Marketing may be viewed as ' a set of functional activities performed by line management (such as product policy, pricing, delivery, and communication efforts) or as a customer-driven orientation for the entire organization' (Lovelock
1991: 1).
The functional activities described by Lovelock are often, but not necessarily, undertaken bya marketing department. Many researchers believe that the role of a marketing department has become pivotal to achieving organisational objectives and in providing the interface between the organisation and the external environment (Doyle 1995; Fifield 1992; Gronroos 1990; Gummesson 1994; Herremans and Ryans 1995; McKenna 1991; Pieters and Botschen 1999; Webster 1992). A marketing department is recognised as being particularly important for its role in attempting to attract potential customers, and maintaining and retaining current customers in profitable relationships (Edvardsson, Edvinsson and Nystrom 1993; Gronroos 1989, 1990; Kostecki 1994b). In addition, via market research techniques, such an interface enables a more informed understanding of the market, the creation of interest in the market by influencing customer purchase decisions, and the exploitation of opportunities by providing superior value and customer satisfaction (Babin and Griffin 1998; Cravens 1997; Devlin 2001; Gronroos 1980; Kostecki 1994b; Webster and Sundaram 1998). As Kotler and Levy (1969) simply explained over 30 years ago, marketing is what keeps the organisation in constant touch with the market. Agarwal, Erramilli and Dev (2003) and Flipo (1986) also suggest the marketing department should be concerned with the internal as well as the external markets of a business, that is, the employees and customers respectively because of the role employees have in producing and delivering the product to customers. In practical terms, it is employees that are the frontline interface that is in contact with customers on behalf of the business.
Although the need for conducting marketing activities is widely accepted, not everyone recognises the need for a marketing department (for example see the discussion in Cravens 1998b). From the very large to smaller organisations, many are either decreasing the size of the marketing department or removing it completely from the organisation chart (Cravens 1998a; Denison and McDonald 1995; Gronroos 1989;
);lrratt and F;l}'�d 20l1 1 ; Shu�bridg� I lJlJ6). From a pragmatic perspective, many smaller
Ilrg;1I1is;ltions do not hav� the rest11IfCCS to fund a marketing department. Doyle ( 1 995:
'\"') h()w�\'er. maintains that what is more important is that each organisation requires a pcroon who is the 'champion of the marketing p h ilosophy ' whose aim is also to ensure a l l �mp loye�s appr�ciate thc imperative of being market-driven. The role of this
"champion", whether the manager of the marketing department or another department is
tu pruvide the strakgics and systems that enable employees to perform marketing
activities ( Wi lson and McDonald 1 9 (4).
Research�rs (for example. Cravens 1 998a; Den ison and McDonald 1 995; Hooley,
l .ynch and Shcpherd I 'J')O; l.orenz 1 9H6; Morgan, McGuinness and Thorpe 20(0)
explai n that the most successful com panies recognise that marketing should pervade the
corporate culture and transcend any individual department or title. Simi larly Gromoos
( 1 1),,\1): 5) ex plains that a marketing department is an 'organisational solution' for
managing marketing. and suggests. regardless of the existence of a marketing
dcpartmL· nt. that t he responsib i l ity for marketing should be spread throughout the
organisation. I\S a number of researchers (such as Gromoos 1 989; Jarratt and Fayed 2[J[J 1 : i\kKcnna 1<)1) I ; Webster 1 <)'12) explain. marketing is a way of doing business
that should be part of every employees' job descri ption. or as expressed by Gromoos ( I '11}·I !. 3 1 1 employees should be considered as be ing part-time marketers.
At the other end of Lovelock's ( 1 9'1 I ) continuum of marketing, that is, marketing as a customer-driven orientation. marketing appears to be moving beyond being a series of
activi ties performed by a marketing department to beco m i ng accepted as a total busilless concept. This is supported by Styles and Uncles' (1998) survey of 280
focused. Similarly, Doyle (1995) suggests marketing be viewed as an integrative business process rather than a list of departmental activities. This is not a new concept. Four decades earlier, Drucker (1954: 37) argued that marketing 'is not a specialized activity at all. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, from the customer's point of view'. It appears that a number of researchers now also agree with another observation of Drucker (1974) that marketing should be a business philosophy that must permeate all areas of the organisation, and in doing so, offer superior value to customers. These views are reflected in McKenna's (1991 : 79) suggestion that 'marketing is everyone's job, marketing is everything, everything is marketing' .
