Marketing Myopia: Customer Centric Rather Than Sale Centric

If you have chosen to pursue marketing for higher studies, then you are venturing into a vast territory. And marketing myopia is a small but significant aspect of it. Now, it is vital that you possess a clear concept about this specific topic so that you can ease into more complex areas of marketing.

With that thought, here is an elaborate guide on various aspects of market myopia concept and an insight into how it affects a business. 

What is Marketing Myopia and how to avoid it in your business?

 Marketing myopia occurs when an organisation focuses more on its needs than the needs of the target consumers. Essentially, this phenomenon takes place when an organisation emphasises too much on sales and profits while neglecting the requirements and wants of its consumers. It is true that ultimately, an organisation has to concentrate on increasing sales and profits. In fact, that is what every business should be doing, or they won’t be able to thrive within the business landscape for long.

The trouble begins when an organisation, in its desire to develop, completely neglects the ever-evolving needs of its consumers. Consumers are always seeking new, innovative, and improved products that present the perfect solutions.

An organisation that emphasises on itself too much tends to ignore learning about the needs of its consumers. As a result, these organisations lose touch with their concerns and then gradually lose the consumers to their competitors. It’s because the organisations put all its efforts on what they wanted, sometimes at the expense of its consumers. 

Marketing Myopia-  Advantages and Disadvantages

The phrase "marketing myopia" have been used by Harvard Business School emeritus professor of marketing, Theodore C. Levitt, in his article called "Marketing Myopia". It was published in the 1960 issue of the Harvard Business Review. In this article, he suggested that businesses fall into marketing myopia because they don’t question themselves frequently. The organisations often perceive they know the answers to the vital questions like "what business are we in?" Levitt opined that these answers were anything but obvious and that by delving into these questions, an organisation could serve its customers, thereby growing its organisation.

For example, an organisation that essentially delves into manufacturing springs used in retractable pens will probably market itself only as a pen spring manufacturer. This way, it restricts itself and its market. Worse still, it has convinced the prospective clients to think of the business only in terms of pen springs. This indicates that the business has developed marketing myopia. It is still focusing on its past and is assuming that its present business market will continue to thrive in the future.

This kind of perception is extremely hazardous for a business. If retractable pens become outdated, this organisation would have nothing to offer. After all, the company is a pen spring manufacturer. This is how it considers itself and how its clients think of it. Now that the pen spring market has dried up, there are no more clients.

If that same organisation hadn’t focused on such a short-sighted, narrow view of its objectives, two things would have happened. First, they would have been monitoring the factors outside their business, such as consumer preferences and market trends. They would’ve been able to predict the downfall of pen springs coming. That way, they could’ve prepared a contingency plan so that the business would continue to grow despite the market shift.

Second, they would’ve questioned what business they were in and would’ve realised that they were actually in the business of making coiled wire. This would have enabled them to consider what other types of products might use the coiled wire they manufacture to diversify their consumer base. So, in case the pen spring market crashes, the organisation would have had other markets to turn to for business. 

Which marketing concept may lead to marketing myopia?

The primary motive of every organisation to get into business is to generate revenue and considerable profit by selling the items to consumers. Even though most of the organisations claim to be consumer-centric, only a handful of them actually deliver goods that are preferred by the market.

Organisations want consumers who will remain loyal to their products no matter what. But what is the business doing to cater to the needs of the consumers? Is it offering the commodities that are demanded by the market? Is it making any effort to maintain a healthy relationship with the consumers?

This kind of marketing strategy focuses on the needs of the organisation first. However, it should really pay attention to delivering what the market demands. This, in turns, creates a culture that is hard to alter and leads to irreversible losses.

• Organisations start thinking that their development won't be hampered owing to the ever-growing population. They think that the growing number of consumers would contribute to more profits, thereby failing to come up with pertinent ways to sustain growth.
• Lack of competition is another concrete reason for marketing myopia. If organisations exercise a monopoly in a specific area and they think they are irreplaceable, then they are doomed.
• Businesses emphasise more on selling rather than marketing. Selling is when a producer wishes to sell his product to receive cash in return. Marketing is satisfying the demands of their consumers through different products and services related to it, such as delivery, creation, etc. 

The difference between customer-centric and sale centric approach

The sale-centric/product-focused business approach

A sales-centric organisation primarily emphasises on two objectives- increasing market share and meeting sales numbers. These two objectives take precedence over any other factors and allow permission to do whatever it takes to achieve the objectives. Sales-centric companies often celebrate their sales heroes.

These employees are often identified as “rainmakers.” In fact, they are attributed to this supernatural talent because they make the impossible possible. Now, in the process of achieving the impossible, “the rainmakers” are selling to consumers against their will or without their knowledge.

Sales-centric businesses put all their efforts on the sales process and present salespeople with implicit and explicit permission to do "whatever it takes” to close a sale. This attitude is what enables salespeople to consider consumers as wallets or ATM machines and results in behaviours that ultimately hinder the progress of the company in the long run. The examples are as follows.

• Depicting the services or products in a brighter light and exaggerating the capabilities and functions
• Withholding the necessary internal knowledge, like performance tracking records and product quality concerns
• Dishonesty with pricing that creates an unfair treatment of customers
• Adopting a bait-and-switch mechanism which replaces the promised product with a less desirable alternative 

Customer-centric business approach

A customer-centric approach isn't just about providing great customer service. It means presenting a great experience from the awareness through the buying process and ultimately through the post-purchase process. It's a strategy that depends on putting your customer first, and at the core of your business.

The four best ideas on customer-centricity that businesses should implement are as follows.

• Businesses that are dedicated to the consumer are passionate, and truly understand that the consumer always comes first. They know that without the consumer, they cannot prosper (which is true) and want to see the world through the consumer’s eyes. Marketers inside consumer-centric companies know what consumers want, and use the data to capture consumer insights and share this across the organisation.
• Companies that are devoted to this kind of approach focus on what the customer needs and create products and services around that.
• Consumer-centric method focuses on maintaining relationships designed to enhance the consumer’s product and service experience.
• Brands that are dedicated to this particular approach plan and execute a carefully developed customer strategy that focuses on driving and retaining a profitable and loyal customer. 

The comparison between the two approaches

• A product-centric company will place all of its focus on an item and try to sell that individual item to as many people as possible. A customer-centric business will emphasise on the consumers and try to sell the services to the consumers.
• Although the two concepts sound alike, they are quite different, and both produce different results. 

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