The New Marketing Myopia

Social Innovation Centre

The New Marketing Myopia

_______________

N. Craig SMITH

Minette E. DRUMWRIGHT

Mary C. GENTILE

2009/08/ISIC

The New Marketing Myopia

by

N. Craig Smith*

Minette E. Drumwright **

and

Mary C. Gentile ***

forthcoming in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing

*

C haired Professor of Ethics and Social Responsibility at I NSEAD, Boulevard de Constance,

7 7305 Fontainebleau Cedex, France, Tel: 33 (0)1 60 72 41 45, Fax: 33 (0)1 60 74 55 00 ,

e-mail: C raig.Smith@insead.edu

**

Associate Professor of Advertising & Public Relations at the University of Texas at A ustin,

1 University Station, Austin, TX 78712; e-mail: mdrum@mail.utexas.edu

* **

PhD, independent business education consultant and Director of the Giving Voice to Values

curriculum (www.aspenCBE.org); based in Arlington, MA, email: Mcgentile@aol.com

A working paper in the INSEAD Working P aper Series is intended as a means whereby a faculty

r esearcher's thoughts and findings may be communicated to interested readers. The paper should be

considered preliminary in nature and may require revision.

Printed at INSEA D, Fontainebleau, France. Kin dly do not reproduce or circulate without permission.

2

THE NEW MARKETING MYOPIA

Abstract

During the past half century, marketers generally have heeded Levitt’s (1960)

advice to avoid “marketing myopia” by focusing on customers. We argue that they

learned this lesson too well, resulting today in a new form of marketing myopia,

which also causes distortions in strategic vision and can lead to business failure. The

New Marketing Myopia stems from three related phenomena: 1) a single-minded

focus on the customer to the exclusion of other stakeholders; 2) an overly narrow

definition of the customer and his/her needs; and 3) a failure to recognize the changed

societal context of business that necessitates addressing multiple stakeholders. We

illustrate these phenomena and then offer a...