There are two major approaches in the literature reflecting the role of marketing as being a business philosophy, being "marketing-oriented" or being "market-oriented". Despite their apparent similarity, they are two different concepts. However, at times within the literature, there is some confusion between the uses of the two phrases, where in some cases they are used interchangeably (such as in Webster 1988) or defined inconsistently (as in Griinroos 1989). Each orientation has implications for how marketing is managed in organisations because their focus differs; each are explained in the following two sub-sections.
4.2.1 The marketing-oriented organisation
Organisations that implement the marketing concept are said to be marketing-oriented. The marketing concept refers to a business philosophy where the central focus is on being responsive to customer needs in selected target markets, provided it can be achieved at a profit. As Trustrum (1989: 48) explains, it is 'a belief that the organization can function in the best interests of its customers and itself when a balance
is achieved between the needs of both parties'. The relevance of the marketing concept
is clearer when it is considered that prior to the introduction of the marketing concept in
the 1950s, marketing generally referred to sellings. According to Webster (1988), the
focus at that time was on the organisation's products, not its customers. Marketing's
role was to sell what the organisation could produce. In other words, during this sales
orientation era, the emphasis was on persuading potential customers they needed the
product. Marketing activity tended to be 'short-term and tactical, focusing on the
seIling process itself' with little concern about developing new markets or adapting to
changing customer requirements and the competition (Webster 1988: 3). The sales
orientation can be contrasted against the earlier production orientation where organisational activities were ' geared to existing technology, products or production
processes', that is, the focus was more on the organisation than the market (Gronroos
1989: 52). Vorhies and Harker (2000) refer to these business philosophies as being internally-oriented where the marketing focus revolves around pricing to increase sales.
In contrast, to the sales- and production-oriented organisations, marketing-oriented
organisations6 use the creation of superior customer value to guide business strategy as
a means to differentiate the organisation's products from others (Vorhies and Harker
(2000). The core tenets of a marketing-oriented organisation are often identified as a
coordinated organisation-wide approach to marketing and a focus on customer
satisfaction and organisational profitability, that is, it is the implementation of the marketing concept (Kohli and Jaworski 1990; Narver and Slater 1990; Trustum 1989;
5 See Webster (1988) and Wrenn (1997) for a review of the development of the marketing concept.
6 A fourth business philosophy, often referred to in marketing textbooks, is that of a societal orientation.
Organisations operating under this orientation have a greater focus on addressing the needs of stakeholders who may be affected by the organisation's commercial actions, for example, pollution. environmental damage, and ethical practices. Besides customers and employees, stakeholders may include the government, suppliers and the general public.
Webster 1988; Wrenn 1997; Wright, Pearce and Busbin 1997). As Wrenn (1997: 34) explains, ' the marketing concept is a way of thinking about the organization, its products, and its customers, a marketing orientation is doing those things necessary to put such a philosophy into practice' .
4.2.2 The market-oriented organisation
When discussing marketing as a total business concept, the phrase "market-oriented" rather than marketing oriented is generally used. Other commonly used terms, such as being "customer-focused" or "market-driven", according to Slater and Narver (1995) and Wrenn (1997), are synonymous with being market-oriented. Being market-oriented generally relates to the implementation of three major activities. The first activity involves systematically collecting market research on present and potential customers and competitors; the second is systematically analysing the collected research to develop knowledge about the market; and the third activity is the implementation of the new found knowledge to guide business strategy (Hunt and Morgan 1995; Kohli and Jaworski 1990; Morgan et al. 2000; Wrenn 1997).
