Theodore Levitt Quotes

Put everything into it if you're asking people to part with money for it. That's the way I feel about it.

I think there's a need for somewhat of a mindset change. We need to have a consistent external focus. We've always had the research labs. We've always had the resources to be innovative, and we've been innovative in a number of businesses. But, in any big company, you have to constantly push people to look at markets and customers, rather than look internally at themselves.

Consumers do not buy products. They buy product benefits.

The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.

True marketing starts...with the customer, his demographics, his realities, his needs, his values. It does not ask, "What do we want to sell?" It asks, "What does the customer want to buy?"

There is no sale without the story; no knockout without the setup.

Don't tell people how good you make the goods; tell the how good your goods make them.

If people have the ability to see it, and you spend the money to put the wow factor into it, they will reward that entity or that team or that business, and they will then say they appreciate me, they appreciate what I'm about, and they will support it.

Every day in America, about 25,000 people buy a quarter-inch drill. But nobody in America wants a quarter-inch drill. What they want are holes.

A successful business must have a sound knowledge of its market and work on how its product or service will be different, stand out and improve people's lives. If you can ensure it responds to a real need in the market place, your business can punch well above its weight.

You need to spend all of your time and energy on creating something that actually brings value to the people you're asking for money!

Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a specialized activity at all. It encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer's point of view.

If you build a great product or service, people will talk about it. But it starts with having something that's worth talking about.

If what you're doing is valuable for people, they will find a way to pay you to keep doing it.

Obsess about customers, not competitors.

Find out where the people want to go, then hustle yourself around in front of them.

My view is that everything begins with the customer. If you know the customer, then you can match the merchandise and then you can market it. The marketing is kind of the icing. The foundation is the cake. That's the merchandise. Then the question is, "Do the customers want cake, or do they want cupcakes or donuts. What is it?"

Once you make something that people enjoy then you are forced to promote it. Instead of just going right into the next project, you have to be where they need you to be and do what they need you to do.

Most companies, 97 percent or more, put all their focus on clever advertising and clever taglines to get people to buy average or mediocre products. You need to back off and offer a really good product or service.

I try to get people to see what I have. . . . When you run a computer company, you have to get people to buy into your dreams.

Everything starts with the customer.

Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your return policy.

Don't find customers for your products, find products for your customers.

We built this company from the customer back, not from the company out.

Interviewing somebody is a lot different than being handed a stick in a 20,000-seat arena and trying to sell tickets. You're very green when you start. I'm still learning things to this day. I'm decent at interviews now, but man, getting people to buy tickets is the easiest thing in the world for me.