Strategic Marketing Planning

Strategic Marketing Planning

Strategic Marketing Planning

Over the past decade the marketing environment has changed in a series of dramatic and far-
reaching ways. Among some of the most significant of these changes has been the emergence
of what within this book we refer to as ‘the new consumer’ and ‘the new competition’. This
new consumer is typically far more demanding, far more discriminating, much less loyal and
more willing to complain than in the past, whilst the new competition is frequently far less
predictable and often more desperate than previously. At the same time, the marketing
environment has also been affected by a series of unpredictable events (11 September 2001 is
just one of the more obvious of these) and by the emergence of new technologies and delivery
systems. Together these changes have led to a new type of marketing reality that has major
implications for the marketing planning and strategy processes. The question of how
marketing planners might respond – or indeed have responded – to the new marketing reality
is therefore an underlying theme of this book.
In practice, many marketing planners have responded by focusing to an ever greater
degree upon short-term and tactical issues, arguing that, during periods of intense
environmental change, traditional approaches to planning are of little value. Instead, they
suggest, there is the need to develop highly sensitive environmental monitoring systems that
are capable of identifying trends, opportunities and threats at a very early stage, and then an
organizational structure and managerial mindset that leads to the organization responding
quickly and cleverly.

Colin Gilligan
Richard M. S. Wilson