Marketing Myopia Article Summary
Marketing Myopia
In this article, author Theodore Levitt explores the major factors that have an impact on the growth opportunities for organizations. With the help of examples from different industries such as the movie industry, the automobile industry, the petroleum industry, the grocery stores etc., he highlights some common misconceptions and strategic errors made by firms that have led or may lead to their subsequent failure. The main point that he makes is that most of these organizations were very myopic when it came to their marketing ideals. For example, the railroad industry declined to see itself as being a part of the transportation industry. Instead, it looked at itself being in just the railroad industry, hence not strategizing and adjusting for other transportation mediums that were being discovered. This narrow view or myopia ultimately led to its decline. Another idea that ties into this argument is that many of these companies tended to be product oriented. They either were completely focused on mass production generating as much product as possible, or they were completely focused on conducting research and development without giving much attention to the market environment. Their efforts were only centered on the product. What Levitt points out is that instead of being product oriented, these companies should be customer oriented so that they don’t just make the product, but make a product that the customers want. Thus they should focus their efforts on marketing, which is a process that unveils the needs and wants of the
In this article, author Theodore Levitt explores the major factors that have an impact on the growth opportunities for organizations. With the help of examples from different industries such as the movie industry, the automobile industry, the petroleum industry, the grocery stores etc., he highlights some common misconceptions and strategic errors made by firms that have led or may lead to their subsequent failure. The main point that he makes is that most of these organizations were very myopic when it came to their marketing ideals. For example, the railroad industry declined to see itself as being a part of the transportation industry. Instead, it looked at itself being in just the railroad industry, hence not strategizing and adjusting for other transportation mediums that were being discovered. This narrow view or myopia ultimately led to its decline. Another idea that ties into this argument is that many of these companies tended to be product oriented. They either were completely focused on mass production generating as much product as possible, or they were completely focused on conducting research and development without giving much attention to the market environment. Their efforts were only centered on the product. What Levitt points out is that instead of being product oriented, these companies should be customer oriented so that they don’t just make the product, but make a product that the customers want. Thus they should focus their efforts on marketing, which is a process that unveils the needs and wants of the