ABSTRACT
A radical shift from one planning style to another should be made gradually. If marketing professionals' management has experience in formal planning, it is likely to be more at ease with sophisticated techniques than management that is new to the process. In some industries, hard data is difficult to come by, making the analysis phase of marketing planning most challenging. Then too, staff allocated to research activities may be limited in even the largest of corporations. Time, of course, is always scarce. Planning would be greatly simplified if marketing professionals had to develop a marketing plan for only one product or service for one market. In preparing a marketing plan for a single product/service-target market, creating a “fact book” is an important part of the planning process.
