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Customer Orientation or Competitor Orientation

Which Marketing Strategy Has a Higher Payoff for Hotel Brands?

Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, chekitan.dev{at}cornell.edu

Kevin Zheng Zhou

University of Hong Kong, kevinzhou{at}business.hku.hk

Jim Brown

West Virginia University, j.brown{at}mail.wvu.edu

Sanjeev Agarwal

Iowa State University, sagarwal{at}iastate.edu

This study of hotels representing thirty-seven brands from fifty-six countries uncovers the market conditions under which investing resources in specific market strategies leads to higher performance. Specifically, the authors identified, for the first time in an international context, the circumstances under which customer orientation (acquisition, satisfaction, and retention of customers) alone has a higher payoff or when simply investing resources on competitor orientation (monitoring, managing, and outflanking competitors) alone is the better strategy. An additional interesting twist, not shown before to the authors' knowledge, is that in the cases where a customer-based strategy has a higher payoff, focusing on competitors diminishes performance. Similarly, in a market where competitor-based strategy has a higher payoff, a customer focus lowers performance.

Key Words: market orientation • customer orientation • competitor orientation • marketing strategy • performance • global • hotel • brand

This version was published on February 1, 2009

Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 1, 19-28 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1938965508320575


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