COMPARISON OF MARKET AND PRODUCTIONWhen W. Edwards Deming proposed his method for statistical quality control, he emphasized the
importance of the production system beginning with the customer. Customer input provides the foundation for creation of products that meet market needs. For decades prior to Deming, manufacturing industries in most industrialized nations elected to manufacture goods based on their ability to be produced, what is referred to as the "production orientation". The challenge became finding ways to promote the products to potential purchasers in such ways as to create a perceived need for the good in the minds of potential buyers. Today, the advertising industry still finds itself constantly battling social critics who suggest that advertising, especially as practiced in the U.S. and Europe, creates false needs resulting in society's unnecessary expenditures for unneeded products or services. Marketing matured in the 1950s and 1960s. The "marketing concept," a concept that had been around for centuries in practice if not in theory, re-emerged to suggest that the most effective and efficient marketing strategy is to survey markets to identify unfilled needs and then to produce products that satisfy those unmet needs. The thought was that if a product or service sufficiently satisfies consumers, the product or service will sell itself as people with the need seek to fill it. The marketing concept means that an organization aims all its efforts at satisfying customers. This concept requires marketers to focus their research on what potential consumers want, then to translate that to product traits, packaging characteristics, price levels, or availability of products to consumers. Compare some differences in outlook between the Marketing Concept and the Production Concept and see if you can identify differences that might be reflected in a company's relationship with customers.
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