Marketing Imagination, New, Expanded Edition [Paperback]

Theodore M. Levitt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 1986

Since its publication in 1983, The Marketing Imagination has been widely praised as the classic, all-inclusive "Levitt on Marketing." Now Theodore Levitt -- renowned as the Harvard Business School's "guru of marketing" -- has newly expanded his original work to recap the developing globalization debate and to respond to his critics. He has also added his famed McKinsey Award-winning essay "Marketing Myopia," and included detailed accounts of how to maximize the product life cycle and achieve the delicate balance between innovation and imitation. As before, this new edition of The Marketing Imagination shows Levitt at his best -- sharp, knowledgeable, erudite, and, yes, as imaginative as ever.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Philip Kotler Northwestern University Ted Levitt's name is synonymous with marketing. His writings consistently offer rich insights served up in a souffle of good style. In The Marketing Imagination, Levitt takes the reader through some important new concourses in the marketing world that he has explored deeply during this decade.

The Wall Street Journal MBAs everywhere encounter Ted Levitt's name on their required-reading lists, and it is likely to remain there long after experts on Japanese management, one-minute management and high-output management finally drop from the bestseller lists. The Marketing Imagination is a much-needed reminder of the ideals to which managers should bind their ambitions.

Newsday Ted Levitt is the best marketing mentor around...The Marketing Imagination is guaranteed to provoke controversy. It's a crackling text...every argument it stirs will be worthwhile.

Tom Brown Honeywell, Inc. A book for everyone in business. It is provocative and challenging.

Industry Week Ted Levitt's literate, thoughtful treatment takes the reader from the broadest theoretical concepts to specific how-to pointers.

Atlanta Constitution and Journal Marketers will eventually have to learn the lessons of The Marketing Imagination or risk a career change.

About the Author

Theodore Levitt is Editor of the Harvard Business Review and Edward W. Carter Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. One of the most widely read and respected figures in marketing, he is a four-time winner of the annual McKinsey Award for the best article in the Harvard Business Review.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; Exp Sub edition (April 21, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0029190908
• ISBN-13: 978-0029190906
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #123,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #55 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Planning & Forecasting

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Business "Classic" Revisited, May 2, 2000

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marketing Imagination, New, Expanded Edition (Paperback)

Of the more than 27 billion books on marketing now in print, none has had a greater impact than has this one. It is truly a masterpiece. By way of background, in 1960 (in its July-August issue), The Harvard Business Review published "Marketing Myopia" in which Levitt ties marketing "more closely to the inner orbit of business policy." Specifically, "Management must think of itself not as producing products but as providing custom-creating value satisfactions." Companies should be marketing-led rather than production-led. That will happen only if and when there is a total commitment by senior management (and especially by the CEO) to satisfying current customers so that they remain loyal, and, to attracting new customers. Only marketing creates or increases demand. Without demand, there are no customers.

In the same article, Levitt makes an important distinction: "Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariably does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse, and satisfy customer needs." Given this background, you can now place The Marketing Imagination in a proper context. "Marketing Myopia" is reprinted within the revised edition, first published in 1986.The chapter titles correctly suggest the scope of the subjects Levitt discusses:

1. Marketing and the Corporate Purpose

2. The Globalization of Markets

3. The Industrialization of Service

4. Differentiation -- of Anything

5. Marketing Intangible Products and Product Intangibles

6. Relationship Management

7. The Marketing Imagination

8. Marketing Myopia

9. Exploit the Product Life Cycle

10. Innovative Imitation

11. Marketing and Its Discontents

I now ask you to re-read this list of chapter titles, keeping in mind that Levitt's comments on each subject were formulated 15-20 years ago. That is, pre-WWW. That is, prior to the widespread understanding and appreciation of positioning, paradigms and paradigm shifts, "customized mass production," Marketing Value Added (MVA) to create Economic Value Added (EVA), brand equity, product and service differentiation, etc.

In essence, marketing means "getting and keeping customers in some acceptable proportion relative to competitors." That was true in 1986 when Levitt wrote those words and remains true now. However, even if Levitt and all the other major thought leaders in marketing were to collaborate, their collective genius could not create demand for shoddy goods, nor overcome mediocre customer service. The corollary is also true: neither product superiority nor operational excellence has compelling value to customers unless and until "the marketing imagination" manages their perceptions of them.

If you need to clarify your own thinking on key issues which include but are not limited to marketing, Levitt can be of substantial assistance. Also, you will thoroughly enjoy the pleasure of his company.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for those new to marketing and for the old hands too!, June 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Marketing Imagination, New, Expanded Edition (Paperback)

I read Ted Levitt's awesome article 'Marketing Myopia' some years ago and promised myself then that I would find out more about the thoughts of this unique writer. This man is a Guru of the old school - shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Deming, Drucker and Mintzberg. He is referenced by Tom Peters and other 'modern' writers. As a non-marketeer I did not know quite what to expect - what I got was an (at times breathtaking) insight into areas of the marketing 'black art' that I didn't know existed! He covers Relationships, Service, Product lifecycles, Differentiation and much more. He writes with such style and passion for his subject that you cannot help but be infected by it. Anecdotes of marketing genius and stupidity are peppered throughout the book. Key words, concepts and phrases are repeated over and over, to the point that the words hit you like a blunt instrument. You don't forget them - you wouldn't dare! Some parts are quite detailed and technical, but your attention cannot wane lest you miss the next part of the roller coaster ride. This is an old book of old articles, but the ideas are as fresh as ever - seasoned marketeers should read it just to recharge their enthusiasm if nothing else. Levitt uses several metaphors to illustrate his ideas - the most prevalent being sex. At times I found this to be a bit irritating but it was always used with taste and humour which mitigated my irritability. I first got this book from the library and had to own one - Levitt is the Stephen Hawking of Marketing - buy it, read it ENJOY.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The thinking person's big-picture marketing book., July 22, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Marketing Imagination, New, Expanded Edition (Paperback)

This is, simply, the best marketing book ever written. Ted Levitt, a Harvard B-School professor, previously wrote "Marketing Myopia," where he told us the railroads went belly up because they thought they were in the train business rather than the transportation game.

You cannot buy a product. Rather, you buy the feelings you expect to receive from your vision of the product -- and generally your vision is fuzzy. People are not rational decision-makers -- we judge books by looking at their covers.

An astute marketer never sells a commodity. Only fools sell on price alone. Add some service to the mix and transform what you're selling into something else altogether.

The Marketing Imagination is not a how-to book like the various Guerilla Marketing tomes. Levitt gives you frameworks for thinking about things and making sound decisions.

I have a couple of decades of marketing under my belt, and this is the only marketing book I ever reread. Do yourself a favor. Join me