What is customer-driven marketing?
Predictably, these firms have focused on manufacturing first. However, improving product quality alone will not ensure long-term success; that is the old “build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door” fallacy. For a firm to be successful, the quality focus must occur in all areas of the organization. This means that innovative approaches to meeting or exceeding customer needs must be implemented throughout the business. The marketing function in many companies has not responded to this need for innovation. Throughout this century, American firms have been recognized as world leaders in marketing. Perhaps because of this preeminent position, the field of marketing has suffered from myopia and has failed to make major innovations since the 1960s and early 1970s. The past 15 years have seen only incremental refinements of the fundamental concepts in marketing. Identifying target markets has become more precise, leading to micro-segmentation; product positioning has
