POST PLAN IMPROVISATIONS OF STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANS:
TOWARDS A TAXONOMY
by
PETER S. WHALEN
A DISSERTATION
Presented to the Department ofMarketing
and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
September 2008
11
University of Oregon Graduate School
Confirmation of Approval and Acceptance of Dissertation prepared by:
Peter Whalen
Title:
"Post Plan Improvisations of Strategic Marketing Plans: Towards a Taxonomy"
This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Marketing by:
David Boush, Chairperson, Marketing
Alan Meyer, Member, Management
Susan Golicic, Member, Marketing
lun Ye, Member, Marketing
Julianne Newton, Outside Member, Journalism and Communication
and Richard Linton, Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies/Dean of the Graduate
School for the University of Oregon.
September 6, 2008
Original approval signatures are on file with the Graduate School and the University of Oregon
Libraries.
© 2008 Peter S. Whalen
111
in the Department of Marketing
Peter S. Whalen
An Abstract of the Thesis of
for the degree of
to be taken
IV
Doctor of Philosophy
September 2008
Title: POST PLAN IMPROVISATIONS OF STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANS:
TOWARDS A TAXONOMY
Approved:
Dr. David M. Boush
Marketing Planning is the most prescribed tool for "doing" marketing. The
marketing plan's implementation schedule provides a roadmap for accomplishing a
finn's stated marketing objectives. For over three decades researchers have investigated
planning's link to finn perfonnance. The consensus has been that they do improve
perfonnance although there is little empirical evidence to suggest how implementation of
those plans is related.
Environmental turbulence, new infonnation and failed implementation cause
finns to act outside of the planning framework. Improvisation is the contemporaneous
creation and execution of an action. The extent to which finns act improvisationally has
been studied, but to date there has been no empirical investigation that exposes the
different types ofpost plan improvisations of strategic marketing plans that exist.
vThis dissertation attempts to identify the different types of post plan
improvisations (PPI) used in marketing. Using the Critical Incident Technique, 384
incidents of PPI were gathered from marketing planners and then used to create
categories and systematically classify each incident. Four primary categories of causes of
deviations, six categories of deviations and four categories of outcomes emerged from the
data.
The results provide a foundation for a theoretical model ofthe types ofpost plan
improvisations in practice. This will allow further research into contextual differences that
could help managers decide when to improvise and when to follow their plan. Further, by
exposing the useful application of the CIT method in a new field, additional researchers
might begin to use the technique to update and more deeply understand other marketing
phenomenon.
CURRICULUM VITAE
NAME OF AUTHOR: Peter S. Whalen
PLACE OF BIRTH: Omaha, NE
DATE OF BIRTH: April 26, 1971
GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED:
University of Oregon
Saint Louis University
Florida State University
DEGREES AWARDED:
Doctor ofPhilosophy in Marketing, 2008, University of Oregon
Master of Business Administration, 2001, Saint Louis University
Bachelor of Science - Marketing, 1994, Florida State University
AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST:
Marketing
Entrepreneurship
Small Business Marketing
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Merle King Marketing Scholar - Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of
Oregon, September 2004 - September 2008
President and Owner, The Marketing Dept. of Tampa Bay, September 2001-
August 2004
Marketing Planning and Research, Anheuser Busch, Saint Louis, MO, March
2000 - April 2001
VI
Vll
GRANTS, AWARDS AND HONORS:
2007 Lundquist College of Business Graduate Teaching Award
2004-2008 Merle King Marketing Scholarship, Lundquist College of Business,
University of Oregon
PUBLICATIONS:
Starbuck, William H., and Whalen, Peter S. (eds.), 2008, Learning by Individual
Organizations. Surrey, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing
Vlll
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Palo Alto Software, Inc. for their support. They provided
access to the data used in this dissertation and the necessary funding to hire outside
coders and judges. Their commitment to their family business has enveloped my family
and without their support, my academic career would not have begun so positively.
I would also like to thank the entire marketing and management faculty for their
support and tutelage over the past four years. More specifically, I would like to thank the
members of my dissertation committee; Susan Golicic, Alan Meyer, Julianne Newton and
Jun Yeo They have each helped me to achieve a goal that once seemed impossible. Their
respect and friendship has provided a rare experience in academe. Through them, I have
learned not only from their scholastic lessons, but also from personal lessons of dignity
and respect for colleagues; lessons I will try to live up to during my career as an
academic. Dave Boush, my committee chair, has been especially important both
personally and professionally. He has been a friend and a mentor. Without his nurturing
nature and patience, I absolutely could not have made it this far.
I would like to thank my family and friends, most of whom do not understand
what I am doing. They only know that I am a dreamer, and this quality took me to
Oregon to chase one of my many dreams. I will never forget that my grandparents and
parents have always sacrificed for my education. They have given me the foundation for
my future life and dreams not yet chased. This dissertation represents their achievement
as much as my own.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Beth Anne and two children, Wyatt and
Lydia. They are the only reason that any ofthis matters.
IX
Chapter
TABLE OF CONTENTS
x
Page
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. LITERATIJRE REVIEW 5
Marketing Planning 6
Holistic Review of Marketing Planning 7
Review of Marketing Planning's Individual Objectives and Components 13
Situational Analysis 14
Strategy Development 16
Marketing Management 17
Organizational Learning 18
Improvisation 21
Defining Improvisation 22
Time and Improvisation 27
Improvisational Units of Analysis 29
Conceptual and Empirical Research on Improvisation 31
Research Questions 37
III. METHOD 42
Introduction ofthe Critical Incident Technique .42
Questionnaire 49
Respondent Characteristics 52
Data Characteristics 52
Data Quality 53
Check for Nonresponse Bias 57
IV. RESULTS 59
Overview 59
Respondent Characteristics 59
Data Characteristics 60
Data Quality 61
Data Analysis Procedures/Classification of Incidents 64
Method Bias Check 68
Results 69
Categorical Development of Causes 70
Categorical Development of Deviations 72
Categorical Development of Outcomes 75
Additional Analysis of Intemal Causes 77
Xl
Chapter Page
Crosstab Analysis 80
V. DISCUSSION 87
Overview 87
Theoretical Contribution 87
Categorical Discussion ofCauses 88
Categorical Discussion ofDeviations 91
Categorical Discussion of Outcomes 96
Crosstabs Analysis Discussion 100
Methodological Contributions 104
Managerial Contributions 105
Limitations 106
Future Research 107
Conclusion 108
APPENTIICES
A. CODING INSTRUCTIONS AND RECRUITMENT DOCUMENT 109
B. SURVEY RESPONSES 113
REFERENCES 169
XlI
LIST OF FIGURES
~~e ~~
3.1. Models of Critical Incidents and Post Plan Improvisations .48
5.1. Model ofPost Plan Improvisations of Strategic Marketing Plans 88
5.2. Scenarios of Improvisations in Organizations 95
5.3 Crosstab Analysis with Unexpected Frequencies 101
Xlll
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
2.1. Improvisations Across Disciplines 24
2.2. Characteristics of Improvisation 30
3.1. 6 Seminal CIT Studies 46
3.2. Questionnaire 51
3.3. Descriptive Statistics 55
3.4 Respondents Titles 57
3.5. Check for Nonresponse Bias 58
4.1. Descriptive Statistics 63
4.2. InteIjudge Reliability 67
4.3. Causes Summary 72
4.4. Deviations Summary 75
4.5. Outcome Summary 77
4.6. Crosstab Analysis 81
4.7. Deviation * Cause Crosstabulation 82
4.8. Categorical Age * Cause Crosstabulation 83
4.9. Outcome * MPSkiU Crosstabu1ation 84
4.10. Outcome * Deviate Crosstabulation 85
1CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
"Little is known about what constitutes effective marketing management in
practice or whether practice is consistent with what little is known from theory" (Bonoma
1985, p. 203). Bonoma's statement is still true today, twenty-three years later.
Marketing is not hard to understand, however, I would argue that it is very hard to do
well.
In classrooms and in practice the most prescribed tool for "doing" marketing
involves the creation of a marketing plan. The fruit of a plan is its implementation
schedule. Rooted in analytics and strategy, an implementation schedule lays out the
organizational activities and responsibilities onto a timeline for achieving one's
marketing objectives. Yet, these implementation schedules are based on incomplete
market knowledge and are inevitably full of predictive errors (Weber 2001).
This dissertation explores a practical facet of marketing plan implementation. In
most cases, ifnot all, plans are not completely accurate or completely inclusive which
results in some deviation from that plan (Grant 2003). The closest theoretical
conversation about acting outside of the planning process is improvisation.
Improvisation is the contemporaneous composition and execution of an action (Pina e
2Cunha et al.I999). The marketing planning and improvisation literature are both
reviewed to better understand how marketing management is "done" inside and outside
of the planning process.
Improvisation has been offered as an alternative to the rigidity problems
sometimes associated with separate planning and implementation periods. Although
improvisation has been linked to many different disciplines, its artistic origins are most
often described in the academic literature. Theatre groups and jazz bands serve as a
metaphor for business organizations. In contrast to planning, artists use their collective
dedication to innovation and a lack ofpredetermined structure to build something
completely unscripted, or unplanned.
Thought provoking as these analogies might be, they have led to relatively little
empirical research about organizational improvisation. The few empirical marketing
studies that do exist (Moorman and Miner1998; Slotegraaf and Dickson 2004; Vera &
Crossan 2005) have studied improvisation as one generalized measure. This assumes that
all types of improvisational acts are similar. While this might be true, to date there has
not been an effort to detail the types of improvisations that exist that could support such
an assumption. This dissertation includes a study that will attempt to create a taxonomy
of post plan improvisations. Post plan improvisations (PPI) are defined as, "the extent to
which firms alter their actions from those specified in their approved marketing plan"
(Slotegraaf and Dickson 2004, p. 374).
The Critical Incident Technique (CIT) will be used to research the types of post
plan improvisations that exist. This inductive research method allows each respondent to
identify and then describe an incident ofPPI through an online questionnaire. A critical
incident ofPPI includes three units of observation; a cause, a deviation from plan and an
outcome. The primary researcher and a second judge will independently sort each
response and create mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories for each unit of
observation. Then, a group of additional independent judges will systematically classify
the responses.
By using the critical incident technique to create a taxonomy of post plan
improvisations this study will make theoretical, methodological and managerial
contributions. First, the theoretical contribution will include a description of the extant
types of improvisations described by marketing managers. By inductively augmenting
the existing literature, additional theoretical work can begin to sort through which types
ofpost plan improvisations relate to existing theories and begin to formulate deductive
hypotheses for future testing. Secondly, this study will make a methodological
contribution by using the CIT in a new context. Before now, the CIT method has been
used almost exclusively in service research (Gremler 2004). This is partly because the
CIT method requires a large number of respondents typically too evasive for most
qualitative work in industrial marketing because researchers rarely have access to
hundreds of marketing managers. By utilizing the internet for data collection, the
methodology of CIT will gain exposure among another group of researchers that may be
unfamiliar with the technique. The third and final contribution is managerial. This
research begins to address the issue of contextual benefits of post plan improvisation. In
order to provide managers with assistance in deciding when to improvise and when not
3
4to, a complete list and understanding of the types of improvisations is necessary. Once
the contextual information is available, specific subgroups can begin to test for relative
benefits.
This dissertation is comprised of five chapters and an appendix. In this first
chapter, the purpose of this dissertation and direction for the rest of the dissertation are
provided. The second chapter of this dissertation reviews the literature. Marketing
planning and improvisation are each discussed individually and then collectively.
Research gaps emerge that warrant further research. The third chapter addresses the
design of an empirical study of PPI using the CIT method. Further justification and
explanation ofthe CIT method is provided. The fourth chapter presents the results of the
study. The categories that inductively emerged during the study are presented as well as
frequency statistics and a crosstab analysis looking at significant relationships among
major units of observations. Finally, the fifth chapter discusses the key findings and
subsequent insights as they relate to the extant literature. Detailed explanations are
provided for the resulting contributions to theory and practice.
5CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
"...plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eisenhower's quote captures a long-standing conundrum; organizations that
engage in the planning process are linked to better performance even though the plans
that were created, often times, were never fully implemented. Planning seems to
improve performance (Smith 2005), however after the plan has been created, the
environment changes in ways not completely expected. How do firms decipher when to
consult the plan and when to waiver? In order to better understand this, two separate
literatures are reviewed - marketing planning and improvisation. Each of these reviews
provide discussions of each general topic and details about the most pertinent extant
literature. Research opportunities are illuminated that lead to this dissertation's primary
research question; what are the different types of post plan improvisations of strategic
marketing plans?
6Marketing Planning
The first section of this chapter reviews the marketing planning literature.
Reviewing marketing planning requires looking at the entire phenomenon and related
literature as well as planning's specific components and the research dedicated to their
individual understanding. This portion of the literature review begins by addressing the
entire phenomenon. A recent review of the holistic marketing planning literature (Smith
2005) is summarized and then augmented with additional discussions, both supporting
and questioning the causal effects ofmarketing planning. The holistic review on the
marketing planning process reveals an important gap. Planning and performance links do
not capture the management effects occurring between the time the plan is created and
when performance is measured.
Following the review ofliterature dedicated to the holistic view of marketing
planning, each ofmarketing planning's objectives (situational analysis, competitive
advantages, marketing management and learning) and their individual managerial
components (marketing research, strategy development, implementation schedules and
controls) are more closely reviewed. The review of planning's individual components
also reveals an important gap. Marketing planning's components are adequately
researched. However, plan management and efforts to keep the process dynamic warrant
additional attention.
7Holistic Review of Marketing Planning
Marketing planning, "is the logical sequence of activities which leads to the
setting of marketing objectives and the formulation of plans to achieve them" (McDonald
1989, p. 2). Smith (2005) reviews the literature on marketing planning and notes a
predictable pattern of phenomenon assertion (i.e. marketing planning improves
performance), counter assertion (i.e. we cannot prove that marketing planning improves
performance) and then a slightly qualified consensus (i.e. marketing planning improves
performance in most cases).
The first era of marketing planning research asserts the phenomenon ofplanning.
Thune and House (1970) survey ninety-two large firms of varying industries and capture
five measures of financial performance. Their results show that increased formal
planning processes lead to greater increases in performance than do informal planning
processes. Herold (1972) investigated five pairs of rival firms for performance/planning
relationships. Over a seven-year period, the formal planners extend their lead over
informal planners. These early studies are bolstered by the inclusion of attitudes towards
planning by top decision makers. Eastlack and McDonald (1970) survey two hundred
and eleven CEOs and found that firms whose CEOs valued formal planning outgrew
firms whose CEOs did not.
The second era of marketing planning research countered the planning assertion.
The empirical support of the first generation of strategic planning research led to
8questions of applicability. Annstrong (1982) reviewed fifteen studies and found that ten
supported formal planning's positive influence on financial performance, three supported
infomlal planning and two showed no difference. The mixed reviews were indicative of
the research to come. The counter assertion phase of research questioned the universal
benefits ofthe previous era's findings. Individual studies used a contingency approach to
investigate when and where strategic planning worked best. Bracker and Pearson (1985)
found that, although slight, small firms that employed formal planning techniques
outperformed those that did not. Rue and Fulmer (1973) posited that manufacturing
fimIs were better served by planning than service firms. Ryhne (1986) included temporal
orientations and competitive foci. They found that long-term orientations and externally
focused firms were more apt to benefit from the planning processes. The second era of
research, counter assertion, extended the research in two important ways. First, the
performance construct is difficult to ascertain. Sales and profits are not a consistent
measure of firm performance, and other measures must be considered. Secondly, the
planning perfomlance link was shown to be highly dependent on contextual factors, and
the earliest work did not employ methodologies rigorous enough to handle such
complexity.
The third era of marketing planning research attempted to improve measures of
firm performance and methodological rigor. Cameron (1986) reviewed financial
measures for their relativity to organizational effectiveness and found that they were not
sufficient. He pointed out that there are inherent conflicts of disagreement over success
measures that diminish the likelihood of consensus among researchers. Venkatraman and
9Ramanujam (1986) acknowledge that some forms ofperformance are necessary for
strategic research yet the many different types of data and contexts require more thorough
and multifaceted research techniques.
Taking advantage of improved methodologies and statistical tools, the third era
took on the complexity of context as well. Lysonski and Pecotich (1992) surveyed five
hundred and twenty two firms in a single study. They investigated the relationships
between formal planning, comprehensiveness, environmental stability and financial
performance. They concluded that strategic marketing planning improves financial
performance and that planning is independent of environmental stability. Two meta
analyses (Schwenk and Shrader 1993; Miller and Cardinal 1994) reviewed previous
studies in light of greater methodological scrutiny and continued to find support that
planning increases performance. Finally, Priem et al. (1995) cap the debate by
concluding that the more sophisticated methodologies have actually worked to strengthen
the ties between planning and performance.
The planning/ performance link has been well established throughout marketing
and management literature (Herold 1972; Wood and LaForge 1979; Claycomb et al.
2000). Thune and House (1970) demonstrated that not only did formal planners
outperform non-planners, but they also showed that the same firms improved their own
performance after formal planning was adopted. Meta-analyses reviewed the initial wave
of research, and again, reported a positive and significant benefit due to planning
(Schwenk and Shrader 1993). Brews and Hunt (1999) noted that advanced
methodologies have produced stronger planning/performance relationships and have
10
silenced many of the critics who insisted there might only be a correlative, rather than a
causal, relationship between planning and performance.
Often, the literature appears to treat marketing planning as a ubiquitous solution
for all businesses. McDonald observes that, "academics have, in general, been guilty of a
gross over-simplification of a subject which has an infinite number of contextual
ramifications" (1996, p. 11). Although there is a slight distinction between formality
(written or unwritten) and sophistication of plans (Rue and Ibrahim 1998), very few
distinctions between types of marketing plans exist. Dennis and Macaulay (2003) note
that too many models of strategic marketing planning prescribe a rigid, formal process
with very little flexibility for implementation. Piercy and Morgan (1990) were among the
first to criticize formal planning procedures and advocate the creation of a more complete
view of the entire process. Their work directly led to Greenley and Bayus's (1994)
attempt at classifying different marketing planning processes.
A counter explanation to the direction of the planning and performance
relationship exists. There is evidence to suggest that performance requires and leads to
planning and not the other way around (Smith 2005). It has been suggested that firms
reach a critical mass of performance that necessitates planning (Greiner 1972). This
brings up an interesting void in the understanding of how marketing practice and
planning should be prescribed to new or very young firms. It seems that business
planning is important before launch and at a certain point of successful maturity, but what
form of planning or marketing practice should be utilized between these two milestones?
What then are new and young firms supposed to do in place of traditional marketing
11
planning until they emerge as a viable entity, complicated and large enough to take
advantage of the multitude of business processes designed for firms of a certain critical
mass?
There is a smattering of exceptions to the redundant praise of planning processes.
Honig and Karlsson (2004) do not find evidence that planning among nascent
organizations is positively linked to increased profitability. Instead, they relate the
incorporation of planning to institutional forces of governments, industries and education.
Stotegraaf and Dickson (2004) describe the paradox of marketing planning capabilities.
Firms with stronger planning capabilities have a negative correlation with post plan
improvisation and the corresponding implementation rigidity is linked to lower
performance. Noting that current models of marketing planning are too structurally rigid,
Dennis and Macaulay (2003) introduce the improvisational techniques ofjazz musicians
as an alternative framework in support of more flexible planning technologies. Finally,
Weber (2001) points to the lack of marketing research capabilities within most firms as
another danger to investing in marketing planning and the direction it might provide.
Still, the consensus is overwhelmingly in favor that planning improves
performance. Given the lopsided theoretical support, there are surprisingly few
companies engaged in marketing planning (McDonald 1996). Why are firms not
planning? Leppard and McDonald (1991) identify five barriers to marketing planning.
