The Marketing Imagination: Visually Decoded
Theodore Levitt’s ‘Marketing Imagination’ is a significant example of how to inspire innovation with a customer-centric mindset.
In my last post I shared the visual notes from “Marketing Myopia” by Theodore Levitt. Since then, my wife and I have moved back to Utah and got hold of our possessions, of which a few hundred books represented a major part. One of the books there was “The Marketing Imagination” written by the same author.
The book is under two hundred thirty pages. It took me weeks, however, to complete it. I had to read a few times to take notes. While not impossible to grasp, some pages were a challenging read.
The book is densely packed with concepts, demanding a pause to digest the rich ideas. Despite being written in the 1980s, when the Cold War was still a hot button, and before the rise of the technology we know now, it’s still relevant to today’s product or marketing person.
Levitt’s insights are as timeless as they are impactful.
“The Marketing Imagination” serves as a classic guide for customer-centric and product-centric people striving for consistent and long-term success.
On over two hundred pages, Levitt reminds us and explains the following:
- Money and profit are not the reason for a business (the point reinforced in “Built to Last” by Jim Collins). I know it sounds cute but his argument of “money” being “fuel” not “purpose” resonated with me.
- How services and service markets evolve and what technologies facilitate their growth.
- The product concept and its components that I can link to other concepts such as MVP, the Kano model, and many others. To me this was a helpful reminder of what the MVP concept is not.
- Innovation and imitation is a dominant way in which companies both advance and fail. It’s a great reminder why R&D budget should not always be spent on pioneering work, but rather reverse engineering of new and successful concepts that already exist.
- The essential differences within the scope of product experience when dealing with tangible vs intangible products. This will be relevant to everyone working on software products.
By considering what Levitt alludes to be a more imaginative approach to marketing, people and companies can better ensure success in today’s fluid product development landscape.
Below are my notes, which I hope will be a siren call for you to explore this marketing odyssey.
If you’ve enjoyed this journey through ‘The Marketing Imagination’, show some love with a clap, drop a wisdom nugget in the comments, and follow me for more product and business reviews!
