ABSTRACT

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.

chapter |5 pages

Ways in to the Text

part 1|19 pages

Influences

chapter 1|4 pages

The Author and the Historical Context

chapter 2|5 pages

Academic Context

chapter 3|5 pages

The Problem

chapter 4|4 pages

The Author’s Contribution

part 2|21 pages

Ideas

chapter 5|5 pages

Main Ideas

chapter 6|5 pages

Secondary Ideas

chapter 7|5 pages

Achievement

chapter 8|5 pages

Place in the Author’s Work

part 3|18 pages

Impact

chapter 9|4 pages

The First Responses

chapter 10|4 pages

The Evolving Debate

chapter 11|5 pages

Impact and Influence Today

chapter 12|4 pages

Where Next?