The impact of marketing myopia on internal and external public relations in a company; a study based on the National Rupavahini channel and Sarasaviya newspaper

Abstract

The media industry consists of various communication media; Newspaper, Radio, Television, Cinema, Websites and Social Media. The history of journalism in Sri Lanka dates back to the nineteenth century. The Sarasaviya Newspaper is an oldest state-owner national art newspaper in Sri Lanka. It mainly focuses on cinema news and information in the art category. After the popularity of radio in the 19th century; television came to Sri Lanka in 1979, posing a huge challenge to the radio. Accordingly, the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation was established on February 15, 1982. Currently due to many alternatives, working in the television and newspaper industry is very challenging and exciting. Internal public relations are maintaining a good mutual understanding and goodwill between company and internal parties. External public relations are maintaining a good reputation, image and mutual understanding between the company and external parties. In 1960 the Marketing Myopia concept was coined by the late Harvard Business School marketing professor, Theodore Levitt. In this theory, Levitt describes a lack of insight or lack of thorough understands of what a business is doing for its target customers. Organizations' top management invests money and time in what they presently do with blindly thinking about the company's future. Then it reasons to create many internal and external public relations issues for the company. This study seeks to identify the impact of marketing myopia on internal and external public relations in a company; a special reference to National Rupavahini Channel and Sarasaviya Newspaper. Research problems were how does marketing myopia impact internal and external public relations in a company? To critically analyze the impact of marketing myopia on internal and external public relations of SLRC and Sarasaviya newspaper was the main objective of the study. The philosophy that used in this research was realism. A qualitative strategy was used to gather data and the method was an interview. The main research approach was deductive because this research was used Theodor Levitt’s Marketing Myopia theory as a framework. A sample of the research was the National Rupavahini channel and Sarasaviya Newspaper. The research findings concluded that currently, the National Rupavahini channel and Sarasaviya Newspaper are facing marketing myopia due to many reasons. Failure of management, Stepchild treatment to marketing, Shadow of obsolescence, Inappropriate self – assessment and no consider competitors are some of them. The research findings suggest that to avoid marketing myopia, internal and external PR issues in the National Rupavahini channel and Sarasaviya newspaper should focus on marketing, produce customer-centric products, do innovation, evade political obstacles, product diversification and adapt to the social-cultural changes.