Marketing Myopia

Marketing Myopia is a term used in marketing that describes and unnecessarily common affliction among business people. It is the failure to see "down the road". Many business people make their decisions based on current circumstances. They do not think about what will likely happen in their industry in the future? One reason shortsightedness is so common is that people feel that they can not predict the future accurately. 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.

Obviously we know the world is inherently unpredictable, all businesses are subject to myopia to a certain extent according to Theodore Levitt (1960) who coined the term. Because of this, organizations should be careful not to define themselves too narrowly. For example, company that delivers coal should think of itself as being in the energy business. This broad market definition will provide a greater scope of opportunities as the industry changes. When we do this we are asking our managers to look beyond our current business activities and "think outside the box". This would be looking at long term and short term objectives, with focus on market strategy and the customer over the lifetime. Despite the simplicity of this process company after company are consumed with marketing myopia. Again, if a customer oriented company is led by marketing strategy and the process of how to derive is understood, then you are giving yourself a distinct compelling value to continue into the future.