Marketing myopia
| Marketing myopia |
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| See also |
Marketing myopia applies to many different industries such as rail, automotive, oil, film, and food industries. The focus in this kind of industry was focused on manufacturing products in the belief that consumers will purchase products without marketing stimulation. The real market for these products is the customer buying the good, not the good in itself[1]. According to Schrage M. "Marketing myopia prevented the industry from seeing what business it was really in. To succeed, Levitt maintained, "The entire corporation must be viewed as a customer-creating and customer-satisfying organism. Management must think of itself not as producing products but as providing customer-creating value satisfactions. In short, the organization must learn to think of itself not as producing goods or services but as buying customers as doing the things that will make people want to do business with it"[2].
Marketing myopia is caused by several situations[3]:
- Bypassing other stakeholders and focusing only on the consumer
- One-dimensional determination of customer needs
- Low awareness of the social business context, which obliges to adapt to a wider group of shareholders
Preventive measures against marketing myopia[4]:
- Assigning information about the company's stakeholders
- Defining customer expectations and favor
- Analysis of customer barriers and desires
- Assess stakeholder involvement in the products offered
- Determining the impact of consumer expectations on the expected volume of production.
Marketing myopia in history
After World War II, technological progress gained a rapid pace, resulting in many innovative products. Thanks to mass production, producers could produce their products in record quantities. The increase in consumer spending was dictated by the increase in disposable income. The products immediately disappeared from store shelves, so the producers were convinced that they did not need to support themselves with marketing. They decided that they did not have to waste money on consumer market research. Product-centric marketing worked well for some time until manufacturers noticed a slowdown in growth despite a growing market. The idea of focusing on the consumer and his needs rather than on the product was abstract for producers. Eventually, managers of all industries were forced to reevaluate their marketing methods[5].
Theodore Levitt - the marketing scholar
Marketing concepts were full of failures, especially those created by Levitt. It was this scientist who created the concept of myopia marketing. According to Kurtz D. L. "According to Levitt, marketing myopia is management's failure to recognize the scope of its business. Product-oriented rather than customer-oriented management endangers future growth"[6].
References
- Diderich M., Mamali E. (2017), Marketing Myopia CRC Press
- Kurtz D. L., MacKenzie H. F. (2009), Contemporary Marketing p.27, Cengage Learning
- Schrage M. (2012), Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become? Harvard Business Press
- Smith N. C., Drumwright M. E., Gentile M. C. (2010), The New Marketing Myopia
Footnotes
Author: Barbara Rojek
