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In Marketing, the “C” Word Cannot Exist

In the CEO Afterlife

Many years ago I read Theodore Levitt’s The Marketing Imagination. In the book, the renowned marketing professor said there was no such thing as a commodity, only people who think like commodities. This served me well as a branded coffee marketer. Differentiation is the name of the marketing game.

Marketing 257
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The Marketing Imagination: A book review by Bob Morris

First Friday Book Synopsis

The Marketing Imagination (Expanded Edition) Theodore Levitt Free Press (1986) Do not be misled by the date of this Expanded Edition: Of the more than 27 gazillion 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 [.].

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Are These Systems Serving or Subverting Organization Results?

The Practical Leader

Harvard Business School Professor Ted Levitt, a leading research and author in management, marketing, and former editor of Harvard Business Review, said “Early decline and certain death are the fate of companies whose policies are geared totally and obsessively to their own convenience at the total expense of the customer.”

System 52
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Innovative Service Leaders Nurture Trust

Lead Change Blog

In the olden days, work relationships were agrarian and relied on extended family for production. ” These words of Harvard professor and marketing guru Ted Levitt were written about customers. The family in the field was the family at home. Nobody is ever THAT satisfied, especially not over an extended period of time.

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Just because you can make an omelet, doesn’t mean you’re a restaurateur!

Mills Scofield

That’s why we see so many good ideas either not make it to market or not for long. Most organizations think of innovation in terms of creating value: products, services and experiences. It’s why just because you can make a great omelet doesn’t mean you can make 30 great omelets at once in your restaurant. [2].

Kaplan 151
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Marketing Myopia, 50-Plus Years On

Harvard Business Review

This post is part of the HBR Insight Center Marketing That Works. It's hard to overestimate the influence Ted Levitt's "Marketing Myopia" has had on the world of marketing and beyond. Its impact as a concept has weighed on generations of innovators: it's hard to imagine marketing malpractice without this antecedent.

Levitt 11
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Why Big Companies Struggle to Market Online

Harvard Business Review

A gold-plated product or service. A typical product or service comparison in most industries would show that incumbents usually have the best products in a given market, which reflects their obsession with high-margin customers. ” The concept of a product’s job-to-be-done is not new.