Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Most businesses want to grow and be successful, but what they often don’t realize is that success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes hard work, dedication, and a clear vision of what you want your business to become.
One of the biggest dangers that can prevent a business from achieving its goals is marketing myopia.

In this article, we will discuss what marketing myopia is, what causes it, how to avoid it, and some examples of businesses that have suffered from it.

It often leads to businesses making decisions that are not in the best interests of their customers or that fail to take into account changes in the marketplace.
Top Causes of Marketing Myopia
A Disconnect between The Business and Its Customers
The most common cause is a lack of understanding of what customers really want. This can happen when businesses focus too much on their own products and services and not enough on what customers are actually looking for.
Marketing myopia can also be caused by a lack of investment in marketing research. This can happen when businesses believe they already know everything they need to know about their customers and the marketplace.
An Unwillingness to Adapt
Another common cause is a failure to keep up with changes in the marketplace.
This can happen when businesses become too comfortable with their current products and services and fail to adapt to new trends or technologies.
A Focus on the Past, Instead of Future
Many businesses become myopic because they are too focused on the past.
They may be reluctant to change their products or services, even when it is clear that customer needs have changed.
How to Avoid Marketing Myopia
1. Prioritize customer needs.
A few years ago, my favorite color was red, I ate takeout on a regular basis, and the only plants I took care of were artificial ones. Today, I cook 90% of my meals, I’m a new (and successful) plant mom, and orange is more my vibe now.
As individuals, we know our wants and needs change as we grow. But it’s often difficult for brands to expect the same of their customers.
It would be easier if consumers stayed the same – you’d only have to do market research once, identify the strategies that worked and stick with them. Unfortunately, the truth is more complicated than that.
A couple of months can make a world of difference in consumer behavior.
Take 2020 for instance – when the pandemic started in March, brands were forced to pivot their marketing strategies, and in some cases, their entire business models
Those who failed to realize this shift was necessary and relied solely on prior success likely experienced great financial loss.
However, not every shift is this drastic. Some happen over time.
Take the topic of social responsibility. Ten years ago, this wasn’t a major concern for everyday consumers.
However, today, sustainability is a major selling point for consumers and impacts their purchasing decisions.
You can also look at the online landscape and how users are consuming content. Where blogging was 10 years ago podcasting is now.
This is all to say that keeping your finger on the pulse is key to avoiding a myopic business.
2. Foster innovation within your team.
Just because something has always been done a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the best way. That mentality is what leads to marketing myopia.
To break out of that, it’s important to create an environment in which your teams feel inspired to innovate.
What does this look like? It’s a combination of big and small actions like:

Inviting new ideas.
Experimenting with various strategies.
Allowing failure and risk-taking.
Hiring diverse perspectives.

By staying open-minded and flexible, you’ll be in a better position to avoid marketing myopia.
3. Invest in competitive intelligence.
One way to stay on top of your game is by keeping up with others in your industry.
Competitive intelligence is the practice of monitoring and gathering data on your competitors through legal and ethical means. This can look like social media monitoring, setting up Google alerts for specific brands, and downloading offers to review content strategy.
Sites like Crayon, SEMrush, and Kompyte are great tools to help you leverage this intelligence into actionable insights to propel your company forward.
4. Optimize your marketing strategy.
When you get too comfortable in your approach, that’s when you risk marketing myopia.
Even if your marketing strategy is working well, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work on optimization. After all, companies like BlockBuster saw immense success – until they didn’t.
The past doesn’t dictate the future. However, it can help inform it.
With this in mind, review your data, take the time to gain insights, and then come up with ways to improve your performance.
Marketing Myopia Examples
1. BlockBuster
In the early 2000s, Blockbuster was the undisputed king of the video rental industry.
But by 2009, the company had filed for bankruptcy. What went wrong?
Many experts believe that Blockbuster’s downfall was due to marketing myopia. The company was so focused on its existing business model that it failed to adapt to the changing marketplace.
As streaming services like Netflix and Hulu became more popular, Blockbuster refused to embrace them. Instead, they clung to their brick-and-mortar stores and DVD rentals, which eventually became obsolete.
2. Kodak
Kodak is another example of a company that fell victim to marketing myopia.
For years, Kodak was the leading name in photography. But as digital cameras became more popular, Kodak failed to adapt.
The company focused on film and prints, even as its customer base shifted to digital. As a result, they lost market share and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
3. Old Spice
Old Spice is a good example of a company that was able to avoid marketing myopia.
When the company was first founded, it marketed its products exclusively to men. But as the marketplace changed, Old Spice recognized that there was an opportunity to reach a wider audience.
They began to produce new products specifically for women and shift their marketing strategy. As a result, Old Spice was able to avoid the decline that many other companies have experienced.
By staying focused on its customers and being willing to adapt to change, Old Spice was able to avoid marketing myopia.

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Inflation makes customers think twice before they decide to open their wallets. And although they are still buying, their behavior has changed. In the eCommerce sector, we observe an inflation-induced loyalty recession that puts marketers in a paradoxical situation: they must increase their effectiveness without increasing the costs of operations. There is a way out of this—the lean way.

 

Customer behavior has changed

 

Many recent studies and surveys show inflation-induced customer behavior changes. Among them, the most significant for eCommerce are:

 

Inflation hasn’t stopped consumers from buying—yet!

 

In the early months of 2022, amid record inflation, US consumers continued to open their wallets. As McKinsey observes, US inflation grew to nearly 8.5% in March 2022, with May 2021 to March 2022 period showing the highest inflation in a decade. Yet, US consumers spent 18% more in March 2022 than they did two years earlier and 12% more than they were forecast to spend based on the pre-COVID-19 trajectory.

Nominal year-on-year growth however was less than that in late 2021.

