The Marketing Concept and Its Relationship to Marketing Myopia (Essay Sample)

The Marketing Concept and Its Relationship to Marketing Myopia Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Name Professor’s Name Date The Marketing Concept and Its Relationship to Marketing Myopia The contemporary marketplace is full of products and services which consumers can choose from. Such realities have forced companies to invest considerable resources into marketing to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals (Nikolov, 2018). Competition for market share is fierce, with firms going all out to produce superior products. Marketing can be defined as the unification of business activities to make the organization's products known to the target market (Nikolov, 2018). At the core of marketing is the need to satisfy customer needs and wants. Therefore, companies must conduct thorough market research to understand the needs and aspirations of the target market. Business entities were concerned with achieving production efficiencies to increase profitability during the 1940s. However, at the onset of the 1950s, scholars argued that the core of marketing activities should be customer needs and preferences (Kortam & Mahrous, 2020). Such realization led to the development of the marketing concept, whose fundamental principle is the need for businesses to identify consumer needs and offer superior products that satisfy customer tastes and demands. The marketing concept is built on the principle that marketers should conduct market research to evaluate consumers' current and future interests to develop products responsive to the identified needs (Kortam & Mahrous, 2020). The implication is that any successful marketing process is underpinned by the marketing concept that emphasizes customer needs and wants. Business management and marketing operations have shifted from production to the marketing concept in the 21st century. Experts argue that businesses should focus on marketing problems rather than production issues to produce commodities that appeal to the consumer in the marketplace (Patel et al., 2021). Companies that apply the marketing concept conduct thorough market research to ascertain the prevailing customer needs and wants before committing substantial resources to produce superior products to the competition. The marketing concept encourages businesses to focus on satisfying customer needs rather than increasing sales volumes (Patel et al., 2021). Companies that produce customer-oriented products and services are better equipped to cope with the dynamic business environment and gain a competitive advantage. Such businesses are constantly innovating products that satisfy the unconscious needs of customers in the marketplace. The marketing myopia is closed linked to the marketing concept. Marketing myopia arises when business entities adopt a narrow view of their operations and concentrate on achieving production efficiencies at the expense of customer satisfaction (Nikolov, 2018). On the contrary, the marketing concept enables firms to focus on adapting to consumer needs and wants. In marketing myopia, marketers are oblivious to changes in the marketplace since they are preoccupied with the current situation that seems profitable (Patel et al., 2021). Therefore, in marketing myopia, instead of focusing on producing products with a satisfaction value, businesses focus on themselves. Several businesses failed due to their preoccupation with marketing myopia. For instance, when consumers shifted to digital cameras, Kodak lost its market leadership position to Sony Inc. The top management at Kodak failed to seize the opportunity that digital photography cameras offered and wholly...