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Company and Marketing Strategy:  Defining a Market - Oriented Mission

Company and Marketing Strategy: Defining a Market - Oriented Mission


An organization exists to accomplish something, and this purpose should be clearly stated. Forging a sound mission begins with the following questions: What is our business? Who is the customer? What do consumers value? What should our business be? These simple-sounding questions are among the most difficult the company will ever have to answer. 

Successful companies continuously raise these questions and answer them carefully and completely. Many organizations develop formal mission statements that answer these questions. A mission statement is a statement of the organization's purpose - what it wants to accomplish in the larger environment. A clear mission statement acts as an " invisible hand " that guides people in the organization. Studies have shown that firms with well-crafted mission statements have better organizational and financial performance.

Some companies define their missions myopically in product or technology terms ( " We make and sell furniture " or " We are a chemical - processing firm " ) . But mission statements should be market-oriented and defined in terms of satisfying basic customer needs. Products and technologies eventually become outdated, but basic market needs may last forever. A Cold Stone Creamery's mission isn't simply to sell ice cream. Its mission is to " make people happy around the world by selling the highest quality, most creative ice cream experience with passion, excellence, and innovation. " Likewise, eBay's mission isn't simply to hold online auctions and trading. It aims " to provide a global trading platform where practically anyone can trade practically anything " -with eBay, " Shop victoriously! " It wants to be a unique Web community in which people can safely shop around, have fun, and get to know each other, for example, by chatting at the eBay Café. Table 2.1 provides several other examples of product-oriented versus market-oriented business definitions.

" F7 4/1 F8 S marketing strategy and planning. Mission statements should be meaningful and specific yet motivating. They should emphasize the company's strengths in the marketplace. Too often, mission statements are written for public relations purposes and lack specific, workable guidelines. Says former GE super - CEO, Jack Welch: Few leaders actually get the point of forging a mission with real grit and meaning. [ Mission statements ] have largely devolved into fat-headed jargon. Almost no one can figure out what they mean. [ So companies ] sort of ignore them or gussy up a vague package deal along the lines of: " our mission is to be the best fill-in-the-blank company in our industry. " [ Instead, Welch advises, CEOs should ] make a choice about how your company will win. Don't mince words! Remember Nike's old mission, " Crush Reebok "? That's directionally correct. And Google's mission statement isn't something namby-pamby like " To be the world's best search engine. 

" It's " To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. " That's simultaneously inspirational, achievable, and completely graspable. 

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