Marketing Planning and the Size of the Organization

Can any size of organization use marketing plans?

Marketing planning research has been based on organizations of various sizes. Most studies consider large corporations more specifically large multi-divisional companies (Ames 1968), companies selected from the top 100 US spenders on advertising (Cosse and Swan 1983), and companies with more than a £17 million turnover (Piercy and Thomas 1983). SME’s were investigated by Lancaster and Waddelow (1998).

Author(s)	Date	Medium	Co. Size	Subject
Lancaster and Waddelow	1998	Paper	SMEs	Use of learning logs as a means of marketing planning in SMEs
Hooley et al	1996	Paper	Various	Marketing Planning in Central/Eastern Europe
Greenley and Bayus	1996	Paper	UK and US companies of various sizes	Comparison of marketing planning decision making between UK and US companies
Piercy and Morgan	1994	Paper	Medium and Large Firms	Behavioral problems and analytical techniques in marketing plan credibility
Martin	1987	Paper	US companies of various sizes	Human element of marketing planning systems
Hooley, West and Lynch	1984	Study	UK companies of various sizes	Market orientation (including marketing planning)
McDonald	1984	Thesis	Directors and Senior Executives from a spectrum of UK organizations	Marketing planning in industrial companies
Piercy and Thomas	1983	Professional Magazine	£17 + turnover	Integration of long-term strategy with short-term budgets
Greenley	1983	Paper	Companies with various turnovers and sizes	Marketing Planning in UK Service Companies
Greenley	1982	Paper	Companies with various turnovers and sizes	Marketing Planning in UK Manufacturing Companies
Cosse and Swan	1982	Paper	Companies selected from ‘100 Leading National Advertisers’- Advertising Age	Strategic Marketing Planning by Product Managers
Stasch and Lanktree	1980	Paper	6 large US corporations	Longitudinal research into marketing planning effectiveness
Ames	1968	Paper	Large multi-divisional businesses listed in the Fortune 500	Marketing Planning for Industrial Products
A Summary of Marketing Planning Research by Company Size.

It demonstrates that size does not restrict the adoption of marketing planning. There is little evidence that large corporations always have marketing plans and the SME’s never have marketing plans. It is currently accepted that marketing is greatly underrepresented at board level in the United Kingdom, so how can it be that marketing planning only takes place at a strategic level in large corporations? Is it also fair to contend that SMEs do not plan for marketing simply because there is no evidence of a written formal marketing plan?

Companies of various sizes and turnovers were researched by Hooley, West and Lynch (1984) in the United Kingdom, and by Martin (1987) in the United States. Greenly and Bayus (1996) compared the marketing planning processes of both British and US companies of various sizes. Eastern European marketing planning processes of companies of various sizes were looked at by Hooley (1996). The size of organization varies between studies. The table below summarizes the different sizes of companies that plan for marketing.