The first barrier is cognitive. Firms of all sizes and industry lack the marketing skills and
knowledge to incorporate marketing planning into their firm's management. The second
barrier is information. Although data generation is hardly a problem in today's
12
environment, measuring marketing's impact (i.e. capturing and distilling the right
information) remains one of the field's most pressing issues. Thirdly, resources are
scarce. Allocation of personnel and funds towards long-term strategic objectives is
difficult, especially under the current pressures of financial scrutiny and rapid
technological disruption. The fourth barrier is cultural. Planning and marketing must be
supported throughout an organization in order to capture its value. However, planning is
tedious and demanding work not suited for all types of employees. The final barrier is
behavioral. People act inappropriately and fail to disclose valuable information because
of personal interests or fears, which hinder the necessary cooperation and integration
needed for successful planning.
The holistic review ofmarketing planning reveals an important gap. The earliest
research was conducted during a period when marketing planning and implementation
were considered separate, sequential activities. To compound the problem, later research
often used these studies as part of meta-analyses on planning and performance.
Therefore, current assumptions about planning and performance links might not capture
the management effects that occur between the time the plan is created and the time the
performance measures are taken. This suggests that the implementation process needs
closer investigation.
13
Review ofMarketing Planning's Individual Objectives and Components
Although marketing plans and the process for generating those plans differs in
degrees offonnality and sophistication, the objectives are generally the same (Dibb 2002;
McDonald 1989) and include:
1. Situational Analysis - Using marketing research to evaluate the internal
and external environment in order to set objectives congruent with long tenn
goals of the organization
2. Strategy Development - Exploiting competitive advantages and
minimizing threats
3. Marketing Management - Creating an implementation schedule to
detennine budgets, provide a roadmap for carrying out the marketing strategy
and communicate the marketing intentions throughout the organization
4. Learning - Increasing knowledge through control mechanisms designed to
identify, capture and disseminate useful infonnation.
The planning literature understates the complexity ofplanning and
implementation. It suggests that there is a single, one size fits all solution for developing
and implementing strategic plans. Looking at £Inns in the aggregate, as theory often
dictates, prevents unique construction and understanding ofmarketing planning
characteristics that more closely match the needs of organizations through different life
14
cycles (Greiner 1972). Accordingly, this section will attempt to incorporate the explicit
variations investigated or discussed in previous research and outline the types of
marketing planning components associated with each of its objectives.
Situational Analysis
The first objective of marketing planning is the creation of a situational analysis.
This process includes an assessment of the internal and external environment. Internally,
the company's resources and liabilities must be ascertained and generally include
personnel, products and finances. Externally, the competition, market conditions and
consumer interests are reviewed.
The component of marketing practice that serves this objective is marketing
research. Marketing research is the "systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting
of data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization (Armstrong &
Kotler 2006, pg. 102)." In its most primitive form, marketing research is conducted
through the experiences of the marketer and stored in memory. Although research shows
that there are numerous psychological short-comings that should dissuade managers from
solely relying on experiential information (Weber 2001) there is no doubt that it remains
a prominent method among organizations.
Greenley and Bayus (1994) empirically investigated the marketing planning
processes and discovered four types of decision making planners. (Their use of the term
"marketing planning process" is not as inclusive as this paper's. They defined marketing
planning process as, "the techniques available to interpret knowledge about the
15
environment and to aid in decision making" (p. 142). Their work more closely aligns with
this paper's conceptualization of the situational analysis objective and market research
component.)
Greenley and Bayus (1994) used Piercy and Morgan's (1990) conceptual model
to describe four different types ofplanning organizations as depicted in Figure 1.1. They
based their study on multidimensional interpretations (analytical, organizational and
behavioral) of information gathering and analysis for decision making (i.e. SWOT
analysis, perceptual mapping, etc.). They investigated US and UK companies and
discovered that the smallest percentage (13%) fell into their sophisticated category.
These firms used both qualitative and quantitative research tools and thoroughly analyzed
the data. They found a fairly large portion of companies (30%) that fell into the
information seeker category. These firms were aggressively using both types of research
techniques to capture data but failed to completely analyze it. The largest group of
companies (36%) fell into the unsophisticated decision maker's category. This group of
companies capture internal data but do not adequately utilize analytic techniques
consistent with the formal marketing planning process. The final group, gut-feelers
(21 %), operate with less data and utilize very few marketing analytic techniques. In these
companies, senior managers are involved but either unaware of formal planning or
unwilling to implement its systems.
Sophisticated
(13%)
Information
Seekers
(30%)
Unsophisticated
(36%)
Gut-Feelers
(21%)
16
~I-------------'"
Complex
Figure 2.1. Four Different Types of Marketing Planning Processes
(Greenley and Bayus, 1994)
Strategy Development
Simple
The second objective of marketing planning is strategy development. A strategy
is a long-term plan of action designed to achieve a goal. Developing a competitive
advantage should be a top priority of marketing planners (Mcdonald, 1989). The
effectiveness of developing a strategy is partly contingent on successfully completing and
utilizing marketing research and is therefore sequentially dependent on the situational
analysis.
Gelderen et al. (2000) demarcate strategies from traditional connotations
associated in the strategic management literature and propose five types of strategies with
relationships to performance. First, Reactive Strategy is completely based on
environmental forces and is void of planning. Second, Opportunistic Strategy starts with
17
a plan but quickly sheds the structure when opportunities become available. Third,
Critical Point Strategy identifies the single most important objective and focuses on its
achievement with no consideration for other interests or objectives. Fourth, Complete
Planning Strategy provides detailed plans for all expected activities and supports a rigid
implementation of those plans. Finally, a fifth strategy emerged from their exploratory
research, Habit Strategy. The habit category employs a standardized approach, or
routines, based on previous experiences.
Marketing Management
The third obj ective of marketing planning is marketing management.
Understanding the environment through marketing research and developing competitive
advantages through strategy formulation are useless without successful implementation.
Although there is not a single definition of implementation, Kotler (1997) defines
marketing implementation as the process that turns plan into action. The implementation
schedule is the component of marketing planning that serves the purpose of organizing
the marketing management function. Implementation schedules include a calendar of
programs that map financial requirements and role responsibilities.
Noble and Mokwa (1999) call for additional focus on implementation processes.
They note the small sum of dedicated research and said, "with few exceptions, research
has considered marketing strategy processes broadly, with only tangential reference to the
implementation stage" (p. 58). A grounded theory study resulted in a model of the
significant forces involved in marketing plan implementation. They tested the model
18
with many managers inside of two large companies and found that there was a significant
relationship between role performance (comprised of strategy commitment and role
commitment) and employee buy-in on implementation success. Their study provides a
theoretical foundation for the important subject of implementation. However, they also
point to the need for future research regarding managerial insights and other theory
generation efforts.
The complexity of marketing implementation situations make it difficult to
empirically assess. Vorhies and Morgan (2003) use configuration theory to describe the
need for different implementation approaches for firms ofdiffering strategic types. They
surveyed marketing executives in the transportation industry and found a link between
the marketing organization fit within its business strategy and marketing performance.
Their look at implementation makes a significant advancement, but even they conclude
that marketing implementation needs a tremendous amount of additional research.
Organizational Learning
The fourth objective ofmarketing planning is organizationalleaming and
improvement. Organizational learning is, "a process by which organizations as
collectives learn through interaction with their environments. The organizational
learning process is viewed as a cyclical one in which "individuals" actions lead to
organizational interactions with the environment, the environment responds, and
environmental responses are interpreted by individuals who learn by updating their
beliefs about cause-effect relationships" (Sinkula 1994; p. 35).
19
Controls are placed into marketing plans to foster learning. The entire marketing
planning process supports the learning capabilities of an organization and delivers
information designed to bolster the efficacy of the firm. Controls allow for the connection
ofmarketing management to the initial component of marketing research. Without this
linkage, marketing planning would not be a process but rather a series of unconnected,
linear efforts.
The literature on organizational learning is immense and not easily summarized.
Whalen and Starbuck (2008) reviewed learning by organizations. They point to three
different forms of organizational attention and interpretation. Researchers have proposed
that organizations learn from different modes of interpretation (Daft and Weick, 1984),
an absorptive capacity (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990) and an organizational identity
(Dutton and Dukerich, 1991).
Two of the most distinct types ofleaming are single and double loop learning
(Argyris, 1976). Single loop learning occurs when errors are detected and corrected in
accordance with the plan's objectives. Single loop learning does not question underlying
beliefs or assumptions. Double loop learning goes a step farther. Not only does it detect
and correct errors, but it also reevaluates the existing norms and procedures that led to the
error. Duetero-leaming occurs when organizations learn how to carry out both single and
double loop learning. Dodgson (1993) points out that learning can occur distinctly in
different functions of the organization including marketing. Therefore, strategic
marketing planning can encapsulate its own level of organizational learning separate
from that of the organization as a whole.
· ----------------
20
Brews and Hunt (1999) attempted to mitigate a long-standing debate between
planning advocates, such as Ansoff (1991) and learning advocates, such as Mintzberg
(1994). Managers from 426 finns of differing size and industry responded to surveys
regarding their planning, environments and perfonnance. The results showed greater
support for the planning perfonnance link but noted that the value of incrementalism and
learning should not be completely discounted. Although they did not put the debate to
rest entirely, they did link planning and learning together and began to bridge the
theoretical silos among some management scholars.
The four components representing the objectives ofmarketing planning should be
cyclical (Smith, 2005). As the planning process comes full circle, the situational analysis
is bolstered by infonnation collected through the implementation of the last program
schedule and stored in the organizational memory. The next marketing planning process
repeats the situational analysis. Ifproperly designed and managed, the infonnation
gained through the learning process is available for review. Degrees of fonnality and
sophistication in connecting the planning cycles vary. The integration of planning cycles
can be explicitly designed and systematically managed through controls created in the
previous plan or it can be infonnal and left to the experience and memory of individuals.
In theory, the marketing planning process is logical and thorough. One difficulty
in planning is in its implementation (Noble and Mokwa 1999). Plans are not exact and
rarely, if ever, accurately forecast their intended futures. As Bonoma (1985) said,
"marketing for a number of years has been long on advice about what to do in a given
competitive or market situation and short on useful recommendations on how to do it
21
within company, competitor, and customer constraints" (p. 207). Piercy (1998) agrees
that implementation does not receive nearly the amount of attention that it deserves
relative to strategic formulation. By ignoring the reality that plans are inherently wrong,
we leave our theory void of contingency processes. A more thorough understanding of
what to do when plans are broken is needed.
Marketing planning's components have been thoroughly researched. However,
this review of planning's individual components suggests that the implementation of the
plan has become an integrated concept paramount to the planning literature. One area of
implementation that has not been considered in relation to marketing planning is
improvisation. Improvisation could update the planning process for current methods of
complex and dynamic systems. The next section of this chapter reviews the literature on
improvisation.
Improvisation
To understand how planning improves firm performance, the marketing planning
literature must be augmented with an understanding of implementation efforts. Most of
the planning literature assumes that a well conceived plan must then still be (at least
partially) executed. In the course ofthat execution, new information, misanalysis, error
or reconsideration can cause the need to improvise, or to create and execute in the
moment. Dennis and Macaulay (2003) ascertain the importance of improvisation for
organizations to deal with environmental turbulence and increasingly complex and
22
competitive environments. They conclude that planning is the central theme from which
improvisation springs Planning and improvisation are more than not mutually exclusive,
they are inherently dependent on each other. The second section of this chapter reviews
the improvisation literature.
The review begins with an overview of improvisation. Different definitions from
different fields are considered. Time is an important variable in those definitions and
issues oftemporality are considered. Following the overview, summaries ofthe
exemplary conceptual and empirical work are presented.
The review on improvisation reveals an important gap. The previous empirical
studies have aggregated the phenomenon of improvisation and by doing so assume
equality among differing types of improvisation. While this might be true, to date there
has not been an effort to detail the types of improvisations that exist that could support
such an assumption. The concept of post plan improvisation needs more specific research
to identify the different types that exist.
Defining Improvisation
Multiple definitions of improvisation have emerged from various fields.
Moorman and Miner (1998b) include a table with forty-two different constructs of
improvisation generated from communication, management, music, medical, theatrical,
education and other researchers (see Table 2.1). Such diverse fields are bound to bring
up new perspectives that enrich the general knowledge base. However, there is a
---------
23
commonality to the quotes and perspectives. The universal realization of dealing with
unforeseen circumstances, in the moment, is very similar across fields. Often, different
terms are employed to describe the same concept. For example, the term "composition"
repeatedly appears throughout both the management and music citations. In Section C. -
Theatre Perspectives on Improvisation, Knapp (1989) relates improvisation to, "playing
the game" (p. 383). In Section F. - Other Perspectives on Improvisation, Bjurwill (1993)
in a sport-minded article relates improvisation to, "reading and reacting in parallel" (p.
1383). It is interesting that these two, vastly different perspectives could be easily
interchanged.
24
Table 2.1- lmprovisation Across Disciplines
Definition Page Author(s) Year Domain
A. Organizational perspectives on improvisation
"the acts of composing and perfonning are inseparable, and
each composition/perfonnance is different from previous Organizational
compositions/performances" 95 Bastien & Hostager 1992 Communication
"Improvisation in the present...to stay focused on current
conditions...while maintaining project schedules" 9 Brown & Eisenhardt 1997 Product Development
"Intuition guiding action in a spontaneous way" 1 Crossan & Sorrenti 1997 Management
"Intuition guiding action upon something in a spontaneous but
historically contextualized way" 5 Hatch 1997 Management
"An activity which requires no preparation and obeys no rules" 65 Mangham 1986 Management
"lmprovisation - the casting around for a precedent or referent
that will enable someone to deal with a circmllstance for which
no script appears to be innnediately to hand" 41 Mangham & Pye 1991 Management
"To be composed while perfonned" 51 Perry 1991 Management
"lmprovisation is to be distinguished from rewriting a musical
in that changes are introduced during the perfonnance by the
performing individuals and not by the composer before the Organizational
event" 84 Preston 1991(a) Development
"On the spot surfacing, criticizing, restructuring and testing of Management/
intuitive understandings of experienced phenomena" 147 Schon 1983 education
"a just in time strategy" 229 Weick 1987 Management
"There is no split between composition and perfonnance; 110
split between creator and interpreter; and 110 split between
design and production" 6 Weick 1993(a) Management
"lmprovisation implies attention ra1her than intention drives
the process of designing" 351 Weick 1993 (b) Management
"Thinking and doing unfold simultaneously; retrospective Firefighting
sense making" 19 Weick 1996 management
B. Musical Perspectives on Improvisation
"Imagination guiding action in an unplanned way, allowing for
multitude of split second adjustments" 3 Chase 1988 Music
"lmprovisation follows the blueprint me1hod but this second
approach. The improviser may be unable to look ahead at
what he is going to play, but he can look behind at what he just
played" 61 Gioia 1988 Jazz/Management
"The spontaneous creation of music" 119 Kernfeld 1995 Music
345
"Free from effects of previous training; the opposite ofpure &
composition" 346 Pressing 1984 Music
"Real-time composition" 142 Pressing 1988 Music
"Unlike compositional creativity, which involves a long period
ofcreative work leading up to a creative product, in
improvisational creativity, the creative process and the
resulting product are co-occurring" Sawyer 1992 Music
"playing extemporaneously... i.e.. Without the benefit of
written music" 378 Schuller 1968 Music
"Improvisation involves making decisions affecting the
composition ofmusic during its perfonnance. The fundamental
ideal of improvisation is the discovery and invention of
original music spontaneously, while performing it" 226 Solomon 1986 Music
"The art of spontaneously creating music while playing or Neural network theory
singing" 399 Toivaincn 1995 applied to music
25
Table 2.1 (continued).
Definition Page Author(s) Year Domain
C. Theatre perspectives on improvisation
"to substitute... staid and preconceived notions for the
unforeseen, the improvised, the unknown, the world of
imponderables" 59 Knapp 1989 Theater
"Playing the game; setting to solve a problem with no
preconception as to how you will do it; permitting everything
in the environment to work for you in solving a problem" 383 Spolin 1963 Theater
D. Therapy perspectives on improvisation
Embrey, Guthrie, Pediatric physical
"Practice without prior planning" 22 White & Dietz 1996 therapy
"complete freedom" 221 Esman 1951 Psychoanalysis
"In clinical improvisation, therapists experience IOOments of Clinical Music
spontaneity, creativity and intuituion" 130 Forinash 1992 Therapy
"Improvisation occurs when there is evidence that the child
used some lookahead [strategies] but little evidence tha the
child's drawn solution was based on a completely deliberated Developmental
plan" 482 Gardner & Rogoff 1990 psychology
"to be highly respectful of form even as it rewOlks its previous
instantiations" 22* Liechenstein 1993 Psychoanalysis
"Being, acting, creating in the moment without props and
supports, without security, can be supreme play, and can be
very frightening, the very opposite ofplay" 23 Nachmanovitch 1990 Therapy
"Spontaneous music behavior Orsmond & Miller 1995 Music therapy
"Juggling with ideas and feelings (in one's head) and trying out Music psychiatric
silent interventions" 81 Towse & Flower 1993 therapy
E. Teaching perspectives on Improvisation
"To IOOve away from scripted lesson plans...an
improvisational actor enters the stage with a definition of the 473
general situation and a set of guidelines for peforming his or &
herrole, rather than working from a detailed script" 475 Borko & Livingston 1989 Teaching
"To process information continuously and make numerous
ineractive inflight decisions" 110 Cleary & Groer 1994 Health education
"Situational decision making" "To do things in lessons they 200
hadn't planned for - to discover whether they [teachers] & Graham, Manross,
actually made up activities on the spot" 205 Hopple & Sitzman 1993 Physical education
"Thinking in the midst of action" "Responding to the unknown
without advance preparation" 630 hby 1992 Physical training
"The creation of [algebra] problems that fit the immediate
context of the student's misunderstanding in a way that
preplanned problems could not The fact that the problems
were new for both the student and the teacher meant that the
problems were being composed by the teacher on the spot. " 6 Yinger 1986 Teaching
F. Other perspectives on improvisation
"Reading and reacting in parallel" 1383 Bjurwill 1993 Sports
"no agreed mechanism for changing British constitution or
even any agreement about what the constitution actually
contains" 18 The Economist 1995 Politics
"Role improvisation is defined as the extent to which the
organization and meaning of roles are invented by the people
immediately involved in a relationship ....actors reinterpret,
redefine, and re-structure their relationships during the on-
going process of interaction" 289 Powers 1981 Sociology
"Rapid, unplanned change" 565 Volkman 1994 Anthropology
----"- -_ .. -------
26
Moorman and Miner (1998a) define the construct of improvisation as, "when the
composition and execution of an action converge in time, so that, in the limit, they occur
simultaneously." Moorman and Miner's definition succinctly highlights the important
contemporaneous quality of improvisation. However, their attention to time is both an
important and problematic distinction. It is an important contribution because they
successfully distinguish improvisation from the antiquated planning norm, which
supports two separate periods of strategy formulation and implementation. This view is
consistent with western perspectives on time as having a distinct past, present and future.
Unfortunately, their definition is problematic because time is a relative measure that often
goes unquestioned (Crossan et aL 2005). As such, definitions and research on
improvisation that use Moorman and Miner's definition will inherently be subject to
temporal interpretation.
To more clearly demarcate improvisation, it is useful to look at its differences
with some closely related terms; bricolage, creativity, adaptation and opportunism. A
term often associated with improvisation is bricolage. Baker et al. (2003) define
bricolage as making due with the resources at hand. Pina e Cunha et aL (1999) define
bricolage as the ability to build solutions from available resources. Although related,
bricolage can be planned and is separate from improvisation. For example, a firm might
leave open the creation of something based upon assets to be determined later in the
future. If they are expecting a variable outcome and realize that the future circumstances
will depend on that outcome, bricolage can be planned in advance. Due to the
27
spontaneity of improvisation, available resources are determined at any given moment so
all improvisation is a form of unplanned bricolage.
Adaptation is adjusting to the environment (Moorman and Miner 1998) or
external conditions (Campbell 1989) and is different from improvisation because it can
be conceived before its implementation. Learning is the discovery, retention and
exploitation of knowledge (Moorman and Miner 1998). Unlike improvisation,
experiments can be explicitly devised for the purpose of leaming. Opportunism is seizing
attractive, unexpected developments (Moorman and Miner 1998) and can also be
anticipated or planned.
