Transforming the marketing research industry
Stephan Thun and D. Randall BrandtMaritz Research, United States
INTRODUCTION
In what has come to be regarded as a classic essay, Theodore Levitt describes organization after organization that has fallen victim to “marketing myopia.” For example, after summarizing the rise and fall of the American railroads, from institutions once thought to be impervious to the threat of obsolescence, to organizations “flat on their backs, broke, and pleading for government subsidies,” Levitt explains:
“The railroads did not stop growing because the need for passenger and freight transportation declined. That grew. The railroads...