MARKETING MYOPIA

Devina Varma(P301413CMG310)
Gajanan(P301413CMG311)
GajanandKumar(P301413CMG312)
Gaurav Punj(P301413CMG313)
Hetal J Samani (P301413CMG314)

Marketing Myopia
The Myopic culture, would pave the way for
a business to fail, due to the short-sighted
mind-set and illusion that a firm is in a socalled 'growth industry'. This belief leads to
complacency and a loss of sight of what
customers want.
- Theodore Levitt .

Marketing Myopia suggests that

businesses will do better in the end if
they concentrate on meeting
customers needs rather than on selling
products.
Some commentators suggested that it
was the beginning of the modern
marketing movement.

The brief of the idea

What business are you really in?

Hollywood barely escaped being totally ravished by

television. Actually, all the established film companies
went through drastic reorganizations. Some simply
disappeared. All of them got into trouble not because
of TVs inroads but because of their own myopia. As
with the railroads, Hollywood defined its business
incorrectly. It thought it was in the movie business
when it was actually in the entertainment business.
Movies implied a specific, limited product.
Hollywood should have been more customer oriented
than product oriented.

MARKETING MYOPIA IN INDIAN

CONTEXT

Sustained growth depends on how broadly you define your

business and how carefully you gauge your business.

It helps companies find new products, services, new

markets
It helps companies find accurate competition
It stops companies losing out when trends change

Myths of Marketing Myopia

We put the businesses at risk of obsolescence
when we accept any of the following myths.
Myth 1 : An ever-expanding and more
affluent population will ensure growth.
Myth 2 : We can protect ourselves through
mass production.

Myths of Marketing Myopia

Myth 3: There is no competitive
substitute for our industry major
product
Myth 4: Technical research and
development will ensure growth.

opulation Myth

Population Myth
Myth:
Growing Population and Income
Growing Industry
Profits are assured by an expanding and more affluent
population.

A Harmful Myth
Less Apprehensions about the future on part of
industry.

Notion Of the Industry

More consumers and more buying of
product/service = more possibility of facing
future with comfort.
Expanding population means expanding
industry

How does it matter???

Problem
Effect:
No imagination or no new thought from the
industry.
Notion
of automatically expanding
market
Market
Thinking
makes manufacturer complacent and
discourages to expand.
More focus on product development than
expansion.
Eg: Petroleum
New Industry
Soultion
Product

Petroleum Industry Victim of the Myth

Myth :
Population growth will always
lead to more demand of
petroleum. Hence more
demand for oil .
Effect:
Complacency with respect to
market has affected the
industry thought process,
despite pioneering work in
field of investment and
people relations.

Impact On Petroleum Industry

Focus only on product improvement i.e.
crude oil and not on expansion and customer
needs for better products and substitutes.
Innovations in sector coming from outside
petroleum industry, eg : Automobile, small oil
companies not associated with refining or
production.
Increasing its own competitors.
Loss of expansion opportunities and future
customers and hence future revenue.

SIMILARITIES/DISSIMILARITIES??

Production Pressure
Mass Production
Selling Emphasized over Marketing
Lag in Detroit
Customer Needs
Secondary Importance
What Ford Put First
$ 500 cars
Product Provincialism
Buggy Whips & Oil Companies
Creative Destruction

Mass Production
Efforts focused either on production or on selling
Marketing, a more sophisticated and complex process,
gets neglected
John Kenneth Galbraiths Point of View
Top Management to Sales Department
You get rid of it; well worry about profit

Lag in Detroit (The Motor City)

Product oriented, not customer oriented
Focused on preferences of things they had already decided
to serve to the customers, not what the customers exactly
wanted
Result- Lost millions of customers to small car
manufacturers
Arm Length attitude towards automotive repair and
maintenance

What Ford Put First

Business strategies must always follow
hard thinking about the customer.
Sold millions of cars priced at a reduced price of $500
,thus creating the American middle class.
Mass production was the result, not the cause of his
low prices.
His policy was to reduce the price, extend the
operation and improve the article.
However, formula for cheap cars & limited features fell
behind General Motors.

Product Provincialism:
In growth companies, expansion of demand already tends to
undermine the concern for marketing and customers.
Hence, instead of growing ,the industry declines.
The product fails to evolve according to the changing trends
of the market.
Examples- Buggy Whips and Oil Industry

Creative Destruction
When theres a substitute present in the market
which is very popular among the customers, the
companies have no other option but to destroy
their own highly profitable assets.
These companies should be in the cycle of
creative destruction if they want to survive and
develop.

Myth : Our products have no

rivals

Nothing
is
permanent

Explanation-

Many successful companies believe that their best selling product has
no rivals.
There is no competitive substitute for our industrys major product

Many successful industries have doomed because they never thought

about the possible changes in advance.
The companies whole focus is to get maximum market share or
innovate around their product only.
Companies become vulnerable to dramatic innovations from outside
the industries- often by smaller, newer companies that are focusing on
customer needs rather than the products themselves.