Time and Improvisation
Implementation schedules are inextricably linked to time. Through the
conceptual expansion of time, strategies can be reduced into a series of actionable tactics.
The two most common forms of temporal organization are clock time and event time.
Clock time has become so commonplace that it seems tautological. Clock-time
management is most notably distinguished by triggers in change due to temporal shifts
and not actual problems or events (Crossan et al. 2005). Event-time is based on
meaningful events and their subsequent responses.
From an implementation schedule perspective, these forms of time
conceptualization are usually separate. Either the passage of time or events drives the
plan. Both clock time and event time have been shown to possess contingent advantages.
28
Implementation schedules based on clock time have been demonstrated to drive
innovation output (Brown and Eisenhardt 1997). Without arbitrary forces such as the
passage of time, pressures to produce might not be as high. Event time has been shown
to be more advantageous in turbulent environments. Clark (1985) demonstrated that
under conditions of uncertainty, individuals with heterogeneous time reckoning
outperform individuals with homogenous ones. Instead of focusing on coordination and
communication of shared schedules, major and obvious milestone completion allows for
more optimal team production. While accountability, and therefore performance, can be
increased through both temporal management techniques, they are most commonly
employed in absence of each other.
"Improvisational processes are a means for transcending these traditional
dualities" (Crossan et al. 2005 p. 134). Organizational improvisation must be responsive
to changes in the environment and intend to shape that same environment. It can serve as
a synthesis between event time and clock time. Under the right circumstances
(experimental culture, real time information and communication, memory, expertise and
teamwork skills) improvisation can maximize a firm's ability to implement their strategic
plan (Crossan et al. 2005).
The temporal component of improvisation has caused some specific debate.
Baker et al. (2003) note that Moorman and Miner's (1998) definition refers to
"composition" and is assumed to imply both novelty and intentionality of action. These
two components of improvisation are important components of the definition and should
be explicitly accounted for. Dyba (2000) argues that the substantive convergence rather
29
than the temporal convergence is an important distinction between rapid sequencing of
distinct action steps and true improvisation.
Given the relative nature of time, collective agreement on this point is unlikely.
However, it does illustrate one of the most pressing issues in improvisational theory.
Does deviation from intention necessitate improvisation? Or, does some measure of
cognitive reflection and strategic response that is less than immediate indicate something
other than improvisation? I believe that it is the former and not the latter. Plans are an
attempt to model the future. The length of the planning cycle is a discretionary choice
made by the planner. Any deviation from the plan before the completion of the planning
cycle equals an improvisational action. Contingency plans represent the planner's ability
to predict and prepare for deviations from plans.
Improvisational Units of Analysis
Different units of analysis contribute to the construct's ambiguity. Vera and
Crossan (2004) provide a summary of the characteristics of improvisation across levels
identified in prior research (see Table 2.2). The table helps clarify the subtle distinctions
of improvisation in each unit of analysis; individual, group-organization and
organizational environment. Individual characteristics of improvisation include
important personality traits that managers can identifY or enhance in order to improve, or
potentially, to discourage improvisation. Group and organization characteristics
highlight the network identities, cultures and processes that typify improvisational
clusters. Finally, organization-environment characteristics typify the macro-
environmental settings needed to foster improvisational activity.
Table 2.2 - Characteristics of Improvisation
30
Individual Willingness to forego planning and rehearsing in favor of acting in real time**
Well-developed understanding of internal resources and the materials at hand*
Proficient without blueprints*
Ability to identify minimal structures for embellishing*
Predisposed to recognize partial relevance of previous experience to present novelty*
Hi~h confidence to deal with nonroutine events*
Group
Organization
Organization-
Environment
e erence or an com 0 WI process ra e r an s ruc ure, w IC rna es I eaSIer 0 wor ( WI
ongoing development, restructuring, and realization of outcomes, and easier to postpone the
Willingness to risk the 4 C's - the desire to be consistent, comfortable, confident and competent
Solid base of technical skill*,**,***, ***
Individuals take the lead at different times**,***
Ability to agree on minimal structures for embellishing*
Presents of associates similarly committed to and competent at impromptu making do*, **
Skilful at building on performance of others to keep the interaction going and to set up interesting
possibilities for one another*,**,*
Ability to maintain the pace and tempo at which others are extemporizing*
Focused on coordination here and now and not distracted by memories or anticipation* ,**
action*, ****
Common goal ****
Tolerance for error within organization - especially reward systems**
Culture of freindship versus professionalism**
Emotional tension and release***
Real-time information flows****
Communion among players and audience members***
Customer has a tolerance for error**
Environmental turbulence and unpredictability requires improvisational capability**, ****
Need to be open to cues from the environment**
* Weick, 1998.
** Crossan et aI., 1996
***Crossan and Sorrenti, 1997; Hatch, 1998
****Moorman and Miner, 1997,1998
Pina e Cunha et al. (1999) petition for clarity of the organizational meaning
involved with the usually closely coupled terms "organization" and "improvisation".
31
They are careful to preserve the different characteristics for each unit of analysis. To
move past what they deem to be an overly simplistic interpretation of "collective equals
organizational" explanation, they define organizational improvisation as "the conception
of action as it unfolds, by an organization and/or its members, drawing on available
material, cognitive, affective and social resources."
Conceptual and Empirical Research on Improvisation
The unpredictability in timing inherent to improvisational opportunities has
limited the construct's measurement and empirical research. Most of the extant research
and literature is conceptual. Jazz and Theatre have both been used as metaphors for
communicating and educating (Dennis and Macaulay 2003; Meyer and Frost 1998; Vera
and Crossan 2004; Weick 1998). Jazz based research led to advancements in
understanding improvisation through detailed explanations of how musicians work
individually and collectively to produce music that constantly pushes the edge of chaos
looking for insight and novelty. Injazz, there is an inherent, ongoing tension to
improvise on something while maintaining the essence of the scripted music (Wieck
1998). However, the novel output ofjazz is not simply serendipity. Barrett and
Peplowski (1998) point out that jazz is actually very structured. There is an underlying
framework to the creative freedom of each musician. This structure "provides the
necessary backdrop to coordinate action and organize choice of notes" (Barrett and
Peplowski, p. 558). As Charlie Mingus, a famous jazz musician once explained, "you
32
can't improvise on nothing, you've gotta improvise on something" (Kernfeld 1995, p.
119).
Vera et al. (2005) augment the jazz metaphor with theatrical improvisation.
Theatre is a more advantageous metaphor than jazz because it is more transparent.
Theatre's use of speech, gestures and movement is more easily relatable to organizational
improvisation. Music takes additional training and exposure to fully grasp. Through the
use of the theatrical metaphor, Vera et al. were able to explain collective improvisation in
teams and suggest how that might lead to innovative perfonnance of finns.
Recently, Dennis and Macaulay (2007) argued that improvisation is a key element
for achieving a market orientation. A market orientation is one of marketing's most
fundamental tenants. By linking the need for finns to improvise in order to become
market oriented, Dennis and Macaulay attempt to integrate improvisation into one of
marketing's core tenants.
Early interest from management researchers in the conceptual potential of
improvisation were generally unabashed supporters of its communicative, metaphorical
promise. However, there were a few petitions for caution. Hatch (1998) warned that,
"organizational researchers may fall prey to romanticizing improvisation's likely value
for organizations." Dennis and Macaulay (2003) further explain the danger of over-
improvisation. They speculate that unanticipated change stemming from improvisation
could lead to confusion regarding the organization's purpose in external and internal
markets.
33
More often, researchers point to a balance between the good and bad outcomes
associated with improvisation (Vera and Crossan 2005; Weick 1998). Wieck (1998)
speculated that the relative speed to implementation could provide firms with a source of
competitive advantage. However, he also noted that bursts of improvisation could lead to
an overabundance of new products and processes that overextend the firm's support
capabilities.
Vera and Crossan (2005) found that improvisation can have positive effects on
team innovation when moderated by the right team and contextual effects such as
expertise, real time information, experimental culture and teamwork quality. Moorman
and Miner (1998a) found that improvisation has both negative and positive outcomes for
firms and also note the unique qualities of organizational memory on performance. Their
study showed that improvisation can help problem solving and allow firms to capitalize
on unique opportunities. They operationalized these benefits as product and process
outcomes with positive and negative results of varying frequency and impact. Dyba
(2000) concludes that there are skilled and unskilled improvisations that can lead to either
good or bad results. He speculates that the management of the amount and access to
expertise and knowledge is at the core of improvisational returns. Too much reliance on
memory limits exploratory behavior needed for innovation, and too much risk taking
leads to fruitless experimentation and repeated failures.
Research is needed to further expose the contextual and temporal conditions that
may predict improvisational outcomes. The amount of environmental turbulence and
existing knowledge stores are the most commonly cited contextual predictors (Dyba
34
2000; Moorman and Miner 1998a; Weick 1998). In areas of increased turbulence, too
much planning can consume time and resources while providing counterproductive
guides to action. Memory both precludes the creative initiation of improvisation while at
the same time increasing the organization's capability of reaping improvisational
benefits.
Much ofthe extant empirical work on improvisation has been qualitative. Three
of the more salient examples include the context of the Mann Gulch disaster (Weick
1993), the World Trade Center attacks on September 11 th, 2001 (Mendonca, 2005) and
the story of a massive navigation failure of a large ship barreling towards a dock
(Hutchins 1991) . The first exemplary qualitative example explores the Mann Gulch
disaster of 1949. Weick (1993) describes how a group of firefighters were forced to
improvise in order to survive after everything that they thought they knew suddenly
umaveled. The Mann Gulch disaster demonstrates how improvisation can partially
prevent disruptions of sensemaking that lead to disintegration. Memory and routines
prevented most of the firefighters from escaping alive. What is normally considered an
asset, their experience, turned into a liability, a rigidity to thinking in the moment. An
illustrative example of that alternative also emerges from the review. A foreman
managed to escape impending doom by doing the unthinkable, starting a new fire. By
burning the surrounding brush that acted as fuel, the larger fire swept by under-fueled,
saving his life.
The second exemplary qualitative study on improvisation reviewed the events of
September 11 th, 2001 (Mendonca 2005). The tragedy of the terrorist attack hit a
35
particularly sensitive target. Mendonca (2005) shows how the interdependent
infrastructure systems proved to be a liability for responders on that fateful morning and
for rescue efforts long after. The salient context that unraveled before the world serves as
a powerful tool to discuss the phenomenon of improvisation. The analysis supports the
need for emergency responders to be trained with improvisational techniques in order to
better and more safely help during times of crisis.
The third and last exemplary qualitative study reviewed a fortuitous research
opportunity aboard the pilot house of a large navy ship (Hutchins 1991). The researcher
happened to be aboard studying a different organizational phenomenon when he found
himself in the middle of a rare opportunity. As the ship was preparing to dock the
propulsion system suddenly failed. This left the crew without the ability to communicate
and maneuver as trained. The chaos that followed gave way to the improvisational
creation of new systems of organization. The study showed the ability of organizations
to adapt and learn outside of the planned environment. It also describes the difficult
nature of improvisational research. If Hutchins had not been a trained social researcher
in the midst of another project, he could not have predicted the improvisational events
and thus reported them.
The interest developed in improvisation has not resulted in a significant number
of quantitative studies. Three major exceptions exist. Moorman and Miner (1998a)
investigated the impact of improvisation in the new product development process for two
large companies. The dependent variables included new product processes and outcomes
that were made up of two measures of product improvement and four measures of
36
process effectiveness. The independent variables included environmental turbulence,
real-time organization information, and organizational memory. The results of their
study support concerns that improvisation can have mixed effects. The negative effects
show improvisation reduces new product effectiveness. The results also support the idea
that memory serves internal improvisation processes and product outcomes and that
improvisation can control the effects of internal memory, which can be managed for
effective outcomes. Finally, they noted that memory has a paradoxical effect on
improvisation. It decreases the likelihood of engaging in improvisational behavior but at
the same time it increases the likelihood of successful innovation. This paradox
insinuates that there is both a floor and a ceiling effect of memory, and organizations
must manage their knowledge stores somewhere in the middle.
A second study by Vera and Crossan (2005) looked at the impact of improvisation
on innovation moderated by expertise, teamwork, experimental culture, real time
information, communication and memory. Five of six moderators proved to be
significantly moderating effects. Memory was not supported as an additional moderator
but the researchers believe their inconclusive finding were partially the result of
ineffective memory instruments. Ultimately, they concluded that improvisation and
innovation are equivocal without the presence of these important moderators and that
improvisation can be taught and managed within organizations.
A third study by Stotegraaf and Dickson (2004) addresses post-plan improvisation
and marketing planning capabilities. They surveyed Fortune 1000 marketing planners
about their plan's comprehensiveness and budgets. They discovered a paradox exists.
37
Firms with stronger marketing capabilities were less likely to improvise because of
capability rigidities. Yet, when firms with stronger marketing capabilities did improvise,
their long-term performance relative to their competitors was better.
The review on improvisation reveals an important gap. Little attention has been
given to the contextual differences among improvisations. Whether this is due to
pragmatic decisions that concede to the difficulty of measuring an unpredictable
phenomemon or this is because the researchers assume the differences are not meaningful
is not known. However, until more empirical evidence regarding the extant types of
improvisations exists, these assumptions remain problematic.
Research Questions
The previous two sections of this literature review have independently identified
gaps in their respective literatures. The marketing planning literature concludes that the
planning and performance links do not fully capture the management effects occurring
between the time the plan is created and when the performance measures are taken. This
suggests that the implementation process needs to be more closely investigated. Further,
the management of the plan and efforts to keep that process dynamic and current are not
adequately addressed. The improvisation section exposed the need for more detailed
investigation into the extant types of improvisations. Until now, measures have generally
aggregated all occasions of improvisations as one generalizable phenomenon.
38
This final section will address the fusion ofmarketing planning and improvisation
and then develop the research questions that will direct the rest of this dissertation. To do
this, some review is necessary.
Historically, marketing theory and the entrepreneurship literature have depicted
planning as a rigid process of formulating and implementing strategy and
overemphasized its efficacy (Dennis and Macaulay 2003; Miner et al. 2001; Moorman
and Miner 1998b). Dennis and Macaulay (2003) integrate Piercy and Morgan's (1994)
marketing planning model with jazz metaphors to demonstrate the potential importance
of including improvisation in strategic marketing. According to Piercy and Morgan,
planning exists in the analytical, behavioral and organizational dimensions. Dennis and
Macaulay (2003) posit that improvisation permeates each of these dimensions and should
be addressed, managed or limited accordingly.
Entrepreneurial literature has historically implied a design-precedes-execute
framework (DPE). In contrast, Baker et al. (2003) looked at the foundation activity of
new ventures. Their results indicated that firms in knowledge-based industries more
often originated from improvisational reactions to market opportunities than from
premeditation or traditional planning models. They noted that the (DPE) framework,
"assumes a mainly linear process in which entrepreneurial volition leads to gestational
planning activities" (p.256). However, their results showed that knowledge-based firms
were more likely to start from a more organic, improvisational launch. Founders who
already worked in the same industry and market as employees of another company, were
more prevalent than DPE's. Often times, the opportunity to start the company stemmed
39
from a missed opportunity of their employer or a key relationship that reduced the risk of
leaving their existing firms. They also noted tactics were leading to unintended strategic
changes. Classic DPE models would require the reverse, strategies to determine tactical
changes. This surprising finding further questions the traditional DPE framework.
Marketing planning is a process for assessing the enviromnent, developing
strategy, plotting the implementation of that strategy and learning from experience. The
history of marketing planning has followed a predictable path of phenomenon assertion,
counter-assertion and a slightly qualified consensus (Smith 2005). The principles of
marketing are straightforward and logical. The realities of managing marketing are not as
simple. The next generation of marketing management research needs to look for
practical understanding about executing plans in increasingly turbulent environments
(Grant 2003). Improvisation is central to this research because it unpeels the mysteries
of how organizations manage "on the fly." Until now, most of the improvisation
literature has focused on artistic metaphors from jazz and theatre. However, they may
have taken us as far as they can go and should not be overly compared to inherently less
risk adverse, business applications. The next phase of research should look to expand our
understanding of the improvisation phenomenon in its actual business context. The
difficulty in doing this is not to be underestimated. By definition, improvisation happens
unexpectedly. Deviating from the plan is never explicitly anticipated; otherwise the plan
would have been created or changed accordingly. Improvisational research can be
extremely beneficial to the marketing literature because it will illuminate some
techniques beyond planning for how to "do" marketing. Dynamic new tools are needed,
40
along with the underlying knowledge to produce them, to help managers better combat
issues where they must work outside of the expected opportunities, away from their
plans, but without losing the investment and focus that planning provides.
The previous review of the marketing planning literature leads to a focus on
improvisation. The elusive nature of improvisation seems to have prevented wide-spread
empirical investigation. However, its expected frequency and its potential impact make it
an important topic to pursue. Having a market orientation makes marketing plmming
particularly susceptible to post plan improvisation. Yet the nature of post plan
improvisation is relatively unknown. The previous quantitative studies have aggregated
improvisation and by doing so assume equality among differing types of improvisation.
However, this assumption is unfounded and the concept of post plan improvisation needs
more specific research to identify the different types that exist.
Pina e Cunha et al. (1999) argue for, "metaphor to be gradually replaced by other
research methods, fitter to a more mature body of knowledge" (p. 336). They conclude
that, "the building of a useful typology of this phenomenon seems only possible through a
wide empirical grounding" (p. 311). Previous literature has looked at the different levels
of improvisation (Weick 1998; Moorman and Miner 1998b) but has not identified the
specific types of actions that firms improvise on. Given improvisation's illusiveness,
noted by the lack of empirical work, and confluence, noted by the ongoing attempts at
defining the term, knowing more about the types of actions that firms improvise on
would help remedy these situations. A taxonomy is the first step to building a typology
and could begin to address what types ofpost plan improvisations might lead to more
41
successful outcomes. The following research questions about improvisational
implementation drive the following dissertation:
• What are the different types of post plan improvisations of strategic
marketing plans?
Firms plan and improvise. When faced with new information it is important for
firms to know when to follow their plans and when to improvise. A taxonomy could help
provide the framework for investigation that could deliver insights that help firms address
that dilemma. By identifying the full spectrum of improvisational actions, future research
can begin to look for contextual determinants of success. The next chapter will detail the
methodology used to address these questions.
42
CHAPTER III
METHOD
"The nature of "good practice" in marketing
management and the coordination of marketing
activities with other functions are currently
nonquantifiable phenomena; they are so complex it
is impossible at this early stage of theory
development to know what to count."
- Bonoma, 1985 p. 203
Introduction of the Critical Incident Technique
Bonoma's quote supports the need to focus on identifying and defining important
marketing phenomenon rather than prematurely testing for evidence of causality. One
method that empowers such studies is the critical incident technique (CIT). CIT was
introduced in an occupational psychology study that looked at flight school failures of
pilots (Flanagan 1954). Since then, the method has been used as part of a behavioral
event interview (McClelland 1976; Spencer 1983), to investigate trust in the management
literature (Butler 1991), and to explore business development techniques in the
entrepreneurship literature (Chell et al. 1991; Wheelock and Chell 1996). CIT first
appeared in the marketing literature in 1975 (Swan and Rao 1975). Bitner et al.'s (1990)
43
seminal study inspired a wave of service research. Eighty-nine percent ofthe one
hundred and forty one CIT marketing studies were published in the thirteen years
following their article. Gremler's (2004) meta-analysis documents the highs and lows of
the method's use over the last thirty years. He critiques the extant studies on their
sampling, reliability, objectivity and systemization. Of the one hundred and forty one
studies, he identifies six seminal pieces that he suggests serve as exemplars for future
research.
