Do marketers Overlook the concept of 'Marketing Myopia'

The first blog post of Marketing Essence focuses on a very well known and debated concept in marketing, termed – Marketing Myopia. I, for one, feel very nostalgic whenever I come across this term since it was one of the very first concepts that I learnt inside of our marketing classroom sessions. The professor, who taught us the basic concepts of marketing, let us know that as marketers it is important for us not to be inflicted by the virus called Marketing Myopia – which essentially represents the mistakes made by a seller or a marketer in strategising; and these mistakes could involve - the marketer focusing too much on the product being sold or on its attributes and every other detail with the exception of what the consumer really wants.

A concept put forth by Prof. Theodore Levitt, a legendary marketing scholar, marketing myopia tends to be overlooked by few sellers or marketers. Myopia refers to short sightedness, and this kind of short sightedness in marketing could prove fatal. An instance that comes to my mind is that of the Roadies show, which is apparently taken over by Bumpy a.k.a. The Nature Baba seems to have been handling the new job pretty well. However, in one show he is shown very excited about how one of the episodes turned out to be amazingly interesting to him, hence he presumed it would be exciting and thrilling for the viewers who will watch it too.

As for him, the episode turned out to be the best, but some of my friends who are die-hard fans thought it was an ‘ok episode’ but not the best. Though Roadies continues to be one among the best reality shows in the country, the makers must be careful not to be ‘inflicted’ by marketing myopia and thereby produce shows that are not only rated best by them, but also by the viewers.