Is your company Market oriented?
Market orientation is the degree to which a business places customer needs and the market realities at the center of its strategy, processes, and internal decision-making. The MORTN Scale is a validated 10-question diagnostic tool that measures this alignment — helping you determine whether your organization is truly outside-in (market-driven) or inside-out (product- or process-first).
In modern marketing, "market orientation" is often treated as a buzzword rather than a measurable standard. The data tells a different story: market-oriented companies are considered to be around 60% more profitable than those that are not, and organizations with strong market orientation achieve higher long-term revenue growth (Narver & Slater, Journal of Marketing, 1990).
The MORTN Scale, developed by Rohit Deshpandé, is partially inspired from the foundational MARKOR framework — one of the most-cited measurement models in marketing research — updated for modern business contexts. It helps founders and marketing leaders move beyond intuition and quantify exactly how well their business processes, objectives, and internal communications are aligned with customer needs.
In modern marketing, "market orientation" is often treated as a buzzword rather than a measurable standard. The data tells a different story: market-oriented companies are considered to be around 60% more profitable than those that are not, and organizations with strong market orientation achieve higher long-term revenue growth (Narver & Slater, Journal of Marketing, 1990).
The MORTN Scale, developed by Rohit Deshpandé, is partially inspired from the foundational MARKOR framework — one of the most-cited measurement models in marketing research — updated for modern business contexts. It helps founders and marketing leaders move beyond intuition and quantify exactly how well their business processes, objectives, and internal communications are aligned with customer needs.
The Market orientation questionnaire
How to use this assessment
This market orientation questionnaire consists of 10 validated statements about your business operations.
- Be Honest: Rate each statement from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree) based on your current reality — not your aspirational goals.
- Complete All 10 Items: The average of your scores becomes your MORTN Scale result (out of 10, displayed as a score out of 5).
- Interpret Your Result: Use the scoring guide below to understand whether your business is customer-led or internally driven — and what to do next.
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Avg Score / 5
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Why Market Orientation Is a Strategic Imperative
Market orientation is not simply about delivering good customer service. It is a strategic and cultural choice that determines long-term competitive positioning.
According to decades of research on market orientation — including the seminal work of Narver & Slater (1990) and Kohli & Jaworski (1990) — the degree to which a business is market-oriented is one of the strongest predictors of profitability ever identified in the marketing literature.
According to decades of research on market orientation — including the seminal work of Narver & Slater (1990) and Kohli & Jaworski (1990) — the degree to which a business is market-oriented is one of the strongest predictors of profitability ever identified in the marketing literature.
What a high Market orientation score signals:
- Better Market Response: Market-oriented businesses identify shifts in consumer behaviour before they become threats — not after market share has already been lost.
- Internal Alignment: Customer and market intelligence is not siloed in the support team. It flows to product development, finance, operations, and leadership.
- Sustainable Competitive Advantage: While competitors compete on price, market-oriented firms compete on value and relevance — a far more durable moat.
- Financial Outperformance: Market-oriented organizations are, bu some accounts, 60% more profitable than non-market-centric competitors and demonstrate significantly higher customer lifetime value and retention rates.
A low score is not a judgment — it is a diagnostic. Many high-performing businesses run on inside-out logic and simply haven't yet made the strategic shift. This questionnaire tells you where you stand.
Understanding Your Result
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4.5-5.0
Elite Market OrientationYour organization is a world-class market leader. Customer success is not a department — it is your strategy. This orientation is likely your strongest and hardest-to-replicate competitive moat. -
3.5 – 4.4
Strongly Market-OrientedYou have a solid strategic foundation and are ahead of most competitors. To reach elite status, focus on integrating customer and market data into non-client-facing departments — finance, operations, and product development — to break down remaining silos. -
2.5 – 3.4
Developing OrientationYou recognize the importance of the customer, but internal priorities or operational efficiency still frequently override it. You are currently reactive. Shifting to a proactive, outside-in mindset could unlock significant growth. -
BELOW 2.5
Inside-Out OrientationYour strategy is currently driven by internal capabilities or product-first logic rather than market needs. This is the high-risk zone: a more market- and customer-centric competitor entering your space could disrupt your position faster than you expect.
Frequently Asked Questions
The MORTN Scale, developed by Rohit Deshpandé, is a validated market orientation questionnaire partially inspired from the MARKOR framework, originally developed by Kohli & Jaworski (1990) and Narver & Slater (1990). It measures the degree to which a business consistently places customer needs at the centre of its strategy, processes, and communications. Scores range from 1 to 5, with 3.5+ indicating a strongly market-oriented organization.
Market orientation is an organizational approach in which a company's strategy, processes, and internal decision-making are built around understanding and responding to the needs of its customers. Unlike customer service — which is a function — market orientation is a culture that permeates every department, from product development to finance to operations.
A score of 3.5–4.4 indicates a strongly market-oriented business, and a score of 4.5 or above represents elite, world-class market orientation. Scores between 2.5 and 3.4 reflect a developing orientation with meaningful room for improvement. Scores below 2.5 signal an inside-out approach that carries significant disruption risk.
The MORTN Scale questionnaire takes approximately 3–5 minutes to complete. Results and a personalised interpretation are displayed immediately upon submission.
This questionnaire is designed for founders, CMOs, marketing directors, and senior managers who want an objective measure of their organization's market orientation. It is most useful when completed with rigorous honesty — rating current reality, not aspirational goals.
Market orientation is the broader organizational culture that produces customer orientation. It includes three components: customer orientation (focus on buyers' needs), competitor orientation (awareness of rival capabilities), and inter-functional coordination (sharing customer intelligence across the business). The MORTN Scale measures the market orientation.
About this tool
This online version developed by Andrei Tarnovski, founder of TARNOVSKI — a strategy-led branding and marketing consultancy. The MORTN Scale is developed by Rohit Deshpandé for use in modern business diagnostics.
Last updated: March 2026.
Last updated: March 2026.