Marketing Myopia

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The Marketing Myopia

In 1960, Theodore Levitt wrote "Marketing Myopia," a widely quoted and frequently reprinted Harvard Business Review article. Chapter eight in Theodore Levitt's book - The Marketing Imagination (New York: The Free Press, 1986).

What is Marketing Myopia

Marketing myopia is described as a firm's shortsightedness or narrowness when attempting to define its business. Short sighted and inward looking approach to marketing that focuses on the needs of the firm instead of defining the firm and its products in terms of the customers' needs and wants.

Case Overview
Only selling of a product with a narrow vision is not a business, trying to innovate it in such a way that business sustains for longer period of time is more important. It is shown in the case with the examples of industries like Dry cleaning, Electric utilities, Railway industries and Hollywood industries etc.

Case Overview
These industries failed because of narrow vision of thinking Short run successful businesses face failure not because of lack of opportunity but lack of managerial innovation industries that have been and are now endangering their futures by improperly defining their purposes." Their problem there were are they are"product-oriented instead of customeroriented.

Perception creating the marketing myopia

Growth is assured by an expanding and more affluent population; There is no competitive substitute for the industry s major product; Too much faith in mass production and in the advantages of rapidly declining unit costs as output rises; Preoccupation with a product that lends itself to carefully controlled scientific experimentation, improvement, and manufacturing cost reduction.

Assured Growth by Expansion

Belief that increases in population and affluence ensure growth Lack of innovation A common characteristic
Companies focus on efficiency, not innovation

Petroleum industry
A prime example of this fallacy Reinforces Levitt s caution of myopically defining one s industry

No Threat of Obsolescence
The fallacy of believing competitive substitutes don t exist Petroleum industry
A history of obsolete products due to competitive substitutes
x Kerosene Lamp x Kerosene Space Heater

Mass Production
Lower product s unit costs as output increases Focus on production, neglect marketing Selling is not marketing Focus on company s needs, not customer s needs

Henry Ford
Brilliant Marketer Created a product customer s needed Created a product customer s could afford Created production system to fit market needs Senseless Marketer Refused to make cars in any other color but black

Preoccupation with Product

Industry declines instead of growing Example Oil Companies Survival entails change For more information consult Product Provincialism Page_8

Danger of Research and Development

paying too much attention to research and development is the danger to companies Eg:- The Electronic Industry The organization tends to making things rather than satisfying customer need
Critical reasoning : IN present context I don t see any danger of R &D. Companies are aware of the need to sense and respond to the market and as such are more focused on giving the customers what they want. Technical personnel are important in any organization but I belive the duties and responsibilities are clear defined to discourage them from changing the company s focus.

The Pros
Provided for new thought process Customer Centric The concept stands the test of time Marketing is not selling

The Cons
Can a company realistically restructure Can go outside the scope of bounded rationality (lose reality) Static not dynamic
Does not factor for globalization Ecommerce