Marketing myopia

Marketing myopia

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Marketing Myopia

Marketing myopia is an article by Levitt, a professor and a lecturer at the Harvard Business School. His report is presented to be about the right strategy but not all about the marketing process alone (Levitt, 2020). According to Levitt, “There is no such thing as a growth industry.” He studied that most of the companies were missing the mark by assuming that they were in the growth industry hence deviating from the customers’ needs and expectations.

Central theme

Theodore, in his study, made it clear that his central theme of the article is all about customer relations but not the product to many companies. Being the central theme in his article, he argues that the customers’ desires and needs should be considered but not the product to ensure the growth of their companies (Levitt, 2020). The industry should not just be a goods manufacturing business but should focus on customer satisfaction because that is the driving wheel to increase, as argued by Levitt. This argument is in the article is clearly shown in the following industries. For instance, in the railroad business, the executive focused on growing the sector, consequently because there was a decline in freight and passenger transportation. It is seen from the article that the railroads nowadays have landed into problems because of failing to be transportation-oriented; they were not customer-oriented but instead product oriented.

Levitt, also in his study of the Hollywood business he tries to spell why the industry failed clearly. Both Hollywood and the TV business were going through several drastic reorganizations (Levitt, 2020). It was because of their myopia that they went on through trouble but not because of TV’s inroads. There was no clear distinction of the critical objective of Hollywood’s purpose in the industry (Levitt, 2020). This was because Hollywood initially thought to be in the movie business, but actually, it was not but doing entertainment. Nowadays, the TV business is doing good than the Hollywood movie business because they are customer-oriented. Hollywood concentrated much on movie production, which was product-oriented rather than being customer-oriented by providing entertainment. From the article by Levitt, as seen in the example above, businesses need to keep customer-oriented management, which will hold a growing industry grow.

The theme of improving customer relations is also witnessed in the example of electric companies. In business, the onset of the incandescent lamp made the kerosene lights to disappear. Also, the reliability and the flexibility of the electric motors made the steam engines to vanish. Homes have become stores of electronic gadgets since the product growth is at a first-rate. Investors would not miss investing in such kinds of business because there was minimal competition in the market but nothing other than growth ahead. In his article, Levitt questions investors by saying, “How can anybody miss by investing in utilities with no competition, nothing but growth ahead?”. He also maintains that; is not as it is presumed because it is not too comforting. All the inventions in electronics are nonutility products to the customer. The article brings out clearly that utilities have competition, which is not in the mindset of many investors. It provides that, for them to survive in the industry, they have to develop the solar cells, fuel cells as wells as other power sources. In this way, as per Levitt, they will be customer-focused but not product-oriented. The producers should be in a position to plot on the obsolescence of what now contributes to their livelihood.

Levitt did not also leave it behind by keenly analyzing the petroleum company to support his central theme of the article. The company has not distinctly been using customer-oriented management to work towards customer satisfaction instead of focusing on the product (Levitt, 2020). The petroleum oil company has not grown immensely following the growth of the demand for petrochemical products. This has been brought about by the innovations and developments which are not as a result of it. As stated by the article, soon after the oil companies thought they had a superior product in the market, competitive substitutes emerged and made the product obsolescence (Levitt, 2020). The business is still awaiting downfall since there is no guarantee over the obsolescence of a product. The oil company has been fortunate until now to survive the growth despite its focus.

Theodore argues that “a truly marketing-minded firm tries to create value-satisfying goods and services that consumers will want to buy.” The author of this article is warning production industries against mass production. This knowledge is dangerous because it may seem to bring about reduced unit costs with rising output (Levitt, 2020). Most companies, as argued by the author, cannot be able to resist this kind of norm since they are profit-oriented. Levitt cautions against this behavior of industries since the marketing aspects may be neglected while focusing on mass production. It should be understood to all producers that mass production does necessarily create pressure on the product, but the emphasis is on selling. Selling is very much different, as brought out by the author. It means the sellers’ ambitions to convert the product into cash while marketing focuses on the customers’ needs hence achieving his/her utility. Mass production, as described in the article, has been a very significant challenge facing many industries.

