Marketing Myopia by Theodore Levitt argues that companies focus too much on their products instead of understanding customers' needs. He asserts there are no growth industries, only growth opportunities. When companies define themselves by their products rather than by the customer needs they meet, they risk becoming obsolete. Levitt provides examples of once dominant industries like railroads and movies that declined due to a failure to adapt to changing customer demands. He encourages companies to take a broader view of their industry and role in satisfying customer needs to sustain long term growth.

1. Marketing
Myopia (Article # 01)
By: Theodore Levitt (1960)
Presenter:
M.Siraji
Sri Lanka Institute of AdvancedTechnological Education
“Growth is threatened not
because the market is
saturated but because
management failed “

2. • What is Myopia ?
• What causes growth industry slow down?
• What business are you really in ?
• Impact of Myopia
• Why Marketing Myopia ?
• Past and current industries in Myopia
• Criticisms
• How to minimize the Marketing Myopia ?
• Conclusion
• References
2
Table of Content

3. (Wikipedia)
The term myopia is of Koine Greek origin: μυωπία myōpia (or
μυωπίασις myōpiasis)
"short-sight(-ness)", fromAncient Greek μύωψ myōps "short-
sighted
3
What is
Myopia ?
Levitt. T (1960) describes is a lack of insight into what a
business is doing for its customers.
Organizations invest so much time, energy, and money in
what they currently do that they’re often blind to the future.
They get lulled into thinking they’re in a “growth
industry,” which, according to Levitt, don’t exist. Instead,
there are really only companies continuously capitalizing on
growth opportunities.

4. A company’s nearsighted focus on
selling products and service, rather
than meeting customers’ wants.
WHY ?
Your product is not your business:
“People don’t want to buy a quarter inch drill.They want to
buy a quarter inch hole.”
Companies that fail to understand this risk becoming
obsolete.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE OFTHE FAILURE ?
Top management
WHY MANAGEMENT FAILED ?
Failed to change and adapt to the new environment that
they were living in today because fundamentally he claims
that they failed to ask the right question and the question
was not how do we sell more product, but what industry
are we really in ?
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What causes
growth industry
slow down?

5. What business
are you really
in ?
“There is no such thing as a growth
industry, what we have is growth
opportunities.”
Railroad
or
Transportation
Movie Business
or
Entertainment
Business
Oil Industry
or
Energy Industry
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Growth Growing Seasoned
Growth
DuPont and Corning GlassWorks.
• Both these companies were product centered, but they were
also customer oriented as well.
• The aluminum business continues to be a growth industry.

6. Impact of
Myopia
“There is no such thing as a growth
industry, what we have is growth
opportunities.”
Short sightedness
affect the mission
of company
Growth get checked Uncertain future
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7. Discussion Question
“There is no such thing as growth industry, what we have is growth
opportunities”---explain.
7

8. Why Marketing
Myopia ?
Shadow of
obsolescence
Production
Pressures
Dangers of
R & D
4
8
Population
Myth
2
1

9. Shadow of
obsolescenc
e
Failures due to
lake of imagination
innovation
lack of understanding
about customers changing want.
Almost all major
industry one time
qualify for the
appellation of growth
industry.
They were focusing on
more sales
(sales oriented)
With available of
substitutes those
industries were in
trouble
One by one these
celebrated industries
has come under a
shadow of
obsolescence
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10. Population
Myth
Belief that profits are assured by
an expanding & more affluent
population.
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Growth is assured by population
Having a generic products, no competitive substitutes
Preoccupation with the product helps to Controlled scientific
experiment, Improvement and Manufacturing cost reduction
Focused on increase the efficiency of making our products,
rather than boosting the value those products deliver to
customers
Mass production will help to reduce the unit cost

11. Example
Petroleum industry
• Instead of positioning itself as an energy industry, it defines
itself too narrowly.
• They concentrate all resources to oil exploration, production
and refining
• No understanding of the consumers’ true demand: not oil,
but a means, a stimulant that makes their car run, makes
their fireplace burn…
• History of the petroleum industry Kerosene lamp
Incandescent lamp invented by Edison was totally
nondependent on oil
• The internal combustion engine, helping to boost the
demand for oil , central oil heater (1920)
• After wartime, demand for oil for aviation
• Expansion of transportation helped to keep the oil industry
in gear.
11

12. In the deeper
layer: a myth
• Population both growing and
changing .
• Demand changing each day .
• The future market is uncertain
come.
• The manufacturer should be
customer-oriented, not product-
oriented
• Occurred marketing myopia.
12

13. Production
Pressures
“Output is so prodigious that all
effort concentrates on trying to
get rid of it”.
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Mass production companies impelled to produce all they can.
All efforts focused on production
Mass production move the products.
Emphasized on selling not marketing
Focused on the needs of the seller not satisfying the needs
of customers.

14. 14
• This is a good example where very famous and most
honored mass producing automobile state got surprised
when they monitor the market share to other small car
manufacturers.
• They spent millions on consumer research and yet failed
to reveal what customer really want
• Annual model change, a policy that makes customer
orientation an especially an urgent necessity
Different
point of view

15. 15
They did not research
customers´ wants
Inevitable lost of
millions of customers
Occasional attention to
financing and some
product changes.
Lag in Detroit
Detroit is mainly
product-oriented, not
customer oriented
What went
wrong ?

