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Marketing myopia
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Marketing myopia is a term used in marketing as well as the title of an important marketing
paper written by Theodore Levitt.[1][2] This paper was first published in 1960 in the Harvard
Business Review; a journal of which he was an editor.
Some commentators have suggested that its publication marked the beginning of the modern
marketing movement. Its theme is that the vision of most organizations is too constricted by a
narrow understanding of what business they are in. It exhorted CEOs to re-examine their
corporate vision; and redefine their markets in terms of wider perspectives. It was successful
in its impact because it was, as with all of Levitt's work, essentially practical and pragmatic.
Organizations found that they had been missing opportunities which were plain to see once
they adopted the wider view. The paper was influential. The oil companies (which
represented one of his main examples in the paper) redefined their business as energy rather
than just petroleum; although Royal Dutch Shell, which embarked upon an investment
program in nuclear power, subsequently regretted this course of action.
One reason that short sightedness is so common is that people feel that they cannot accurately
predict the future. While this is a legitimate concern, it is also possible to use a whole range
of business prediction techniques currently available to estimate future circumstances as best
as possible.
There is a greater scope of opportunities as the industry changes. It trains managers to look
beyond their current business activities and think "outside the box". George Steiner (1979)
claims that if a buggy whip manufacturer in 1910 defined its business as the "transportation
starter business", they might have been able to make the creative leap necessary to move into
the automobile business when technological change demanded it.[3]
People who focus on marketing strategy, various predictive techniques, and the customer's
lifetime value can rise above myopia to a certain extent. This can entail the use of long-term
profit objectives (sometimes at the risk of sacrificing short term objectives).
[edit] Similar terms
Kotler and Singh (1981) coined the term marketing hyperopia, by which they mean a better
vision of distant issues than of near ones.[4] Baughman (1974) uses the term marketing
macropia meaning an overly broad view of your industry.[5]
[edit] References
1. ^ David Mercer, "Marketing Myopia", Marketing[1]
2. ^ Levitt, T. (1960). "Marketing Myopia". Harvard Business Review.
3. ^ Steiner, G. (1979). Strategic Planning: What Every Manager Must Know. New York: The
Free Press. ISBN 0029311101.
4. ^ Kotler, Philip; Singh, Ravi (1981). "Marketing Warfare in the 1980s". Journal of Business
Strategy 1 (3): 30–41. ISSN 02756668.
5. ^ Baughman, J. (1974). Problems and performance of the role of the chief executive.
Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_myopia"
Categories: Marketing | Strategic management
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