Theodore Levitt

1925–2006 · Harvard Business School economist who coined ‘marketing myopia’

Theodore Levitt was a German-born American economist and longtime Harvard Business School professor, editor of the Harvard Business Review, and author of the landmark 1960 article “Marketing Myopia.” He popularized the idea that customers buy benefits, not products — and repeated the drill/hole illustration in 1969, though he credited it to adman Leo McGivena rather than claiming it himself.

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“People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole”

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