It has become increasingly important for firms to become market orientated because it is important to know what is happening at any time in any particular market. Whether in a niche market or a broad market with tight competition, every market orientated company must understand and know what is happening in the market. The market orientated firm should also be very aware of any socio-economic trends in the market with any particular product or idol principally leading a particular market. A market orientated company must know what the public and therefore the market expects from their firm and this must be found through market research. A market-orientated firm must also adapt to suit the current market and trends. The term, ‘go-with-the-flow’ could be applied to a market orientated business as a principal belief behind all of their product development and design. A market-orientated firm must ‘go’ with any current trends, suiting and adapting with the market, it must also follow any trends in a particular market. An example of a current trend in the market, would be the Spice Girls: their instant rise to stardom through both their talented voices and an equally talented marketing team have managed to produce a range of Spice Girls products ranging from watches to clothes and posters to pens. This is a current social trend in the market because any product marketed under the Spice Girl official brand is in great demand because of the effective public perception of the Spice Girls due to the marketing team backing the group. How long this trend continues is unknown but what is known is that all market-orientated companies connected with the Spice Girls will be carefully watching their success and determine whether their popularity is declining or increasing. If the Spice Girls’ popularity is declining then these companies must act quickly to determine what shall be the next trend in a fragile market.

The product-orientated market must attempt to find different ways of selling existing products. This may entail either presenting the same product but package it differently not to suit the market demands but to suit the product needs. If the product is going to be sold in a different way, then this may mean entering either new market areas or new economies (if multi-national). There is therefore a potential for one product to the sold into many different markets. These markets may be abroad although they are more likely to be found in different areas of different markets or by perhaps investigating niche opportunities. A product orientated business concentrates on making the product technologically sound, first producing and then developing the product and then preparing to adapt the product to the market, therefore making it part market-orientated. Product orientated businesses tend to be associated with industry where tools and machines need little variation and can be built precisely and then sold to a market. A product-orientated business must have many ways of presenting the same product because the same product must be sold for different uses in different market areas. The most important things for a product-orientated business to remember is that it must eventually become part market-orientated otherwise it may loose business to other market-orientated businesses with a less efficient product which may not be the most technologically sound but it has been developed to suit the current market for that product.

Yes, there is a role today for a product-orientated approach to business because it provides an effective product which has benefited from a great deal of development; whereas a market-orientated product may be both designed quickly and produced quickly giving little thought to the efficiency of this product. A product-orientated firm should combine both effective production methods and the ability to tailor the product to market needs.