The Marketing Concept: Putting the Theory into Practice

Abstract

This paper attempts to develop a typology of current approaches to marketing in UK industry. It reports the results of a national postal survey of over 1,000 UK chief marketing executives. Cluster analysis was used on the survey data to isolate four distinct marketing approaches which are current in UK industry. These are described as “marketing philosophers”, “sales supporters,” “departmental marketers” and “unsures”. Three of these orientations suggest a natural progression from sales support through departmental marketing to the adoption of marketing as a guiding philosophy for the whole organisation. While it is recognised that this kind of cross‐sectional analysis cannot be used to conclude that all business moves through these stages towards marketing orientation, the paper presents attitudinal, organisational and executional evidence to suggest that this is a viable hypothesis.