Marketing Myopia

I promised no business-y stuff on this site, but rules are meant to be broken (again).

Like Crossing the Chasm, this book has heavily influenced my work. I don’t remember when I first read it, but I’ve known Levitt’s Marketing Myopia for a long time. If you’ve studied marketing at all you’ve probably been introduced to his ideas at some point.

Theodore Levitt asks a simple question: What business is your company really in?

Asked in a different way, a la Clayton Christensen’s Jobs To Be Done theory, What job are customers hiring your product to do?

Or in my own work, What are your customers really buying?

No matter how you ask the question the value of knowing the answer is the same: Risk becoming obsolete if you don’t understand why your customers are buying from you.

First published May 25, 2021

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