Avoid marketing myopia
Marketing strategy
The focus on customers’ need and wants will help avoiding marketing myopia
It was 2016 when I first heard the phrase ‘marketing myopia’. I had bought Clayton Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemmna. I found the book boring. I could not get half of what it said. But, it led me to the seminal article by Theodore Levit.
He wrote Marketing Myopia in 1960 in Harvard Business Review. It’s as relevant today as it was then. It talked how businesses harm themselves by only focusing on selling, and not on the needs of the buyers. He attributed the failures of railroad companies, Hollywood’s decimation by TV to top executives.
He wrote, “At some point in its development, every industry can be considered a growth industry, based on the apparent superiority of its product. But in case after case, industries have fallen under the shadow of mismanagement. What usually gets emphasized is selling, not marketing. This is a mistake, since selling focuses on the needs of the seller, while marketing concentrates on the needs of the buyer.”
The rise of Koramangala business model has amplified the marketing myopia. Startups today are committing the same mistakes, which railroad companies did. Small businesses are copying them blindly, and think that only strategy to grow is to raise funds, and burn in online ads. Droom, once an unicorn, just fired its 35% of employees. Blinkit, one of the leaders of quick commerce, may have fudged the data, to be sold to Zomato at half the price.
Economist Vivek Kaul wrote in his newsletter, “ The Koramangala business model (KBM) is coming apart. Before we go forward, it is important to explain what I mean by KBM? KBM is a general term I use here for venture capital (VC) backed technology startups that have sprung up in Koramangala in Bengaluru, among other places.”
“While many tech startups offered their services at a discount to build their business, a few firms also pushed the envelope. As the media and the analysts have been putting it, their business models were built around regulatory arbitrage. “
I have learnt a lot from Mini MBA in Marketing. Once it gets over, I would like to meet the fellow independent businesses owners, and talk about how we can set our house in order. It’s been forever that a startup guru or a digital media baba have been giving the wrong and harmful advice to the businesses: double down on content, optimize search ads and hire more influencers. The marketing principles is all about understanding the customers and avoiding the marketing myopia.
Worth your time:
If there is one thing you will read this week, please read Marketing Myopia Link
A refresher on marketing myopia Link
Avoid marketing myopia was originally published in The Bootstrappers on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.