EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MARKETING 9
M
arketing planning is too often left at
the planning stage and not operationally
followed through.
European
Journal of
Marketing
David J. Carson
The Strategic and Operational Planning of
Marketing
Gordon E. Greenley, McGraw-Hill, 1986, pp.252.
The purpose and value of planning in marketing is well
documented in the literature. In general marketing,
planning is extremely valuable in clarifying management
thinking and giving a sense of direction to managers in
other functions, subordinates and superiors. But how
precisely is marketing planning described and explained?
The literature is awash with descriptions and explanations
of what is involved. For example, most texts in marketing
management include at least one chapter on marketing-
planning processes but they are often variations on a
theme. The principal stages in the process involve
companies in conducting and internal audit; an external
audit; devising a strategy; and implementing and
controlling their marketing activities.
Planning is often regarded by middle managers as a
sophisticated, elitist activity performed solely by specialists
or very senior management. But where does or should
planning actually occur in an organisation and how does
it integrate across an organisation's managerial structure?
All aspects of marketing activity must be co-ordinated and
integrated through careful planning. Indeed, an
understanding of this issue is fundamental to sound
marketing-planning activity.
It is clear, therefore, that marketing planning must
permeate the whole of the marketing function in any
organisation if it is to operate effectively. The importance
of marketing planning is a point that is well made in most
of the literature. However, there are few descriptions of
marketing planning that correspond. It is possible, of
course, to identify the common threads in the process.
Greenley, aware of the plethora of definitions and
descriptions, has attempted to produce a composite model
of the marketing-planning process. Greenley's model
incorporates both strategic and functional marketing
planning and justifies this by stating, "...in practice
companies tend to include both marketing strategy and
tactics within the same marketing plan document". The
model, Greenley states, "...has been synthesised from
major texts by writers such as Cravens, Jain, Kotler, Luck
and Ferrell, and McDonald".
The approach taken by Greenley makes his book different
from other current texts concerned with the planning of
marketing. Greenley argues that other approaches tend
to fall into four categories:
● "The management of the individual marketing mix
elements, with only a cursory treatment of
planning;
● Separation of corporate planning into strategic and
operational planning, with marketing appearing only
as a component of operational planning;
● A treatment of strategic planning, where the inputs
of the marketing function are highlighted;
● The amalgamation of marketing into strategic
management as overall and grandiose company
management".
Against the above approaches Greenley takes the view
that marketing is a management process and that both
strategic and operational management have different, but
equally important, roles to play within organisations.
Greenley recognises current trends in the literature
towards strategy as the major consideration within the
management process, but deliberately does not follow this
trend because he considers that other functions of
management are of equal importance.
Consequently, the book is composed of five parts:
Part One — An introduction to the concept of planning
relative to marketing. Here Greenley describes basic
concepts of marketing and the nature of marketing and
offers a "planning framework" which incorporates the
models referred to above.
Part Two — A treatment of strategic planning involving
the marketing process. Chapters here cover the
organisational mission; objectives and the strategic audit;
and organisational strategy.
Part Three — A treatment of the operational planning of
marketing. This involves consideration of marketing
10 MARKETING PANORAMIC REVIEW II
objectives and environment; marketing strategy; and
marketing plan documents.
Part Four — Processes involved in the planning of
marketing. The part prepares the way for Part Five —
Implementing and controlling plans, by considering
managerial influences on planning; organisation and
planning; and planning effectiveness. The focus of both
these parts is very much on the managerial processes
surrounding marketing planning.
In summary Greenley's book is the first of its kind to
examine the marketing-planning process seriously in the
context of all that has gone before. Rather than typically
put forward yet another new description of the process,
he attempts to produce a "composite" model which
incorporates the best contemporary descriptions. On the
basis of this, Greenley provides a comprehensive
treatment of marketing planning at both the strategic and
operational planning levels of management, with a word
emphasis on the actual managerial problems involved.
These characteristics combine to make this text an
essential reference for anyone wishing to study the topic
in some depth.
Marketing Concepts and Actions:
Implementing Marketing-led Strategic Change
Nigel Piercy, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 24 No.
2, pp.24-38.
Much has been written in the literature about marketing
strategy and planning. There are many descriptions of
strategy and planning techniques and, equally, many
pontifications on what constitutes good approaches.
