What Is Production Orientation?
Production orientation is a marketing strategy in which the company focuses on products rather than customers’ wants or desires. Two other types of strategies include market orientation and sales orientation.
“If you build it, they will come” is the simple philosophy of companies that abide by a philosophy of production orientation. This philosophy discounts the wants and needs of the customers. Rather, the company chooses to focus all of its resources on how to efficiently build a product that is better than that of any of its competitors.
Companies that abide by this strategy put other marketing strategies on the back burner. For example, a common belief is that funds do not need to be put into advertising, because the quality of the products is so high that the products will easily sell themselves. Sales calls and other marketing ploys are not deemed as important as the overall quality of the product.
This is directly opposite of the strategies in a market or sales orientation philosophy. Companies that abide by a market orientation philosophy actually try to identify and then meet the stated or hidden needs of the customers. Those companies that practice a sales orientation philosophy concentrate funds into promoting sales of the product, either through sales calls or other marketing and advertising strategies.
