The concept of participatory market orientation: An organisation-wide approach to enhancing brand equity

Abstract

While much marketing literature sees delivering customer experience as the role of the marketer, we argue that this is an organisation-wide responsibility. The organisation-wide approach is based on the premise that the brand-building capability of the organisation is determined by the combination of marketing, human resources, organisational culture, leadership and evaluation. It is our contention that the role of marketing should be concerned with connecting these elements to optimise brand equity (eg awareness, perceived quality, associations, loyalty). In this paper, we suggest a participative model for an organisation-wide approach where the role of the marketer is Janus-like in that he/she must face both outwards to connect with customers and other stakeholders and inwards to build coalitions inside the organisation to deliver a clear and consistent customer experience.