A study shows that a staggering 75% of businesses fail due to a variety of reasons, from poor marketing strategy to wrong product-market fit. Still, one of the most persistent is marketing myopia.
When sales for a new product you launched refuse to pick up, or customers just won’t patronize your new business, chances are that you may be experiencing what we refer to as marketing myopia.
But what does marketing myopia mean, or how can you spot it and avoid it completely? This guide will answer all of these questions and more. So, let’s get down to it.
Table of Contents:
What is Marketing Myopia?
When you hear the term “myopia” thrown around, it’s almost natural that your mind goes to the medical condition where certain people find it difficult to see well from a distance. Well, something similar to that also happens with companies and how they market their product and services.
In fact, in 1960, Theodore Lewitt coined the term “marketing myopia” to describe one of the most costly marketing mistakes when a company is obsessed with viewing their products through their own lenses rather than the customer’s needs and wants.
Lewitt even argues that most companies would be better off catering to and anticipating customers’ needs and wants than trying hard to sell them.
How To Spot Marketing Myopia
Ideally, most companies that suffer from marketing myopia don’t even recognize it until it’s too late, but that doesn’t have to be you. Avoiding market myopia starts by recognizing its signs. Here’s a quick list of marketing myopia signs:
- Product-Centric Focus: Companies should be built around customers, not vice versa. In other words, the moment you find out that your company is emphasizing the features and specifications of your products instead of actively building a solution for your customer’s needs, that’s a red flag.
- Ignoring Market Trends: It’s easier to believe that a product that is currently doing well will continue to do well in the future. However, nothing can be farther from the truth! Come to think of it: consumers’ tastes change constantly, and businesses that refuse to adapt get left behind.
- Lack of Customer Insight: Customer insights and feedback are the best way to know what customers want and how to serve them better. Companies with marketing myopia fail to gather this feedback, assuming they somehow know what’s best for the customer without engaging with them.
- Limited Vision: Businesses suffering from marketing myopia tend to define their market too narrowly, causing them to miss out on potential growth opportunities.
Examples of Marketing Myopia
No matter the company’s size or the industry’s uniqueness, if a company doesn’t make overcoming marketing myopia a priority, it may soon be out of business. Here are some of the popular marketing myopia examples that you can learn from:
1. Kodak
Kodak was the uncontested power player in photography for almost the entire 20th century. Do you remember their famous slogan, Kodak Moment? (I bet that also lodged itself in your brain years ago.) They pioneered film photography and created revolutionary products that enabled everyone to make memories of their own. Takeaway: One can begin feeling complacent due to this lack of competition.
What Went Wrong?
Kodak was both too heavily invested in film photography and much too early in the digital camera revolution. They were so busy raking in the dollars of a lucrative film business that they overlooked the revolution that was shaping on their doorstep—amnesty for digital technology. But their tunnel vision caused them to entirely miss the boat on what might have been digital photography’s greatest potential use case.
For example, Kodak continued producing films while the rest of the world migrated to digital. Sony, Canon and other electronics manufacturers embraced digital cameras, stealing the market that Kodak could have dominated.
This refers to the fact that consumers’ needs were changing. As time passed, people started craving all the good stuff that comes with digital photos—instant sharing, editing, and storage. When it became clear that Kodak wouldn’t pivot, most of their loyal customers vanished.
It will interest you to know that Kodak invented the first digital camera in 1975. However, since film sales were blowing through the roofs, they decided to shelve the idea. Sadly, by the time they decided to come back to the digital market, they couldn’t even compete with the established brands in that space.
2. Nokia
When we think of mobile phones today, names like iPhone and Samsung come to mind almost immediately. However, in the late 90s and early 2000s, Nokia was the major global leader in the industry.
Since the company is known for its strong reputation and innovation, its customers expect nothing but the best mobile phones from them. However, just like Kodak, Nokia also failed to adapt to the changing demands of the industry.
Key Factors of Marketing Myopia in Nokia
Shortly after Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, alongside the app ecosystem and touch-screen technology, the market perception of mobile phones changed. The demand for smartphones surged.
Nokia, on the other hand, continued to innovate its hardware and never paid attention to the importance of nailing the software and user experience. Nokia seems to be out of touch with users’ desire for multifunctional devices that could serve as personal assistants, entertainment hubs, and more.
