Question

what exactly does Levitt mean by "Marketing myopia"? Does it strike certain industries only? To quote Levitt, "in truth there is no such thing as a growth industry." CHALLENGE THIS ASSERTION. Levitt builds his case of a myopic view taken by the railroad, movie theater and oil industries reviewing four conditions that are the centerpiece of his work... What are they? c. Levitt argues that......."the historic fate of one growth industry after another has been its suicidal product provincialism" What does this mean? d. Finally, do you feel that today in the 21st century, Marketing Myopia is a thing of the past? Yes or No? Explain with examples

Answer 1

Marketing Myopia:

Marketing Myopia, first expressed in an article by Theodore Levitt in Harvard Business Review, is a short-sighted and inward looking approach to marketing which focuses on fulfillment of immediate needs of the company rather than focusing on marketing from consumers’ point of view.

When a company focus more on sales than on marketing and knowing about the consumers’ needs, that’s when marketing myopia strikes in.

Marketing Myopia is a situation when a company has a narrow-minded marketing approach and it focuses mainly on only one aspect out of many possible marketing attributes. E.g. focusing just on quality and not on the actual demand of the customer.

Marketing Myopia can strike to any industry. In any industry in which there is interaction with customer is a integral part of business objectives and there is a need to satisfy customer expectations, such industries can be susceptible to Marketing Myopia.

Example:

• Kodak lost much of its share to Sony cameras when digital cameras boomed and Kodak didn’t plan for it.
• Nokia losing its marketing share to android and IOS.
• Hollywood didn’t even tap the television market as it was focused just on movies.
• Yahoo (worth $100 billion dollars in 2000) lost to Google and was bought by Verizon at approx. $5 billion (2016).

Marketing Myopia in future

Marketing Myopia is not the thing of past. It was there, it is there, and it will be there.

Dry cleaners – New type of fiber and chemicals will result in less demand for dry cleaners.

Grocery stores – Supermarkets are a better option than regular grocery stores.