Introduction
When developing marketing concepts to promote a product, a manufacturer can choose either a sales strategy focused on a specific product or a positioning focused on satisfying the customer’s values and needs. On a practical level, this means a company can tell consumers either about the features and benefits of a product or service, or about the customer’s values and needs that will be satisfied if the product or service is purchased. Responding to the question of whether Levitt (1960) called the first strategy a failure, categorizing it as marketing myopia. The author chose this name for a reason: myopia, in this case, means the inability to see the whole market picture undistorted, and thus the potential loss of part of the results, as patients with myopia do not see the world clearly. This paper proposes focusing on this concept and critically examining how to develop product marketing to enhance favorable financial outcomes for the company.
Review of Original Article
The study of marketing strategies and tactics that lead to increased favorable outcomes for the manufacturer is one of the cornerstones of thematic academic discourse. In this sense, the work of Levitt (1960) can be called a classic since the author conceptualized the problem of mis-marketing and introduced a term that unambiguously defines the fallacy of product positioning. First of all, it should be emphasized that marketing is a method companies use to attract consumers to their products or services. More broadly, marketing encompasses all the steps and methods a manufacturer can take to inform current and prospective customers about a product and to create the conditions that convince them to buy.
Levitt (1960) argues, based on numerous examples, that the historical system leads to marketing myopia, preventing companies from seeing the real needs of the market and thereby threatening their long-term success. In his study, the author urges readers (mainly CEOs and marketing professionals) to rethink product positioning strategies to focus on meeting needs rather than listing product features. For example, this means that in promoting a product, instead of saying something like “the vacuum cleaner is excellent at picking up dirt and wet cleaning,” the manufacturer could say, “the vacuum cleaner allows you to save considerable time by doing a combination of cleaning.” Levitt (1960) calls this approach more meaningful, adaptive, and customer-oriented in creating and delivering value to customers. Thus, according to the author’s fundamentally significant article, companies should focus on satisfying needs rather than describing their products to gain a greater competitive advantage and remain relevant in the industry.
Manufacturers
Based on Levitt’s conclusions, which were offered to the general public, the question of how producers should position themselves in relation to customers is rightly raised. Apart from the apparent production function, producers should be concerned with making their product or service available to customers and ensuring customers want to purchase it. As noted earlier, in the case of marketing blindness, the producer highlights the product’s characteristics and attributes that they believe may be attractive to the customer. This may include a description of shape, size, taste, or color: “our product is big, beautiful, and attractive.”
Levitt (1960) clearly articulates that this approach needs to be revised, as it does not increase the customer’s desire to buy the good or product and thus does not foster loyalty or increase sales. In this paradigm, manufacturers must become satisfiers of human values and needs by using product or service positioning that develops the understanding that the purchase will actually solve a specific customer problem. For example, this could include language such as “the product will allow you to sleep better” or “with this service, you will no longer have to wash dishes by hand and spend a lot of time on routine tasks.”
Analytics
An additional thought from reading the original article is that marketing should not focus solely on sales but on creating value for customers. Companies should see themselves as problem solvers and, therefore, as providers of specific solutions rather than just peddlers of products or services. At the same time, this means it is essential for companies to continuously analyze the market to understand changes in customer needs and wants.
Connecting data analytics is an essential yet complex step that can yield positive results for businesses (Yalcin et al., 2022). In this case, companies are continuously collecting and monitoring consumer data about customer habits, intentions, and values in a changing society. For example, decades ago, caring for the environment was not one of the central values of the modern consumer. However, together, this society was focused on consuming and satisfying their instant needs: eating, sleeping, thirst, sex, and entertainment.
However, as global societal morality has developed, caring for nature and the planet has become a more formalized consumer preference, and today this is evident in the marketing campaigns of many brands. It is enough to look at the technology market leaders, Google or Apple, to realize that the positioning of any new product is accompanied by ideas about how much the carbon footprint is reduced during production and purchase (Pan, 2024). In other words, customers are now more likely to invest in products that not only fulfill personal needs but also help solve global problems. Failure to continuously monitor the market creates a gap between supply and demand, leaving companies unable to analyze the values and needs that customers express. As a consequence, manufacturers cannot satisfy desires that are not obvious to them, which can decrease customer loyalty and, further, lead to a drop in sales.
Conclusion
In conclusion, choosing the optimal marketing strategy for product positioning largely determines a product or service’s market success and creates opportunities for quality loyalty growth. In the original article discussed in this paper, Levitt (1960) described the fallacy of choosing such a strategy as marketing myopia, that is, a condition in which a manufacturer incorrectly positions its product through the description of features and attributes, followed by a loss of the ability to understand and satisfy the values and needs of the audience. Combined with the biblical wisdom from Matthew 7:7, which states, “ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you,” this points to the need for search and persistence in manufacturers’ strategies (New International Version, 2020). Thus, the value of product marketing promotion lies in satisfying customers’ needs and wants.
References
Levitt, T. (1960). Marketing myopia. Harvard Business Review, 38, 45–56.
New International Version. (2020). Bible Gateway.
Pan, Y. (2024). Apple’s secret to being successful: Research on Apple’s commercial marketing strategy based on multi-marketing framework. Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, 27, 413-418.
Yalcin, A. S., Kilic, H. S., & Delen, D. (2022). The use of multi-criteria decision-making methods in business analytics: A comprehensive literature review. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 174, 1-35.