Shadow of obsolescence
Competition
&
Substitution

Image by

www.patheos.com

Lets take an example..

Baldwin Locomotive Works
Very old American builder of
railroad locomotive companies.
Expanded significantly between 1898 and 1907.
Baldwin built 5,551 locomotives for the Allies during world war-1.
At this time Baldwin was the largest locomotive company in US.

Source- Wikipedia

Baldwin
Locomotive
Works
Steam Engine

ALCO
Diesel Engine

vs

ALCO-American Locomotive Company

Created in 1901 from the merger of seven smaller
locomotive manufacturers
Alco was the second-largest steam locomotive builder in the United States
(after Baldwin).
Although it was strongly committed to the steam locomotive, Alco produced
the first commercially successful diesel-electric locomotive in 1924 in a
consortium with General Electric (electrical equipment) and Ingersoll-Rand
(diesel engine).
Alco's diesel locomotives were competing with its own steam locomotive
products.
In 1940, Alco and GE entered into a partnership to build diesels under the
name Alco-GE, an arrangement that lasted until 1953.
By 1948, Alco possessed 40% of the diesel locomotive market

THEY SAID IT WOULD NEVER SINK

They said it would never sink

God Let There be Light..

AC

John D.
Rockefeller

V
S

V
S
DC

Some Other Examples

Dry Cleaning Industry in 1930sBut in 1960, whole industry was in trouble. Reasons-

Increase use of commercially available detergents/surfactants.

Synthetic, blend fibres in clothes reduced the need for dry cleaning.
Fashion trends- Less people were wearing coats , not even during religious gatherings
like easter.

Grocery Store

A strong well developed network of wholesalers and Corner stores was present in US.
First supermarket opened in 1930, in jamaica, Long Island.
Established chains pompously ignored them

Paradigm shift in customers towards Supermarkets. ReasonsPeople wanted convenient neighbourhood grocers. Supermarkets provided them novelty and flexible
prices

Grocery Store Example.

A strong well developed network of wholesalers and Corner stores was present
in US.
They were very confident of their services.

First supermarket opened in 1930, in jamaica, Long Island.

By 1933, supermarkets were thriving in California, Ohio, Pennsylvania.
Established chains pompously ignored them

Reason stated by executive of one big chain- hard to believe that people will
drive for miles to shop for foods and sacrifice the personal service chains have
perfected and to which ,the customer, is accustomed.
Paradigm shift in customers towards Supermarkets. ReasonsPeople wanted convenient neighbourhood grocers. Supermarkets provided them
novelty and flexible prices.
Corner stores kept their pride by not giving better cost and service but
Lost their business.

Courier Services in India

Indian Postal Service

Vs

Private Courier Operators

Inspite of huge expansion of postal services, Private operators took away their
market share.
-Greater office timings in Private Operators
-Timely delivery
-Online tracking
-Friendly employees and better customer service
-Collaborating with corporates, banks and PSEs because of Pick up mail facility.
Project Arrow was conceived in April, 2008. The project envisages up gradation of
Post Offices in urban and rural areas both in terms of upgrading and enhancing the
quality of service in core areas and improving the look and feel.
Mail Delivery

Service
Levels

Get the
Core Right

Remittances

Branding

Savings
Bank

Technology

Modernize
Look &
Feel

Infrastructure

Human
Resources

Source- Project Arrow case study by Deloitte

Products still existing in market and growing inspite of

competition

Industry which survived

competition

TechnologyBoon or
Bane???

TECHNOLOGY AS A THREAT??
Too much attention laid on product
development- emphasis more on selling
rather than marketing.
A blind eye towards consumer
unpredictability and their fickle behaviour.

EVEN APPLE
FACED
MYOPIA

NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER

OF INVENTION
Declining Apple Computers In 1990s.
The Story of Evolution: The I-pod and Itunes.
Changed Customers View of Technology
Once iPhone Followed.

WHAT WENT
WRONG WITH
THE CAMERA
PIONEERS ???

IT IS THE DARKEST UNDER THE LAMP

KODAK : Invented The First Digital Camera in 1975;
But Held It Back

WHY????
As They Were Myopic
Myopic Enough To Think That They Were In The Film
Business.

AN EYE
TOWARDS THE
FUTURE
WE ALREADY HAVE
VEHICLES PLYING ON
THE ROADS WHICH RUN
NOT USING PETROLEUM
BUT ELECTRICITY AS
THEIR FUEL- AN
EPITOME OF FORESIGHT

CONCLUSION
DARWINs UNIVERSAL THEORY :
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
But Just Surviving???
Or Surviving Gallantly???
A Leader Has a Vision Which Shall Serve As
the Light-House In the Dark Turbulent Sea

REFERENCES
http://www.prep-hub.com
http://www.forbes.com
http://www.wisegeek.org
http://www.businessdictionary.com

http://en.wikipedia.org