Marketing Myopia Definition: 3 Examples of Marketing Myopia

The term “marketing myopia” describes when a company is so focused on quick sales and mass production of goods they lose sight of their long-term goals and customer needs. This shortsightedness in a marketing strategy or business model prevents a company from achieving long-term success.

Marketing myopia is when a company focuses only on its product, failing to meet its customers’ needs or look at the larger societal context of its goods or service. Theodore Levitt coined the term in his marketing paper published in Harvard Business Review (HBR) in 1960.

A famous example from the HBR piece looks at how railroad companies neglected to examine why customers used their product amid changes in the transportation business. By focusing only on rail lines rather than analyzing how their product met broader consumer needs—getting people from place to place—railroad companies saw their industry’s major product surpassed by other modes of transportation like cars. If railroad companies avoided marketing myopia, they would have seen an opportunity to invest in these different modes of transportation rather than focusing solely on rail.

As a business owner, if you are aware of the causes of marketing myopia, it can help prevent poor decision-making. Some common roots of marketing myopia include:

1. 1. A business only anticipates growth. Some companies may believe they are in a growth industry or that their product lines have no competitive substitutes in the market. This leads to a false sense of security, and if the product becomes less desirable over time, the business will lose market shares or profits as the products decrease in demand. By failing to think of the long term, this company will need to craft a new business strategy to recoup revenue.
2. 2. A company lacks clear goals. A successful company should have clear short-term and long-term goals for success and growth. When a small business or company neglects to think about long-term growth strategies and business goals, they focus only on decisions that benefit them in the short term.
3. 3. Leaders want fast results or quick wins. Companies and start-ups may prioritize short-term goals to see their numbers go up to validate their business, secure funding, and drive immediate revenue.
4. 4. Stakeholders or CEOs want to see positive data. Employees may feel pressure from leaders or higher-ups to produce data that shows their marketing concepts are successful. Teams that feel pressure to perform well may make decisions that show positive results from their marketing efforts in the short term, neglecting to consider the longer-term impacts.

Even a successful company can sometimes suffer from myopic decision-making. You can learn tips to help you avoid the self-deceiving cycle of marketing myopia by examining case studies and marketing myopia examples. Examples of poor marketing management that led to marketing myopia include:

1. 1. Overconfidence: Imagine a successful publishing company that sells many physical copies of books and is confident they will continue to sell hard copy books since they have a loyal customer base. They are so certain of their success they neglect to craft a business strategy that outlines tactics to employ if their sales begin to decline. As sales decline due to the digital age, the lack of a contingency plan leads to a slower conversion of their business model into a digital publishing company. The slow shift of their marketing approach results in missed growth opportunities and new customers turning instead to competitors.
2. 2. Neglecting to identify a target demographic: Suppose a digital marketing team selling smartphones decides they lack the budget for market research to find out details about their target audience. Instead of researching and creating buyer personas, they choose to run their ads to general audiences. They will most likely pay more for advertising to get customers than if they paid for market research ahead of time and narrowed down their target market.
3. 3. Rushing product development: Imagine a company that sells digital cameras decides to push their product launch so they can release their cameras before a competitor. Even though their cameras were on the market first, the rushed deadline makes the cameras lower quality, and their customer base is unhappy with the product. Eventually, the customers lose trust in the company’s new products and turn to the competitor’s products.

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