What is Marketing "myopia" ?

A short-sighted and inward looking approach to marketing that focuses on the needs of the company instead of defining the company and its products in terms of the customers' needs and wants. It results in the failure to see and adjust to the rapid changes in their markets.

The concept of marketing myopia was discussed in an article (titled "Marketing Myopia," in July-August 1960 issue of the Harvard Business Review) by Harvard Business School emeritus professor of marketing, Theodore C. Levitt (1925-2006), who suggests that companies get trapped in this situation because they omit to ask the vital question, "What business are we in?"

You should always try to avoid a marketing myopia if possible and think more about the long term plans you have.

Agree with mohammad negm answer.

Thanks for your invitation, defining the company and its products to respond to the customers' needs and wants, this is a short-sighted, inward, myopic marketing approach focusing on the company's needs. The failure to see and adjust to the rapid market changes is typically the unfortunate results.

sorry for me  question not cleer 

Thanks for the invitation.

I fully agree with YOUR submission, Mr. Sayed Fathy.

The marketing myopia theory was originally proposed by Theodore Levitt. The theory states that marketers should look towards the market and modify the company and products accordingly rather than looking towards your own company, its potential and then catering the market. The needs of the market should receive first priority.

Theodore levitt asks a very interesting question as an example for marketing myopia. His question is, if Hollywood were into television rather than movies, wouldnt it have profited more? This is true because as we know the major crowd of hollywood is concentrating into making movies and actually money is more into television.

I agree with answers the experts .

Marketing Myopia is a short-sighted and inward looking approach to marketing that focuses on the needs of the company instead of defining the company and its products in terms of the customers' needs and wants. It results in the failure to see and adjust to the rapid changes in their markets.

Marketing Myopia suggests that businesses will do better in the end if they concentrate on meeting customers’ needs rather than on selling products.The Myopic culture, would pave the way for a business to fail, due to the short-sighted mindset and illusion that a firm is in a so-called 'growth industry'. This belief leads to complacency and a loss of sight of what customers want.However, Some commentators have suggested that its publication marked the beginning of the modern marketing movement. Its theme is that the vision of most organizations is too constricted by a narrow understanding of what business they are in. It exhorted CEOs to re-examine their corporate vision; and redefine their markets in terms of wider perspectives. It was successful in its impact because it was, as with all of work, essentially practical and pragmatic. Organizations found that they had been missing opportunities which were plain to see once they adopted the wider view. The paper was influential. The oil companies (which represented one of his main examples in the paper) redefined their business as energy rather than just petroleum. By contrast, when the Royal Dutch Shell embarked upon an investment program in nuclear power, it failed to demonstrate a more circumspect regard for their industry.One reason that short sightedness is so common is that people feel that they cannot accurately predict the future. While this is a legitimate concern, it is also possible to use a whole range of business prediction techniques currently available to estimate future circumstances as best as possible.I believe that there is a greater scope of opportunities as the industry changes. It trains managers to look beyond their current business activities and think "outside the box". George Steiner (1979) is one of many in a long line of admirers who cite Levitt's famous example on transportation. If a buggy whip manufacturer in 1910 defined its business as the "transportation starter business," they might have been able to make the creative leap necessary to move into the automobile business when technological change demanded it.I think that, People who focus on marketing strategy, various predictive techniques, and the customer's lifetime value can rise above myopia to a certain extent. This can entail the use of long-term profit objectives (sometimes at the risk of sacrificing short term objectives).

Agree with expert views, it is a short sighted approach to bench mark with competitive products to attract customers

Dear Mr.Fathy, thank you for the opportunity to answer, however I agree with your answer to the question!