What is The Production Concept?
The Production Concept is the oldest of the five marketing orientations. It holds that consumers favor products that are widely available and inexpensive, so management should focus on improving production and distribution efficiency. It is the right concept when demand exceeds supply (post-war US, China in the 1990s) or when costs need to come down to broaden the market (Henry Ford's Model T). It fails when the firm becomes so focused on lowering cost that it loses sight of changing customer needs — what Theodore Levitt called "marketing myopia."
How The Production Concept actually works
The framework breaks down into the following moving parts. Knowing what each piece is — and what it is not — is what separates a B-grade answer from an A-grade answer in a written assignment.
- Push for high-volume, standardized production
- Drive cost down via scale, learning curve, and process engineering
- Distribute as widely as possible to maximize availability
- Compete on price, not on differentiation
A worked example: Ford Model T
Ford's 1908 Model T is the canonical example: standardized to "any color so long as it's black," priced from $850 down to $260 over 19 years thanks to assembly-line economics, and distributed through one of the first national dealer networks. The strategy was perfect for a market where most Americans could not yet afford a car. It became disastrous when GM offered styling, color, and annual model changes — Ford had ridden the Production Concept past the point where customers wanted variety.
Don't lose marks for these
- Defaulting to the Production Concept in a differentiated, brand-driven category
- Confusing "low cost producer" strategy (which still serves a customer) with the Production Concept (which assumes customers only care about price)
- Ignoring the moment customer preference shifts from "available and cheap" to "right for me"
How to use this on the exam
Score-maximizing moves
- Cite Henry Ford and the Model T as the textbook example
- Pair this concept with marketing myopia to show you know the limits
- Mention industries where it still applies (commodities, generic pharma, basic appliances)
When to use The Production Concept (and when not to)
Use The Production Concept when your assignment asks you to analyze, structure, or recommend — and when you have at least two data points to populate every cell of the framework. Skip it when the question is asking for a numerical answer or a single recommendation, since The Production Concept is a structuring tool, not a calculator.