In Spanish, the word "marketing" has its equivalent in "commercialization" or "marketing", causing a certain scientific confusion that, as on other occasions, has been corrected in practice not using the latter word but the first. The concept of marketing has been the subject of several definitions proposed by authors, analyzing them from different points of view (table 1).
Table 1 Main marketing concepts studied:
AMA (1960): "is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from the producer to the consumer or user."
Stanton (1969): "is a total system of business activities aimed at planning, setting prices, promoting and distributing products and services that meet the needs of current or potential consumers."
Kotler (1972): “studies specifically how transactions are created, stimulated, facilitated and valued”.
Kotler (1980): “it is the human activity directed to satisfy needs and desires through the exchange process”.
Stanton and Futrell (1987): "is made up of all the activities that tend to generate and facilitate any exchange whose purpose is to satisfy needs or desires."
Lambin (1991): "the social process, oriented towards satisfying the needs and desires of individuals and organizations, for the creation and voluntary and competitive exchange of profit-generating products and services."
Kotler (1992): “social and management process through which different groups and individuals obtain what they need and want, creating, offering and exchanging products with value for others”.
Santesmases (1993): “a way of conceiving and executing the exchange relationship in order to make it satisfactory to the parties involved and to society through the development, valuation, distribution and promotion by one of the parties of the goods, services or ideas that the other party needs ”.
Vázquez and Trespalacios (1994): “the objective is to try to know the generic needs of the consumer or basic deficiencies inherent to nature and the human condition, analyze the desires or ways in which each individual wishes to satisfy a specific need, stimulate the conversion of desires in demand seeking creative formulas to enhance the will to buy and avoid purchasing power restrictions ”.
Strictly speaking, the translation of the word marketing (yustaposition of “market” and “ing”) could have been done verbatim for “being in the market”, or much more conceptually precise, although perhaps less philological, for “knowing how to be in the market".
According to Méndez (2004) among the causes of terminological confusion, we can cite:
• The existence of four referential Hispanic schools: Mexican, Argentine, Spanish and Brazilian, clarifying that the order does not mean importance, each one uses the terms individually or as synonyms.
• The translation of Anglo-Saxon texts.
• The existence of educational institutes in many Latin American countries, where unfortunately they work as marketing facilitators, professionals from other specialties who do not have the required curricular profile.
According to the author's considerations, marketing is the physical activity of exchange, while marketing is the why, or guiding philosophy, of this activity.
Marketing does not only provide a philosophy, but also a methodology of action that allows the theory to be put into practice. A coherent methodology then, in order to satisfy the consumer, first it will be proposed to know him and, therefore, it will be necessary to start by knowing what he wants, before applying the satisfactory potential of the company; and this knowledge refers to both the level of needs and desires, that is, of the subjective interpretations (made by each consumer of these needs.
Considering the opinion of other authors, Ugarte et al., (2003) propose that commercialization is the set of actions aimed at commercializing products, goods or services. Marketing techniques encompass all procedures and ways of working to effectively introduce products into the distribution system. Therefore, according to this author, marketing translates into the act of planning and organizing a set of necessary activities that allow putting a merchandise or service in the right place and at the right time, ensuring that customers, who make up the market, know it and consume it. Thus, to market a product is to find for it the presentation and packaging likely to interest future buyers,the most appropriate distribution network and the sales conditions that will stimulate the distributors on each channel.
The Marketing Dictionary defines marketing as: « Process by which products go from production centers to their consumption destinations, through different phases or wholesale or retail sales operations «, requires very careful planning, which must answer a series of questions:
• When, in relation to competitors.
• Where, only in a geographic area, or throughout the territory.
• To whom, the entire potential market, just one segment, etc.
• How, that is, you must decide how to distribute your promotional investments.
• How much time will you dedicate to the activities of your sales force, how much to public relations, etc.
In the same sense, Kotler (1995) states that the commercialization process includes four fundamental aspects: when? Where? To whom? and how? In the first, the author refers to the precise moment to carry it out; in the second aspect, to the geographic strategy; the third, to the definition of the target audience and finally, a reference is made to the strategy to be followed for the introduction of the product in the market.
