Theodore Levitt, a Harvard University Professor first floated the term in 1960. He focused on the notion of how businesses and companies promote their products and businesses; how their strategies attract the attention of customers and they purchase it from them. Today, we’ll discuss what is marketing myopia; how to avoid it, its causes, and examples.
What is Marketing Myopia?
Marketing myopia only focuses on short-term business goals and objectives like sales, rather than meeting the needs and wants of customers. MM fails to comprehend how the company or the product could resolve the needs and wishes of customers. Resultantly, competitors leave them behind and they fail to see the bigger picture of the future. Successful and proliferating companies keep in mind the needs and wishes of customers while developing their future strategies.
In short, we can marketing myopia is when companies engage in the following activities;
- Not improving or changing their strategies based on the environment of the customers
- Putting emphasis on the marketing and promotional activities and completely avoiding the needs and wishes of customers
- Producing goods at a mass scale without analyzing the marketing demand
- Forecasting market growth and progress without conducting any market research
- Emphasis on the sales and selling the products rather than establishing a long-term relationship with the customers
Causes of Marketing Myopia
Some of the main causes of marketing myopia are as follows;
No Substitute, Sole Option Available
It is a type of fixed functional mindset where people consider that there is only one way to do things. It is possible that the product would have unique features and capabilities, but it doesn’t mean that some other product would help customers to achieve the same results. For instance, the world’s greatest record-producing companies couldn’t their customers from turning to MP3 music players.
Wealth & Population Increase Sales
It follows the notion that the business or industry would always remain in business. Other creative and innovative ways of doing things are not useful unless they keep on developing products relevant to the needs of customers; market penetration wouldn’t happen. Manual and traditional watch repair shops would go out of business unless they offer repair services for smartwatches.
Overestimating More Products Sell
Increasing production and manufacturing and carrying a large inventory won’t always mean that it would sell. It used to follow the assumption that if you develop something, then customers would come. Instead, it is significant to keep in mind what makes customers visit your shop. The mass-scale product helped the Detroit Auto Industry make significant growth, but it broke down when other options become available to the customers.
Not Focusing On Customer Needs
Many people usually don’t care about the tech specifications of the product they’re buying, and they also don’t care whether it works or not. Their only concern is how it should work, and how quickly and effectively it delivers the result. For instance, a lot of people buy easy-to-use and user-friendly iPhone rather than BlackBerry’s phone that employs the state of the art technology.
Looking at the Past & Not On Future
As the name implies, it focuses on the short-term results rather than visualizing the future and digital age and innovation of the tech era. Many experts said in 1995 that the internet is a fad and online shopping could never replace physical stores. It was the time when Jeff Bezos started a small online store by the name of Amazon.
Limited Market Research
Market research plays a significant role in running and operating your business. It helps companies to know the needs and wishes of customers. When they don’t conduct any type of proper research, they have no idea what customers want and how to serve them.
Examples of Marketing Myopia
Kodak
Kodak used to advertise and offer camera films for taking pictures; the company kept on selling its camera films because customers didn’t have any other options. The brand never realized that the interest of customers is in taking pictures and not buying films. However, the digital cameras with memory cards instantly shut down the market of Kodack’s films. It is because the company never developed a product that would satisfy their needs and wishes. The brand lost all of its market shares and filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
Nokia
Nokia had a 40% global market share of the button phone market in the early 2000s. The company kept on offering similar products year after year, and it lost sight on the bigger picture that the customers want more and something else along with it. However, Apple’s iPhone and Samsung took over the market with their touch display smartphones. Nokia lost 95% of its market value and filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
Blockbuster
Blockbuster was a rental movie retail chain store company, and the brand has stores across the US and worldwide. The company kept on following the same strategy year after year and focused on short-term profit. However, Netflix took advantage of the opportunity and launched the online paid video streaming platform. Blockbuster fell under the trap of marketing myopia.
How to Avoid Marketing Myopia
Some of the ways how to avoid marketing myopia are as follows;
Customer First
It is significant to give top priority to your customers. All of your activities should be around customers’ needs, problems, frustration, expectations, wants, and wishes. If their customer feedback tells you that your offer is not satisfying them, you should rectify your mistakes and develop a better product.
Clear Vision
In order to avoid market myopia, you should set clear and realistic goals and objectives for the future. It doesn’t matter how your company is performing today, you should have a clear vision for today. You should anticipate any potential problems and challenges and find attractive ways to deal with them.
Focus on Marketing
Marketing and promotional activities won’t end after launching the product or service in the market. It is important that you should promote your product or service on different channels and connect with customers.
Analyzing Competitors
The best strategy is to carefully analyze the growth, progress, and innovation of customers. What type of new product they are launching, and how it is appealing to the customers? You should ask yourself whether there is any opportunity for you not.
Innovation
Developing something new and different is always difficult and risky. While innovating something, you should develop something that is relevant to your brand. It would send the signal in the market that how far you are willing to go to meet the needs and wants of customers.
Conclusion: What is Marketing Myopia? How to Avoid It, Causes, Examples
After an in-depth study of what is marketing myopia; how to avoid it; its causes, and examples; we have realized that market myopia could jeopardize the growth of your business. If you are observing the abovementioned causes in your business, then you should follow the guidelines to avoid them.
Ahsan Ali Shaw is an accomplished Business Writer, Analyst, and Public Speaker. Other than that, he’s a fun loving person.
