Market Myopia
Market Myopia:
Introduction:
In 1960 Theodore Levitt wrote a famous article “Market myopia”, which is still famous in todays world. He introduced the famous question “what business you are really in”. Market myopia is a strategy that focuses on the product of the company rather than the need of the customer. A good example of market myopia is seen in ford motor company, they built a Edsel in late 1950s with the intent of being fashion able and large vehicle, they did a lot of marketing but at the end the car was immediately failed in the market. Most experts attributed that failure was only because of inability to understand the customer needs.
Discussion:
Companies can do better if they focus on customers needs instead of focusing on selling products. He explained in his article that many companies end growing as of disappointment in their management system only because of myopia. He quoted many examples like, declining of railroads was only because “they were railroad oriented rather than carriage orientated”. In other words they were focusing on product not on the customer. Railroads did not decline because of innovation in transportation like cars, airplanes and trucks, though because of its own myopia. (Levitt 1984). Instead of this famous article, still businesses are focusing on their business not on their consumer and as consequences the companies failed to grow.
Most of the marketing is grounded off the models that were formed in 19th century, at this stage the main focus is on efficiency in production of output. At the start the study of marketing focused on exchange of commodities and manufactured products. Then marketing evolved, now producers are more concentrating on consumer needs and trying to increase consumer involvement. Now the focus is transferred from tangibles to intangibles like knowledge, skills and information. (Vargo & Lusch 2004)
Marketers have followed the advice of Levitt’s (1960) to avoid market myopia by
Introduction:
In 1960 Theodore Levitt wrote a famous article “Market myopia”, which is still famous in todays world. He introduced the famous question “what business you are really in”. Market myopia is a strategy that focuses on the product of the company rather than the need of the customer. A good example of market myopia is seen in ford motor company, they built a Edsel in late 1950s with the intent of being fashion able and large vehicle, they did a lot of marketing but at the end the car was immediately failed in the market. Most experts attributed that failure was only because of inability to understand the customer needs.
Discussion:
Companies can do better if they focus on customers needs instead of focusing on selling products. He explained in his article that many companies end growing as of disappointment in their management system only because of myopia. He quoted many examples like, declining of railroads was only because “they were railroad oriented rather than carriage orientated”. In other words they were focusing on product not on the customer. Railroads did not decline because of innovation in transportation like cars, airplanes and trucks, though because of its own myopia. (Levitt 1984). Instead of this famous article, still businesses are focusing on their business not on their consumer and as consequences the companies failed to grow.
Most of the marketing is grounded off the models that were formed in 19th century, at this stage the main focus is on efficiency in production of output. At the start the study of marketing focused on exchange of commodities and manufactured products. Then marketing evolved, now producers are more concentrating on consumer needs and trying to increase consumer involvement. Now the focus is transferred from tangibles to intangibles like knowledge, skills and information. (Vargo & Lusch 2004)
Marketers have followed the advice of Levitt’s (1960) to avoid market myopia by
References: Douglas, SP 1986, 'Global marketing myopia ', Journal of Marketing Management, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 155-69. Levitt, T 1984, 'Marketing myopia ', Journal of Library Administration, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 59-80. Smith, NC, Drumwright, ME & Gentile, MC 2010, 'The new marketing myopia ', Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 4-11. Vargo, SL & Lusch, RF 2004, 'Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing ', Journal of marketing, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 1-17. Ward, A 2014, 'Do Financial Planners Suffer From Marketing Myopia? '. Stock, JR 2002, 'Marketing myopia revisited: lessons for logistics ', International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 12-21. E.S.Ehixojie 2013, MARKETING MYOPIA, Accessed on 22/08/2014 Adaeze, SG 2013, Marketing Myopia, Accessed on 22/08/2014