Mba 435 - Marketing Myopia

Sami Worku

MBA435

03/19/2011

Prof. Simmons

Marketing Myopia

Marketing Myopia is still viable currently. Theodore Levitt described marketing myopia as “the short sightedness, narrow view of marketing and its environment.” Theodore Levitt was way ahead of his time when he wrote marketing myopia. He successfully assessed that companies that fail to shift from product oriented to consumer oriented marketing will fall short and become obsolete in the market. The current market has changed drastically compared to thirty years ago. Consumers are well informed due to technology and can make their own research. The market is continuously evolving and companies need to adopt quicker than ever. Competition between companies is stronger and consumers need instant satisfaction. In the current era, companies have to be consumer oriented in order to survive.

Companies that are not consumer oriented face marketing myopia. Blockbuster is an example of a company who faced marketing myopia in the current era. Blockbuster assumed that there would always be demand for its product without putting consumers into consideration. Blockbuster was in the movie rental business and took a long time to evolve with the market. It assumed that consumers were still interested in going to the store and rent their movies. However, consumers were tired of the hassle of going to the store. Consumers were looking for easier and convenient options. Blockbuster tried to entice consumers by reducing its price, offer different types of deals and got rid of late payment fees. Nonetheless, the different approaches Blockbuster made failed. By the time Blockbuster decided to evolve, it was too late. Netfilx had replaced Blockbuster as the number one movie rental company. Blockbuster decided to offer online streaming but