Accordingly, and in order to investigate the previously outlined research
questions regarding post plan improvisations, this study uses the critical incident
technique (CIT). This method particularly matches the nature of improvisational research
for five reasons. First, the variance in backgrounds and business contexts is not expected
to influence the likelihood of post plan improvisation. However, constructing
quantitatively based surveys with universal terminology and satisfactory reliability would
be difficult. CIT allows respondents to reflect in their normal way of thinking and in
their own words. The CIT method is non restrictive and produces unequivocal, concrete
information (ChellI998). Second, CIT is primarily an inductive process. The sparse
empirical literature on improvisation would benefit from the foundation of an exploratory
method used to create knowledge about the phenomenon. Because of its inductive
capability, CIT does not require a priori hypotheses. Instead, new concepts and theories
will be formed from patterns that emerge from the responses. Third, the next generation
of marketing planning must demonstrate a new, more dynamic understanding of the
planning and implementation process. The planning phase and implementation phase can
44
no longer develop independently. CIT is particularly adept at producing an accurate and
in depth records of events. This information source will serve as an empirical starting
point for future improvisationally-based research in tune with the modem understanding
ofmarketing planning. Fourth, as planning's foothold has lost some of its stature
(Mintzberg 1994), practitioner buy-in will be critical. The rich, verbatim stories that
result from CIT responses provide powerful and vivid insights into the phenomenon.
These stories make strong communication tools that might rebuild interest in academic
studies focused on strategic planning. Such insights could produce reliable and valid
academic contributions, and because of the information origin, the output could also
suggest very practical solutions for managers. Finally, the method has been praised as a
culturally neutral method. Firm differences in industry and size are very similar to
cultural differences (Chell 1998). With CIT there is no a priori determination of what
will be important, and therefore voices and opinions of vastly different groups are able to
be accounted for thus producing theoretical foundations that are truly generalizable.
There are drawbacks and dangers to using CIT for both the researcher and subject.
From the researcher's standpoint, qualitative methods studies are often more heavily
scrutinized for reliability and validity because incidents can be misinterpreted
(Desphande 1983) or misunderstood more easily than qualitative data. Multiple,
independent coders and hold out samples are recommended to bolster confidence in
reliability and validity. Additionally, the researcher determines the categories for
discussing the results of the study. This process requires the researcher to systematically
inspect the responses for patterns. Errors in classifying the responses can be particularly
45
dangerous due to the foundational intentions of such exploratory research. Systemization
of the data must be closely scrutinized or future research efforts that build from its
foundation will be unfounded. From the subject's standpoint, the retrospective nature of
the questioning introduces the chance for recall bias, memory lapses and consistency
factors (Chell 1998). It requires the respondents to provide accurate and truthful
feedback. Additionally, the CIT process is somewhat intrusive and taxing, and low
response rates are common.
These six studies are presented in Table 3.1 and wherever possible will be
consulted for best practices in the upcoming study. Gremler (2004) summarizes his
conclusions in a pragmatic checklist for using the CIT in the future (see Table 3.1). By
following this checklist, this study will attempt to maximize the positive attributes of CIT
mentioned above and reduce its limitations.
46
Table 3.1 - 6 Seminal CIT Studies (GremIer 2004)
Units of
Title Author(s) Journal Year Analysis # of incidents Categories
320 passenger
reported Passengers perception of the source
International incidents and 80 of the critical incident, The actions
Service Breakdowns: A Joumal of Service Service airline employee of the passenger, The effect of the
Study of Critical Industry encounters 0 f reported critical incident on the passenger's
Incidents in an Airline Edvardsson Management 1992 an airline incidents relations with the airline
774 (397 Satisfying and Dissatisfying
Critical Service satisfactory and Incidents - Response to Failures,
Encounters: The Bitner, Booms Journal of Service 377 Problem Customers, Repsonse to
Emplovee's Viewpoint & Mohr Marketing 1994 encounters dissatisfactory) Requests, Unprompted Action;
Satisfying and Dissatisfying
Incidents - Employee Response to
The Selvice Encounter: 699 (347 Service Delivery System Failure,
Diagnosing Favorable satisfactoryand Employee Response to Customer
and Unfavorable Bitner, Booms Journal of Service 352 Needs and Responses, Umpromted
Incidents & Tetreault Marketing 1994 encounters dissatisfactory) and Unsolicited Employee Actions
Pricing, Inconvenience, Core Service
Customer Switching Failures, Failed Service Encounters,
Behavior in Service Responses to Failed Service,
Industries: An Journal of Switching Competition, Ethical Problems,
Exploratory Study Keaveney Marketing 1995 Behaviors 516 Involuntary Switching, & Other
Reception at the Airport, Transfer to
Process-Oriented Sequential 347 (206 the Club Resort, Arrival at the Club
Measurement of Service Stauss and European Journal Service positive and 141 Resort, Check In, Wayto the Hotel
Quality Weinlich of Marketing 1996 Encounters negative) Room
Satisfying Incidents - Solved
Self Service Intensified Need, Better Than
Techmlogies: Alternative, Did its Job;
Understanding Customer Meuter, Encounters 823 (459 Dissatisfying Incidents-
Satisfaction with Ostrom, with Self satisfactoryand Technology Failure, Product Failure,
Techmlogy-Based Roundtree and Journal of Service 364 Poor Design, Customer-<lriven
Service Encounters Bitner Marketing 2000 Technologies unsatisfactory) failure
As a qualitative method, CIT does not generate generalizable conclusions. The
primary use of the critical incident method is to extract categorical meaning about under
studied phenomena. In a few previous cases, researchers have used additional
quantitative measures to gain a greater perception of the incident and subsequent
behavior (Meuter et al. 2000; Hoffman et al. 1995). This study follows that course and
includes a single, all inclusive measure of attribution and two descriptive measures
regarding planning cycle length and size of the firm. The attribution measure was
adapted from Meuter et al. (2000). It is important to note that the inclusion of
47
quantifiable measures does not imply the intention to generalize the data. Instead, the
data that are collected can be more rigorously analyzed and richly reported.
CIT has rarely been used outside of services research. However, Gremler's
(2004) review of the method and its productivity leads him to conclude that, "the CIT
method should be used beyond just services in such contexts as sales management,
marketing management, channels, negotiation and bargaining, and consumer behavior"
(p.78). He adds, "Given the contributions made by many of the studies using the CIT
method, researchers might consider using the method in the future to study a variety of
issues in such contexts."
The unit of analysis of this study is post plan improvisation of marketing plans. A
critical incident will be defined as the entire event surrounding a deviation from a finn's
intended marketing plan including its cause, the deviation from the plan and associated
outcomes. Each incident of post plan improvisation includes three units of observation
(see Figure 3.1).
48
Model of a Critical Incident (Edvardsson, 1992) ~
,-----------, r------~ I
Cause Course Result
Post Plan Improvisations of Strategic Marketing Plans
I Cause
L--I__
, __D_e_v_ia_ti_o_n_---.J
OUlco':-l
"-------_I
Figure 3.1 - Models of Critical Incidents and Post Plan
Improvisations
A noticeable difference in this study's criteria for inclusion than previous
improvisational research is the lack of temporal requirements. Instead, the critical
incidents are broadly defined to cast a wide net and include an action that was not
planned for in the marketing plan. The absence of explicit strategy and tactics is an
important part of planning and learning. Critical incidents are meant to include surprising
events and infonnation to look at the planner's attribution of blame. Should they have
planned more rigorously? Or, do they believe that no amount of planning would have
prepared them for such an event or discovery? The respondents will be asked to recall
explicit occasions when their actions were not consistent with their marketing plan and
attempt to associate those actions with an outcome. Responses will be scrutinized for
49
events that do not explicitly communicate an incident that deviates from their marketing
plan. Other business related issues such as accounting, finance or human resource issues
that do not have some connection to marketing will be eliminated from the data set. The
2004 AMA definition of marketing will be used as the basis for determining marketing's
relevance. The definition states that marketing is, "an organizational function and a set
of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for
managing customer relationships in ways to benefit the organization and its stakeholders"
(Keefe 2004, p. 17).
Questionnaire
A questionnaire was created using Qualtrics, an online survey development
instrument (see Table 3). The survey questions were adopted from Meuter et al.'s
exemplar CIT study because of its online format. Additionally, the survey was changed
from a service context to a marketing planning context to capture the incidents ofpost
plan improvisation. Pretests of the survey were sent in two separate rounds to one-
thousand members of the eventual target database. The goal of the pretest was to
determine the accessibility of marketing planners and the potential depth of information
shared regarding the critical incident. The first test provided only a 2.3% response rate,
below what was needed. The depth of the critical incident answers was sufficient and led
to the second pretest. An incentive was offered. Respondents of the survey were offered
a free downloadable business toolkit with business calculators and sample plans. The
incentive raised the response rate to an acceptable 10.3%.
50
The survey was designed to capture three areas of infonnation. First, the survey
inquired about the planner's company characteristics. Four questions attempted to solicit
location, revenue, age and product infonnation. The second area asked for infOlmation
about the planner. Five questions attempted to solicit job title, managerial focus,
education, and planning frequency and skill infonnation. The third area of the survey
vetted the planner for consideration into the study and then probed for open ended
infonnation about post plan improvisations and characteristics ofthat plan and their
feelings of attribution regarding the deviations that occurred. Additional contact
infonnation was asked for based on the respondent's willingness to be contacted for more
detailed infonnation.
Table 3.2 - Questionnaire (Developed in part from Meuter et aL 20(0)
Type of
Question # Question Response
Tell US aboutvo'Urbusiness.
Multiple
1 Where is your business located? Choice (11)
Multiple
2 What was your last year's revenue? Choice (7)
3 How many years has your business been open? Open Ended
Multiple
4 Which categorybest describes your business? (selVice or product based) Choice (2)
Tell ~III Y9U~H ...
5 What is your iob title? Open Ended
Multiple
6 In which capacity of your iob do you spend the most time working? Choice (5)
Multiple
7 What is your educational background? Choice (7)
Multiple
8 How would you rate your marketing planning skillleveI? Choice (5)
During the course ofyour career, how many marketing plans have you
9 been involved with developing? Open Ended
Tenusmon~about·thehlst marl{~ipgpIaI1You created and
atteIluHed to::imp\~Jijent!
10 Did you create a marlceting plan in the last eighteen months? Yes/No
Ifyou did create a marekting plan, did you attempt to implement that
11 Iplan? Yes/No
Check All that
12 Which components ofa marketing plan did your plan include Apply (6)
13 How many pages long was your marketing plan? Open Ended
This plan was intended to last months before it is formally
14 reviewed and another plan is created. Open Ended
Multiple
15 What was the marketing plan's focus? Choice (7)
When you attempted to implement from your marketing plan, did you Multiple
16 ever deviate from your original plan Choice (4)
Please consider one occasion when you deviated from your marketing
plan. Describe the circumstances leading up to the incident. Please
17 Iprovide as much detail as possible (a few sentences to a half page). Open Ended
Describe what happened during the incident. What specific details do
you recall that made the incident memorbable. Please provide as much
18 detail as possible (a few sentences to a halfpage). Open Ended
What was the specific outcome ofthe incident? Was it successful?
Was it unsuccessful? Not sure? Please provide as much detail as
19 Ipossible (a few sentences to a halfpage). Open Ended
Do you believe that ifyou spent more time during the planning processs
you could have been better prepared and eliminated the deviation you
20 !just described? Yes/No
Would you be available to answer further questions about this sUlVey if
21 the researcher needs additional information? Yes/No
Note: Additional questions were asked if the respondent indicated that they were not elible for
consideration into this study to better understand how firms that don't deviate from their plans
manage to do so.
51
52
Respondent Characteristics
Strategic planning is generally reserved for upper management and professional
marketing specialists. Unlike other CIT studies that interview likely service participants,
this study must question a relatively elite group of respondents in order to illuminate the
subject of post plan improvisation. Strategic marketing planners were targeted based on a
behavioral interest corridor. An internal database of the world's leading provider of
business and marketing planning software was used to survey likely planners. The sample
population consists of 15,000 marketing planning contacts that opted-in for future contact
from the software company. The software company's products are sold online and in
major retail outlets in the United States and Great Britain. Their name and logo were
included in the recruitment e-mail. The study's academic purpose, a detailed explanation
of the questionnaire and a hyperlink to the Qualtrics survey were also included in the e-
mail. In addition to the warm introduction by the software company, a summary of the
study's findings and a free, electronic, business toolkit were offered. This was expected
to generate the desired number of responses and usable incidents of post plan
improvisation. Based on previous CIT studies (Gremler 2004), 300 to 500 usable critical
incidents should provide the number needed to systematically develop categories.
Data Characteristics
Respondents were asked to provide a description of an incident in which they
deviated from their existing marketing plan. Through three, open ended questions, they
53
were probed for details on 1) what led up to their deviation, 2) descriptions of the
deviation itself and 3) the corresponding outcome. Pretests showed that both successful
and unsuccessful outcomes were likely to be reported. Due to the level of detail being
requested, each respondent were only asked to provide information about one complete
incident and were free to provide an incident with a positive or negative valence.
1424 surveys were returned. This represents a 10.2% return rate. In order to
limit the intrusion of its database members, the software firm did not allow follow up e-
mails. However, the 10.2% return rate meets other standards of online survey responses
(Sax, Gilmartin and Bryant 2003). Of the total 1424 responses, 891 responded that they
had been involved with creating a marketing plan in the previous eighteen months and
attempted to implement that plan. 70 of those respondents indicated that they had not
deviated from their plan during its implementation, leaving 821. 131 of these
respondents did not provide responses to the three primary qualitative questions
regarding their experience of post plan improvisation. These respondents were removed
leaving a total of 690 reviewable responses.
Data Quality
The 690 remaining responses were examined for their completeness, sensibility
and usability. Judges A and B performed the initial data screening, reviewing the
responses on the criteria that the respondent attempted to share an incident ofpost plan
improvisation in enough detail to be useful. Because the questionnaire was delivered
online and incentivized based on its completion, some respondents hit random keys in the
open-ended survey response sections to allow the survey management software to
54
continue towards completion of the survey. Non-sensible answers that did not form
coherent or logical responses were identified, discussed and then eliminated.
Simultaneously, Judges A and B investigated the respondent's answers to the
three open ended questions in their entirety. Although the questions were designed to
help the respondent streamline their answers in a complete and temporally consistent
manner (Cause- Deviation- Outcome), pretests showed that by reviewing the group of
answers as one complete set, the respondent's intentions could be better understood. The
judges systematically identified the presence of a cause, deviation and outcome. Ifthere
was no indication of a cause or a specific deviation then the response was eliminated. 275
responses were eliminated during the vetting process. Examples of responses that were
eliminated included incomplete information, generalizations of improvisations rather than
the specific identification of one incident, incoherent responses, extremely short
responses, and vague answers. These reviews resulted in 415 usable responses. (During
the coding process, judges were unable to agree on the meaning of an additional 31
incidents. They were eliminated and the final number of incidents as presented in
TABLE 3.3 was 384.)
55
Table 3.3 - Descriptive Statistics
Firm Cmmt % Mean (Median)
Location
US 273 71%
Canada 24 6%
Mexico 23 6%
Europe 6 2%
Asia 24 6%
Africa 19 5%
Australia 8 2%
South America 7 2%
Annual Revenue
> $50 70 18%
$50K -$99K 53 14%
$1 OOK - $249K 61 16%
$250K - $999K 55 14%
$lMillion - $2 Million 28 7%
$2 Million - $10 Million 51 13%
$10 Million or more 63 17%
Age 17.25 (7)
Planner
Education
No College Degree 45 12%
Undergraduate Degree - Non Business 87 23%
Undergraduate Degree - Business 101 27%
Masters or Above 148 39%
Skill Level
Novice 14 4%
Below Average 29 8%
Average 135 35%
Above Average 154 40%
Expert 52 14%
Experience (No. of Plans) 28.88 (10)
Plan
Avg. No. of Components 4.78 (5)
Pages (Avg.) 25.43 (20)
Duration of Plan Cycle 11.7 (12)
Implementation
Deviation
Never 0 0010
Once 26 7%
A Few Times 287 75%
Very Often 71 18%
Refledive
Attribution
Plan could have been prepared to handle situation 154 40%
No amount of planning would have prepared to handle situz 229 60%
----------------
56
This sample represents a convenience sample for attracting enough qualified
respondents to build a taxonomy. Unlike deductive methodologies that require
representative samples in order to extrapolate to the entire population, the CIT requires an
exhaustive sample to be collected until the frequency ofnew types of incidents fall below
a given threshold (Keaveney 1995; Flanagan 1954). The frequency of the categories that
emerge from the study are not meant to be generalizable to an entire population.
However, there is a danger in using a convenience sample with CIT. If this sample does
not include segments ofthe total population that have unique perspectives for identifying
and communicating the phenomenon of interest, this might lead to a less than exhaustive
set of categories.
This sample derives from a single firm's database. Although they are the world
leader in marketing planning software, their list would not include groups ofplanners that
do not have access to their primary distribution channels such as retail outlets in the U.S.
or the internet. Additionally, marketing planners that do not use software but rather that
create outlines and plans using other software products, textbooks, tradebooks, or
freehand methods would also not be included in this sample. Additionally, very large
corporations often have custom-built software solutions and might be underrepresented.
Although their exclusion certainly provides a limitation to the external validity of this
study, there are reasons that these alternate populations are not suspected to contain
meaningful differences relative to the phenomenon ofpost plan improvisation. First, the
literature suggests that marketing planning remains a widely used business process for
implementing the components of marketing management (Dibb 2002). As noted in Table
----- --------------
57
4, the geographic, revenue, age and industry distributions of the respondents include a
wide variance. Since repetition ofthe phenomenon is not as important as a single
instance of inclusion, the demographic diversity of the sample provides some reassurance
that unidentified occasions ofPPI are not absent. Of course, this needs to be further
validated in future research by using samples beyond this single source.
The job titles given by the respondents would suggest that the sample does
represent an elite group of managers. Table 3.4 shows the job titles ofthe respondents.
78% of the respondent's job titles are from upper management positions that are difficult
to access. This supports the value of this database.
Table 3.4 - Respondents' Titles
Title Percentage
Owner/Principal 21 %
President, CEO or C-Level 27%
Manager, Director or Vice Presiden 30%
Sales/Business Development 6%
Consultant 5%
Other 11%
Checks for Nomesponse Bias
Additional checks for a nomesponse bias were conducted (see Table 3.5).
Because the database was limited to a single e-mail solicitation for participation,
subjective estimates were used to estimate the characteristics of the nomepsonders
(Armstrong and Overton 1977). The means of early responses were compared to the
means oflate responses. A response was considered late if the response did not return
58
with 36 hours after being sent. Four characteristics of the firm, planner and plan were
compared and no significant (p<.05) differences were found. Eight of the 12
characteristics are categorical variables (Revenue, Location, Age, Service/Manufacturing,
Capacity, Education, MPSkill and Deviation). Their mean values do not have
nomological validity but they do provide the basis for statistical comparison of
differences.
Table 3.5 - Check for Nonresponse Bias
Mean
Early Late F-Value Sig.
Firm Characteristic
Revenue 3.95 3.58 2.45 0.12
Location 3.98 4.49 3.20 0.08
Age (Categorical) 1.51 1.41 3.30 0.07
Service/Manufacturing 1.31 1.33 0.06 0.81
Planner Characteristic
Capacity 2.15 2.03 0.68 0.41
Education 3.72 3.77 0.00 0.97
MPSkill 3.54 3.48 0.36 0.55
Plans Completed 22.46 45.51 2.33 0.13
Plan Characteristics
Total Plan Components 4.78 4.79 0.00 0.95
Number ofPages 25.51 25.23 0.01 0.92
Cycle Duration 11.44 12.36 1.21 0.27
Deviation Frequency 3.13 3.07 1.12 0.29
59
CHAPTER IV
RESULTS
Overview
This chapter presents the results of the empirical investigation described in
CHAPTER III. The respondent characteristics are detailed, followed by a description of
the data characteristics and quality. Next, the data analysis and the process of classifying
the incidents are described. An additional test for method bias was included in the study
and those results are included after the presentation of the categories of post plan
improvisation. The categories are supplemented with two additional classification efforts
that produce subgroups.
