Marketing Myopia

The article mainly states a marketing myopia theory that a company should set up its business strategy based on customer– oriented instead of product-oriented. This theory was originally proposed by Theodore Levitt.

Marketing myopia happens when business executives assume their products will forever grow, and their competitors will fail to improve their products and will never beat them in the market.

One of examples of marketing myopia theory is railroad. The railroads was too constricted by a narrow understanding of what business they are in. They incorrectly viewed themselves as railroad-oriented instead of transportation-oriented. Another example is petroleum, the oil companies defined their business as just petroleum rather than energy.

According to Levitt’s theory, the customer buys from you not because of how much money you spend on research and development of your new product. He/ She buys from you because that product provide the specific value he/she wanted.

Henry Ford is a positive example in this article. Even Fore invented the assembly line to perfect thousands of cars, he is a marketing genius rather than manufacturing genius. He understand that the consumer needs the modest price of car, then he finds a way to satisfy his customer. The assembly line and production innovation just the end of his marketing success.

In order to cater a larger market, a wise business manager needs to keep customer interest to the product, and make further innovations and development by thinking “outside the box”.

Examples of companies that have failed due to marketing myopia:

1. Nokia: the company was complacent and its leaders didn’t see the disruptive iPhone coming.

2. Detroit Auto Industry: Auto industry in Detroit was hammered by the 1973 oil crisis and competition from smaller, foreign cars.

Great