 

Loyalty is becoming scarce

 

Going by Adobe Digital Economy Index, pre-pandemic online prices were declining at an average rate of 3.9% every year on the back of the 23% increase in digital purchasing power. Not anymore. As per Adobe Digital Price Index, digital prices went up by 2.9% year-over-year.

Now, as McKinsey’s study shows, more US consumers reported switching to different brands and retailers in 2022 than at any time since the beginning of the pandemic—and most of them say they intend to incorporate that behavior into their routines. With inflation at a record high, more people are looking for value; price is at the top of the list of consumers’ motivations for switching.

 

 

Customers are going back to brick-and-mortar stores

 

Shoppers are spending more both online and in stores. People began shopping online in droves at the start of the pandemic when they didn’t have much of a choice. But it turns out that many people enjoy the convenience that e-commerce offers. Even when brick-and-mortar stores reopened, spending in online channels continued to climb. Year-on-year growth in e-commerce was 27% in March 2022 as McKinsey observes; the total uplift in e-commerce penetration, from the onset of COVID-19 until March 2022, was 33%.

On the other hand, according to X-Cart, as of April 2022, American online shoppers spent $5.28 billion less than they did in March 2022.

American online shoppers spent $5.28 billion less than they did in March 2022. 

 

Omnichannel shopping is a new norm

 

75% of US consumers say they’re researching and purchasing both in-store and online. And this omnichannel behavior isn’t confined to a few types of products: consumers are doing it for both food and nonfood purchases across a broad range of categories. What’s more, 45% of consumers say social media is influencing their purchases.

 

 

Experience and values just behind value

 

According to the EY Future Consumer Index for the US, 52% of respondents consider price the most crucial purchase criterion. And with that, 42% percent will only buy from brands that align with their values and provide experience. In fact, Out of the five key broad spending priorities – planet first, affordability first, experience first, health first and society first – experience has seen the biggest increase, doubling in priority since 2020, and is now the third biggest priority when consumers decide on where to spend, while it was the smallest at the beginning the pandemic.

This aligns with McKinsey’s findings. According to them, When choosing which brands to buy, consumers—in particular, younger generations—say that their choices are at least somewhat influenced by environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. In general, younger consumers prioritize authenticity and social issues such as diversity, equity, and inclusion, whereas older consumers pay more attention to health and environmental issues. Today, with inflation driving many consumers to switch brands—value has become more of a motivator than values, so to speak—companies that can deliver on consumers’ expectations for both value and values will be best positioned for success.

That is, of course, if the brand will be able to grasp accurately what values and experiences are in demand in their target groups.

42% of customers will only buy from brands that align with their values and provide experience.

 

Deal with it even better!

 

For all these reasons, eCommerce marketing has become one of the most exciting areas of today’s business world, but it’s also one of the most demanding. Hyper-aggressive competition strategies, skyrocketing customer acquisition costs, the complexities of the omnichannel experience, growing customer demand for individualized relationships, and superior relevancy . . . all these challenges make it harder than ever to achieve acceptable conversion rates and returns on marketing investment.

Ecommerce marketers are also confronted by significant fragmentation and the increasing costs of marketing technology solutions, which of course mean reliance on IT and other difficult-to-find kinds of expertise. The result? Implementation of strategies is slowed, the impact is lessened, and meeting revenue expectations becomes an ever-greater challenge.

In their quest for growth, marketing teams face never-ending demand for more resources, while needing to be lean and differentiated. They deploy “spray and pray” tactics instead of a long-term vision focused on building value. They are absorbed by the constant search for the ideal martech stack setup and new tools instead of focusing on customers.

 

What advice do we see on the web

 

There’s a lot of advice you can read on how to deal with inflation-induced loyalty recession. One of the most common is “raise your prices.” Others include maintaining healthy cash flow. Still others suggest setting “feel-good” prices, being transparent about the price increases, and focusing on value. 

All this advice seems well backed up. But it is hard to maintain a healthy cash flow when the need for extremely aggressive marketing arises and the costs of the martech stack pile up. This is why we advise: “Go lean.”

 

Maximize revenue growth—the lean way

 

To answer the challenges of today’s eCommerce landscape, we envisioned a world where every marketing team can maximize eCommerce revenue growth the lean way. How? By enabling eCommerce to adhere to three essential principles:

Customer Intimacy: Implementing self-learning solutions that leverage zero- and first-party data. The effect: You’ll know your customers better than your competition. Increased loyalty. Authentic customer relationships.Precision Execution: Combining hyper-personalization of the omnichannel experience with clearly predefined processes. The effect: Higher CR, AOV, and CLV. Lower customer churn.Growth Intelligence: Merging human and AI-based guidance to maximize the impact of your time, eCommerce budget, and strategy without dependency on IT. The effect: Full control of your revenue outcomes.

This unique blend is guaranteed to make any marketing team powerful, pragmatic, and lean—and a trusted revenue partner for their CEO.

And the market shows an increasing understanding of the need for such an approach. As the Techrepublic study shows, 90% of marketing firms will capture zero-party data within a year! The reason is obvious: zero-party data allows marketing teams to achieve true Customer Intimacy and go towards the CLV-ROI approach instead of a last-touch ROAS mode, to tighten the bonds with the customers in times of loyalty recession. 

 

Thinking about sending an email blast? Or maybe an email campaign? Not sure what the difference is? In this post, we’ll talk about email blasts, when to send them, and how do it effectively.

With the economy continually shuffling between the highs and lows, small business owners and eCommerce stores are bearing the brunt more than ever. Fear-inducing economic news has raised concerns about an impending recession. Although no one is sure whether the economy will reach a complete downturn, businesses need to prepare as though it is imminent.…
The post How to Recession-Proof Your eCommerce Business appeared first on Benchmark Email.

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