Os clientes são o alicerce, o resto é treta

Às vezes fico um pouco desconsertado com os artigos que leio...
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Por exemplo, no artigo "Strategic orientation of niche firms" de Kjell Toften e Trond Hammervoll", publicado no "Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship" (Vol. 12 No. 2, 2010) pode ler-se, primeiro esta introdução pacífica:
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 "In the literature, niche markets have been claimed to be more profitable, and the increasing diversity in
consumer tastes and habits and the changing needs of business and organisational markets (Moi ici: Uma descrição de Mongo) seem to favour smaller, nimbler firms that can better tailor their offerings to the fragmented market. Such a market situation, combined with the limited resources available for small firms, favours a niche marketing strategy. A niche firm shares many similarities with small firms in general, but is in particular operating on a limited and easily defended market, offering a highly specialized product, and facing few or no competitors. This is enabled by the possession and use of unique resources and skills that are valued in a limited marketplace.
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The key to efficient nichemarketing is specialization. Such specialization has been suggested to particularly be related to products and customers." (Moi ici: Aqui é que a porca começa a torcer o rabo... então, anda a Service-Dominant Logic a "demonizar" a continuação de uma Goods-Dominant Logic, com o conceito marxista de que o valor é incorporado nos produtos pelo produtor, e vêm os autores escrever que algumas empresas de nicho se concentram no produto como a orientação estratégica.)
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"effective execution of a niche strategy should be based on products or customers. Strategic orientation is here understood as the strategic directions implemented by a firm to create the proper behaviours for the continuous superior performance. A product orientation implies that the customers will favour those products that offer the most quality, performance or innovative ideas, and where the focus is the product itself. (Moi ici: IMHO isto não faz sentido. O produto não é a orientação... a orientação é sempre mas sempre o cliente. O que acontece é que alguns clientes valorizam acima de tudo o desempenho de uma plataforma de serviço (o produto na terminologia SDL) enquanto que outros preferem a adaptabilidade da plataforma à sua situação concreta) A customer orientation, on the other hand, implies successfully determining the perceptions, needs and wants of individual customers and satisfying them through the design, communication, pricing and delivery of appropriate and competitive offerings."
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Os autores acabam por confirmar o que comentei:
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"Product orientation, which also is labelled technological or innovation orientation, holds that customers will favour (Moi ici: "Customers will favour", é sempre o cliente) those products that offer most quality, performance or innovative features. It is associated with investments in technological leadership and with high-quality products or processes.
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Consequently, managers in product-oriented firms focus on making superior products and improving them over time, and this process can be described as an intensive and ongoing newproduct development effort. This strategic orientation assumes that customers are primarily interested in the product itself and buy it on the basis of its quality. The focus on product quality leads to the development of high-quality new products that subsequently renew and invigorate customer markets."
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"Customer orientation, which also is termed customer centricity, holds that it is of vital importance to understand the perceptions, needs and wants of individual customers and to satisfy them through the design, communication, pricing and delivery of appropriate and competitive offerings. Customer needs and satisfactions represent the prioritized areas for organisational efforts. According to this orientation, the parties in a buyer-seller relationship work dynamically together to define relevant needs and competences, resulting in individual customer solutions."
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Com esta confusão logo à partida, é claro que as conclusões teriam de dar em nada:
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"The findings suggest that managers in niche firms are both product- and customer oriented at the same time."