Respondent Characteristics
Strategic planning is generally reserved for upper management and professional
marketing specialists. Unlike other CIT studies that interview likely service participants,
this study must question a relatively elite group of respondents in order to illuminate the
subject ofpost plan improvisation. Strategic marketing planners were targeted based on a
behavioral interest corridor. An internal database ofthe world's leading provider of
60
business and marketing planning software was used to survey likely planners. The sample
population consists of 15,000 marketing planning contacts that opted-in for future contact
from the software company. The software company's products are sold online and in
major retail outlets in the United States and Great Britain. Their name and logo were
included in the recruitment e-mail. The study's academic purpose, a detailed explanation
of the questionnaire and a hyperlink to the Qualtrics survey were also included in the e-
mail. In addition to the warm introduction by the software company, a summary of the
study's findings and a free, electronic, business toolkit were offered. This was expected
to generate the desired number of responses and usable incidents of post plan
improvisation. Based on previous CIT studies (Gremler 2004),300 to 500 usable critical
incidents should provide the number needed to systematically develop categories.
Data Characteristics
Respondents were asked to provide a description of an incident in which they
deviated from their existing marketing plan. Through three, open ended questions, they
were probed for details on 1) what led up to their deviation, 2) descriptions of the
deviation itself and 3) the corresponding outcome. Pretests showed that both successful
and unsuccessful outcomes were likely to be reported. Due to the level of detail being
requested, each respondent was only asked to provide information about one complete
incident and were free to provide an incident with a positive or negative valence.
1424 surveys were returned. This represents a 10.2% return rate. In order to
limit the intrusion of its database members, the software firm did not allow follow up e-
--------------------
61
mails. However, the 10.2% return rate meets other standards of online survey responses
(Sax, Gilmartin and Bryant 2003). Ofthe total 1424 responses, 891 responded that they
had been involved with creating a marketing plan in the previous eighteen months and
attempted to implement that plan. 70 of those respondents indicated that they had not
deviated from their plan during its implementation, leaving 821. 131 of these
respondents did not provide responses to the three primary qualitative questions
regarding their experience of post plan improvisation. These respondents were removed
leaving a total of 690 reviewable responses.
Data Quality
The 690 remaining responses were examined for their completeness, sensibility
and usability. Judges A and B performed the initial data screening, reviewing the
responses on the criteria that the respondent attempted to share an incident ofpost plan
improvisation in enough detail to be useful. Because the questionnaire was delivered
online and incentivized based on its completion, some respondents hit random keys in the
open-ended survey response sections to allow the survey management software to
continue towards completion of the survey. Answers that did not form coherent or
logical responses were identified, discussed and then eliminated.
Simultaneously, Judges A and B investigated the respondent's answers to the
three open ended questions in their entirety. Although the questions were designed to
help the respondent streamline their answers in a complete and temporally consistent
manner (Caus~ Deviation~Outcome), pretests showed that by reviewing the group of
62
answers as one complete set, the respondent's intentions could be better understood. The
judges systematically identified the presence of a cause, deviation and outcome. If there
was no indication of a cause or a specific deviation then the response was eliminated. 275
responses were eliminated during the vetting process. Examples of responses that were
eliminated included incomplete information, generalizations of improvisations rather than
the specific identification of one incident, incoherent responses, extremely short
responses, and vague answers. These reviews resulted in 415 usable responses. (During
the coding process, judges were unable to agree on the meaning of an additional 31
incidents. They were eliminated and the final number of incidents as presented in
TABLE 4.1 was 384.)
63
Table 4.1 - Descriptive Statistics
Firm Cmmt % Mean (Median)
Location
US 273 71%
Canada 24 6%
Mexico 23 6%
Europe 6 2%
Asia 24 6%
Afi'ica 19 5%
Australia 8 2%
South America 7 2%
Annual Revenue
> $50 70 18%
$50K -$99K 53 14%
$1 OOK - $249K 61 16%
$250K - $999K 55 14%
$1Million - $2 Million 28 7%
$2 Million - $10 Million 51 13%
$10 Million or more 63 17%
Age 17.25 (7)
Planner
Education
No College Degree 45 12%
Undergraduate Degree - Non Business 87 23%
Undergraduate Degree - Business 101 27%
Masters or Above 148 39%
Skill Level
Novice 14 4%
Below Average 29 8%
Average 135 35%
Above Average 154 40%
Expert 52 14%
Experience (No. of Plans) 28.88 (10)
Plan
Avg. No. of Components 4.78 (5)
Pages (Avg.) 25.43 (20)
Duration of Plan Cycle 11.7 (12)
Implementation
Deviation
Never 0 0%
Once 26 7%
A Few Times 287 75%
Very Often 71 18%
Reflective
Attribution
Plan could have been prepared to handle situation 154 40%
No amount of planning would have prepared to handle sitUl' 229 60%
64
Data Analysis Procedures/ Classification of Incidents
The analysis followed Edvardsson' s (1992) use of a simple model of a critical
incident in the service industry (Cause~ Course~ Result). He used this model to
organize his interviews and subsequently to analyze and present the data. This study
altered Edvardson's model semantically (Cause~ Deviation~ Outcome) to match the
context of this study. This study uses an incident of post plan improvisation as its unit of
analysis. (See Figure 4.1.)
Model of a Critical Incident (Edvardsson, 1992)
Post Plan Improvisations of Strategic Marketing Plans
l:J-.. ---- '-----_D_e_v_ia_tio_n_---" + '---__o_u_tc_o_m_e_---"
Figure 4.1 - Models of Critical Incidents and Post Plan
Improvisations
Each incident ofPPI is comprised of a cause, deviation and outcome. Each of
the 415 usable critical incidents were examined for the presence of these three
components. Only incidents that communicated a cause and a deviation were considered
65
complete responses and eligible for analysis. Outcomes were not required. During
pretests it was discovered that a large percentage of respondents would not be able to
report a single outcome due to incomplete information, poor metrics or mixed results.
Responses that provided a cause and a deviation but no outcome were noted and are
discussed in the next section.
The 415 usable incidents were divided into two halves. The first half (CI 1-208)
was used for categorical development. The second half(CI 209-415) was set aside as a
holdout sample. Five judges were used during the study. Judges A, Band C are doctoral
students of marketing and management. Judges D and E are second year MBA students.
Two judges (A and B) developed the initial categories and sorted the first half of
incidents accordingly. Judges A and B conducted the ardent tasks of the primary reading,
rereading and initial sorting of the incidents. This analytic induction process, as detailed
by Bitner et. al (1990), required the judges to repeatedly review the incidents until
patterns of similarities revealed extant groups and categories relevant to this study's
underlying research question: What types ofpost plan improvisations exist? Judge A
and B independently developed mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories for
incidents 1-208. Four broad categories of causes, six categories of deviations and four
categories ofoutcomes emerged from the initial process. The critical incidents were
resorted and compared for their categorical consistency. Judges A & B worked to
collectively define and document the categories. The incidents were resorted once again
and compared for their categorical consistency. Judge C then independently sorted the
incidents using this classification scheme. Each judge was trained by the principal
66
researcher and provided with explicit written instructions for reviewing incidents (see
Appendix 1). Perreault and Leigh's (1989) reliability statistic (Ir) was computed as .88,
exceeding the .857 average ofcritical incident studies reviewed by Gremler's (2004)
meta analysis.
The second half of the critical incidents, the holdout sample, had the dual
purposes of verifying the classification scheme and contributing towards understanding
the phenomenon ofPPI. Employing a holdout sample entails setting aside a portion of the
incidents and using only the first set of incidents to establish the categories. Following
Gremler's (2004) procedural recommendations, any use of a holdout sample is an
unnecessary rarity and the large number of incidents used for a holdout sample in this
study should improve the internal validity.
The two second year MBA students, Judges D and E were trained by the primary
researcher and independently categorized the new incidents according to the
categorization scheme developed by Judges A and B. Because of their inexperience in
conducting social research and the sometimes cryptic nature of written responses
generated from marketing planners of six different continents, Judges D and E
independently coded each incident and then resolved their differences mutually before
comparing their classification with the primary researcher, Judge A. The average
interjudge reliability (Ir) was computed as .87 (see Table 5).
TABLE 4.2 - Interjudge Reliability (Perrault & Leigh, 1989) l
A B AXB C.5
Nmnberof Number of Nmnberof
Unit of Categories Observations Agreements
Judges Observation (k) (N) (F) FIN 11k FIN -11k kIk-l C IR
AB&C Cause 4 199 165 0.83 0.25 0.58 1.33 0.77 0.88
Deviation 6 199 159 0.80 0.17 0.63 1.20 0.76 0.87
Outcome 4 199 171 0.86 0.25 0.61 1.33 0.81 0.90
AverageIR 0.88
DE&A Cause 4 185 154 0.83 0.25 0.58 1.33 0.78 0.88
Deviation 6 185 142 0.77 0.17 0.60 1.20 0.72 0.85
Outcome 4 185 157 0.85 0.25 0.60 1.33 0.80 0.89
Average IR 0.87
0\
--.)
68
Method Bias Check
An additional step to the methodology was added to ensure that the online
collection of data did not cause a problem. Accordingly, survey respondents were asked
if they were willing to be contacted for further information. Approximately 100 survey
respondents that agreed to be contacted were asked to participate in a follow up phone
interview. This resulted in nineteen such interviews that reviewed their responses and
probed for further clarity. Detailed notes were taken by the primary researcher and
transcribed into electronic form immediately following the interview.
Coders A, B & C built the categorical classification and recoded the responses
with all nineteen of the phone interview critical incidents based on their initial survey
responses only. Coders D & E were given the original responses and the additional
information captured in note form. Upon completion of the study the responses were
compared to see if the additional information gained through the phone interview
changed the categorical coding of the incidents.
Eight ofthe original nineteen surveys did not meet the study's requirements for
inclusion because they did not provide enough information or the incident did not
describe an incident ofPPI. Five of these eight, when presented with their phone
interview supplements, did meet the study's requirements for inclusion and were
successfully coded by Coder D and E. This shows that the online methodology excludes
potentially fruitful respondents. If time and manpower permitted, or the total database
population were limited, follow up phone calls might be necessary to extract the amount
69
of responses necessary for elucidating the phenomenon. However, given the exploratory,
theory building intentions of this study, this does not represent a theoretical or
methodological problem.
Ten of the remaining eleven surveys that were coded by all five judges were
consistently coded for their cause, deviation and outcome. One incident's cause was
coded differently based on the additional information gained from the phone interview.
The type of deviation and outcome remained the same. This response was not included
in the final list of384 CI's. As with most sociological studies, researchers are limited by
the respondent's ability and willingness to provide accurate and detailed information.
Given the exploratory nature of the study and intentions to build theory rather than
generalize to larger populations, this limitation seems minor.
Results
Each incident ofPPI was examined for three separate units of observation; causes,
deviations and outcomes. This is consistent with Moorman and Miner's attempt to
document both, "the incidence of improvisation and the factors that influence that
incidence" (1998, p. 14). All 384 incidents included identifiable causes and deviations.
Outcomes were not always provided. Critical incidents that did not include complete
descriptions of their outcomes were not eliminated. Further explanation for this is
provided in the section regarding the Categorical Development of Outcomes.
To ensure internal validity beyond using a holdout sample, explicit directions
were provided to make sure saturation of the phenomenon was captured within the
categories. Judges A, Band C used the first half of the incidents to create the categories.
70
Judges D and E were given explicit directions to look for any incidents that did not fit
into the existing classification scheme. They were instructed to contact the primary
researcher immediately if they were unable to place an incident into one category.
Judges D & E discovered some incidents that were eventually eliminated due to
ambiguity but no incidents were identified that extended outside the existing categorical
framework.
In the next three sections, explanations of the four main categories of causes, the
six main categories of deviations and the four main groups of outcomes are detailed. At
the end of each of the three categorical development sections a table summarizes the
frequency statistics of each category and provides illustrative quotes from the critical
incidents. (A full list of the 384 critical incidents is included in Appendix 2.)
Categorical Development of Causes
The first unit of observation discussed is causes. Four categories of causes of
deviations from marketing plans emerged. They include: 1) Internal, 2) External -
Market Forces, 3) External- Other Firms, and 4) External- Macro Environmental. Each
is discussed in detail. (See Table 4.3)
1) Internal - Internally based causes of the deviations from marketing plans were
coded 129 times, or 33.6% of the total number of incidents coded. The category, Internal
Causes, represents a stimulus that originates inside of the firm. Examples of these
incidents included human resource changes, internal relationship conflicts, new product
development problems, resource constraints and errors attributed to the original plan or
71
incorrect analysis of infonnation. Additionally, responses that attribute the deviations to
internal motivation such as "we decided", or "we changed directions", without further
explanation of another causal force, were coded as internally caused incidents.
2) External - Market Forces - The first of three external forces identified and
discussed is market forces. These were coded 129 times, or 33.6% of the total number of
incidents coded. The category, Market Forces, represents causes of deviations that
originate outside of the finn from either specific customers or market opportunities.
Examples of these incidents included explicit infonnation from existing or potential
customers as well as implicit interpretation of general market conditions. Sales results
and corresponding infonnation were also coded as a market forces. This category often
described direct, first hand evidence or personal interactions from potential or existing
customers that led to a deviation of their existing marketing plan.
3) External - Other Finns - The second external force comes from finns Other
than customers. These were coded 89 times, or 23.2% of the total number of incidents
coded. The category, Other Finns, represents competitors as well as suppliers and
distributors. Examples of these incidents included competitors acting in a collaborative
manner as well as incidents of supply chain partners acting in a competitive manner.
Additionally, partners and alliances were included in this category.
4) External - Macro Environmental - The third, and final external cause of
deviation, Macro Environmental were coded 37 times, or 9.6% of the total number of
incidents coded. The category, Macro Environmental, included omnipotent forces such
as exchange rates, commodities pricing, regulatory rulings, natural disasters and publicity
72
generated be third party media members without financial interest in the firm respondent.
The size and scope of these forces were a distinguishing characteristic of this category.
Table 4.3 - Causes Summary
Deviations illustrative Quote Frequency Percentage
Internal "Higher priorities within the corporation ended up
consuming the entire available bandwith ofresources."
129 33.6%
External
Market "We deviated from our marketing plan when a client
requested a different approach to providing our
services. " 129 33.6%
Other Firms "A competitor offered a price reduction on virtually
the same service we offered." 89 23.2%
Macro environmental "Change in the sub-prime lending rate, market
situation and the general economic mood changed the
externalities of the business. This required changing
the marketing strategy." 37 9.6%
384 100%
Categorical Development ofDeviations
The second unit of observation discussed is deviations. Six categories of
deviations from marketing plans emerged. They include: 1) Product of Service Offering,
2) Price, 3) Promotion, 4) Target Markets, 5) Supply Chain, and 6) Marketing
Management. Each is discussed in detail. (See Table 4.4.)
1) Product or Service Offering - Critical incidents that included deviation in
product or service offering amounted to 70 or 18.2% of the total number of coded
incidents. The category, Product or Service Offering, represents the value offered for
exchange to customers. Examples of these incidents included the elimination of entire
product lines or services, additions or deletions of product or service attributes and the
73
reconfiguration or bundling of products and services resulting in a new offering to the
market.
2) Pricing - Deviations of price were coded 19 times or 4.9% of the total coded
incidents. The category, Price, represents the quantity of payment or compensation
required for exchange of the product or service offering. Examples of these incidents
included both lowering and increasing prices.
3) Promotions - Deviations of promotions were coded 113 times or 29.4 % of the
total number of coded incidents. The category, Promotions, represents the
communication of information to potential customers. Examples of these incidents
included changes in media outlets, elimination of planned media purchases, new
promotional techniques and message adjustments. An increase or decrease in the amount
of a promotional expenditure did not constitute a promotional change. Such changes were
coded in the sixth category of deviations, Marketing Management.
4) Target Market - Deviations in target markets occurred 53 times, or 13.8 % of
the total number of coded incidents. The category, Target Markets, represents the
intended group of potential customers that the promotion and product offering are meant
to entice. Examples of these incidents included changes in geographic, industrial,
demographic, and psychographic targets. In some cases market scopes were expanded
and in others they were reduced or eliminated all together.
5) Supply Chain - Deviations in supply chain occurred 15 times, or 3.9% of the
total number of incidents coded. The category, Supply Chain, represents the network of
resources needed to obtain and produce the product or service offering and deliver that
74
offering to the end customer. Examples of these incidents included the product delivery
models, the addition or deletion of strategic partnerships and alliances towards the
fulfillment of a supply chain related issue as well as changes in existing dealers and
agents.
6) Marketing Management - Deviations in marketing management occurred 114
times, or 29.7 % of the total number of coded incidents. Marketing management
represents the internal operations required to manage the marketing functions described
in the previous five categories of deviation. Examples of these incidents included
implementation issues, budget changes, schedule adjustments (both speeding up and
slowing down of timelines), marketing personnel issues and other management tasks
related to the execution of the marketing plan.
75
Table 4.4 - Deviations Sunnnary
Deviations lllustrative Quote Frequency Percentage
Product or Service Offering "The sales and marketing departments were extremely 70 18.2%
over burdened by the constant changes to the products
or services being offered The company was
significantly changed to the point of voiding fue
marketing plan within 3 monfus."
Price "We countered the advertising by discounting the 19 4.9%
product pricing lower than fue advertised by the
competition."
Promotion "Product lines took advantage of opportunities to 113 29.4%
promote the prior product prior to launch dates, in
fonuns that were not included in our plan."
Target Market "The plan didn't take into account a recessional 53 13.8%
situation in the city it was located in. More than 70%
ofthe clients and revenue was from the same city, so
the plan needed to be expanded to other geographic
areas."
Supply Chain "As part of the marketing plan, we had made a 15 3.9%
decision to form a strategic alliance with another
company to expedite the delivery of our product to the
market. .. As fue relationship progressed, it became
clear that the pace in which they implemented the
program was much slower than indicated and much,
much slower than we were satisfied wifu....We
severed the relationship and we developed distribution
chmmels of our own."
Marketing Management "We modified fue initial implementation ofthis 114 29.7%
connnercial market development program that all
approach work and lead development would be
conducted by the field marketing staff. Leads are
forwarded to the sales team for closure."
384 100.0%
Categorical Development of Outcomes
The third and final unit of observation discussed is outcomes. Four categories of
outcomes from deviations of marketing plans emerged. They include: 1) Successful, 2)
Unsuccessful, 3) Mixed Results, and 4) Other. Each is discussed in detail. (See Table
4.5.)
1) Successful - Successful outcomes occurred 165 times or 43% of the total
number of coded incidents. The category, Successful, represents a singularly positive
76
description resulting from the deviation from marketing plans. Examples of these
incidents included improved financial performance, new or better deliverables, greater
focus and management approval.
2) Unsuccessful - Unsuccessful outcomes occurred 52 times or 13.5% of the total
number of coded incidents. The category, Unsuccessful, represents a singularly negative
description resulting from the deviation from marketing plans. Examples of these
incidents included decreased financial performance, poorly created deliverables, project
or personnel termination and management disapproval.
3) Mixed Results - Outcomes with Mixed Results occurred 50 times, or 13% of
the total number of coded incidents. The category, Mixed Results, represents an outcome
that cannot be singularly coded as successful or unsuccessful. Instead, positive and
negative elements are included. Examples of these incidents included successful
outcomes with additional costs, labor, stress, delays or inconsistencies. They also
included unsuccessful outcomes with potential for future benefits or some other
redeeming quality such as learning.
4) Other - Outcomes that were indeterminable or absent occurred 117 times or
30.5% of the total number of coded incidents. The category, Other, represents different
types of responses that do not fit into the three previous categories. They included well
described, but unclear outcomes as well as missing data. The very nature of marketing
and planning does not always lend itself to immediate impact or interpretation. Because
of the open ended questions, missing data could be attributed to the simple fact that an
answer is not yet possible. Many of these responses did have data related to the outcome
77
but indicated that enough time had not passed to assess the outcome or that it was too
difficult to measure. Additionally, crosstab analysis of chi-squares is used later in an
attempt to identify significant relationships among subgroups and different categories.
Under reporting the outcomes could cause a difference of interpretation due to
nonoccurrence (Howell 2002).
