Marketing Myopia

– K.Thirugnana Sambanthan , Asst.Professor, SIMS

A short-sighted and inward looking approach to marketing that focuses on the needs of the company instead of defining the company and its products in terms of the customers’ needs and wants. It results in the failure to see and adjust to the rapid changes in their markets.

The concept of marketing myopia was discussed in an article (titled “Marketing Myopia,” in July-August 1960 issue of the Harvard Business Review) by Harvard Business School emeritus professor of marketing, Theodore C. Levitt (1925-2006), who suggests that companies get trapped in this situation because they omit to ask the vital question, “What business are we in?”

Businesses deceive themselves in four ways:
• The belief that growth is assured by an expanding and more affluent population
• The belief that there is no competitive substitute for the industry’s major product
• Too much faith in mass production and in the advantages of rapidly declining unit costs as output rises
• Preoccupation with a product that lends itself to carefully controlled scientific experimentation, improvement and manufacturing cost reduction

The “New marketing myopia” occurs when marketers fail to see the broader societal context of business decision making, sometimes with disastrous results for their organization and society.  “New marketing myopia” phenomenon state that it is essential to recognize that other stakeholders also require marketing attention..

In the present scenario many companies are focusing on short term goals rather than long term goals.  They fail to cater the needs of their customers as well their stakeholders. Organizations which feel happy with their short term success and does not think about their future will  slowly lose their presence in market.