Jagannath International Management School
Myopia – a word which many of you must have heard but must be thinking how it is associated with marketing? Myopia in simple terms means phenomena where you are unable to see objects at far place clearly. In other words it is called nearsightedness or shortsightedness. Every year thousands of products are launched in the market but only very few are able to survive. The reason for their failure is conservative approach of the big business firms. These firms focus too much on their short terms goals and also on their product rather than on the needs of the customers.
The term “Marketing Myopia” was given by the American marketing professor Theodore Levitt. He published an article in the marketing magazine Harvard Business Review. In this article, Levitt asserted his views on how industries failed to continue their growth due to lack of realizing the need for expansion into the areas adjacent to which they are already working. The major reason for the washout of the industries is product oriented approach rather it should be customer centered approach.
Marketing myopia occurs when a firm is too narrow in its mission and vision. It is a form of business shortsightedness. We can consider it as an inward looking approach as firm focuses on their product only rather than centering their strategies and policies on customer satisfaction. According to Levitt, firms fail not because of their product but rather due to the inadequacies of the top management to analyse the big picture of the company. Same thing happened in case of the world’s most renowned company Nokia. It was the first company to create a cellular network in the world. The Finnish mobile phone manufacturer was the market share leader in this industry. The company used to release a variety of models with different shape sizes and designs every year. Because of its fear to alienatecurrent users, the company didn’t grasp the concept of software and kept focusing on hardware Thus, having clear vision on part of company is very important for its success or failure.
Marketing should not be one dimensional like selling; rather it should focus on long term plans of the company. Companies should follow these strategies in order to survive in the competitive environment. In order to make your firm market oriented a company need to have good leaders who have very clear vision about the company. Secondly the company should be market oriented rather than being a product oriented firm. The focus should be on the needs of the customers rather than on the product. A consumer will buy a product if it provides utility to them. Just providing a product without any utility to consumer will not survive in the market in long term. Before developing or designing any product for the consumer it is important for the firm to conduct a deep market research to acquire insight into the minds of the consumers. Therefore a company should create a product which their customer wants but it should not be that one which the company wishes to offer. Moreover in order to be successful in the long run a company should keep in mind the moves of its competitors. There are so many companies who were once the market leaders but due to underestimation of their competitor’s power they got replaced by some other companies. Therefore, a company should regularly analyse the strategies of its competitors. Someone has very well said that” Don’t put your all eggs in one basket”. This means in order to protect your company from having a marketing myopic vision companies should follow the strategy of diversification. This will help the company to safeguard them form the risk of failure. Lastly companies should follow Disruptive innovation strategy. They should be trendsetter and first of kind in their respective industries. Many companies fall under the illusion that their needs are more important than those of the consumers. That is exactly why those companies fail. Successful companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Reliance, and Samsung are such companies who always value the need of the customers. By thiscompanies will automatically experience increase in sales and revenue. They must always think long-term and play for the end game to be successful
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