Product orientation starts with the product and assumes a good product sells itself; consumer orientation starts with customer needs and builds the product and marketing around them. They are two of six marketing concepts: production, product, selling, marketing (consumer), societal and holistic. Levitt’s “Marketing Myopia” (1960) warned against product focus.
Henry Ford is said to have offered the Model T “in any colour, so long as it is black”. In the 1920s, that worked: demand was huge and making one design cheaply was the winning strategy. By the end of the decade, General Motors was taking share by offering colours, models and annual updates that matched what different buyers wanted. That shift, from making what you can to making what customers want, is the story of marketing orientations.
This guide covers the main marketing concepts (also called marketing management philosophies), then compares product orientation with consumer orientation in detail.
The Six Marketing Concepts
| Concept | Core idea | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Production concept | Consumers want cheap, available products; focus on efficient production | Ignoring what customers actually want |
| Product concept | Consumers want the best quality and features; focus on improving the product | “Marketing myopia”: loving the product, not the need |
| Selling concept | Consumers will not buy enough unless pushed; focus on aggressive selling | Short-term sales, unhappy customers |
| Marketing (consumer) concept | Find out what customers need and deliver it better than rivals | Following stated wants too literally |
| Societal marketing concept | Meet customer needs while protecting long-term welfare of society | Harder to measure |
| Holistic marketing concept | Integrate relationship, internal, integrated and socially responsible marketing | Complex to run |
Theodore Levitt’s 1960 article “Marketing Myopia” warned that companies defining themselves by their product rather than the customer need would be overtaken; his example was railways that saw themselves in the railroad business, not the transport business.
Read more: Concepts of entrepreneurship.
Product Orientation
A product-oriented firm starts with what it makes and believes a good enough product will sell itself. It invests in engineering and features, often without checking whether buyers value them.
Characteristics: focus on product quality and features; decisions driven by production and R&D; little market research; assumes customers will recognise superiority.
Consumer (Customer) Orientation
A consumer-oriented firm starts with the customer’s needs and works backwards to the product, price, place and promotion. Research, feedback and data drive decisions.
Characteristics: market research before development; products designed around needs; the whole organisation focused on customer satisfaction; long-term relationships valued over one-off sales.
Why it matters: in competitive markets, the firm that understands customers best usually wins. Small, affordable sachets of shampoo succeeded in rural India because companies studied how low-income buyers actually shopped.
Product Orientation vs Consumer Orientation
| Basis | Product orientation | Consumer orientation |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | The product | Customer needs |
| Focus | Features and quality | Satisfaction and value |
| Research | Little | Extensive |
| Decision-makers | Production and R&D | Marketing, with all functions |
| Time horizon | Short to medium term | Long-term relationships |
| Risk | Marketing myopia | Higher research cost |
| Best suited to | Markets with little competition | Competitive, fast-changing markets |
Related: nature and scope of marketing and characteristics of consumer behaviour.
Read more: Why studying consumer behavior is important for businesses?.