16. What Ford
put first
• Fashion Production system and design to fit the market
• He invented the assembly line because he had
concluded that at $ 500 he could sell millions of cars
• Mass production was a result, not the cause, of his low
prices
• His policy was to reduce the price, extend the
operations and improve the article (First priority to
reduce the price – customer oriented thinking )
• The new price will forces the costs down ( Usual way is
to calculate the cost first and then determined the price
)
• Low price makes everybody dig for profits 16
“Our policy is to reduce the price,
extend the operations and
improve the article”

17. Discussion Question
Ford created a car with no custom options that was only available in
black, but sold for $500. Why would he be considered “both the most
brilliant and the most senseless marketer” in American History?
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18. Product
Provincialism
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 Narrow pre occupation in low unit production costs
instead of growing.
Product fails to adapt to changing patterns of
consumers needs and taste (Buggy Whip Industries)
Classic Example: • Oil Industry
 Developments concentrated in fuel Systems designed to
power Automobiles (Hydro-carbon fuels)
 Non petroleum companies are working on: Advanced
models of energy systems which will eliminate the
demand for gasoline.
 Fuel cells that create electrical energy from chemical
processes (hydrogen and oxygen)
Electric Storage Batteries
Solar Energy
It has to think of itself as talking care of customer needs,
not finding, refining, or even selling oil.

19. Discussion Question
What is “product provincialism” ? How does it relate to the Strategy of a
company?
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20. Creative
Destruction
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 Motorist dislike the experience of buying gasoline
to continue driving their cars.
 The gas stations are perceived as a tax collector.
 Once oil companies recognize the customer-
Satisfying logic they will work on efficient and long
lasting fuel.
 A creative destruction is the catalyst to improve
and survive.
 Chevron Oil/ Energy Company

21. Dangers of
R & D
“A danger to a firm’s ability to
sustain growth, when managers
are preoccupied by the profits
generated from technical
research’’
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Marketing is short changed
When firms pay too much attention to R & D
Customers come forward with specific new product
demands (firms fill markets instead of finding markets)
Firms continues to be oriented toward the product rather
than consumers
Believe that a superior product will sell itself.
Profit possibilities through technical research &
developments.

22. Example
• Early industry shaped by military orders that preceded existence
of facilities / firms
• Expansion of the industry has been devoid of any marketing
effort
• Products are sophisticated, so companies employ large numbers
of engineers & scientists
• Leads to a bias favoring product R & D & production
• View marketing as something that must be done once the
product is created
• Companies favor business activities that involve
experimentation and control
• Belief that consumers are unpredictable, stubborn, bothersome,
fickle
• So firms concentrate on what they can control (product, R & D,
production processes)
• Military & others push new frontiers
• Don’t have to discover customer wants & needs.
22
Electronics Industry

23. Example
• Marketing gets the “stepchild treatment”
• Exists but not with much dedication
• Focus is on improving what they already doTelling sign
- Articles on “The Revolutionary Potential of
Electronics”
In the Search for Oil
In Production Operations
In Refinery Processes
• In Pipeline OperationsAll major functions discussed
EXCEPT marketing
• “The (Oil) Industry is implicitly defined as beginning
with the search for oil and ending with its distribution
from the refinery” (Levitt)
23
Oil Industry

24. Beginning to
End
• Ironic that industries heavily affiliated with research and
development seem to violate the Scientific Method
• Oil Industry Rules of Scientific Method:
Define Problem ---Hypothesis --- Prediction --- Experiment and
Conclusion
• More appropriate “Beginning to End” process:
• Customer needs
• Create product / service to satisfy customer need
• Delivery of customer satisfaction
• Find raw materials required
• Selling is NOT marketing Selling focuses on the needs of the
seller Marketing focuses on the needs of the buyer
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25. Past and current industries in Myopia
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For example, the silk industry in Europe has been thoroughly diminished because of introduction of
viscose rayon as it costs less and has the ability to replace silk.
Failed because digital camera, memory card
Failed to adopt the innovative product
Succeeded companies without market Myopia

26. Criticisms
• Railroad and Movie Industry
U.S.Government regulation that did not give them the chance for
expansion even though they tried (Morris, 1990)
• Stakeholders
Does not explain the role and need of the stake holders of the
organization
• Leadership Issues
Could also fail if the leadership has no purpose for the organization
• Population Myth
Consumer not willing to pay high price even though innovative
idea
Eg. Iridium satellite phone, 1990
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27. Criticisms
• No Competitive Substitution Myth
In this age, mobile phones have more or less replaced the fixed
connections.
• Faith in Mass Production
Ford’s ModelT car ($500) later was failed because customer
demanded for more color, features. The industries in today’s age
Highly competitive .
• Preoccupation with Scientific Research and Development
Techniques
Nokia pay enough attention to their research and development,
yet its sales are diminishing.
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28. How
to
minimize
the
Marketing
Myopia ?
28
“Business will do better if they concentrate on satisfying
customers needs rather than on selling products”
 Take a generic view of the industry (define the firm & industry broadly)
 Monitor other industries & be aware their marketing strategies.
 Recruit marketing people & have brainstorming sessions between those
new & existing managers to yield new strategies.
 Be flexible enough to apply unique solutions to the problems.

29. Conclusion
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• Information in today’s time has become more liquid and accessible.
• The organizations which want to grow in this world need to recognize the need for
knowledge about the changing trends, technologies and customer preferences.
• Clearly defined purposes and customer value
• Need to look around them to the changing environment-not only local changes rather a
bird’s-eye view of the world around them
• Top management analyzes the over-all impact of their strategies with the view to the
market
• The organizations have to continuously evolve and innovate in order to stay in this cut-
throat competitive environment
 Visceral Feel of Greatness Managements
 Retrospective Commentary
 A Mirror, Not a window
 A manifesto, not a Prescription

30. References
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Levitt.T (1960), “Marketing Myopia”, Harvard business review
Morris, D. J. (1990). The railroad and movie industries: were they myopic?. Journal of
the Academy of Marketing Science, 18(4), 279-283.

31. Thank you
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