However, there have been fewer articles focusing on how
such planning approaches can be implemented. This article
addresses this issue. As Nigel Piercy states:
. . . t h e literature and research tradition of marketing has been summarised as follows:
remiss in the provision of effective tools for the implementation
of marketing, with the organisational changes which are implied
by this. The tools we have traditionally provided have been for
strategy generation rather than implementation.
Piercy reinforces this view by quoting the manager's
pragmatic question, "We know what marketing is, but how
do we do it?"
The author carries out an extensive review of the literature
to show the extent of the remissness and states,
. . . marketing literature has tended to portray marketing decision
making as something isolated from, and independent of, the
organisational context in which actual marketing decisions are made.
Piercy argues that marketing writers have yet to provide
marketing executives with the tools and skills they require.
Indeed he states that:
...even when we have recognised and accepted the problem...the
marketing literature still lacks the conceptual framework or analytical
tools with which to attack the issues raised — particularly if we
aspire to a strategy of marketing implementation, rather than simply
tactical responses to short-term problems.
Piercy concludes his review by stating that what is needed
is, "...to develop a framework for generating effective
implementation and change strategies in marketing".
Piercy begins his main argument by posing three basic
propositions based on a "corporate environment for
marketing". The propositions are:
(1) The corporate environment is a key to managing
marketing implementation and change.
(2) Corporate culture is a political phenomenon.
(3) Corporate culture can be operationalised in
marketing through power and politics, i.e.,
structure, information and process.
Piercy's commentary on these issues leads to "A
Management Agenda for Marketing-led Organisational
Change" consisting of four variables, Organisation
Structure; Marketing Information; Decision-making Units;
and Management Style. However, Piercy acknowledges
that all the agenda can hope to do is to sensitise,
"...management to the need to operate on the corporate
environment to implement marketing-based change". He
suggests that little has been done to provide the planning
tools needed by executives.
It is here that Piercy introduces his "Diagnostic and
Development Tools for Marketing", consisting first of a
"Structured Iterative Marketing-Planning Process"
(SIMP) which operates by tasking a cross-functional team
of managers with the job of constructing a marketing plan.
The second stage of Piercy's approach is essentially an
extension of SIMP, which asks managers to face the issues
of the constraints imposed by the nature of their
companies. The diagnostic and development tools are
While SIMP addresses the issues of how to free managers' thinking
from the culture of the organisation, an Implementation Strategy
is concerned with finding effective ways of doing things in the
companies.
While Piercy's approach is both interesting and innovative
it perhaps deserves two mild criticisms. First, he appears
guilty of that which much of the literature has done in the
past, namely to restate the marketing-planning process
but in a slightly different way. He himself acknowledges
that, "...the SIMP process is a redesign of the traditional
marketing-planning process". A second criticism is his
almost dismissive attitude towards the work of Leppard
and McDonald and others when he states:
Our major exception to the Leppard and McDonald argument is
that they conclude mainly that the marketing planning process

should be adapted to the culture, while we see marketing planning
proactively as a tool to operate on the culture.
A difficulty with this logic is that Piercy's approach appears
to adapt the marketing-planning process to operate in an
organisations structure.
The main value of Piercy's article is that it brings to light
through a review of relevant literature that marketing
writers have not fully addressed the issue of how to
implement marketing strategies and plans. Also his
contention that organisational change is required to achieve
implementation.
Piercy's continued work using his diagnostic tools may
lead to interesting findings in the future. He states that
there are three hypotheses underpinning the
developments:
David J. Carson is Editor, European Journal of Marketing, and is with the Department of Marketing, University of Ulster,
Northern Ireland.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MARKETING 11
(1) That the marketing-planning process offers a route
to organisational change by reshaping corporate
culture.
(2) That marketing-planning processes and outputs can
be shaped by manipulating variables of structure,
process and information to influence outcomes.
(3) That the diagnosis of structure, process and
information systems with a political frame of
reference provides managers with tools needed to
develop and effect implementation strategies for
their marketing plans.
These hypotheses may well provide a stimulus for others
working in this field and perhaps lead to acceptable
solutions to this ongoing dichotomy between researchers
in marketing and marketing practitioners.