Addressing organizational prerequisites in marketing planning programmes

Numerous experts believe that in practice the much‐vaunted benefits of formalized marketing planning as extolled by Jain or McDonald often fail to materialize. Experience with many business‐to‐business organizations has shown that this does not have to be so: if managed and planned, marketing planning can indeed bring forth its well‐publicized virtues. In addition, if the process is well conceived as well as carefully executed, there are significant benefits to be had in terms of relationships and communications, as described in this paper. Understanding the prerequisites of the marketing planning programme prior to initiation is essential.