Orientation

Marketing texts have argued for decades that a strategy based on consumer-orientation is critical to the success of the modern firm. Although there is no shortage of theories of the firm in economics, sociology and psychology, none of them takes seriously the managerial philosophy of consumer-orientation. A theory that worked through the implications of this approach to corporate strategy would ideally be based on and proceed in similar terms to a theory of consumer choice that enjoyed strong empirical support and epistemological coherence. Such an approach has been developed in the form of consumer behaviour analysis, and the framework of conceptualisation and analysis known as intentional behaviourism. The current aim is to promote the idea of a competence theory of the marketing firm, one based on a logical deduction of the basic perceptions, cognitive processing and tasks executives need to fulfil in order to ensure that their firm met the demands of consumer-orientated management and the structures within which this is achieved. Although such a depiction of the firm, like any theory, presents its subject in an idealised and abstract form, the theory of the marketing firm is founded on the body of empirical research findings provided by consumer behaviour analysis, as well as a growing body of research specifically devoted to the marketing firm itself. From there, it is possible to gauge the functional and organisational requirements of executing its unique mission and thereby to refine the concept of the marketing firm by comparing it with other kinds of business such as non-profits, co-operatives, partnerships and state-owned enterprises.