Marketing Myopia Revisited | online media

According to The next weba Financial Times company, global internet users have grown to 4.95 billion at the start of 2022, with internet penetration now at 62.5% of the total global population.

Internet users have grown by 192 million (+4%) over the past year, but current restrictions on research and communication due to the Covid-19 pandemic mean that actual growth trends could be significantly higher. higher than these figures suggest.

A brief history of digital marketing

The term “digital marketing” was first used in the 1990s with the advent of the Internet and Web 1.0 (the first stage of the World Wide Web revolution, commonly referred to as the read-only web). Internet users could easily find information, but there was no possibility of sharing it with others. In 1994, the first search engine, Yahoo!, was born, and the same year the first clickable web banner ad went live, marking the beginning of the transition to the digital age of marketing.

The next big step in digital marketing took shape at the turn of the century with the popularization of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and many others, which allowed not only to exchange information, but also to connect with people. other people. Businesses quickly caught on to the craze and understood the power of building a brand in spaces that millions of people turn to every day.

Fast forward to 2022, and there are a few thousand websites and services to help you keep up with emerging tools and trends. Today’s consumers are tech-savvy and want their products and services delivered instantly and wherever they want. Marketers must keep up with technological and economic changes in the market to retain their customers.

Step into marketing myopia

The term “marketing myopia” was first coined by Theodor Levitt in a Harvard Business Review article in 1960. It is a short-sighted, introverted approach to marketing that focuses on meeting needs immediate business rather than marketing from a consumer perspective.

Marketing myopia is the lack of marketing foresight. Many businesses can easily fall into this trap if they neglect the needs of their consumers.

Marketing myopia occurs when businesses have a narrow marketing approach, placing more emphasis on short-term marketing tactics than long-term goals. Some causes of marketing myopia include:

• The focus is more on achieving goals rather than building relationships with customers, focusing on what they actually want
• Predicting business growth without doing proper research through netnography (interpreting audiences’free behavior‘ in line)
• Brands don’t monitor their competitors because they believe they are the best (and only) product or service available
• Mass production of products and goods without knowing or understanding the real consumer demand
• Focus on the past and not change with the dynamic consumer environment by responding appropriately to changes that may represent both potential opportunities and new threats

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Hear the University of Johannesburg’s Marketing Department unpack the rise of marketing myopia with Carmen Murray here and gain insight into something far greater than we could ever imagine.

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Businesses need to work with digital experts

During the CovidD-19 pandemic, Carmen Murray Communications monitored online data and analytics. They have witnessed a massive digital migration and a rapid inclination of short courses on digital and social media. The result has been pop-up digital specialists and generalists alike proclaiming themselves experts at a time when businesses need digital marketing authorities more than ever. These digital generalists are causing irreversible damage to the industry by adding to digital marketing pollution and marketing myopia.

One of the challenges that all businesses face is the impact of the mental health crisis on their users. People have developed screen fatigue and doomscrolling (spending an excessive amount of screen time devoted to reading negative news) dominated during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has further allowed people to spend less time online and take social media sabbaticals.

Additionally, South Africa has one of the highest AdBlock rates and lowest digital adoption rates in the world. Bad content strategies put businesses at risk, making it harder and more costly for businesses to achieve their goals, achieve better results and higher ROI. Working with digital experts will help drive innovation and the transition to more sustainable marketing and business strategies and avoid contracting marketing myopia.

No long term vision

It is becoming difficult to plan digital marketing strategies in advance in a rapidly changing digital world. If you don’t have a clear vision and a global business strategy and you don’t do everything around your customer: their needs, their desires, their expectations, their frustrations, their problems, you will quickly lose out to your competitors.

Trying something new can be daunting, especially when it comes to business. But “fortune smiles on the bold,” so be brave and invest in digital experts who can deliver change and innovation that makes sense for your brand in this ever-changing world.

Carmen Murray is a leading digital analyst, content strategist, CEO and founder of Carmen Murray Communications.

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