Question

The term “Marketing Myopia” was coined by the late Harvard Business School marketing professor, Theodore Levitt, in a 1960 HBR article (republished in 2004). The “heart of the article,” according to Deighton, a distinguished Harvard Professor, is Levitt’s argument that companies are too focused on producing goods or services and don’t spend enough time understanding what customers want or need. Therefore, he “encouraged executives to switch from a production orientation to a consumer orientation.” As Levitt used to tell his students, “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”

“The genius of the original article is that it is so easy to be myopic when it comes to marketing,” says Deighton. “Any marketer is obligated to be concerned with programs, tactics, campaigns, etc. Unfortunately, the clock never stops long enough to answer the question, ‘Why are you doing what you are doing?’ So it’s far too easy to lose sight of the big picture.” The other thing that made the article so significant at the time of its publication is that it reminded CEOs that marketing is part of their job: “[Levitt] tells the leader of the organization: you are in business because you have a customer. Therefore you have to think about marketing,” Deighton explains.

In 2010, Craig Smith at INSEAD, Minette Drumwright at UT Austin, and Mary Gentile at Babson, published a paper criticizing Marketing Myopia. They posited that marketers have taken Levitt’s advice to an extreme, creating a new kind of short sightedness, marked by a single-minded focus on the customer, a narrow definition of the customer, and a failure to address the multiple stakeholders who have arisen out of the “changed societal context of business”. There is no doubt that Levitt believed the entire corporation must be viewed as a customer-creating and customer-satisfying organism, and Deighton admits that this is one of the potential pitfalls of Levitt’s original idea: it “puts great trust in the consumer.” In his original article, Levitt acknowledged how difficult it can be to listen to customers; he wrote: “Consumers are unpredictable, varied, fickle, stupid, shortsighted, stubborn, and generally bothersome.” But Smith, Drumwright, and Gentile go even further, arguing that it’s not just about listening to consumers but about hearing all of the stakeholders who contribute to your company’s success.

1. Do you agree or disagree with Smith, Drumwright and Gentile’s assessment of the concept of Marketing Myopia? Why or why not? What stakeholder(s) might be important to listen to in formulating a new take on marketing Myopia and why?

Answer 1

I do agree with Smith, Drumwright and Gentile. A business, at the end of the day, is an institution that is trying to satisfy a need. For example, society needs groceries, food and so on and businesses take on the responsibility to satisfy those needs, for which they get compensated in return. Now, it is very easy and potentially disastrous at the same time, for businesses to get too focused on the short term profits and compensation and lose sight of the actual need they were trying to fulfill, which is what was referred to as Marketing Myopia by Theodore Levitt.

Now, the problem with that approach is that the business environment is ever changing. Whether it people's needs or the way they consume, both change over time. For example, internet and smartphone technology has completely changed the way people consume. Even though, the product on many occasions has remained the same, the supply chain has undergone drastic changes. This has wiped out many businesses and the reason being, lack of vision. So, the argument that businesses at the end of day, have to keep the customer's needs at the center makes sense. When a business puts customer at the center, changing business models and tweaking products to changing customer needs becomes second nature.

The other problem is also obsession with one's own product. When somebody creates something, there is an automatic tendency to form a bias, 'fall in love' so to speak, with one's own creation. This is another major problem that many businesses have faced in the past. Having too much confidence in one's own product and thus, not responding to changing market dynamics.

As for the stakeholders that are important to consider. The major ones are the people that are directly in touch with the customer such as customer care executives and the sales force. These are the people that are out there in the market, listening to what customers have to say and therefore will have a better idea of a customer' needs and wants.