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The Customer Concept: The Basis for a New Marketing Paradigm

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Journal of Market-Focused Management

Abstract

Recent developments in both marketing theory and marketing practice make it necessary to formulate a new marketing paradigm. This paradigm consists of three elements: (1) a concept, which is the core of the paradigm, (2) a set of activities, and (3) a domain. The customer concept is the new marketing concept. It is a management orientation which maintains that firms establish relationships with selected individual target customers with whom superior customer values are designed, offered, redefined and realized in close cooperation with other partners in the marketing system such as suppliers and intermediaries, in order to realize long-term profits through customer satisfaction, partner- and employee satisfaction. The new marketing activities include decisions with regard to the firm's stated vision, objective(s), strategy, organizational structure, culture, information system, marketing instruments, business processes and human resource management. The new marketing domain encompasses the broader interpretation of marketing as the central concept in the behavior of the firm. The customer concept implies a reorientation of marketing to one that places the customer in a pivotal role.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Erasmus University, Rotterdam

    Janny C. Hoekstra (Professor of Direct Marketing)

  2. University of Groningen, The Netherlands

    Janny C. Hoekstra (Professor of Direct Marketing)

  3. University of Groningen, The Netherlands

    Peter S. H. Leeflang (Professor of Marketing)

  4. Yale School of Management, New Haven, USA

    Dick R. Wittink (General George Rogers Clark Professor of Management and Marketing)

  5. University of Groningen, The Netherlands

    Dick R. Wittink (General George Rogers Clark Professor of Management and Marketing)

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  1. Janny C. Hoekstra
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  2. Peter S. H. Leeflang
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  3. Dick R. Wittink
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Hoekstra, J.C., Leeflang, P.S.H. & Wittink, D.R. The Customer Concept: The Basis for a New Marketing Paradigm. Journal of Market-Focused Management 4, 43–76 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009856028285

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