Summary of Marketing MyopiaTheodore Levitt's work clearly lacks the sign of myopia; it is an early recognition of a phenomenon within most of the industries. Although, at the time, when this article was written, generally accepted marketing strategies and the idea of marketing mix were known to management, sales and marketing often got confused as the same method to distribute goods to consumers. Industries near-sightings stopped them to recognize the market's need. Managers kept producing the same product regardless to the change of customer needs, and try to sell them on the market. However, Theodore Levitt sees a more threatening problem to the industry.Managers inside the different industries fail to recognize the industry itself, which th ...view middle of the document...
Railroad companies should have recognized that they were part of the transportation business and should have changed their marketing mix according to this. Some industries are especially shortsighted in the identification of their marketplace and customer needs. The oil industry is still certain that oil is one of the basic "needs" of the customers. However, customers need transportation and not necessary oil. If any other convenient solution comes up to satisfy the customers' need for transportation, the oil industry will be in trouble. Thus, the oil industry should be the first one to find more convenient solutions to satisfy the customers' needs so it can preserve its leading status within its industry. Automakers and electronic industries all fail to find its ideal marketing strategies. American automakers have been lagging behind the customers' needs, and as it has been seen lately, foreign automakers have been taking over the American market. Controversially, the electronic industry is marketing shortchanged. The electronic industry has spent too much time and effort on R&D, due to the management of mostly engineers and scientists. The customer needs have been ignored in both cases, but for different reasons.Since Theodore Levitt's article got published in 1960, companies have paid more attention to identify the industry they exist within. In some extreme cases they developed a "marketing mania", where companies become so "aware" of every little change in customer needs that the mass production has turned into excessive time and resource consuming tasks. These companies became individual "work shop" companies.References:Levitt, Theodore Marketing Myopia, 1960 Retrieved November 28, 2005 from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure
