Product-centric and customer-centric marketing

Definitions

Increasingly, marketing strategies are shifting from a product-centric to a
customer-centric approach.

How would you define product-centric and customer-centric marketing?

Product-centric marketing

‘A product-centric company places all of its focus on product and develops newer
and advanced products irrespective of its demand in the market. All the strategies
and business processes are built around the product and work accordingly. These
companies invest heavily in R&D to develop advanced products and the company
expands by adding new product lines to their portfolio’.

Customer-centric marketing

‘Customer-centric marketing is an approach to marketing that focuses on
customers’ needs and interests. It puts the customer at the core of your business.
It’s based on the fact that all customers have different preferences and behaviours.
This requires moving past a one-size-its-all approach’ (Opinion Stage, 2021).
‘A customer-centric company places the customer at the centre of all their
strategies. They identify the needs, challenges and pain points of their customers
and then build the solution to sell them. They have a keen understanding of the
customer segments to which they would be marketing their products.

 

Comparing product-centric and customer-centric marketing in five business and brand areas,
as shown in the table.

 

The benefits of a customer-centric strategy

Customer-centric strategy benefits
Ten benefits of a customer-centric strategy:

1. understanding more about the effective use of technology to facilitate strategy
2. clearly articulating values and innovations for customers
3. reimagining and reinventing spaces and strategy around the customer
4. building a strategic architecture around customer value
5. delivering superior experiences at lower costs
6. challenging the status quo throughout the company
7. implementing and getting buy-in for the new way of doing business
8. reaping long-term profitability and growth rewards
9. retaining customers and increasing the share of wallet and spend
10. advocating for organisational change to improve competitiveness and
sustainability.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash