MARKETING MANAGEMENT AS A KEY ELEMENT FOR IMPLEMENTING CHANGE WITHIN ORGANIZATIONS

In the contemporary era, dominated by deep interests, an organization will only survive by being creative, based on professionalism, having the ability to decide. And as creativity, renewal and innovation are the pillars of customer satisfaction, this remains a problem, not enough conceptually defined and operationalised. This paper presents the state of knowledge regarding customer orientation as a marketing component, the level of influence of the main factors of change upon marketing management. The paper is based on several concepts from literature, on opinions of well known specialists but also on the reality of international crisis which shows an obvious lack of interest in studying and modelating customer orientation. The investigation is composed of two successive researches: a qualitative explorative research (interviews among specialists, focus-groups) and a quantitative descriptive research. We consider that the results of this research have an innovative character and could be the base for new theoretical and mostly practical study programs or workshops for marketing managers as well as employees. Also, organizations affected by profound changes should realize that only a real orientation towards the needs of clients will ensure their long term success.