Replying to LO26601 --
This is my first posting. My name is Bob McDonald, and I am a doctoral
student in Marketing at the University of Connecticut.
[Host's Note: Welcome, Bob! ..Rick]
I like Gavin's metaphor of tubes and pumps. Although I may be mistaken, I
suspect that he understands marketing as many people do: advertising and
sales. It is far more involved than advertising the latest flavor of
breakfast food or laundry detergent additive. In a typical introductory
college marketing course, advertising and sales represent less than ten
percent of the syllabus.
The principles of marketing are continuously applied in many areas of
society including government, politics, and not-for-profit organizations.
While marketing might not represent a full social system, it is
essentially the mechanism by which society (governments) decides whether
to build roads, airports, schools, or hospitals, where and when to build
them, how many to build, and how large to make them. So it does have a
role in creating the infrastructure to support the other societal systems.
>From an organizational perspective, marketing plays a key role in learning
and responding to changes in the environment. Boundary spanners in areas
like sales, customer service, and market research bring information to the
organization. This information is interpreted and disseminated throughout
the organization, often resulting in new outputs (new products, modified
offers, new markets, etc.). The only question is what form the
organization takes.
I recommend readings on the subject of market orientation, particularly
two seminal articles that appeared in the Journal of Marketing in 1990.
One, by Ajay Kholi and Bernard Jaworski describes market orientation as
knowledge acquisition, dissemination and reaction. The other, by Stan
SLater and John Narver, more clearly links market orientation with a
culture of organizational learning.
I've enjoyed the postings and look forward to more reading.
Thank you.
Bob McDonald
--Robert McDonald <McDonald@sba.uconn.edu>
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