Free Essay. Marketing Concept and Marketing Myopia

Managerial literature has been praising the huge role marketing and unavoidable marketing concept plays today. Although the idea of a marketing concept is appreciated and understood, the question still remains whether it is necessary to sell. The orientation of customers is significant in understanding the behavior of the consumers as well as the impact a business has on the social environments. However, many marketers fail to look at these determinants. Instead, they focus on making sales. Successful marketing sale entails more than selling of products. It is more fulfilling customers' needs among other things. In this paper, is a definition of the marketing concept and its relationship with marketing myopia.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The marketing concept is the strategy which most firms use to discover and meet customer needs, make sales, profits and also rise above their competitors. By considering the customer needs, the organizations struggle to satisfy them in a better way compared to their competitors. The marketing concept is closely tangled by the other four concepts like selling, societal marketing, product, and production. Marketing myopia is a situation experienced by a company when it views marketing from the selling point of view rather than from the point of fulfilling the needs of the customers. An excellent example of a company that has experienced marketing myopia is Nokia. When mobile technology hit the market back in the 2000s Nokia had the largest shares of its products in the market. However, upon the introduction of smartphones, Nokia did not consider moving along with customer needs, instead, it maintained its flap phones hence losing its market to other companies like Apple and Samsung. Since 2017, Nokia has introduced smartphones and is trying to catch up with the market. According to Smith, Drumwright, and Gentile, (2010), there is new marketing myopia in the industry. This myopia happens when marketers do not see the wide societal idea of decision making in business which at times results in disastrous results for the society and organizations. This kind of marketing myopia stems from three main situations; failure to acknowledge societal changes and necessities that touches various stakeholders, single-mindedly focusing on the customers without considering stakeholders, and narrowly defining the customers and their needs. When myopia occurs, the marketing concept cannot yield the expected fruits. Instead, myopia has its implications and consequences to the business.

Marketers or organizations that experience myopia often tend to view customers only as a consumer of the goods and services. They fail to view customers as parents, member of the community, employee, or a citizen with a long-term position in the future. The only way a marketer or a firm could stay away from marketing myopia is by having an understanding that product consumption entails multiple stakeholders who raise a concern about a firm's environmental and social impacts and also realize that consumers stand in the shoes of stakeholders. The new marketing myopia effect views the consumer stakeholders as managing adversaries like scientists, politicians, local communities, and activists (Smith, Drumwright, and Gentile, 2010). Working closely with these stakeholders especially in marketing benefits the marketers with finding momentum for innovation as well as developing foresight for the state of the future market. Subramanian (2017) states that marketers who have succeeded in avoiding myopia do not just throw designs into production. Instead, they consult consumers who include everybody in society. This strategy ensures that the products made covers all the consuming stakeholders'' needs and that they will sell when exposed to the market.

New marketing definitions are emerging that contain the role of stakeholders in the management of marketing. Anyone who has an impact or who the business have an impact on matters and adds value to its creation. The definitions, however, have a common line that marketing management must include the role of various stakeholders in the creation of value. Smith, Drumwright, and Gentile, 2010) proposes different marketing practices to avoid myopia. These practices are intended to incorporate stakeholders in creating value for society and the firm. The study, however, does not disregard the customers, indeed, they are the central concept in marketing but it suggests to look beyond the consumers. The following are the four suggestions to the firms to avoid marketing myopia.

The first suggestion is mapping the firm's stakeholders (Smith, Drumwright, and Gentile, 2010). An organization could have departments which deal with firm's stakeholders like human resources and investor relations but there is the need for the company to include the recognition of other primary stakeholders such as employees, customers, community, shareholders and suppliers and secondary stakeholders like competitors, NGOs, government, media, and consumer advocacy groups. With the collaboration of these stakeholders, the firm is likely to create better value. The second proposition is the determination of the order of importance of stakeholders. This entails evaluating the stakeholders with greater influence on their products and forming a relationship with the first. The thirst suggestion is researching the expectations and issues of stakeholders and measuring their impact on the business. The issues or rising needs and expectations of the stakeholders influence the value of the society as well as that of the firm. Finally, marketers should engage with stakeholders. Many firms consider the interests of stakeholders but do not engage them. Engaging entails communicating and sharing ideas with them.

In conclusion, marketing concept and marketing myopia have a close relationship that is based on focusing on customers' and stakeholders' needs. Marketing myopia involves ignoring the needs of the customers along with those of other stakeholders. To avoid myopia, the study suggests that marketers should involve both primary and secondary stakeholders in value creation. Other suggestions include engaging stakeholders, learning their issues and expectations and determining who counts most.

References

Smith, C. N., Drumwright, M. E., & Gentile, M. C. (2010). The New Marketing Myopia, 1-9.

Subramanian, K. R. (2017). SELLING SKILLS AND THE MYOPIC MARKETING OUTLOOK, 1-10. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314216920_SELLING_SKILLS_AND_THE_MYOPIC_MARKETING_OUTLOOK