An Analysis of Theodore Levitt's Marketing Myopia

Theodore Levitt’s 1960 article ?Marketing Myopia? is a business classic that earned its author the nickname ?the father of modern marketing?. It is also a beautiful demonstration of the problem solving skills that are crucial in so many areas of life ? in business and beyond. The problem facing Levitt was the same problem that has confronted business after business for hundreds of years: how best to deal with slowing growth and eventual decline. Levitt studied many business empires ? the railroads, for instance ? that at a certain point simply shrivelled up and shrank to almost nothing. How, he asked, could businesses avoid such failures? His approach and his solution comprise a concise demonstration of high-level problem solving at its best. Good problem solvers first identify what the problem is, then isolate the best methodology for solving it. And, as Levitt showed, a dose of creative thinking also helps. Levitt’s insight was that falling sales are all about marketing, and marketing is about knowing your real business. The railroads misunderstood their real market: they weren’t selling rail, they were selling transport. If they had understood that, they could have successfully taken advantage of new growth areas ? truck haulage, for instance ? rather than futilely scrabbling to sell rail to a saturated market.