BUS 201 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Marketing Myopia, Theodore Levitt, Dry Cleaning

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Business Administration
• Course: BUS 201
• Professor: Zorana Svedic

Document Summary

Marketing myopia occurs when company leaders define their mission too narrowly. It is a form of business nearsightedness or shortsightedness. Railroads business failed because they defined their industry wrong, they were railroad- oriented instead of transportation oriented, product oriented instead of customer oriented. Industries endanger their future by improperly defining their purpose. What is lacking is the will of companies to survive and satisfy the public by inventiveness and skill. Some products appear to have no effective substitute . Some products are runaway substitutes for the product it triumphantly replaced. Dry cleaning was popular with wool clothing, but it declined when synthetic fibers and chemical additives cut the need for drying. Electric utilities: electric motors replaced steam engines, incandescent lamp replace kerosene lights. Grocery stores: replaced by large supermarkets, they believed supermarkets strived because of novelty. Boston millionaire sentenced his heir to poverty when he invested all his money in electric streetcars.