The aim of market orientated companies is to satisfy the needs of customers using the marketing concept as the primary driver for their organisation. Jobber (2004) perceives the marketing concept to be;
             "The achievement of corporate goals through meeting and exceeding customer needs better than the competition." Jobber,p5,2004.
             Furthermore, Jobber (2004) claims that to utilise this concept there are certain conditions that must be met by a company, which could also be perceived as the essential characteristics of a market orientated company. The first of these characteristics would be customer orientation, rather than focusing efforts towards a producer convenient outcome, companies must focus on customer satisfaction. Cannon (1998) would perceive this first characteristic to be the company "realising the reality of the market place". Cannon states through realising this "reality" that firms can only make profits and survive in the long-term if they take into account customer orientation.
             Characteristically, market orientated companies need to be integrated throughout with every department working towards the marketing concept and focusing on customer needs. Jobber (2004) states the marketing concept is a business philosophy not just the duty of the marketing department. Adcock, Bradfield, Halbourg and Ross (1995), support this stating that every organisational member should be required to understand the final customer, therefore making their job customer focused. For instance, the finance department may wish to sell a product which is profitable in production terms, but if there is no market or consumer need for the product it would be unlikely to make sales. If each department does not understand the final consumer, it could be highly difficult for that company to be market orientating itself towards meeting customers needs.
             When looking at satisfying consumer needs above the efforts of competi...