MARKETING MYOPIA by THEODORE LEVITT, 1960 Author & Article Background 7

1Summarizing state of affairs  General economic situation is worsening  Impact are dramatic on the forest sector  Production centres have shifted- and continue to shift away- from Canada  Until the recent surge, forest sector job loss was approximately 150,000 (mostly in rural communities) 2What to do?  Domestic policy reforms  Economic protection  Industry renewal – the focus of this class 3Where we left last time… Developing new ways to think… CRITICALLY! Going outside our comfort zones! 4Industry renewal Two major pathways to industry renewal  Do it more efficiently than the competition (Management-centric)  View it differently than the competition (Leadership -centric) 5The road to renewal  Human resources- developing a culture of transformation  Marketing- developing more sophisticated ways to identify, attract and retain customers/clients  Sales and distribution- delivering goods/services efficiently to customers  Global dexterity- know this world better  Entrepreneurship- develop a small scale business base HERE!  Sustainability- preserve communities and our planet, Planet A!  Strategic management- Re-imagining your business 6Re-imagining your business MARKETING MYOPIA BY THEODORE LEVITT, 1960 7Author & Article Background  With more than 850,000 copies sold, Marketing Myopia is, by far, the best selling HBR reprint of all time. More than 1,000 companies ordered 35,000 reprints in the weeks after publication  Marketing Myopia revolutionized the thought processes of business managers who were too narrowly focused on the products they sold rather than on meeting the needs of customers 8Marketing Myopia  Myopia (my·o·pi·a): Short-sighted. Lacking foresight or intellectual insight  Marketing Myopia: a short-sighted and inward looking approach to marketing that focuses on the needs of the company instead of defining the company and its products in terms of the customers' needs and wants. It results in the failure to see and adjust to the rapid changes in their markets 9Why industries decline?  Companies and industries go into decline because executives do not define their industries properly.  Railroads declined because they were railroad oriented rather than transportation oriented; they allowed other industries (i.e. cars, trucks, airplanes, and even telephones) to fill their customers’ transportation and freight needs  Hollywood was nearly replaced by television because it defined itself as a movie business rather than as an entertainment business. Hollywood rejected television when it should have considered TV an opportunity to expand the entertainment business. 10 Shadow of Obsolescence  As industries experience growth, they appear to assume superiority of their products – effective substitutes simply don’t exist. Yet, their products are often substitutes for the products they replaced.  Dry cleaning: as synthetic fibers and chemical additives began to appear, customers’ need for dry cleaning decreased  Electric utilities: chemical fuel cells and solar energy are threats to electric utilities  Grocery stores: corner stores failed to understand customer needs and were largely replaced by supermarkets. 11 Self-Deceiving Cycle “there is no such thing as a growth industry… There are only companies organized and operated to create and capitalize on growth opportunities. When companies assume automatic growth, they descend into stagnation through a self-deceiving cycle of expansion and decay. Growth is assured No Preoccupation with a product competitive substitute Too much faith in mass production 12 Population Myth  The population myth is the false belief that profits are essentially guaranteed due to an increasing population of customers purchasing your product or service.  Growing population = growing industry ??  An expanding population and/or market allows companies from having to think creatively. More specifically, if a company’s market is expanding, the company will likely not put much thought into how to expand their market. And that’s the recipe for future disaster. Levitt’s predictions and the Petroleum 13 industry  The industry’s chief product (petroleum) has always been defined narrowly (i.e. as gasoline rather than as energy, fuel, or transportation)  Major improvements originate outside the oil industry  Major innovations originate in small, new oil companies  The industry remained convinced that there are no effective substitutes  As the industry has been blinded by its narrow focus on a specific product and the value of its reserves and has paid little or no attention to its customers’ needs or preferences, Levitt warned the petroleum industry would have a very uncertain future. Product orientation vs. customer orientation 14  Gaining efficiency through mass production-- produce as much as possible. Consequently, efforts are focused on production while true needs of markets are neglected •Focus: Product attributes •Objective: convert product to cash •Push strategy /selling Product •Focus: Real needs of customers •Objective: satisfy customer needs •Pull strategy / marketing Customer 15 Product Provincialism Profit potential from low unit production costs often undermine concern for real needs of consumers. This approach often leads to industry decline; products fail to adapt to customers’ changing needs and preferences. 16 Re-defining what business forest products companies are in! (Going beyond the material mentality) -Structural lumber segment -Cabinets and furniture segment -Paper segment 17 What did we learn so far?  Declining industry  Multiple ways to sustain (policy support, organizational transformation)  Industry renewal is what we are focusing on  It requires changes in management approaches and leadership/vision  How a change in the vision would look like 18 The Beginning and End  The belief that an industry is a customer satisfying process, rather than a goods producing process, is vital for all managers to understand. An industry must begin with the customer and the customer’s needs – not with a patent, raw material, or selling skill.  Once the customers’ needs have been considered, the industry must develop backwards: physical delivery of customer satisfaction, creating products or services by which these satisfactions are met, and, only then, finding raw materials to meet these needs. 19 Key take-away points  Companies who experience growth also experience obsolescence, only effective strategies can save them.  To ensure continued growth, companies must concentrate on meeting customers’ needs rather than on selling products.  Industries must define themselves as customer oriented than product oriented.  Companies focus far too much on production and research and development when they ought to focus on understanding true needs of their customers.  Without a strong leader and a collective view, a company will merely be a disconnected parts, with no sense of purpose or direction.

MARKETING MYOPIA by THEODORE LEVITT, 1960 Author & Article Background 7

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