Although there may be some confusion between being marketing-orientated and market-oriented, a number of researchers (such as Gray, Matear, Boshoff and Matheson 1998; Kohli and Jaworski 1990; Lafferty and Hult 2001; Wrenn 1997) are clear there is a fundamental difference between the two orientations. They explain that being market oriented is much broader in that it focuses attention on customers and the environmental influences on marketing including competitors, whereas being marketing-orientcd is concerned mainly with customers and restricts responsibility to thc marketing department (see Wrenn 1997 for a comprehensive examination of thc market orientation construct).
Researchers have attempted to measure the extent an organisation is market-oriented by developing uni- or multi-dimensional measures using a variety of scales
(
see examples in Dawes 2000; Deng and Dart 1994; Gray et al. 1998; Jaworski and Kohli 1993; Kohli, Jaworski and Kumar 1993; Narver and Slater 1990; Rose and Shoham 2002; Vorhies and Harker 2000; Wrenn 1997). Some examples of dimensions measured include customer orientation, competitor orientation, interfunctional coordination, a long-term focus, and profitability(
Narver and Slater 1990); a 32 item measure of the generation of market intelligence, dissemination of market intelligence, and responsiveness to market intelligence(
Jaworski and Kohli 1993), which was reduced to a 20 item version entitled MARKOR by Kohli et al. (1993); and Dawes' (2000) use of customer analysis, customer responsiveness, competitor orientation, and market information sharing. Gray et al.'s (1998) contribution to measuring a market orientation is the synthesis, replication and extension of three measures(
as developed by Deng and Dart 1994; Jaworski and Kohli 1993; Narver and Slater 1990) encompassing a 44 item scale, from which a 20 item questionnaire was developed and validated. Gray et al. (1998) suggest that a market orientation is a multi-dimensional construct consisting of the five dimensions of customer orientation, competitor orientation, interfunctional coordination, profit emphasis, and responsiveness. Further, they recommend a questionnaire that may assist managers identify areas of improvement to attain business growth.Businesses that are market-oriented often have similar characteristics. Webster (1988) for example, suggests that in these businesses, market research is undertaken on both customers and competitors and the findings included within a market information system; product development and innovation is guided by marketing; and strategies are developed for the management of long-tenn relationships with customers based on
market segments, targeting and positioning. Although Webster (1988) argues it is beneficial for the marketing manager/specialist to report directly to the CEO, having senior management who are supportive and committed to customer satisfaction and the marketing plan has also been found to be a major success factor (Brooksbank 1991; Conduit and Mavondo 2001). A major consideration for market-oriented businesses is also the achievement of profits, not just increased sales. Essentially, market-oriented organisations 'excel at finding attractive markets, determining customer needs, and developing goods and services to meet those needs' (Vorhies and Harker 2000: 150).
When researchers refer to the potential benefits of marketing for an organisation, they are often referring to organisations that have adopted a market orientation (Agarwal et aL 2003; Akimova 2000; Brooksbank 1991, Conduit and Mavondo 2001; Gr6nroos 1983, Jarratt and Fayed 2001; Lorenz 1986, McKenna 1991, Piercy, Harris and Lane 2002; Wilson and McDonald 1994). The benefit of being market-oriented is that it is considered to be a foundation for building a sustainable competitive advantage, in that there are linkages with business performance, profitability, customer satisfaction, and employee commitment (Brooksbank 1991; Jaworski and Kohli 1993; Kohli and Jaworski 1990; Krohmer, Homburg and Workman 2002; Lafferty and Hult 200 1; Narver and Slater 1990; Pulendran, Speed and Widing 2000; Van Egeren and O'Connor 1998; Vorhies and Harker 2000; Wrenn 1997). Dawes (2000) for example, presents a summary of 30 studies from 1990 to 1999 that found a positive association between being market-oriented and business performance. The adoption of a market orientation has both academic and practitioner support as being 'the hallmark of successful contemporary organizations' (Wrenn 1997: 32). In addition, Wrenn's detailed examination of the literature found that being market-oriented improves business performance in large and small organisations whether they produce tangible products or
services. Moreover, in service businesses, Chang and Chen (1998: 258) found being market-oriented 'to be correlated with superior service quality and greater profitability'.
The following section explores the development of marketing in seaports by commenting on similarities with the production, sales and marketing philosophies before discussing whether there is evidence of seaports being market-oriented.