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Marketing Myopia
Marketing Myopia
Theodore Levitt wrote his paper on the Marketing Myopia to aid readers in understanding
the importance of basing the organization’s achievement on set concepts; many organizations
focus their attention on already developed products and the failure to meet consumer demands.
The Marketing Myopia is a marketing concept based on sales of products and the organization’s
focus on the product in place of focusing on the consumer (Levitt, 1960). For many
organizations the goal is to gain a profit through meeting the needs of the consumer; therefore,
the organization must have a focus and understanding of the demands of the consumer, and
building relationships with the consumer to understand how changes in consumer demand and
needs will affect the organization and the products offered. Levitt (1960) discusses how
organization have lost focus on the needs and demands of the consumer and are therefore
beginning to fail and fade into non-existence, these organizations are not focused on improving
their products and can no longer meet the needs of the consumer.
Levitt (1960) describes that when the organization sees an increase in sales of their
product, the organization tends to stop thinking about the future of the product and turns the
focus to the short-term gains of the increased sales of the product. The organization focuses on
the ability to increase the production of the current product to match the current demand and
does not put the time or effort into the marketing of this product or changes to the product that
might be required in the future. The focus of the organization is on the needs to the vendor or
distributor and not the needs or demands of the consumer. With a focus on bulk production and
meeting the needs to the vendor or distributor and not the needs of the consumer, the
organization faces the risk of losing business as the needs of the consumer change and Marketing
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Marketing Myopia
Myopia occurs as the organization does not focus on the entire picture and the future of the
organization and its offered products.
Sustainable Marketing
Sustainable marketing incorporates the viewpoint of the future and the events that an
organization faces. The overall goal of sustainable marketing is to fulfill the needs and wants of
the consumer while creating a futuristic viewpoint for the industry in which the organization
operations; this is accomplished through the collaboration of industry adaptation to changes, and
cost-effective interests for the organization (Villarino & Font, 2018). Collaborative sustainability
contains a two-part focus, one part is utilizing the spectator’s viewpoint of how the product will
satisfy their needs while considering the conservational and cost-effective aspects of the product;
the second being the mindfulness of the organization’s future and what is needed to achieve the
organization’s goals (Villarino & Font, 2018). The organization’s marketing team must
understand the concept of sustainability and how to communicate this with not only the
organization but the customer as well. Through utilizing sustainable marketing, the organization
can avoid marketing myopia by focusing on what is needed to satisfy the consumer as well as
supporting the needs of the organization (Villarino & Font, 2018).
Marketing Capability
Marketing capability and its importance must be understood by every organization that is
working to satisfy the demands of the consumer whether it be service or product offerings.
Marketing capability is described as the organization’s ability to maintain knowledge and to
regulate and manage the resources available and organizational accomplishments to develop
organizational improvement (Patel & Guedes, 2021). The organization’s effort and concentration
on marketing and an analysis of this has shown that there is a crucial connection between the
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Marketing Myopia
organization’s marketing work and the functionality of the organization and the products they are
offering (Patel & Guedes, 2021). The cruciality of marketing capability cannot be taken for
granted by the organization and its leadership, establishing the capability to produce successful
and sustainable marketing early in the growth of the organization or the introduction of a product
can be linked to the long-term success of the organization and its product offerings (Patel &
Guedes, 2021). Marketing Myopia suggests that there is an importance in the regulation and
analytical calculations of the expansion and the security of the organization’s marketing
capabilities, is also suggests that marketing arrangements are often encouraged and directed
through the organization’s current state of profits, supply demand, and does not rely on the long-
term outlook for the organization when making decisions (Patel & Guedes, 2021). On the
opposite spectrum marketing capability will incorporate the present with the future of the
organization and the product when making decisions (Patel & Guedes, 2021).
Avoiding a Stalemate
An interesting viewpoint of avoiding marketing myopia is for the organization to have
the group of leaders ask each other and the organization what the organization’s contributions are
to the consumer, with the consumers demands and needs within the foremind of the organization,
the organization can eliminate the need to compare themselves to their competitors and the work
that the competitors are doing to attract consumers, as the organization will achieve a
competitive advantage through their focus on the consumer’s needs (Gallo, 2016).
Organization’s must focus on the needs of the consumer in order to achieve long term success,
and the customer’s needs and desires should be the motivation for the organization’s decision
making and marketing campaigns (Gallo, 2016). Instead of viewing the customer as the end of
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Marketing Myopia
the supply chain, the organization can place the consumer at the front of the supply chain when
making decisions so that their actions are focused on the needs of the consumer (Gallo, 2016).
Conclusion
Marketing Myopia and the words of Theodore Levitt, help the organization to understand
the importance of the concepts needed to achieve organizational success, and the need for a focus
on the consumer. Organization’s must use this to gain an understanding of the downfalls of the
organization are due to their inability to see the need for improvement and development of the
products they are offering. It cannot be ignored that the organization must focus on the
consumer, marketing sustainability, and the marketing capability of the organization.
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Marketing Myopia
References
Gallo, A. (2016, August 22). A refresher on marketing myopia. Harvard Business Review.
https://hbr.org/2016/08/a-refresher-on-marketing-myopia
Levitt, T. (1960). Marketing myopia. Harvard Business Review, 38, 45–56.
Patel, P. C., Feng, C., & Guedes, M. J. (2021). Marketing capability and new venture survival:
The role of marketing myopia. Industrial Marketing Management, 93, 307–326.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2021.01.020
Villarino, J., & Font, X. (2018). Sustainability marketing myopia. Journal of Vacation
Marketing, 21(4), 326–335. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356766715589428
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