PERFORMANCE BENEFITS OF HYBRID BRAND AND MARKET ORIENTATION INTERACTION

Recent studies conceptualize that market orientation and brand orientation may be more than simple alternative strategic options for marketing strategy, but evolve further into a distinctive hybrid orientation that combines and integrates the two orientations. That is, although separate market orientation and brand orientation may exist, sophisticated marketing may evolve to include what has been termed a market and brand orientation hybrid (Urde, Baumgarth and Merrilees, 2011). The current paper empirically tests for such a hybrid orientation. Additionally, the paper is able to identify and quantify the mechanism by which brand orientation impacts marketing performance. The identified mechanism has its genesis in the operational implementation of the marketing strategy.