At this point, their Symbian operating system was no match for the iOS or Android platforms. Eventually, when it became obvious to the company that smartphones were here to stay, they launched the Nokia Lumia series with Windows Phone OS, which, although innovative, came too late to regain their lost market share.
How To Avoid Marketing Myopia
From the two marketing myopia examples above, you can see that even the most successful businesses are not immune from failure with marketing myopia around. So, if you’re thinking of overcoming marketing myopia, here’s a guide on how to avoid falling into the same trap:
1. Understand Customer Needs
Ultimately, businesses that prioritize customers succeed, while those that don’t fail. “Market research” is one method for identifying these needs.
Market research can provide businesses with rich insight into consumer behaviors and trends in key markets. These customer data help organizations make decisions that are more aligned with what their customers actually want.
Rather than attempting to anticipate customers’ needs and wants, businesses need to be prepared to meet with them often via surveys, feedback forms, and face-to-face conversations. One way to do this is by building an email list for customers, as this enables the company to keep in touch with its customer base and view pain points and needs from a closer perspective.
For instance, Amazon uses this approach, and it’s helped them stay on top of the industry for so long. Their continuous customer feedback loops and data-driven product development ensure they adapt to customer needs and preferences.
2. Broaden Market Perspective
A wide market perspective assists companies in determining new opportunities and predicting potential future needs. Rather than being myopic, businesses need to think more broadly about why their customers have a particular problem or desire. A broader view can highlight fresh pathways for expansion and aid strategic marketing planning.
At the same time, anticipating changes in consumer behavior and market demands is also essential to staying ahead. (Consider Apple as an example.) Once a computer company, Apple went on to dominate many other aspects of consumer electronics and services. Take this success story as one example, and hear the stories of several others trying to replicate the same feat.
3. Foster Innovation
You have to stay innovative if you are going to remain relevant and competitive in a market like this. Developing a culture of innovation requires employees to be appreciated for introducing new ideas and empowering them to experiment with their plans.
Finally, investing in research and development is also important, as this helps businesses examine new technological aspects or market trends and develop innovative products and services.
4. Stay Competitive
While retaining focus on what your brand should do, understanding the competitive landscape and learning from others can also help prevent marketing myopia.
Regularly reading your competitors’ strategies and what they offer can also help you gain many insights. You want to understand what competitors’ marketing best practices are and what they are not-so-great at because that’s how you see where there is a gap in the market to make something better or do it differently.
5. Focus on Long-Term Goals
To grow, you must balance the short-term advantages with a long-term vision. If you focus on making money short-term and don’t work on strategies to improve your long-term customer loyalty, you won’t see good results in the longer term, either.
Satisfied customers are also more likely to stick around, which means they will keep buying from you and referring new customers. However, sustainable growth and market relevance should always counter your short-term profitability goals.
For example, Tesla’s early struggles to turn a profit were due to its steadfast commitment to a longer-term vision of sustainable energy and electric vehicles. And today? The company is ahead of other automakers.
Wrapping Up
Companies that avoid marketing myopia and – instead– focus on their customers, promote innovation, and maintain a broad perspective on the market are bound to find success in the long run.
Also, companies that recognize and deal with the symptoms of marketing myopia in their early stages will be well-equipped to adjust to evolving market trends while ensuring they remain competitive. The key is to stay constantly focussed on the customer’s changing needs and be nimble in this fast-changing market.
So, now to your business. A good place to start is by checking for any signs of marketing myopia in your products and building a customer-first product from there.
FAQs
Here are some of the frequently asked questions about marketing myopia:
Who coined the term “marketing myopia”?
Theodore Levitt first introduced the terminology in a 1960 article published in the Harvard Business Review. It refers to a producer’s failure to attend to the consumer’s needs and focus only on his/her product marketing.
What’s so dangerous about marketing myopia?
Marketing myopia can be disastrous for a business by making it increasingly irrelevant to the market, off-target against competitors and new emerging markets/market segment opportunities, ultimately causing failure as consumer needs and reality change.
But can small businesses experience marketing myopia as well?
Yes. Suppose small businesses focus too narrowly on what they are currently producing and not changing over time with customer needs or market trends. In that case, developing marketing myopia as a small business owner is possible!
