Customer Focus in the Liberalized Era of Marketing

Abstract

The decade just ended will be most remembered in India for forcing a sea change in the mindset of Indian marketers. Traditionally engaged in rationing, distributing or selling their wares, they now have to market products and face fierce competition. They need to redefine themselves and dig out the concept of customer focus afresh. Their very survival depends on how swiftly and effectively they incorporate the customer in business plans. While conceptualizing customer focus for such marketers, the paper tracks the evolving instruments of customer focus from a pre-historic period of marketing to the present era of post-modern marketing. With a case illustration from Bajaj Auto, the paper suggests multiple ways in which marketers can discover customer focus and come out leaders in the postmodern era of marketing.