Marketing Still Starts With Empathy
Tools, such as AI and automation, can widen reach and improve efficiency, but they don't replace human connection. Long-term growth depends on empathy.
BOSTON — Even as artificial intelligence (AI) and automation reshape business strategies, experts say the foundation of marketing remains the same: start with the customer.
The idea isn't new. In 1960, Harvard Business Review published an essay by economist and marketing theorist Theodore Levitt, in which he argued that industries fail less from lack of innovation than from losing sight of the people they serve.
Levitt's point was that businesses stumble when they define themselves by products instead of by the needs they meet. Railroads, he noted, collapsed not because people stopped traveling but because the industry failed to see itself as part of the transportation business.
That same narrow vision, analysts say, is visible today in startups focused on flashy features or in companies chasing new platforms without confirming whether they solve real problems.
"An industry begins with the customer and their needs," Levitt wrote. The reminder is timely for real estate professionals navigating a crowded, tech-driven marketplace.
Tools, such as AI and automation, can widen reach and improve efficiency, but they don't replace human connection. Long-term growth depends on empathy, listening to clients, and building solutions that reflect what buyers and sellers truly want.
Source: Boston Real Estate Times (09/03/25) Mishra, Upendra
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