Marketing Myopia Analysis
Marketing Myopia Analysis
Marketing Myopia Analysis
SINDHOORA SAMBARAJU
Executive MBA Batch -18, NMIMS
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?" Narrow-minded approach to a marketing situation where
only short-range goals are considered or where the marketing focuses on only one aspect out of many possible marketing
attributes. Because of its shortsightedness, marketing myopia is an inefficient marketing approach. The Myopic culture,
Levitt postulated, would pave the way for a business to fail, due to the short-sighted mindset and illusion that a firm is in
a so-called 'growth industry'. This belief leads to complacency and a loss of sight of what your customers want. 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. Marketing Myopia Analysis Most of the major industries today were once considered as growth
industries. However some of the industries that are on the rise up the mountain or undergoing a boom in business may
very much be in the shadow of downfall. Other industries which are considered as veteran growth industries have in reality
ceased to grow. In every case the reason for this stint is not because the market is impregnated, it is because of the failure
of management as they have fallen prey to a phenomenon called “Marketing Myopia”.
Marketing myopia is an advertising strategy that does not focus on the needs and wants of consumers, but the
desires of a company to sell specific goods or services in the economic market. Classic economic theory attempts to explain
that consumers will tell companies the type of goods and services desired through the economic behavior demonstrated
by individual consumers. Companies can benefit from this behavior by actively researching how consumers are spending
their money and what goods are services are currently popular in the economic market. Marketing myopia can distort the
company’s view when managers focus more on what the company can produce rather then what consumers are willing
to buy. A classic example is seen by Ford Motor Company’s development of the Edsel. The Ford Edsel was a late 1950s
passenger car built under the marketing strategy that it was going to revolutionize the automotive industry. The car was
designed with the intent of being a large, stylish vehicle that would meet the driving needs for thousands of U.S. consumers
and families. Although the Edsel was released with much fanfare and publicity from marketing agencies and media outlets,
it was an almost immediate failure in the consumer market. While reviews at the time cited the vehicle’s poor
workmanship and styling, business experts have attributed the failure to the company's inability to understand consumer
desires. The name Edsel is now a business term synonymous with business or marketing failure. Marketing myopia may
Marketing Myopia 2
also occur when a business focuses on developing advertising strategies for the wrong target markets or demographic
groups. Individuals in the economic market usually view advertising strategies or techniques in different ways; their
perceptions are built upon culture, race, age, or other personal opinions. Companies that fail to understand the
perceptions of consumers when advertising goods or services usually wind up struggling. Companies in today’s business
environment often spend a lot of money conducting marketing research before releasing new products or services. This
research or focus group activity may be related to the utter failure of the Ford Edsel marketing campaign. Rather than
spending huge sums of money on national advertising or marketing campaigns, companies will use test markets to
determine the strength of consumer demand for goods or services prior to a national rollout of new products. These test
markets may also help companies build specific marketing strategies based on the feedback they receive from individual
consumers.