Marketing is one of the oldest forms of advertising and salesmanship. Its purpose is to acquire new clients, drive sales, and facilitate customer loyalty. In fact, marketing encompasses a wide range of activities including research, development of products and services, packaging and distribution, and payment. Marketing is not a one-time activity; it continues over the course of time. Marketing is one of the most important tools used by businesses to enhance their profitability and position in the marketplace. Marketing, unlike advertising, can be a long-term process and must be part of the company’s long-term plan.

Marketing is generally defined as a way of discovering, anticipating, and satisfying customer needs. Marketing is a process that involves communication and the presentation of products and services to make customers understand the advantages of buying them. Marketing involves the study of consumer behavior, and the utilization of information to satisfy customer needs. The marketing concept framework focuses on the need to satisfy customer needs and the importance of establishing and maintaining relationships with customers. The concept of coordinated marketing practices (a set of strategies and techniques that allow organizations to identify, anticipate, and satisfy customer needs) is central to all marketing activities.

Marketing myopia is the term used to describe the limited view that most marketers have of the market and what their customers need. This narrow outlook prevents marketers from truly understanding and answering the questions that need to be answered to effectively serve their customers. Marketers tend to focus almost exclusively on the marketing aspects of a product concept, ignoring the important consumer component. As a result, marketers may create a great product concept, but do little to promote it beyond the marketing arena. This marketing myopia prevents marketers from realizing the significant impact that marketing techniques can have on the success of a product concept.

Developing a marketing concept that effectively incorporates elements of both selling and marketing myopia requires that marketers take a two-pronged approach. They must address their customer needs through selling techniques, but they also need to create an environment that allows them to develop, support, and sell their concept to consumers. This two pronged approach is necessary for the success of any marketing concept. If one-pointedness is adopted, the concept will fail to achieve its marketing goals.

Two approaches that address the need for multiple points of view in marketing management are sociological marketing management and social marketing management. Social marketing management refers to creating marketing concepts that help individuals within a society to meet their marketing goals. Social marketing theories suggest that marketers should consider the perspective of society as a whole, as well as the perspectives of individual buyers, when developing marketing concepts. By taking into consideration the societal views of the impact of a marketing concept on society as a whole, and individual buyer perspectives, marketers can effectively promote their products to a larger audience.

The second key strategy to avoid marketing myopia is to foster a strong selling mindset within organizations. This selling mindset refers to the mental attitude that motivates a firm to engage in marketing activities. It is this selling mindset that is necessary for a firm to consistently obtain their marketing goals. If a firm lacks a strong selling mentality, then they may lack the motivation to develop effective selling strategies. A firm that does not place selling ahead of other marketing elements will not be successful.