Market Orientation

Is when a firm bases its decisions on the customers' needs, by continually monitoring its environment to find out what customers want, what competitors are offering and what changes are occurring in the market. The benefits of this is that a firm can help stay one step ahead of its competitors by offering unique products that can't be purchased at their competitors which also helps to increase product sales and market share. The disadvantages of this is that it is expensive to do and time consuming as market research is constantly needed to carry this process out, which can take very long to complete and if the firm does the market research through a corporation, it can be very costly. It is also very difficult to carry out as market fashion and tastes are constantly changing which can be difficult for a firm to stay on top of whats in fashion.