Broadening the market orientation: An added focus on internal customers

Though the marketing concept is the cornerstone of the marketing discipline, businesses typically describe only limited success in implementing it. An examination of the core pillars of the marketing concept points to limitations in the first pillar, the customer focus. This pillar is directed at the external customer, the person purchasing the firm's products and services with no attention to the internal customer, the employee. Whereas much attention has been directed to human resource practices in total quality management, marketers have overlooked its importance. This article describes an exploratory study based on in-depth interviews with corporate executives from a broad range of American organizations, which phenomenologically assesses the characteristics of the marketing concept and the employee activities that foster its implementation.