Table 4.5 - Outcome Summary
Outcomes illustrative Quote Frequency Percentage
Successful "The change was quite successful. I estimate that we
exceeded planned results by better than 22%." 165 43.0%
Unsuccessful "The outcome was a project that generated less leads,
causing less sales, and a lower gross profit and
percentage to goal. " 52 13.5%
Mixed Results "The field marketing process has generated a number
ofcommercial account leads for the sales team, but
the level ofproduction is less than half of our desired
results. " 50 13.0%
Other "Not sure at this point. Some products are now ready
and we have just started the marketing efforts, others
are still in progress and thus marketing efforts are on
hold." 117 30.5%
384 100.0%
Additional Analysis of Internal Causes
A crosstab analysis pointed towards a statistically significant relationship between
causes and deviations (x2 = 57.22, p<.OOO) and causes and outcomes (x2 = 20.19,
p<.017). To better understand this important unit of observation, Causes were further
coded for additional subgroups. (A complete presentation of the crosstab analysis is
provided in this chapter, after the categorical descriptions.)
78
Four subcategories of internally caused deviations of marketing plans emerged.
They include: 1) Failed Implementation and Planning Errors, 2) Financial, 3) Production
and Design, and 4) Organization and Personnel. Each is discussed in detail.
1) Failed Implementation and Planning Errors - Failed Implementation and
Planning Errors occurred 59 times, or 45.7% of the internally caused deviations (15.4%
of total incidents). This category of internal causes represents problems created in the
planning process through analysis or strategic design as well as the inability to follow
through with the intended marketing plan. Examples of these incidents included
misanalysis of existing information, insufficient effort in developing plans, and lack of
execution of designed activities.
2) Financial Circumstances - Financial Circumstances occurred 28 times, or
21.7% of the internally caused deviations (7.3 % of total incidents). The catetgory,
Financial Circumstances, represents financial resources related to the implementation of
the marketing plan. Examples of these incidents included management's reallocation of
financial resources to other departments, budget cuts and changes in expected revenues
from investors our outside sources other than sales.
3) Production and Design - Production and Design occurred 10 times, or 7.8% of
the internally caused deviations (2.6% of total incidents). The category, Production and
Design, represents operational activities related to the creation of the product or service
offering. Examples of these incidents included engineering delays and mistakes as well
as new product development errors and miscommunications.
79
4) Organization and Personnel - Organization and Personnel occurred 32 times, or
24.8% of the internally caused deviations (8.3% of total incidents). The category,
Organization and Personnel, represents management's design and direction as well as
staffing. Examples of these incidents included hiring and firing personnel related to the
marketing plan and its implementation, reorganization of the firm and personal and
departmental con±1icts or miscommunications.
Two subcategories of Other Firms externally causing deviations of marketing
plans emerged. They include: 1) Competitive Forces, and 2) Suppliers, Vendors and
Partners. Each is discussed in detail.
1) Competitive Forces - Competitive Forces occurred 35 times or 39% of the
externally caused deviations stemming from other firms (9.1 % of total incidents). The
category, Competitive Forces, represents firms that offer services and products that the
respondent considers a threat to their business. Examples of this included single firms,
industry wide competition and indirect substitutes.
2) Suppliers, Vendors and Partners - Suppliers, Vendors and Partners occurred 54
times or 41 % ofthe externally caused deviations resulting from other firms. The
category, Suppliers, Vendors and Partners represents outside firms that provide inputs or
deliver the respondent firm's output to the end customer. It also represents other firms
that act in a non competitive way and includes strategic alliances and partners.
External causes of deviations from Market Forces and Macro Environmental were
reviewed for potential subgroup development. Market Forces did have some natural
differences in the specificity of language used to describe the cause. Either they
80
discussed issues from one customer or they talked vaguely about market forces in
general. Although subgroups appeared possible, the differences appeared to be semantics
and not fully categorized. Macro Environmental causes were also considered for further
dissection of subgroups. However the number of incidents categorized as Macro
Environmental (37) did not warrant further inspection.
The remaining two units of observation, deviations and outcomes were not further
divided into subcategories. Deviations already has six main categories and further
division would not provide meaningful analysis. Subcategories of outcomes were not
considered necessary because of the inclusivity of the Other category and the relative
focus of the other three main categories.
Crosstab Analysis
This section investigates the statistical relationship between categories in the data.
Based on the categorical development, subgroups were compared using crosstab analysis
for 15 of the descriptive variables captured by the survey and each of the three units of
observation, cause, deviation, and outcome (43 total crosstabulations.). Table 9 includes
the results for 12 significant relationships (p<.1)(With a p-value of.l there is 10% chance
of a Type I error, however 28% of the crosstabs were significant.). Further analysis and
detailed information is provided for the four most clearly significant (p<.OI)
relationships. (With a p-value of .01 there is 1% chance of a Type I error, however 9% of
the crosstabs were significant.).
81
Table 4.6 - Crosstab Analysis
Pearson Chi Square (p-value)
Cause Deviation Outcome
Post Plan Improvisation
Cause 57.22 (.000) 20.19 (.017)
Deviation 57.22 (.000)
Outcome 20.19 (.017)
Firm
Age 27.62 (.006)
Location 49.49 (.014)
Revenue
fudustry
Planner
Capacity 23.59 (. 072)
Education 28.32 (. 057) 34.34 (.011)
:MPSkill 29.41 (.003)
Plan
Compments
Duration
Focus 43.16 (.057)
Pages 23.13 (.081)
Deviate 27.36 (.000)
Attribution 6.38 (.096)
Reports the chi square value and significance of all results with p<.l
The cause of the deviation from the marketing plan resulted in the most number of
significant relationships and included relationships with the other two units of
observation, deviation (X2(l5) = 57.22, p<.OOO) and outcome (X2 (9) = 20.19, p<.017). This
reinforces the value of understanding different types of post plan improvisations. The
different causes ofdeviations from marketing plans has a relationship with the types of
82
deviations that occur and ultimately the outcomes of those deviations. Further detail
about the relationship between cause and deviation is provided in Table 4.7.
Table 4.7 - Deviation' Cause Crosstabulation
Cause
cxternal -
Macro
External - External - Environmental
Internal Market Other Firms Forces Total
Deviation Product Count 22 22 18 8 70
Expected Count 24 24 16 7 70
Price Count }.~ g 5 7 19Expected Count . (; 4 2 19
Promotion Count 33 42 ·32> 6 113
Expected Count 38 38 26 1>1 113
Target Market Count 14 .. i]~ 6 5 53Expected Count 18 ... 12. 5 53
Supply Chain Count 2 3 . 1 15
Expected Count 5 . 5 1 15
Marketing Count :. iii 2e 10 114Management Expected Count 11 114
Total Count 129 129 89 37 384
Expected Count 129 129 89 37 384
Five of the six types ofDeviations have a 20% difference between the expected
and actual counts for at least one of the types ofcauses. Price seems more likely to be
caused from an External- Macro Environmental Forces and less likely to be related to an
internal factor. Promotions appear more related to External - Other Firm and than
External- Macro Environmental Forces.
Additional relationships exist between the cause of the deviation and the firm
characteristics. Age is CX2(9) = 27.62, p<.006) significantly related to the cause of
deviation. Further detail about the relationship between age and the cause of the
deviation is provided in Table 4.8.
83
Table 4.8 - Catagorical Age· Cause Crosstabulation
Cause
Externa I - Macro
External - External- En vi TO nme ntal
Internal Market Other Firms Forces Total
CatAge < 5 Years Count 41 50 29 13 133
Expected Count 45 45 31 13 133
5 to 10 Count 37 34 22 8 101
Expected Count 34 34 23 10 101
10 to 15 Count '(3' tl'i I 6 4 28Expected Count 9 ,/~ 6 3 28
15 to 20 Count 28 29 24 9 90
Expected Count 30 30 21 9 90
> 20 Years Count ~i~ 111 I 8 3 32Expected Count 7 3 32
Total Count 129 129 89 37 384
Expected Count 129 129 89 37 384
More middle aged firms (10-15 years) reported External-Market causes in deviation than
expected and fewer internal causes in deviations than expected. Inversely, older firms
(>20 years) reported Internal causes in deviation more than expected and fewer External
- Market causes in deviation than expected.
Relationship between the planners and the cause of deviation also exist. The
Capacity (;x2(l5) = 23.59, p<.072} in which the planner most typically spends their time
(marketing vs. sales, finance, operations, or technology) affects the relationship with
causes of deviation. This might reinforce the need for marketing specialists to be
involved with the creations of marketing plans. Education (;x2(21) = 28.32, p<.057) also
shares a relationship with causes of deviation. Again, this might indicate a link between
the level of a planner's education and the ability to improvise more successfully.
Characteristics of the plan itself only have one significant relationship with the
cause of deviation. The plan's number ofpages (;x2(9) = 23.13, p<.081) is related to
causes of deviation. The length of the plan is a simple but logical measure ofplan
84
complexity. Given the likely correlation of plan complexity with age of the firm and
education of the planner this warrants further consideration when studying PPI.
As mentioned earlier, the type of deviation is significantly related to the cause.
Only one other measure has a significant relationship, focus (x2(25) = 43.16, p<.057).
Depending on the plan's focus (one product vs. one service, multiple products/services or
firm wide plan) the type of deviation is related. Supply chain and promotional deviations
appear to be influenced by the plan's focus.
In addition to the relation of outcome to causes, outcome is related to four other
variables. The self reported Marketing Planning Skill Level had a significant relationship
with outcome (x2(12) = 29.41, p<.003). Further detail about the relationship between
outcome Marketing Planning Skill Level is provided in Table 4.8.
Table 4.8 - Outcome * MPSkili Crosstabulation
MPSkil1 I
ljelOW Above
Novice Average Average Average Expert Total
Outcome Successful Count
•.~ ... 4 59 68 31 165Expected Count 12 58 66 22 165
Unsuccessfu I Count 5 8 "' 15 19 5 52
Expected Count 2 4 18 21 7 52
Mixed Results Count 4 5 19 17 5 50
Expected Count 2 4 18 20 7 50
Other Count 2 12 42 50 11 117
Expected Count 4 9 41 47 16 117
Total Count 14 29 135 154 52 384
Expected Count 14 29 135 154 52 384
An interesting relationship exists between the marketing planners self reported skill level
and their choice of incident valence. Novice and Below Average planners were less
85
likely to report a successful outcome from a deviation of their marketing plan, and
Experts were more likely to report successful outcomes.
Attribution Cx2(3) = 23.13, p<.081) of the planning process's ability is related to
outcomes. Attribution refers to the planner's assessment of whether the planning process
could have been used more effectively to avoid deviating in the first place. Given the
high amount of successful outcomes, this relationship might not be valid. Although the
fact that education Cx2(20) = 23.13, p<.081) and marketing planning skill level are also
related to the outcome, this could be due to a bias from expectations and egos.
The last relationship is between the outcome and frequency of deviating Cx2(6) =
27.36, p<.OOO) from the plan. Further detail about the relationship between outcome and
frequency of deviating is provided in Table 4.10.
Table 4.1 0 - Outcome • Deviate Crosstabulation
Deviate
Once Few Times Very Often Total
Outcome Successful Count 11 135 19 165
Expected Count 11 123 31 165
Unsuccessful Count 3 27 22 52
Expected Count 4 39 .10 52
Mixed Results Count 2 41 7 50
Expected Count (3 37 9 50
Other Count 10 84 23 117
Expected Count 8 87 22 117
Total Count 26 287 71 384
Expected Count 26 287 71 384
86
Firms that reported successful outcomes from deviations of their marketing plans were
less likely to deviate very often. Inversely, the firms that deviated very often were more
likely to have reported an unsuccessful outcome.
87
CHAPTER V
DISCUSSION
Overview
This chapter presents a discussion of the key findings and major contributions
from this study. First, the three categories that emerged from the units of observation are
discussed. Each category is inspected for interesting or unexpected findings and further
explained. Next, the results of this study are reviewed for their connections to existing
theory of organizational improvisation. Important methodological and managerial
contributions follow. Finally, limitations ofthis study and future research opportunities
are discussed.
Theoretical Contribution
The principal theoretical contribution of this study is the categorical development
produced and presented in the results section ofthis dissertation. For the first time,
empirical evidence dissects the different types of post plan improvisation. Figure 5.1 is a
model ofpost plan improvisation based on the categorical findings. This model increases
the detailed understanding of the construct for post plan improvisation of strategic
marketing plans. Until now, measures of improvisation and post plan improvisation were
general measures that assumed different types of improvisation to be inherently equal.
This study does not prove this fact incorrect but it illuminates the depth of the
phenomenon, and given its complexity, suggests that there might be a reason to look
deeper before making such assumptions.
Post Plan Improvisations of Strategic Marketing Plans
Product 0 r Servi ce,.... Offering -
I Internal H Price I• Implementation & Planning Errors
• Financial Circumstances
• Production and Design OutcomesH r- ·Successful• Human Resources & Personnel Promotion ·Uns uccessful·Mixed Results
·Undetermined
I External H Target Market r-
I
• Market
I• Other Firms
• Macro Envi ron mental H r-Supply Chai n
Marketing
Management
Figure 5.1 - Model of Post Plan Improvisations of
Strategic Marketing Plans
Categorical Discussion of Causes
The first unit of observation is the cause of deviation. Four categories were
initially identified: Internal, External- Market Forces, External- Other Firms and
External- Macro Environmental Forces. Additional analysis led to the creation of
88
89
additional subgroups for the Internal and External- Market Forces categories. Each of
these categories are discussed in this section.
Internal causes for deviation ranged from the whimsical, "we wanted to try direct
mail, which was an unbudgeted item (Cl - 202)," to the concrete, "the company changed
(reduced by 20%) the amount of the budget dedicated to marketing (CI-613)." (Note: A
full list of the critical incidents (Cl-#) can be found in the Appendix.) All of these
incidents were based on causes from inside the finn. The additional subcategories for
this category included Failed Implementation and Planning Errors, Financial
Circumstances, Production and Design, and Organization and Personnel. Three of these
subcategories involve finances and personnel. These resources are consistent sources of
competitive advantage for finns and are consistent subjects of research by strategic
scholars. Additional collaboration between marketing and management researchers could
be beneficial to understanding these causes in more detail. The Production and Design
subcategory relates closely to innovation research. Although the innovation literature is
immense, these results could lead to fruitful potential for both innovation and planning
research.
The External- Market Forces category varied in levels of detail. Many of the
responses provided general analysis like, "resistance due to existing market dynamics (Cl
-153)," or, "due to market conditions (CI-245)." Others gave much more specific stories
such as, "our largest customer became impossible to satisfy (CI-265)," or "pressured by
clients (CI-489)." Sales reports and quantifiable measures were often mentioned in this
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category. Examples included, "we were only getting responses from our e-mail
campaign (Cl-699)," or "no business from my target area (Cl-713)."
The External- Other Firms category was further divided into subcategories that
included Competitive Firms and Suppliers, Vendors and Partners. Competitors were
usually explicitly identified such as, "competitor launched a new product earlier than
anticipated (Cl-120)," or "a competitor offered a price reduction (Cl-360)." Suppliers,
Vendors and Partners were not always as obvious. Companies identified as the cause
such as, "changed focus from Japanese service provider (Cl-4I 0)," had to be considered
in the context of the entire response. Later it was revealed that, "we went directly to
business customers of service provider."
Finally, The External- Macro Environmental Forces category was broad but still
clearly connected as larger forces affecting many firms. The responses included,
"change in the sub prime market rate (Cl-25I)," to "an energy crisis (Cl-236)," in
Albania. Large regulatory agencies such as the American Heart Association and
government interactions were also named in these responses.
Understanding the causes of deviation from marketing plans could provide the
foundation for new situational analysis techniques. During the situational analysis,
planners attempt to use marketing research to evaluate the internal and external
environment in order to set objectives congruent with long-term goals of the
organization. lfthe taxonomy ofpost plan improvisations leads to research that can
better predict which types of improvisations lead to successful outcomes, the causal
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forces that lead to an incidence of improvisation can be better targeted during the
situational analysis.
This study found that there were two subcategories of External - Other Firms
categories: Competitive Forces and Suppliers, Vendors and Partners. During the coding
process special attention had to be given in order to subdivide this category. In accord
with Achrol and Kotler's (1999) realization that marketing in a networked economy
requires a paradigm shift, market planners must recognize that environmental analysis
has become more complex. In this study, the role of other firms often seems
multifaceted. Some competitors offered assistance and some partners signaled hostile
intentions. Traditional marketing planning outlines (Kotler 2007) over simplify the
competitive analysis. Market planners must consider the leverage of each relationship for
the potential to cause a deviation from the marketing plan. By looking at the potential for
change relative to the leveraged size and impact of the other firm, regardless if they are a
competitor or ally, could lead to more preparedness.
Categorical Discussion ofDeviations
The second unit of observation is the deviation. Six categories emerged: Product
or Service Offering, Price, Promotion, Target Market, Supply Chain and Media
Management. Each ofthese categories are discussed in this section.
Deviations to the product or service offering were usually explicit. Responses
included direct statements such as, "New product offering... expanded products (CI-
267)," and "the focus of the services shifted (CI-460)." This category represents a
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change in the perceived market offering, not necessarily a physical change. For example,
one respondent said, "the client ordered a service that was a stand alone service ...only
meant to be offered as an additional service to a package. We had to honor the client
request (CI-176)."
Pricing deviations were also straightforward. Respondents indicate they made,
"reduction in price (CI-S88)," and "changed pricing strategy (CI-420)." This category
was the most obtuse of the deviation categories. The language was matter-of-fact in tone.
The category for promotional deviations contained more animated and varied
responses. These responses included changes in media buys such as, "I purchased air
time on a radio station (did not refer to my advertising costs in the marketing plan)(CI-
476)." They also included diverted media expenditures such as, "we slashed the
coverage area for yellow pages advertising and diverted the funds to other media
including local internet directories (CI-318)." Message changes were included in the
promotional deviations category. Examples of these included, "we refocused the
message using different terminology (CI-429)," or more specific examples like, "we
improved upon the text in the marketing letter (CI-49l)." Direct sales was a form of
promotion that appeared frequently. Responses included, "we have moved to a direct
sales approach (CI-677)," and another added, "changed the focus to be more sales driven
(CI-673)."
The fourth category of deviations is Target Markets. General statements
included, "had to refocus the target (CI-l 09)," and "the target market was not responsive
so we changed markets (CI-20l)." Geographic deviations were addressed such as, "that
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required us to reevaluate the corporate marketing plan and evaluate foreign markets (CI-
422)." More specifically, one respondent identified their geographic target changes by
stating, "We had placed too much priority on North America and Europe. Decided to
change that priority to South-East and South Asia area (CI-433)." Industrial target
market deviations were included. One respondent expanded his focus and, "networked
with the medical industry - not something I had thought about (CI-399)." Changes in
,
target markets included added attention to existing customers. One respondent noted, "I
had to deviate from my prospecting focus to current customer needs (CI-17)."
Deviations of supply chain are the fifth category. Delivering the product offering
in different ways included changes in, "selling online (CI-529)," and establishing,
"channel partners that focused in this space (CI-141)." Responses ranged from efficiency
desires such as, "a strategic alliance with another company to expedite the delivery of our
product to the market (CI-387)," to deviations intended to improve penetration. One
respondent shared, "We were having trouble breaking into Ireland as we didn't have a
sales force on the ground there. In the end we made an agreement with the Irish company
that they would have exclusive distribution rights for Ireland (CI-213)."
Finally, the sixth category of deviation is Marketing Management. There was a
large range of responses. Additions or deletions of marketing manpower included, "we
found a ChiefMarketing Officer (CI-41)," and "the key contact had to change (CI-150)."
Budget changes of marketing plans were also noted. Responses included, "a budget was
changed due to cuts in specific programs (CI-45)," and "I budgeted way to little....I
upped the budget in accordance to what I spent (CI-478)." Timing played a big role in
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this category. "Simple production delays (CI-270)," were the deviation for one
respondent. Another respondent stated, "web development had to be delayed by up to a
year (CI-310)." Not all responses were negative cuts to budget or delays. One example
includes, "when ROI was better than anticipated, increased budget for better performing
campaigns (CI-194)."
