Marketing Myopia

Marketing Myopia is the short-sighted approach of management of focusing on a particular product and not identifying the correct industry the organization is in. (Levitt, 1975) In essence it implies that organizations should not define their business based on their products and should attempt to identify the business based on customer centric evidence. Organizations need to focus on customer wants and use customer centric evidence forming strategic decisions.

A wide range of companies today prefer to adopt the marketing orientated approach to sell their new products rather than using product orientation before.In fact,marketing orientation also helps such companies to earn more profits in the long time.According to Jobber and Ellis Chadwick (2013),marketing orientation focuses on customers need as the primary drivers of organizational performance.However,this is not always the case.Product orientation still be used by some senior executives and this method can help these companies to sell more products and even acquire reliable reputation in the customers.In this essay,first the history of marketing concept development will be discussed and the specific definition of the two kinds of marketing concept will be given respectively.Then these two concepts will be compared by using some examples.The final part will investigate why although marketing orientation is very popular in modern society,some enterprises still adopt the product orientated approach to extend their new products.

How is marketing defined? What is its importance in a company’s success? This paper will discuss and explain different definitions of marketing along with a definition of author himself. In addition, this paper will elucidate the importance of marketing by giving three examples where marketing was adapted with few mistakes resulting in disaster.

As I reflect back over these last five weeks I now have a clearer view of marketing and how it affects not just the consumers of the world and the companies with their marketing managers, but how it affects me. Yes, I am a consumer who clips coupons, budgets my finances, and looks for sale items and this marketing class has taught me that marketing is more than selling or advertising. Marketing managers have a difficult job, as marketing involves identifying, meeting and satisfying the needs of customers or clients with goods and or services. Coming up with different strategies and marketing mixes is challenging because we live in a changing world with people who needs and financial situations are different. Yet still marketing engulfs every part of our daily lives. From what type of breakfast we eat, to where we shop, and even in our work environment. As I examine marketing, I will blend aspect to my career path as I make myself marketable for the future and aid my employer in the growth and survival in the economy.

In the article Marketing is Everything, the author Regis McKenna emphasizes the significant of managing strategic marketing. He also highlights that the transformation process of marketing and several important marketing elements that lead originations toward success. First and foremost, McKenna compares two periods of companies. Before technology developed, most companies concentrated on sale or product driven. In other words, during that time, products were displayed as the first priority in corporations rather than being customer oriented. Instead of researching customers’ desires and customizing new products for them, manufacturers and sellers did not pay attention to their customers’ needs and only tried to alter their minds to match products.

In “Marketing Myopia” by Levitt, the author believes that a corporation is successful because of mass production and not because of marketing. Though he states that industries are product oriented and not customer oriented, he believes that companies should not heavily lean towards mass production, instead the plan of production should reflect the needs of the consumers. In other words, they should focus on the customers, not the product. To back

The notion of "marketing myopia" has haunted marketers since Theodore Levitt published his famous article "Marketing Myopia" in Harvard Business Review in 1960. Levitt argues that companies which narrowly focus on the product to the detriment of customer requirements (i.e., dispensing with the marketing concept) suffer from marketing myopia. Myopia or shortsightedness is often apparent within organizations. Several types of marketing myopia can be identified including classic myopia, competitive myopia and efficiency myopia. Companies displaying one of these three elements are clearly distinguishable from innovative firms which embrace the marketing concept in practice and which have a much broader scope than is

Marketing is all about creating a really solid decision, which will lead to more money. In this paper I will give some history of my organization, and explain how each element of marketing affects the organization. In addition I will cover the industry in which the organization resides in.

The fact is, marketing is changing, the way people doing business today is different, as the author says, those who don’t change their marketing strategies to meet the need of today’s consumer are not targeting for them at all.

Armstrong, G & Kotler, P. Marketing: An Introduction, Seventh Edition. (2005). New York: Prentice Hall.

Marketing is a management function which involves creating, communicating and delivering value for an organisation’s customers (Kotler, Brown, Burton, Deans & Armstrong (2010). Although many earlier academics define marketing as merely a process of satisfying customer needs in order to gain profits, more recent developments of the definition include its inherent connection with delivering superior value to customers in order to maintain ongoing relationships (Webster, 1992).

 Marketing Myopia suggests that businesses will do better in the end if they concentrate on meeting customers’ needs rather than on selling products. The mistake of paying more attention to products a company offers than to the benefits and experiences produced by these products.

In today’s modern era, the world is moving faster than ever, every organization is running a race of gaining maximum market share, and so as the customers, for their organization’s long-term growth but only those companies who transform themselves according to the need and requirement of the customers are able to achieve success and profit they desire and that’s what exactly said by Theodore Levitt (Head of the Marketing area at the Harvard Business School) in his article “The Marketing Imagination”.

The concept of marketing has evolved over time. Whilst in today’s business world “the customer is king”. In the past this was not the case, some businesses put factors other than the customer first. Product focused companies define themselves by their products. For example Kodak originally defined its self as being in the photo processing business. This definition impact the culture of the company in a way that hamstrings thinking and creates impediments for action. When the shift to digital cam Kodak resisted this because of the impact on its “products photo processing”.

“Marketing is not a function; it is a way of doing business . . . marketing has to be all pervasive, part of everyone's job description, from the receptionist to the board of directors.”