The enticement of sectors to engage in this practice has created pressure on the top management, which eventually forces the sales departments to get rid of the products. The argument here is that once the product is got rid of, they are going to worry about profits later. This should not be the case for any business enterprise, which is goal-oriented. Levitt advises industries to be genuinely marketing-minded firms (Levitt, 2020). As a result, their products will be satisfying in the eyes of the consumer hence increasing the demand for their products.

Another lesson that the author wants to teach us about customer research is to be able to understand definitely what the customer wants. In Detroit’s research for the automobile industry, he was not convinced of the customers’ requirements, and this made the company lose many customers to other small manufactures of cars (Levitt, 2020). The automobile industry, for example, was engaging in mass production, which was famous and most honored. The company had to shift its production approach to a customer-oriented one, whereby the company used many dollars to do customer research.

The fact that the new cars were selling high in the market made us understand that Detroit’s research was not sufficient, and customer needs are not met. The author argues that this unbelievable lag in the customer wants would not have been realized if Detroit would have done enough research on customer needs. The study had only been restricted to the things that auto companies had sought to offer the customers. This made that the research was product-centered but not consumer-oriented (Levitt, 2020). The reader and any other practitioner of business can read it clear that the extent to which the customer needs are treated in this company is as if the auto company job can be done by entirely changes in the product.

Critical analysis

The article has pointed out that for an industry to realize its goals in production, it should focus on the consumer more than the emphasis on the product. In this aspect, there are strengths as well as weaknesses in the argument. One of the strengths of this theme is that management has begun to think about themselves and the future of the business. This has been achieved through proper evaluation of the best approach for the company. For a company that wishes to survive in a highly competitive market, it needs to choose a consumer-oriented model (Levitt, 2020). This has happened in the article; for example, for the oil company, the management sought not to imprison itself in focusing on the product but be customer-oriented.

On the same note from the article, it is seen as a weakness that customers have created destruction by themselves. Levitt gave arguments on how the oil companies should be customer-centered, but the customers themselves are too ignorant. For example, motorists are never patient to withstand the delay in buying gasoline. This shows that people do not buy gasoline. They don’t have time to taste it nor see it. What this customer is doing is buying the right to keep on driving their cars. The gas stations are no longer filing stations but tax collection points. The customers now make the gas stations unpopular hence eliminating it from the industry (Levitt, 2020). This is a weakness clearly shown by this author but not addressed in his work if the sectors are using the approach towards customer satisfaction.

Levitt argues in the article that, management teams entirely relies on the possibilities of profits from technical development and research. In this aspect, I can support my argument from the article by looking at the oil companies and also the electronics industry (Levitt, 2020). For the electronics company, the danger that faced the new companies is not because they do not pay much attention to research and development but too much emphasis on it. This makes marketing to be short-changed hence making the business fail in its operation.

Main takeaways

The knowledge from this article can be used to advise and teach infant industries, entrepreneurs, and other business persons that an enterprise begins with the customer as said by Levitt that, “An industry begins with the customer and his or her needs, not with a patent, a raw material, or a selling skill.” It should focus more on the customer and avoid being a product-oriented process. We should be able to understand from Levitt that industry growth begins with the delivery of customer satisfaction.

The article also spells out that some of the technical staff involved in research are incompetent and hence break the notion of industries relying on the team. This is because of their ignorance to follow their research methodologies and eventually come up with the wrong decisions for the company (Levitt, 2020). The author also makes us believe that selling is not marketing, but it should not be ignored. Selling should be seen as the development of techniques and strategies to make people exchange a product with cash. Marketing is a critical aspect of all industries since it deals with how a business can arouse, create, and satisfy customer needs. Theodore Levitt’s research and teaching in the article have been of great help to many growing industries in the global market.

References

Levitt,T.(2020).http://www1.ximb.ac.in/users/fac/MNT/mnt.nsf/23e5e39594c064ee852564ae004fa010/0f7c7e867eb152b465257011001ec050/$FILE/MARKETING%20MYOPIA.pdf