Therefore, marketing companies must recognize the need and advantages of regularly introducing new products and gradually replacing those that are no longer attractive to customers or do not have attributes, which due to certain circumstances and times, the customer requires and become slow or non-moving products that accumulate in inventories and consequently affect the results of the economic efficiency of the organization.
From another perspective, marketing, according to Méndez (2004), means that an organization directs all its efforts to satisfy its customers for an estimated profit. In this regard, there are three fundamental ideas included in the definition of this concept:
1. Orientation towards the market.
2. The total effort of the company.
3. Profit as a goal.
After this analysis, it is suggested that the concept of commercialization has been treated in different ways, which is why it can be considered, according to this author's criteria, one that establishes arguments that fit the needs of this research; that is, considering marketing as a process aimed at analyzing people's needs and deciding whether consumers prefer more quantity or different products, which requires foreseeing what types of products different consumers or clients will want in terms of properties. or characteristics of the products and decide which of these people the company will try to satisfy.
1.2 Market orientation. Definition and current importance
In recent years, interest in market orientation as a source of sustainable competitive advantage has been growing, given the generalized change that is taking place in the markets in which companies operate and the satisfaction of consumer wants and needs has become a the main objective. Ultimately, if a company wants to achieve a superior result, it must develop a sustainable competitive advantage. To develop this advantage, emphasis has been placed on structural characteristics such as market power, economies of scale, the experience effect, the breadth of the product line, etc. However, the emphasis is currently focused on the firm's ability to generate and deliver superior value to clients (Barroso and Martín, 1999). From all of the above,It appears that companies that implement a market-oriented strategy aim to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage that translates into a better relationship and satisfaction of the needs of their consumers, as well as better business results.
Reviewing the profuse literature on market orientation, it is observed that there have been several definitions that different authors have given to this concept. As early as the 1950s, Felton (1959) described it as «a way of thinking about doing business based on the integration and coordination of all marketing activities, which will be integrated with the rest of the company's activities in a effort to maximize long-term profitability. ' Later, Trout and Ries (1985) perceive market orientation as an effort to gather market information on which to build a competitive advantage.
The definitions of market orientation given by the different authors give more or less importance to certain dimensions or variables on which this concept is based, so that they are not antagonistic but, in most cases, complementary. Approaches to the concept of market orientation have been made, basically, from two perspectives: 1) one in which the vision of market orientation as a cultural aspect or an integral part of the company's organizational culture predominates and; 2) another where market orientation is seen from a behavioral or operational conception, so that it is identified with a series of specific actions or behaviors.
Within the most behavioral conception, Kohli and Jaworski (1990), establish that market orientation is based on three pillars: focus on the customer -as a central element of market orientation-, coordinated marketing, -market orientation does not It is only the responsibility of the marketing- and profitability department -as a consequence of market orientation, proposing the following definition of market orientation: “ market orientation is the generation throughout the entire company of market information about the current and future needs of customers, the dissemination of such information to all departments and response action by the entire company" In summary, market orientation refers to the orientation of a company that is based on the understanding and reaction towards the preferences and behaviors of the intervening agents within a given market structure (Jaworski, Kohli and Sahay, 2000).
Deshpandé, Farley and Webster (1992) establish a more formal definition of market orientation, as a set of beliefs that put the customer as the first interest, while not excluding those other participants such as owners, managers and employees, in order to develop a long-term profitable company. However, they also point out that the evaluation of an organization's level of market orientation must come from its customers rather than from the company itself.
Within this cultural and more recent approach is the definition of Narver, Slater and Tietje (1998), who establish that market orientation is a culture committed to the continuous creation of superior value for customers that manifests itself as a set of processes and cross-functional activities, aimed at creating and satisfying customers through the continuous satisfaction of their needs.
In short, in the words of Álvarez, Santos and Vázquez (2000) «from this perspective we can say that market orientation as a culture should promote external orientation to the aforementioned audiences (customers, competitors and forces in the business environment), the integration of functions that allow the design of a common competitive response and the strategic vision or long-term vision, that is, the business capacity to provide greater long-term value ”.
Conclusions
Market orientation constitutes a fundamental axis for the management of organizations, based on providing a different way of conceiving and executing the commercial function or exchange relationship between two or more parties, which presupposes a change in conceptions focused on interest and criteria of the one who produces or offers the service, to the one who needs it.
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