The Marketing Management deviations include delays. Although they also
include incidents of increased speed, most often incidents regarding temporal adjustments
of the implementation schedule were delays. During the initial screening of incidents to
determine which respondent's incidents to include, delays were set aside and not
included. Further review of the responses showed that delays were a frequent and
important portion of what later became the Marketing Management category. The
responses included many stories ofdelays that let to serious consequences.
The role of time and organizational improvisation is an extremely important
conversation (Crossan et al. 2005). Temporal impact of improvisation was first
emphasized as a measure of the degree of improvisation (Moorman and Miner 1998).
Crossan et al. (2005) believe that time has been oversimplified in consideration to
improvisation. They develop a conceptual model with scenarios of improvisations in
Organizations (see Figure 5.2).
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Time Pressure
Uncertainty
Low
High
Low
Planning
Discovery
Improvisation
High
Ornamental
Improvisation
Full-Scale
Improvisation
Figure 5.2 - Scenarios of Improvisations in
Organizations (Crossan et al. 2005)
The figure indicates that in times of low uncertainty and low time pressure, traditional
design-precedes-execution planning is sufficient. Otherwise, some level of
improvisation is likely to occur. Unfortunately, assessments of uncertainty and time
pressure are relative to the organization and therefore should not be generalized.
Market planners must assess their own time pressures and levels of uncertainty.
Borrowing from biology, phase entrainment is the synchronization of cycles (Ancona and
Chong 1996). Marketing planners should consider their environment and the
improvement or disruption to entraining their marketing efforts to their relative cycles
before they consider delaying or speeding up their programs. The frequency of
marketing management delays and their impact to improvisation and planning suggests
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that temporal consideration playa more prominent role in developing the situational
analysis and in managing the deviation from plan.
Categorical Discussion of Outcomes
The third unit of observation is the outcome. Four categories emerged:
Successful, Unsuccessful, Mixed Results and Other. Each ofthese categories are
discussed in this section.
Successful outcomes were frequent and explicit. Examples included, "highly
successful. . .it lead to a long term services contract (CI-82)," and "very successful and
increased revenue 20% (CI-119)." Many of the responses indicated that their response
was linked to specific marketing objectives. One respondent stated, "our sales recovered
well ....the competitor has since left the area (CI-93)." Specific metrics were mentioned
by some respondents. Examples of these include, "we have a committed contract for
$300,000 a year (CI-225)," and "we were able to open up 300 new checking accounts
(CI-323)."
Unsuccessful outcomes were not as frequent but just as explicit. Examples
included, "it was unsuccessful mainly because the media outlet failed me (CI-59)," and
"our objectives were not achieved (CI-246)." One respondent stated, "our plan got an
eight month delay and we haven't achieved the original goal (CI-241)." Some responses
in the category did not make an evaluation but the story they provide can only be
categorized as negative. For example, a respondent stated, "we had to attend two
exhibitions without the brochure. We produced a makeshift write-up of our services and
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printed several copies on A4 paper and used this as a substitute. Needless to say this was
not up to scratch, there were no pictures (CI-305)."
Outcomes included in the Mixed Results section indicated positive and negative
ramifications resulting from the deviation. Examples included, "successful but delayed
launch (CI-12)," and "good segment penetration with this strategy....but unknown lost
opportunity from reduced support on other strategies (CI-57)." The complexity of
determining outcomes is reflected in the emergence of this category. One respondent
stated, ''we were successful in the area we shifted investment to, unsuccessful in our plan
for areas where budget was removed (CI-392)." Another respondent added, "This
approach proved that this new target market was valid because we closed a number of
new accounts. However, the volume of business was much less than we hoped because
there was no field sales contribution to creating new opportunities (CI-456)."
A final category, Other, captured the remaining responses. Due to the relatively
large number of responses that did not provide any indication for the outcome of the
deviation even though they were expressly asked to do so, there was no need to further
dissect this category beyond the previous three categories. Besides non responses,
examples of responses that ended up classified as Other include indeterminable responses
like, "I am not sure ifit was successful or unsuccessful (CI-4)," and "it is hard to say,
healthcare is a very hard industry to do ROI (CI-39)." Others responses specifically
cited that enough time had not passed to make a determination of outcome. One
respondent stated, "too early to determine (CI-23)," and another added, "early days but it
looks promising (CI-30)."
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Previous studies have conceptually posited the existence of positive and negative
outcomes (Pina e Cunha et al. 2003). This study's outcomes include Mixed Results and
Other categories. This provides an interesting basis for considering the nexus of
planning, organizational learning and improvisation. Marketing planning, "is the logical
sequence of activities which leads to the setting of marketing objectives and the
formulation of plans to achieve them" (McDonald 1989, p. 2). As marketing planning
research has evolved, implementation has become interwoven into planning and
traditional Design-Precede-Execute (DPE) concepts have been replaced with an
integrated perspective. Part of this perspective must include improvisation, the
extemporaneous creation and execution of action. Also, the process ofplanning has
become a mechanism for designing and managing learning and thus the organizational
learning literature must also be included.
The literature on organizational learning described the two most distinct types of
learning: single and double loop learning (Argyris 1976). From a marketing planning
perspective, single loop learning occurs when errors are detected and corrected in
accordance with the plans objectives. Single loop learning does not question underlying
beliefs or assumptions. Positive and negative outcomes of post plan improvisations
provide the necessary information to support a unique phenomenon of single loop
learning specifically tied to the marketing planning process.
Double loop learning requires more introspective attention. Beyond detecting and
correcting errors, double loop learning requires the reevaluation of existing norms and
procedures that led to the error. In the case of post plan improvisation, double loop
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learning must also consider the Mixed Results and Other outcomes. The situational
analysis assesses information at predetermined points (either temporally or event based).
Incomplete, indeterminable and mixed results are difficult to assess. As organizations
reconcile their previous planning efforts they need to take into consideration resolved
outcomes (positive and negative) and unresolved outcomes (Mixed Results and Other)
that have resulted from PPI. For incomplete or indeterminable results, this might require
that special metrics or assignments are dedicated to assessing these results at a later time
(single loop learning challenge) and that the marketing planning process itself led to
incomplete or indeterminable results (double loop learning challenge). Strategic design
of a planning process sensitive enough to consider the source of such results would
suggest an example of double-loop learning (Argyris 1978). lfthe firm is able to manage
both single loop and double loop learning this would constitute duetero-Ieaming, a higher
order level of organizational learning.
Brews and Hunt (1999) showed greater support for the planning performance link
but noted that the value of incrementalism and leaming should not be completely
discounted. They linked planning and learning together and began to bridge the
theoretical silos among some management scholars. These results could signal the
location of a fruitful area to investigate in order to continue to fuse the learning and
planning research specialties.
Dodgson (1993) points out that learning can occur distinctly in different functions
of the organization including marketing. Therefore, strategic marketing planning can
encapsulate its own level of organizational learning separate from that of the organization
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as a whole. Even more specifically, the awareness and management ofPPI might create
a unique competency that could create a competitive advantage among firms.
Crosstabs Analysis Discussion
It is important to remember the limitations of this study before discussing
statistical differences of groups and subgroups. This methodology is not meant to be
generalizable. The analysis is limited to the data that has been collected. Additional
studies are needed that consider sample selection and distribution before any conclusions
can be inferred to larger populations. The crosstab analysis does provide a fruitful area
to probe more deeply. Discussions regarding each of the four crosstabs analyses for the
most significant results (p<.05) follow and are depicted by the dashed arrows in Figure
5.3.
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Post Plan Improvisations of Strategic Marketing Plans
•
•
•
•
•
•
Planner/Plan
Characteristics
-Education
·MP Skill
'Deviation
Frequency
Outcomes
·Successful
'Unsuccessful
f----.----+I 'Mixed Results
lU'd"'~;"d
Price
Promotion
Marketing
Management
Supply Chai n
Target Market
Product or Service
Offering
•
Internal
• Implementation & Planning Errors ........
• Financial Circumstances
•
• Producti 0 nand Desi gn •
• Human Resources & Personnel ·Firm
Characteristics
-Location
External I
·AgeI
• Market ~.
• Other Firms .i,
L'_M_a_c_ro_E_nV_ir_on_m_e_n_ta_1 ••• " •••••
Figure 5.3 - Crosstab Analysis with Unexpected Frequencies (p<.05)
There was a significant amount of unexpected frequency between the cause of
deviation and the type of deviation. Specifically, price was more frequently observed in
the Extemal- Macro Environmental forces than the External-Market Forces or Internal
categories. This suggests that firms that are particularly vulnerable to price fluctuations
should invest extra time in researching macroeconomic issues or build in related
contingencies. Additionally, deviations involving Target Markets are particularly
sensitive to Extemal- Market Forces. Although this shows an increased and somewhat
expected relationship, Target Market deviations based on Market forces does not indicate
a link to successful outcome. Firms should expect the temptation or invitation to adjust
102
their market focus to come from what they learn from their customers. Another logical
relationship is between the additional deviations of supply chains caused by other firms.
Perhaps the causal forces that are under represented should be examined more closely.
Finally, the largest difference in expected and actual counts comes from the number of
marketing management deviations stemming from internal causes. Again, logical, but
perhaps this type of deviation is most often overlooked. Marketing's external focus
might make internally driven deviations to the marketing management function even
more pronounced.
There was a significant amount of unexpected frequency between the cause of
deviation and the age of the firm. Specifically, 10 to 15 year firms are more likely to be
related to External- Market Forces than Internal forces. This suggests that as firms get
older they need to be more aware of internal causes of deviation to their marketing plans.
Additionally, the lack of External- Market causes should be a concern. This could be
due to older firms understanding their customers and markets better than young and
middle age firms or it could be a lack of communication that could cause deviations with
successful outcomes. Additionally, location (X2 = 49.49 p<.014) demonstrated a
significant amount of unexpected frequency within the type of cause of deviation. This
indicates that marketing planners also have to be aware of geographic and cultural
specifics.
There was a significant amount of unexpected frequency between the outcome
and the respondent's perceived level ofmarketing planning skill. Specifically, Novice
and Below Average planners were less likely to report a successful outcome from a
103
deviation of their marketing plan and Experts were more likely to report successful
outcomes. Vanity could be part of the explanation. Planners that consider themselves
experts might also want to justify ranking themselves as such by reporting a positive
story. Interestingly, if they are expert planners, they should be better at projecting their
environments and correlated strategy and less likely to need to deviate.
Finally, there was a significant amount of unexpected frequency between the
outcome of the deviation and the frequency of deviations made. Specifically, firms that
reported successful outcomes from deviations oftheir marketing plans were less likely to
deviate very often. Inversely, the firms that deviated very often were more likely to have
reported an unsuccessful outcome. This does not suggest that firms that deviate very
often have fewer successful outcomes and more unsuccessful outcomes than other firms.
It does suggest that the firms that indicated they deviated more frequently were more
likely to report an unsuccessful incident and less likely to report a successful incident. It
does indicate that the companies with salient success stories are more likely to have
deviated a few times and not just once or very often.
By looking more closely at the crosstab analysis ofthe four most significant areas
containing unexpected frequencies, it would appear that firms that are the most rigid or
most flexible are less likely to successfully deviate from their marketing plan. This
supports previous literature on the value (Moorman & Miner 1998) and paradoxical
nature (Slotegraaf and Dickson 2004) of improvisation. It might also suggest that there is
more to improvisation than the extent or frequency and a more find tuned understanding
of the different types ofpost plan improvisation is needed.
104
Methodological Contributions
The use of the CIT in marketing research, outside of service research, has rarely
been attempted. This study could reintroduce this method to marketing scholars and
students. As detailed in the methodology chapter, there are unique benefits to the CIT. It
should serve as a reminder that too much deduction can increase the gap between
scholastics and practitioners. Inductive techniques such as the CIT refresh the literature
base with new, practitioner directed information to help maintain research currency and
credibility.
The few quantitative improvisation studies collect data from a relatively few
number of firms. The number of firms used to create the categories of post plan
improvisation (N=384) represents one ofthe largest pools of firm respondents
documented in CIT studies used for marketing research. Moorman and Miner (1998a)
documented multiple improvisational acts of new product teams from two forms. They
admit the danger of methodological bias in their study and suggest that future research,
"could involve considering a more comprehensive study of improvisation that extends the
connections between information and improvisation (p. 14). Vera and Crossan (2002)
looked at 38 teams in one firm. They recognize the lack of power with their statistical
findings and note the subsequent risk of creating a Type II error (accepting the null
hypothesis when it should be rejected).
105
Managerial Contributions
Of the respondents that completed a marketing plan in the previous eighteen
months and attempted to implement that plan, 92% of them deviated from that plan. The
frequency with which these firms improvise from their approved marketing plans is
remarkable. Any insights that can help managers better identify which types of
deviations are more likely to lead to successful outcomes will have a huge impact on
managerial marketing. This study takes the important first step of identifying the actual
post plan improvisations made by marketing planners. This will allow future researchers
to more specifically identify which deviations benefit which types of firms.
Managers should be aware that a large percentage ofpost plan improvisations are
caused by internal forces. The literature to this point focuses on external analysis of the
environment during marketing planning. Additional insights should be sought regarding
how to train marketing planners to better analyze and plan for internal disruptions. This
might constitute a new section ofthe situational analysis section ofplans. It should also
be considered in contingency planning phases as well.
Important consideration should be allocated towards deviations in marketing
management. Much like internal causes, these types ofpost plan improvisations are
underreported and warrant specific marketing management techniques for identifying and
maximizing adjustments to this area.
Finally, managers should understand that there needs to be special attention to
specific outcomes related to deviations from marketing planning. This will empower
them to learn which types of causes and deviations are beneficial for their specific firm
106
and industry. This study points out the difficulty of measuring and reporting marketing
implementation effects because oftheir integrated nature and possible long-term
orientation.
Limitations
There are limitations to this study. The first limitations involves the source of
data. By asking firms from the same database for information there is a possibility that
firms not represented in that database are not part of the creation of the new categories.
These firms have online capabilities (based on their participation) and seemingly support
the idea of formal written plans (based on the software's connection.) This study used a
logical behavioral corridor to access an elite audience. Because the findings of this study
are not meant to be generalizable to any population, these effects should be minimal.
Future research in this area should look for other sources of information that include
respondents from larger businesses and planners that utilize other means of planning.
Additionally, the critical incidents were reported from a single respondent based
on a retrospective interpretation of actual events. The measurement of the phenomenon
is limited to the respondent's memory. Although memory constraints are noted as a
general limitation with all CIT studies (Chelle 1998), previous service-based research
usually focuses on events that are less complex than post plan improvisations. This
should be considered in the development of future results. However, retrospective
reports in organizational research have been shown to be an acceptable means of
107
generating data if the measure used to generate the reports is adequately reliable and valid
(Miller et al. 1997).
The second major limitation of this study is the collection of open ended,
exploratory data through an online method. There is a risk that valuable and new data is
not captured because the researcher does not have the ability to reactively probe the
respondent based on incomplete or vague answers. Given the large amount of responses
that were discarded, this concern is warranted. However, every study must make
concessions for completing the research in a timely and cost sensitive manner.
Future Research
By inductively augmenting the knowledge base of organizational improvisation,
more detailed, deductive research will be possible. The next obvious step is to study the
phenomenon of post plan improvisation with traditional deductive research. Existing
literature regarding organizational improvisation should consider if all PPI categories are
theoretically consistent. Recently, Dennis and Macaulay (2007) argued that
improvisation is a key element for achieving a market orientation. This study typifies the
use of more precise knowledge about improvisation in future research. The results oftms
study show that firms improvise based on external and internal causes. Do internally and
externally caused deviations ofmarketing plans both affect market orientation? Given the
external focus of market orientation, internally caused deviations may not affect a market
orientation. Only externally caused post plan improvisations increase a firm's market
orientation. Although this study itself does not yet provide a litany of direction for
108
managers there are some insights. The recognition of internally caused deviations
reminds planners that their situational environment must also account for intrafirm
turbulence as well.
Improvisational research can be messy. In the past, researchers have identified
complexity theory as a useful lens for explaining and predicting improvisations. (Crossan
et al. 2005; Pina e Cunha et al. 1999; Weick 1998). Complexity theory explains how
organizations adapt to their environment. Organizations are a series of strategies and
structures that are susceptible to more complex, external factors. Small environmental
variations can produce extraordinary variation within the organization. The theory
attempts to explain how complex organizations exhibit non-linear behavior which leads
to unpredictable behavior and rapid rates of change (Anderson 1999). Further research
should continue to look towards complexity theory for insights.
Conclusion
Organizational improvisation has been empirically linked to new product and
process outcomes (Moorman & Miner 1998), relative brand equity (Slotegraaf &
Dickson, 2004) and innovation (Vera & Crossan, 2005). Given the importance of these
concepts, it would suggest that more attention should be devoted to understanding when
to improvise and when not to. Until now, improvisation types have not been fully
identified. This study bolsters the understanding of the phenomenon and provides future
researchers with the ability to more deeply probe into post plan improvisations of
strategic marketing plans.
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APPENDIX A
CODING INSTRUCTIONS AND RECRUITMENT DOCUMENT
Overview
1. You will be provided with a set of incidents regarding marketing planning and post
plan improvisation. Respondents that indicated that they had completed a marketing plan
within the past eighteen months and been involved in its implementation were asked a
series of three questions intended to elucidate an event where they deviated from that
marketing plan during its implementation.
2. You will be asked to categorize each incident into all 3 different categories:
A) identify a specific deviation from their marketing plan.
B) identify the cause of that deviation
C) ifpossible, identify the outcome from that deviation
3. You should read through all of the respondent's text before you begin to classify the
incident. Ifthe incident does not appear to fit into any of the 3 categories, put it aside.
Do not attempt to categorize incidents that do not meet the basic criteria. An incident
must: (A) represent a specific deviation from a marketing plan (B) provide a cause for
that deviation. Incidents without specific outcomes are expected and a category for no
response is available.
Coding Rules
"Each incident should be categorized within one category only. Once you have read the
incident, you should begin asking the following questions in order to determine the
appropriate category" (Bitner et a1.1994, p. 104).
(Presented to coders online using Qualtrics Software)
Please write a brief summary of the critical incident mentioned above and attempt to
identify the following 3 things:
1. The cause of the deviation from the marketing plan
2. The deviation that occurs
3. The outcome
NOTE: All three might not be available in every incident.
110
Based on your understanding of the incident you just summarized which of the following
categories best describes THE CAUSE OF THE DEVIATION FROM THE
MARKETING PLAN?
• Internal Causes - (i.e. New Product Development Delays, Management Change,
Decide to go in a different direction)
• External Causes - Customers/Your Market (i.e Sales are disappointing, Added a
New Client)
• External Causes - Other Firms (i.e. competitors, supply chain partners)
• External Causes - Macroenvironmental Forces (Government, Legal, Technology,
Economic)
• None of the Above
Based on the same incident which of the following categories best describes THE
DEVIATION THAT OCCURRED.
• Product or Service Offering
• Price
• Promotion (i.e. New or Different Media Choices, Change of Message)
• Target Market
• Supply Chain (i.e. New Distributor)
• Marketing Management (i.e. Personnel, Finance and Budget Changes, Delays or
Timing Changes)
• None of the Above
Base on the same incident which of the following categories best describes THE
OUTCOME.
• Successful
• Unsuccessful
• Mixed Results (i.e. In the end we were successful but it cost more than we
expected)
• Other
Training Causal Subcategories
(Note: Presented to a single coder in an additional round of coding. Presented on paper.)
A. Internal
1. Failed Implementation & Planner Errors
• not following through on planned activities for explained reasons (i.e., we
changed our mind and never followed through)
111
• unexplained reasons (i.e., we failed to follow through with the plan)
• changes to the strategy or plan because of new information that could have
been identified in the original planning stages (i.e., capabilities of the
organization were not as broad as we believed, or, due to planning errors).
2. Financial Circumstances occurred include
• management's reallocation of financial resources
• budget cuts
• investment changes.
