DEFINITIONS AND APPLICATION OF MARKET ORIENTATION IN THE BUSINESS OPERATION OF SME’s

Abstract

To better understand the importance of market orientation, it is necessary to distinguish the terms: marketing concept, marketing orientation and market orientation. The evolution of marketing concept dates back to 1950s, and it is described as a business philosophy that puts the customer at the focus of activities. Marketing orientation can be described as a way of implementing the marketing concept. On the other hand, market orientation is ‘‘The degree to which business: 1. has useful information about consumers, 2. develops a strategy that meets consumer demands, 3. implements strategy that responds to consumer needs and desires.’‘ It can be said that market orientation is a part of and supports and assists the marketing concept as a business philosophy and marketing orientation as business activities, uniting the two concepts. For companies who have gone through transition regardless of their size, generally, changes can be seen that have occurred under the influence of the change of the economic system and the business environment in which they operate. According to the business strategy and business concept, our SMEs are still in a state of transition, with many similarities to past experiences of the companies in the world, than with their competitive position today, after the transition.