Week 1: Marketing Myopia

Today I took another look at the "Marketing Myopia" article by Theodore Levitt. I'm surprised by how, over 50 years later, the main points of the article still hold true. As Levitt suggests, every industry has experienced a period where they were a "growth industry"--and therefore, the phrase holds little power. An industry that was once growing could easily suffer, wither and die.

Levitt suggests that to combat that, companies should consider themselves part of a larger industry that focuses on what the product does, rather than what it is (purchasing benefits versus specific, tangible products). He gives the example of Hollywood (movies versus the entertainment industry) and the railroad industry (railroads versus transportation). He refutes the argument that success of a product is solely based on need, niches, and demands of the moment. With a focus on the customer's wants and needs, a company can continue to grow (even if the product might change).

Reading the article, I couldn't help but consider my own company and the industry that we consider ourselves a part of. We're a self-publishing company, which means that our primary goal is to create books for authors and bring those books to the market. Our product, then, is books. Technically speaking, we're in the book publishing industry. However, I think our company has been successful in that our CEO (the driving force behind a customer-centric approach, according to Levitt) considers us as part of the broader publishing industry. We could easily focus solely on producing books, but our growth has not ended there.

First, we produced paperback and hardcover copies of books. Then, we branched into publishing e-books. Considering the requests and demographics of our authors, we launched foreign language imprints. We partenered with traditional publishers, created an audio book imprint, and developed interactive e-books. We recently launched a free, online e-book imprint that will distribute e-books and provide authors with almost all of their royalties. Branching out even further, we launched interactive videos, TV commercials, the option for authors to pitch their books to film-makers, book events, and even a family history imprint that records family memories in film and words. As the company grows, nothing related to publishing is off limits--books, films, music, etc.

With an ear to the industry and our customers (authors) our company can continue to be a driving force and sustain itself, according to Levitt. Other industry players are slow to change, slow to realize that the industry is evolving and that simply being a "book publisher" will not equal success.