Marketing Myopia.

"Marketing Myopia” Levitt (1960) HBR

1. Had anyone in the company bothered to find out if the client really needed the product?

No, companies are focused on products, they try to offer a higher quality product or lower price product, but they are not listening to what the client really needs or wants. They are focused on selling, “seller’s need to convert the product into cash”; rather than marketing, “satisfying the needs of the customer by means of the product”.

Companies are doing a wrong strategy, because they are not listening to their customers. And if they do, usually, they ask their customers which product they do prefer among the products the firm is already offering, but they are not asking the clients what are they real desires, needs and preferences. One example offered in the article about this practice is Detroit.

1. What is the meaning of marketing myopia?

Marketing myopia is a marketing approach which sees “the marketing effort as a necessary consequence of the product, not vice versa, as it should be”.  Marketing myopics are focused on the product, improve it and sell it, they are satisfying the needs of the company; they are using selling strategies rather than marketing.

Nevertheless, the correct marketing approach is based on listening to the customers, identify their needs and define the business consistently. Companies with marketing myopia end up falling, as they do not respond to their clients’ wants, and they do not adapt to their changes in preferences. Some examples offered in the article about marketing myopia are railroads companies, oil producer industry, grocery stores, among many others.

1. What do the current customers want?

This is an essential question for managers. First of all, firms need to identify what are the real needs and preferences of their customers, and after that find a way to satisfy them. Clients’ wants are continuous changing so companies should always keep researching and analyzing their customers’ needs, and adapting their businesses to take advantage of the new opportunities in the market.

As it is said in the article, customers do not need a specific product, they do have broad necessities that can be satisfy in different ways. For example, customer do not need gasoline, they do need to be transported.

1. Can we say that success is assured when the companies sell a product of higher quality and/or a lower price than the competitors?

No. It is possible that the company has success for a while. But in the long term, new firms will come up with substitutive products that satisfy the needs of the customers in a better way. Managers should not forget that all products are subject to obsolescence. For example, oil companies are looking a way to improve petrol extraction technology, to offer their customers better and cheaper gasoline. However, they are not listening to their clients, which are claiming for a way of transport that do not force them to stop to fill the tank. In the long-run probably solar energy or electric batteries will replace gasoline.

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