides for a 360 degree rating of the company in the prescribed matter. Sample Organization and its market orientation The organization taken into consideration is the McDonalds, the restaurant chain in the US and the World. McDonalds has changed its approach to the market and its market orientation is pretty high; particularly, because of its service oriented nature. This has made the company respond to the needs of the clients much more swiftly than some of the other companies that are not