Customer Reviews

The Marketing Imagination

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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.

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.

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

Though it was first released in 1983, I still do not believe there is a better book on marketing that The Marketing Imagination. It's not a "marketing fad of the week" kind of book, but rather a practically worded treatise on basic concepts that are more often than not overlooked or ignored by those who chase fads and wonder why they're not more successful. Chapter 4, "Differentiation---of Anything" should be tatooed on the forehead of every marketer.

This is a collection of classic Ted Levitt articles from "Harvard Business Review." This is where you go to understand the concept of `total product' or `whole product' used by both Moore & Davidow in their marketing books. Those two authors, both of whom I recommend, are more oriented to high-tech. Don't limit your reading by ignoring one of their important influences.

I strongly recommend supplementing industry- or market-specific books with Levitt's foundational classic. Every Product Manager and Engineering Manager should own this and read it. Levitt is mind expanding--once you've comprehended him, you realize that virtually everything a company does is relevant to marketing. Take its lessons to heart.

This book may have been useful when it first came out 25 years ago but it is too dated to be applicable today. While I often find gems of information in older books, this doesn't happen to be one of them. Save your money or buy it used.

Ted Levitt, along with Peter Drucker and John McKittrick, conceived of the marketing concept: In short, that the purpose of business is to create and keep satisfied customers-- with profit being the reward for doing this. Early on Levitt also saw the importance of globalization, technology and brands. In The Marketing Imagination, published in 1982, Levitt predicted an ongoing global convergence toward simplicity, standardization, reliable brands, and low prices. All of this came true.

Levitt was also an early proponent of design and the importance of intangibles in marketing, particularly for the growing sector of services. He wrote, " Common sense tells us, and research confirms, that people use appearances to make judgements about realities." He further said, "Expectations are what people buy, not things."

He rightly described business transactions as a relationship, and he showed the natural tendency for people to take relationships for granted over time. Specifically, he cited surprise and bad forecasts and signs of a bad relationship. He said this entropic tendency must be consciously counteracted.

In the chapter The Marketing Imagination, which is also the title of the book, he urges businesses to take risks, innovate, and focus on meaningful differentiation. He also warned of the limits of low price and financial innovation as strategies. He starts the chapter with, "Nothing drives progress like imagination. The ideas precede the deed." Then he encourages leaders to boil strategy down to a few simple and clearly written sentences.

In the chapter, Marketing Myopia, Levitt cautions that the greatest dangers come at the point of the greatest success. He cites the decline of railroads, dry cleaning, corner grocery stores, and the disruption television wrought on the movie industry. He also prophetically warned the Detroit auto industry of future trouble if it did not switch its focus from cars to customers. This chapter, which was also the title of a famous article in the Harvard Business Review, reminds us of the ongoing creative destruction of capitalism, and the penalties of hubris and self-satisfaction.

Levitt ends with a discussion of how to manage products during the product lifecycle. He warns of the difficulty of introducing new-to-this-world products, and the need to ensure that the customers' first experience with new products are positive. And since innovation is eventually followed by imitation, he talks about the importance of competing by increasing the frequency of usage, introducing varied uses, finding new users, and developing new uses.

This is a classic marketing text by a deep thinker. He rambles on from time to time, but the detours is worth it. My biggest aha from the book was that low price and brands will win in the end, since money is limited and people naturally avoid risk. This has come to pass. Brands provide scale that leads to low price, and brand reassure customers by reducing risk.

Like Peter Drucker, Ted Levitt is a business philosopher. This book may be more than 25 years old, but like Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the ideas are evergreen. It was good to revisit this book and write this review.

I recently had a need to revisit this book which has been a very valuable resident of my professional bookshelf since July 1997. So why am I choosing to review it now?

Simply stated, and in my view, the current world economic situation requires economies and polities to consider strategic marketing issues more thoroughly. The current reactive responses around the world to a growing global economic crisis may or may not prove to be effective in the short to medium term. I readily confess to being as yet unconvinced by this.

But to address the underlying issues requires a fundamental assessment of a series of contributing factors. Some of those factors are more technical economic issues: including a need to fundamentally reform and regulate (or re-regulate in some cases) aspects of financial accountability and responsibility and there are certainly some encouraging signs in that area.

But what, you may ask, does this have to do with marketing? And why am I recommending a book written by Theodore Levitt over 20 years ago? My work, reading and reflecting over the past twenty years leads me to conclude that Professor Levitt has identified, in his essays, a number of issues that are as relevant to global financial markets as they are to marketing other goods and services. That viable answers to many of the issues (in both areas as well as in many others) requires strategic and lateral thinking about objectives, consequences, impacts and potential risks.

This may be an `old' book but it is not dated. That is why it remains on my professional bookshelf, and why I refer to it often.

Sound, well-articulated principles always have many potential applications.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

A great book with all the topics still relevant to today's practice after so many years of publication.

I first learnt the ¡§Intangible¡¨ when I was in secondary school. Then, I have learnt more about ¡§Tangible Product¡¨ and ¡§Intangible Product¡¨ in marketing course in the university. The course also taught me the strategies of promoting the ¡§Intangible Product¡¨ with its special characteristics.

This book also taught me about ¡§Intangible¡¨. For example, it would teach you the intangibles of the tangible products, such as the quality of salesman, delivery.

But it¡¦s really new for me that, the book explained the marketing intangible products. That is the ¡§promises¡¨. The first thing come to my mind is the ¡§Service Guarantees¡¨. The ¡§Service Guarantees¡¨ have done what is mentioned by the author, to tangibilize the intangible product. It is really important that the ¡§Service Guarantees¡¨ on one hand, gave the customers confidence that they will be satisfied from the service. On the other hand, the ¡§Service Guarantees¡¨ would also remind the customers how they benefit from our product or service. Since people would trend to form the habits after repeat the same behavior for several times. After that, they do continue to do that without pay attention to details. So, I think that it is very important for the marketer to promote benefit that customers receive from our product or service.