The definition of Marketing Myopia
What is Myopia?
Myopia means not being able to see something clearly from a distance. In addition, some Myopia documents also refer to seeing things and issues in a too subjective, will-only way, regardless of other objective angles and aspects of the matter or issue.
What is Marketing Myopia?
Marketing Myopia is the collective term for cases of marketing mistakes, when businesses only focus on selling activities (products & services) they have but forget to focus on benefits and experiences. that the product or service provides.
Marketing Myopia
The harm of Marketing Myopia
How does Marketing Myopia affect businesses?
Marketing Myopia can hurt a business. The extent of the damage depends on the case. There are cases where Marketing Myopia only slightly affects the consumer experience, reducing a part of revenue, but there are other cases where businesses lose a large amount of market share and even go bankrupt.
How to avoid getting into Marketing Myopia in business?
The essence of Marketing Myopia lies in its concept, "only focusing on products or services" that overlooks the benefits and user experience. Therefore, to avoid making this mistake, marketers or businesses need to keep the customer and consumer experience first. Businesses should regularly conduct research and surveys to understand whether their products & services are meeting their needs well. In case the product or service is outdated, no longer suitable for the needs of the consumer, it should be considered for improvement, upgrade or replacement.
Examples of Marketing Myopia
Example 1: Kodak lost market share to Fuji.
One of the best examples of Marketing Myopia is Kodak, a maker of photographic film. There was a time when Kodak dominated the camera film market. However, not long after that, the digital camera appeared. It is worth mentioning that instead of accepting and getting used to new technology to make new products more suitable, Kodak chooses to criticize and eliminate it. As a result, after a short time, Kodak lost its market share to Fuji.
Film for cameras produced by Kodak
Example 2: Blockbuster declares bankruptcy
Another example is Blockbuster, a digital content rental company (videos, games...) that is extremely popular in the United States for a long time. Around the time of the arrival of direct-to-view digital content platforms like Netflix, Blockbuster chose to ignore it. And by the time Blockbuster realized the problem, it was too late. Blockbuster declared bankruptcy in 2010.
Example 3: Nokia lost market share to Apple and other Smartphone manufacturers
Nokia must have been a part of many people's childhood. Those who are believers in technology must know well about the golden age of this brand from this Finnish country. Around 2007, when Nokia was still at the throne of the mobile phone market when it had 60-70% market share in hand. And this is also the mark of the downfall of the king. There are many reasons leading to Nokia's failure, such as disagreement in the leadership, bureaucracy, corruption in the management apparatus, but the most fatal is Nokia's short-sightedness in the way of thinking. market. 2007 was also the year that Apple released the first generation iPhone, also the first generation of smart phones in the world. Compared with all the phone models currently on the market, Iphone is completely different: there are no physical buttons (except for the home, power and volume up and down keys), operations will be through the touch screen. . While Apple predicted the coming smartphone-smartphone era, Nokia viewed the launch with disdain and exclusion. And whatever has come has come, Nokia has seen its market share decrease year by year. Finally, Nokia had to sell its mobile device business to Microsoft in 2014.
Example 4: Yahoo's failure
Referring to the Internet in the years 2000 - 2007, the first name that users remember is definitely Yahoo. This is the company that once dominated the Internet at that time with Yahoo search (search engine), Yahoo mail (email) and Yahoo Messenger (chat, chat) among other products. However, at the present time, this name does not seem to be mentioned anymore. So what happened? For an empire to fall, there are certainly many reasons. And like the examples above, the fatal cause is still short-sightedness in the marketing strategy vision. Yahoo once refused the invitation to buy Google twice (in 1997 for 1 million USD, in 2002 for 3 billion USD), because at that time, Yahoo management did not see the potential of the industry. online search industry, while even Google's search engine provided a much better experience than Yahoo at that time. In 2006, it was Yahoo's management that refused to buy Facebook because it did not see the potential of the social network, while Yahoo's own social network was also much inferior to Facebook. With a mentality of arrogance and condescension, Yahoo's leadership increasingly brought the business down when its market share increasingly fell into the hands of the brands it refused to buy (Google, Facebook) and other brands. other brands like Skype, Viber...