Lot of products fail to strike the right chord with consumer mind space. Not that the products are not good, but the failure rests fairly and squarely with the marketing spearheads. However, among all the common reasons for a failed service or product marketing strategy, one of the recurring reason is ‘The Product was not ready for the Market’ or vice versa. This is a regular excuse for hitting the ground before landing.

Marketing Myopia is the shortsightedness on the part of the Marketer to access the needs, expectations, trends, perception and vision of the market towards the product or category (or industry). It derives its name from the disease called Myopia where the patient suffers from an inability to see distant things clearly. The rays of light entering the eyes form the image in front of the retina, thereby causing a blurred vision.

To guard against falling prey to Marketing Myopia, you MUST administer following 4 precautions:

1. Think 2 steps ahead: Plan what would be required to capture consumer’s attention to your marketing message… Today… 2 years down the line and 4 years down the line.
2. Follow West (or East): There is a heuristic (thumb rule) tendency amongst consumers to follow the trends (that are immensely popular) in different parts of the world. SO, if you are trying to market your offering in East, keep a close watch on what’s trending in West and vice-versa
3. Engage… Engrave… Expand: Whilst you follow the Engage… Engrave… Expand strategy; do not undermine the importance of feedback mechanism and resurrections in your marketing plans.
4. Look for the nonobvious: Today’s symptom is tomorrow’s disease. Do regular pulse checks on your customer’s or target groups. Pick up the non-obvious aspects of discomfort. These are the things, if not addressed, would drive your target groups away from you in the very near future.

Marketing Myopia can be cured. The unfortunate part is, there is a lot of investment that your company would undertake to win back the ‘attention space’ your product lost whilst you were suffering from Myopia. Can you justify this investment? Prevention is the best form of cure. So, keep all your senses open and live the world your consumers ‘Live’ and you’d never fall myopia-tic.