Dimensions of Marketing Myopia

Marketing Myopia
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Introduction
           Business owners fall into the trap of focusing too much on the competitors or the products they sell than the needs of the customers. As a result, they lose sight of how to adjusting to the rapid changes in their market. This phenomenon was first described by Theodore Levitt in a Harvard Business Review back in 1960 and called it marketing myopia (Smith, Drumwright, & Gentile, 2010). Levitt's fundamental idea is making sure that business organizations should always explore the bigger picture rather than being shortsighted on specific business aspects (Ng, 2016). However, although new business focused on the needs of the costumers, it led to new marketing myopia that also caused shortsightedness of business operations; thus, making it important to learn the dimensions of marketing myopia (Richard et al., 1993). Although preventing marketing myopia helps in addressing and adapting to the market changes, the dimensions of myopia, the new marketing myopia, and the ways on how to prevent it should be discussed to avert its onset in the modern business environment.
Dimensions of Marketing Myopia
           Marketing myopia can be classified into two dimensions, (1) the management's definition and (2) the business environment perspective (Richard et al., 1993). In the management's definition, the business organizations mistakenly limit the mission and vision of the company, which narrows down their business and products. For instance, in the case of the Burger Chef Restaurant, the manager described their business as a fast-food hamburger restaurant (Richard, Womack, & Allaway, 1993). However, their description falls under the category of marketing myopia since they did not perceive their business from a broader multi-industry perspective. When other fast-food chains introduced other options in their menu, such as chicken sandwiches and fish products, which targeted other customers' preferences. Burger chef lost market shares to other competitors that led to their loss of business (Richard et al., 1993). Levitt, suggests that businesses should answer the question “What business are you in?” in a broader definition than a specific one to prevent marketing myopia (Ng, 2016). In the case of Burger Chef, instead of describing their business as a burger restaurant, they should have stated that their business operates in the food industry; thus, giving more ways to adapt in a fast-changing market by looking at the bigger picture. The situation of Burger Chef falls into this dimension when the management defined their business as just a burger restaurant. 
           In the business environment dimension, although broadening the business definitions is the first step of preventing marketing myopia, orienting the company's definition into a single industry can also lead to marketing myopia (Richard et al., 1993). For example, if Burger C...