Sports Marketing

Sports Marketing

“Marketing Myopia” – Read this article from Harvard Business Review by Theodore Leavitt (1960). This is a famous and well reviewed article about how businesses have lacked vision and are shortsighted(myopic). And thus considering marketing as just a tool to sell products. Companies back in the 1950’s-60’s and even today oftentimes dont think about the consumers’ view (satisfying wants/needs). An example: A hiking boot company simply sees themselves as selling boots! VS. thinking of their product as concerned with outdoor exploration, fun and adventure. That is the major difference.

Examples in the article are valuable and helpful toward understanding what Marketing Myopia is and how to break that thought process. Kodak was known for making high quality photographic film. They were an iconic company in America and around the world. But they totally missed the digital revolution due to the fact that they viewed themselves as being in the film sales business, not the story telling business(memories, emotions, family history etc).

The assignment is to broadly use the concepts in this article to align Leavitt’s premise with the sports business. First, In your opinion can a case be made that MM can be related to sports marketing and why? Provide examples how you think sports has already been myopic or could fall into the trap of MM. You can make assumptions regarding team sports, leagues or sports equipment manufacturers, but back these with carefully thought out rationale. Your job here is to describe how this is relevant to us and Sport Marketing.

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The article by Leavitt is long and detailed,but the key premise will be apparent. Obviously the key is to relate to Sport Mktg. The assignment needs to be thought out, so plan your key points carefully.

Two-three pages(max) in length. Name on each page, pages numbered and proper margins(1 inch all sides), double spaced, 12 point font. DUE – Sept 14 at 8 am

This is the article link:

http://academy.clevelandclinic.org/Portals/40/LHC%20Myopia.pdf