ABSTRACT
Within this chapter, we focus upon the nature of strategic marketing planning and the
development of the marketing plan. In doing this, we concentrate initially upon patterns of
thinking in strategic management and then, against this background, on the nature and
structure of the marketing plan. However, before doing this it is worth remembering a
comment that is made in Alice in Wonderland:
the organization’s environment, managerial objectives, organizational capabilities, the nature
of any constraints that exist, and indeed anything else that impinges upon the process of
effective planning and implementation.
