Marketing Myopia

Marketing myopia

“Some organizations ignore the fact that to be successful, the wants of customers must be their central consideration.”

(http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/marketing+myopia.html)

“Short sighted and inward looking approach to marketing that focuses on the needs of the firm instead of defining the firm and its products in terms of customers’ needs and wants.”

(http://www.answers.com/topic/marketing-myopia)

Symptoms

Comments such as:

•       “They have nothing on us”

•       “That could never happen to us”

•       “We are our own competitors”

•       “Customers love our product or service regardless of what happens”

“They will buy whatever we will sell

Successes

•       Pepsi-Cola is a good example of which marketing and management myopia is absent.

•        Pepsi-Cola’s diversification into other markets.

•       Product: a feel good thirst quencher and

•       commodity: a soft drink.

Failures

—  Kodak film company is a great example in which marketing myopia was present.

—  Kodak did not view Sony, an electronics company, as a potential competitor.

—   Product: capturing moments and commodity: film

Causes

—  Shadow of obsolescence

—  Population Myth

—  Production Pressures

—  Dangers of R & D

Lessons we can learn

—  Companies need to know the difference between a product and commodity.

—  Product: “what a customer feels about your business”.

—  Commodity:  “A commodity is anything for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market.”

(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity)

Modern day relevance

We live within a society that is:

—  Fast paced

—  Continuously evolving

—  Consumers seek instant gratification

—  Competition is rife

—  Companies’ either have to EVOLVE and ACCOMMODATE consumer needs OR DIE

We need unconventional management

Conventional management is a symptom of marketing and management myopia because the system in which managers are groomed is indiscriminant of whom it captures and who’s mind it handicaps by restricting their thinking to “tried and tested” thought processes

"Steve Jobs"

Avoiding Marketing Myopia

In conclusion

—  “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them”. By Albert Einstein

—   To ensure continued growth for your company,  concentrate on
meeting customer’s needs rather
than selling products