INNOVATIONS IN MARKETING MANAGEMENT 53

the market planning and sales forecasting program presided over by

Robert V. Mitchell, University of Illinois, and Robert H. Cole, Uni-
versity o[ Nebraska. Dr. Mitchell later helped with plans for these
articles to be written and published in Business Horizons.
All three authors have done extensive work in marketing manage-
ment, and these articles reflect their very latest thinking on the market-
ing management concept. Mr. Smith is a past president of the American
Marketing Association. During a distinguished academic and business
career, he has made numerous contributions to marketing theory and
applied economic analysis. Mr. Lazer has contributed several articles
on sales forecasting to leading iournals. This most recent effort makes
several important changes [rom his earlier writing. Mr. Cascino's expe-
rience includes service with the Office of Price Administration and
positions as director of marketing for two of the nation's leading
appliance makers.
W e believe that this series will offer a fresh viewpoint to many read-
ers who are responsible for making decisions in sales planning and
strategy. Anyone active in marketing management will find some things
that relate to his situation. For others whose interest in marketing is
less special, these articles offer insight into a vital aspect of a strongly
consumer-oriented economy.

WENDELL R. SMXTH

THE ROLE OF PLANNING IN MARKETING

p ERHAPS the most important innovation

being discussed in management meetings
and conferences these days is the marketing
management concept, sometimes referred to
simply as the marketing concept. Marketing
people, both teachers and businessmen, are
simultaneously pleased and puzzled by this
development. They are pleased that at long
last the necessity for a more professional ap-
proach to marketing management and general
management is gaining recognition. They are
puzzled by the relatively sudden, almost ex-
plosive, rate of acceptance of a philosophy
neither new nor revolutionary to thoughtful
students of marketing theory and practice.
Mr. Smith is Director of Marketing Research and De-
velopment, Product Planning Department, Radio Cor-
poration of America.
Some of the more meticulous professionals
in marketing are also disturbed by an apparent
lack of precision in many of the statements
being made about this marketing concept-
disturbed by the fact that its many proponents
are not in agreement as to just what the con-
cept means and implies.
At present, the so-called marketing concept
appears to be an umbrella term used to de-
scribe one, several, or even all of the following
developments in the basic components of ef-
fective marketing operations:
1 A marked increase in the degree of market
orientation of top management thinking. Specifi-
cally, marketing considerations are increasingly
coming to provide the framework within which
other factors such as engineering, finance, and
manufacturing are positioned and analyzed.