3. New Product Development includes
• specific identification of product development and engineering influences
• Production delays
Note: The introduction ofnew product not included in the original plan would
Instead type ofincident would be coded as a failed implementation or planning error.
4. Human Resources includes
• change in management
• personnel conflicts
• communication failures
5. Other
• Anything that does not fit into the previous categories
B. External - Other Firms
1. Competitive Forces includes
• direct or indirect competition
2. Suppliers, Vendor and Partners
• includes observations of upstream and downstream supply chain partners
• other firms that act in the form of an alliance or partnership.
3. Other
• Anything that does not fit into the previous categories
Recruitment Document:
Palo Alto Software will send an e-mail with the following information:
Subject: Complete this survey and receive a Business
Resource Toolkit
Body: We want to know more about your marketing planning
and implementation. To participate in an academic research
study sponsored by Palo Alto Software on behalf ofUniversity
of Oregon doctoral student, Pete Whalen, please complete the
online questionnaire. Simply click on the link below. The
survey should not take more than 10 minutes to complete.
Upon completion, you will receive Palo Alto's "Grow Your
Business" - Resource Kit including:
• Over 60 sample plans
• 7 business calculators
• Two planning tutorials
• 20% Discount offof Business Plan Pro
SURVEY LINK goes here
The purpose of this study is to understand how marketers
implement their marketing plans. Your answers will be
completely confidential and reports from the survey will be
made available to those who choose to participate.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
112
APPENDIXB
SURVEY RESPONSES
113
24
5
CI # - 1) Answer to: Please consider one occasion where you deviated from your marketing plan. Describe the
circumstances leading up to the incident. Please provide as much detail as possible (a few sentences to a half of a
page). 2) Answer to: Describe what happened during the incident. What specific details do you recall that made
this experience memorable? Please provide as much detail as possible (a few sentences to a half of a page). 3)
Answer to: What was the specific outcome of the incident? Was it successful? Was it unsuccessful? Not sure?
Please provide as much detail as possible (a few sentences to a half of a page).
1) A product the client wanted to bring into the US became unavailable. 2) The main product the client wanted to sell and had been
selling successfully was discontinued by the manufacturer for no apparent reason. / It was a great seller! / We approached them to
reconsider 3) They increased the minimum order quantities - we got he product - that took 9 months. So we had to execute other
areas of teh plan while this was being resolved
1) As a new business, one is inundated by every radio, television, print media companies wanting you to advertise with them.
Some of them make a very good case based on readership statistics and pricing promotions. Being new, you can be more
vulnerable to accepting an offer for a Holiday Gift Guide for example, that ties you into purchasing addtiional ads, or something like
that. I deviated for a Holiday Gift Guide that was going to be sent to a high number of customers that met my demographics, in a
wealthy suburb of my city. The ad space was free IF I agreed to do 2 more ads in subsequent issues of my choice. I agreed to do
the ad because I'm trying to also build brand awareness. I feel the ad was effective and brough additional customers to my store
that otherwise might not have known about me, however, as I have now done one of the subsequent ads, its not really been as
effective as the Holiday Gift Guide as it hasn't brought the same type of clientele into the store. Also, I know feel that it might not
have the positive effect on my store image because of the type of publication it is. 2) The publication that my ad is in usually
features coupons for customers. I did not have a coupon attached to my ad in either the Holiday Gift Guide or in the subsuequent
publication. I had several calls about whether I offered any kind of discount, which I do not. I think the ad looked out of place in the
publication. 3) I'm not sure if it was successful or unsuccessful. Is it better to only advertise in certain publications or is it better to
get your name out there in a publication that reaches a larger audience, an age old problem I'm sure.
1) As we roll out a new service or up date to an existing service the delivery of the information is often a secondary thought process
by individuals in our organization. There have been instances where the appropriate information was not provided in format
understandable by the receipiant leading the confusion and frustraiton from the user. 2) Employees become confused and
frustrated leading to a missed opportunity to market a change to a current process or benefit. Instead of a win for the company a
perceived loss of benefits is taken away from the programs rollout. 3) A re-education program had to be developed and
implemented to ensure the employees understood the changes being implemented. The roll out was ulimately successful;
however, additional man hours were spent that could have been saved had the marketing plan been implemented correctly.
f-'
f-'
.j:o..
I 1) Change in expectations. The market was less sensitive than what we thought therefore we had to change our plan to add a
more aggressive component. / We had to buy market from some competitors in order to position ourselves where we wanted fast. /
We knew that once the word was out we would have the competition trying to copy our model (which has no big entry barriers) 2)
7 When we decided to go more aggressive to the market we got a positive response. More Independent representatives (insurance
industry) reacted and called us to know more about our model. We started recruiting more people in a short period of time. If we
had not changed to this more aggressive mode once we had the initial reaction of the representatives we would have lost the
opportunity. / 3) Driect mail was changed to a members meeting ...W#e determined form others in the industry that our best plan of
action for the dollar was face to face ... not mailings we had a much better response to our face to face interviews
9 1) Changing the cost of a product line to ensure a sale. 2) The product was sold. 3) The product was sold to a small church. To
ensure its sale a discounted price had to be offered.
1) Deadlines were changed. Product for the promotion changed due to elements being unavailable 2) Being unprepared for the
10 change and the deadline closing in. A change in product means a change to an ad layouUimages. 3) Not able to completely gauge
the result due to being an ad. Clients don't always order as indicated on an ad to obtain a particular special pricing.
1) Deviation occurred when we decided to change to a different form factor of product. 2) The deal with a partner fell through so we
12 had to go with an alternate partner for product development which caused a major different in product features / attributes / market
introduction. 3) Successful but delayed launch
13 1) Driect mail was changed to a members meeting 2) W#e determined form others in the industry that our best plan of action for thedollar was face to face not mailinqs 3) we had a much better response to our face to face interviews
1) Encountered events that had not been predicted such as higher than estimated costs or greater than estimated time required. 2)
14 Pricing for a specific marketing piece had been quoted by designer to include production costs. When we were ready to proceeddiscovered that those costs were not a part of the original budget. 3) Revised and implemented a portion of what was originally
planned
1) Had an opportunity to add Plasma TV's to our Visitor Center and use for additional advertising stream. The additional promotion
15 added value to our existing services and provided new sources of revenue ....2) It allowed us to move into the 21 st century with new
technology and provide more of a "wow" factor for our center..,3) Very successful as we were able to increase revenue and
enhance our existinq client's value.
17 1) I had to deviate from my prospecting focus to current customer needs and growth 2) I have focused on new accounts while
mainataining current customers, but my qrowth was with current customer base. 3) I increased sales by 38% for '07
19 1) inaccurate competitive assessments. 2) release of competitive product changing the value proposition. 3) Change of bundling
and pricinq, altered channel policy and agqressively promoted to end user.
23 1) New competition opened. Food and Beverage outlet opened. 2) Review of new competition, rate strategies, additional
advertising implemented, revised service plans, implemented new menu and pricing 3) Too early to determine.
.......
.......
V1
1) Planned marketing campaigns were put off to allow for PSAs and other op-eds to discuss advocacy issues. 2) Priority shift was
26 evaluated within the context of the overall objectives of the plan -- so while deliverables changed, the stratgegy did not. 3) PSAs
and Op-eds were substituted for other planned marketinQ activities and met the expectations of the client.
1) projected customer desire for products increased faster than anticipated and we had to accomodate the increase 2) we put out a
27 marketing piece and recieved a huge customer response...the phones wouldn't stop ringing .. .we had to come up with a different
strategy for meeting customer demand 3) it was successful. Instead of concentrating our efforts on just internet customers we were
able to accomodate non-internet orders as well.
1) Sales required more brand support for anew product so we initiated an integrated direct mail and magazine and web campaign.
28 2) The magazine, internet and direct mail campaign supported the sales awareness for new product swithc from the previous
product offer. 3) It was a successful campaign measured by the meeting of sales goals for conversion switch to new product.
1) Supply issues with our primary business partner forced us to reconsider our exposure and dependency on a single distributor
brand. This led to a decision to create a house brand, with total control and higher margins. 2) Lack of sleep, frustration, loss of
30 revenue, relationship testing to name but a few. It was also extremely difficult to change course midway given the lead times andequity built into existing product ranges and relationships. It was also a test of calm objectiVity and due diligence. 3) We launched a
new brand that has achieved traction in the marketplace and a platform that we can build on with confidence. Early days but
promisinQ.
1) The instance was when an unexpected change in the development of the product surfaced. It has happened a couple times
while developing a plan and both times it was the result of trying to get a jump start on the marketing of the product before it is fully
32 developed and tested. Luckily, in both cases the change in the product deveolpment was a positive change. 2) Coordination andcommunication of information between the product development people and the marketing people became a real issue... problems
arose with scheduling, purchasing pachkaging materials and advertising. 3) It was successful but at a price (financial,
psychological, etc)
1) the marketing plan was designed but the implementation was not fully achieved as financing the plan became difficult. We had to
34 temporarily suspend the plan. 2) The service was okay but not being able to execute the marketing plan did not go down well with
staff. we decided to make sure we had everything we need before proceedinQ. 3) it was suspended
1) We had chosen certain service lines to feature Vo the plan. We had to adjust to combat the marketing efforts of another facility.
2) We are a hospital. We had pick service lines that would help both our technology image and our bottom line. When a
39 neighboring hospital decided to highlight a service line that we directly compete with, our board and a few of the affected physicians
felt we needed to highlight their service, eventhough their service line was not a profit leader. However, it is important for us to
keep our doctors happy, so we made concessions. 3) Hard to say, healthcare is a very hard industry to do ROL Our doctors were
happy and we did not seem to lose business to our competitor, so overall, I would call it successful.
>--'
>--'
0\
1) We launched our new packaging, labeling and marketing campaign only to be confronted with extreme cost increases on our raw
materials which forced us to implement a price increase. For a small, family-owned company, this caused a major disruption to the
40 timeline for our marketing plan. 2) The cost or high fructose corn syrup went up 37% in a 12-month period, the cost of our
bottles/caps/labels skyrocketed when oil went over $90/barrel. 3) It forced us to take a step back and reevaluate our whole
marketing/business plan. We had to put many of our initiatives on the back burner due to the financial constraints imposed as a
result of the rapid rise in raw material costs and lack of a correspondinq rise in the sales price of our products.
1) We were not quite getting there with the people we had in management. We found a Chief Marketing Officer, he did some
41 lengthy analysis and pursuaded us to go a different direction with the plan. 2) We had thought about doing what he suggested we
did, but we were unable to implement it without him. 3) The outcome has been tremendous. We are well on our way, finally.
1) wHEN PROJECTING THE ADVERTISING BUDGET WE HAD TO REVIEW AND ADJUST AT 7 MONTHS AS SALES WOULD
NOT JUSTIFY THE INITIAL BUDGET COST ALLOCATION. / CASH FLOW INDICTED A CORRECTION WAS IN ORDER. 2)
43 GROSS SALES DID NOT STYA WITH OUR INITIAL MARKET ADVERTISING BUDGET. WE ALSO HAD TO RETHINK A PART
TIME PERSONS HOURS TO CUST COST. 3) PARTIALLY SUCCESSFUL. AT THE END OF 9 MONTHS WE AGAIN NOTED
SALES DROPPING OFF FROM ADJUSTED PROJECTS AND ONCE AGAIN HAD TO AMEND EXPENSES TO COME IN LINE
WITH "RISKMANGEMENT EXPENSE RATIOS" AS A PERCENT OF SALES.
1) A budget was changed due to cuts in a specific program. 2) Needed to reflect the new cost structure and convey this employees.
45 3) This was successful to a point. Since we took a loss of money for the budget, we needed a way to make the money last an entire
year, instead of what should have been money for a quarter.
1) A new competitor entered the market. The competitor located the business within a mile of my client. We had to adjust the plan
46 to aggressively counter competitive advertising 2) The competitor heavily discounted a product my client sold. We countered the
advertising by discounting the product pricing lower the advertised by the competition. 3) Yes it was successsful as it relates to
increased floor traffic but the profit marqins were lower.
1) adjust markets as sales data is obtiained, it is important ot use a marketinting plan as a guide and it is a living document that
allow you to constantly fine tune your marketing efforts as new data is gathered 2) sales in sertain areas of the marketing plan or
47 publicity caused a more focused approach to certain markets. for example if a new product get picked up on Good Morning
America, then the awareness is instantinious and you need to buidl on that 3) increased product awarness, sales and marketing
opporunities
1) Advertising opportunity came up or I was asked to participate in trade show by a manufacturer. Or a manufacturers co-op
48 advertising funds needed to spent in a timely manner. 2) Spent money that would normally not have been spent because of a use it
or lose it policy. 3) No worthy ROI.
,........
,........
--...)
1) Assumptions about the product pricing needed to be ajdusted and caused us revise our sales targets upwards to meet profit
49 goals. 2) Fast moving technology caused prices to be lowered as we were rolling out. We quickly changed the product pricing(there was room) but needed to up the sales forecast and the supporting activity. 3) Not sure yet, but sales are on track to meet
profit goals
1) Change in the sub-prime lending rate, market situation and the general economic mood changed the externalities of the
business. This required change in marketing strategy. 2) Inspite of the falling dollar value, and the speculations about real estate,
51 people who had their foundations in the business and knew their fundamentals, did not feel the pinch. Overseeing the marketing for
such a firm is pleasure. 3) New strategies to generate business led to new partnerships and change in focus from one service to
another.
1) Changes in financial position (customers going bankrupt, etc) 2) Delay in plans for additional staff delayed implementation of
52 some of the marketing actions planned. 3) Normal, mid-course adjustment. Remained focused on achieving the goal and finding
ways to conserve both time and money.
1) Critical facility for production was no longer available. 2) Postponed the bring-it-to-market until we could find another facility.
54 "Memorable"??? Kinda hard to forget we had to shelve the plan. 3) Yep, the incident was very successful in causing us to shift
100% of our available resources to an entirely different *corporation*.
1) Deviation from marketing plan was due to lack of working capital to implement all marketing plan elements. Capital for
55 implementatio was planned to be derived from fees derived from client fees associated with engagements. Further deviations from
the plan were due to the need to focus on the completion of cleint projects. 2) Please see the statement above. / 3) We are still in
process of securinQ workinQ capital to launch the marketing plan. /
1) Discovered market conditions that varied from baseline assumptions and historical trends. 2) Reviewed the fundamentals of the
56 plan to validate the overall plan. Determined that tuning was required, not an overhaul. Strengthened the plan and validated the
core strategy. 3) The business was successful. We achieved all of the key objectives and we were ultimately acquired because of
our market position.
1) Early results showed higher-than-anticipated success rate from one key strategy. 2) Had to shift resource allocation to more
57 successful strategy 3) Good segment penetration with this strategy...but unknown lost opportunity from reduced support on other
strateQies.
1) Found out that there was going to be a delay in obtaining regulatory approval for US launch of product. Delayed marketing
efforts in USA and focused on European sales. 2) New hurdles surfaced, realizing a delay in obtaining regulatory approval. We
58 canceled planned attendance at conferences, workshops to delay expenses until product was approved for sales. 3) Delay was not
planned; however, we acted qUickly and focused attention on European market, which up to that point was secondary. This
allowed us to show traction in European market, which lead to increased investor confidence. Allowed us to work out some kinks in
Europe for a much stronger launch in USA.
59 1) I changed my approach due to other media options that became available. 2) I had a set plan and used other option when theybecame available 3) It was unsuccessful mainly because the media outlet basically failed me. they did not provide what they had
.......
.......
00
offered.
1) i hired an outside agent to book radio interviews rather than do it myself. 2) it was a wise decision becasue the interviews have
60 gone well, but it increased the cost of marketing. 3) I am pleased with the outcome. The product visibiity has increased far beyond
where it would have otherwise.
61 1) Industy regulation shifted, requiring a change in strategy 2) Additional administrative resources were required. 3) A shift in work
load was required to accomodate the need. This slowed sales growth from planned projections.
1) Lost lease opportunity in proposed store location. 2) Had to unexpectedly change plans and move all show cases that were
63 ordered for the new business to the basement of our home. 3) Haave now set up a small wholesale operation from the basement of
my home. Not ideal but I had no choice.
65 1) needed to define a different market segment (secondary) 2) increased media expense 3) positive - successful
67 1) Offered a deal I couldn't refuse! 2) I got "found" by other "top" companies. 3) Referrals! Inclusion in magazines, on TV, linkedto....
1) Original launch date and campaign were revised due to marketshare information received in regard to competitors. Able to
68 recalculate and create more powerful plan. 2) Due to the revisions and relaunch, our initial response from customers was
overwhelming and the product is taking off. 3) It behooved us to regroup and realign our direction and the final outcome was very
responsive.
1) Product development/engineering was not going to make its deadline for some new products we were planning to launch. 2)
71
Once I was informed, I needed to modify our e-marketing schedule along with delaying some direct mail promotions. I also needed
to communicate to our dealers that the products would not be avaialable at the time we originally promised which delayed some of
our dealer marketing activities as well. 3) Not sure at this point. Some products are now ready and we have just started the
marketing efforts, others are still in progress and thus marketing efforts are on hold.
73 1) Reorganization drove refocus on plan 2) More focus on fewer products 3) Successful
1) the market was disturbed by political upheaval and cuxtomer stindustrial stop heavy products inquiries 2) just shifyt to dau to day
78 industrial product consumption just to coninue selling instead of fucusing on huge products 3) it was successful as i discover a new
segement which was not negletable at all
1) The plan included two networking groups but we added a third because of positive feedback about the new group 2) The third
80 group was very active (meeting twice a week) and we found that we were not able to keep up with all three groups effectivly 3) We
dropped the third group to go back to our original plan
1) The potential new clients changed as the market changed. The plan was for a custom home builder. Once the market changed
81 the potential client base narrowed. 2) We increased the amount of dollars spent on each potential client but lowered the target. 3)
Very successful. We focused on high end rather than all ends. Seems simple now.
>--'
>--'
I.D
82 1) The services most in demand were a very minr part of the original plan 2) When interviewing clients the services offered were not
needed but it lead to developing services that were desired 3) highly success. It lead to a long term services contract.
86 1) we added an additional mailing list. / we used direct mail more times than planned 2) we wanted to gain new cuustomers thus
adding new mailing list. / we wanted increased exposure 3) additional mailing pieces were trackable and worked.
1) We deviated from our marketing plan when a client requested a different approach to providing our services. At that point in time,
we began to market to non-pharmaceutical funding agents toward an international audience. This was accomplished utilizing
existing marketing materials customized for the Dubais Healthcare City population. 2) It was memorable because it opened the
doors of our services to Dubais Healthcare City, and shifted our focus on funding. In our business plan for continuing medical
87 educaiton, the pharmaceutical industry was the funder of continuing education ....as that industry and objectivity has been brought
into question, it has allowed us to remove all potential concerns for bias from our educational products, shift our business plan to
earning the money on the back end instead of the front end, and improve patient outcomes in a different country and region. 3)
Thus far, it has been successful. We will not know the level of success until the end of the 12 month plan (benchmark at 6 months
will provide a clearer picture).
1) We made an adjustment in strategy due to a marketing opportunity that presented itself in the form of a strategic relationship.
This required an adjustment in message. 2) Because we consider our annual plans a guideline versus a concrete path, the
89 adjustment was easy and meshed quickly into the overall plan. As we made the adjustments, we actually saw new ways to
leverage exisitng strategies in the plan for better effect. 3) The change was quite successful. I estimate that we exceeded planned
results by better than 22%. Using an annual plan allows us to stay focused and on message. Additionally, it allows to maximize
results from opportunities that drop in our lap like this strategic partnership did.
90 1) We needed to alter our speaker series schedule and increase the amount of advertising w had allocated for it. 2) As a result we
were able to increase our advertising at the same time saving money 3) Absolutely very successful
1) 1. Sales rollout delayed due to clinical trial delays. / /2. Last plan service implementation plans delayed due to delay in getting
92 facility ready for operations. 2) First situation was a failure of the product during attempts at mass production and a feature problem
requiring redesign and testing of new prototype products. 3) Product feature was successfully redesigned with production of high
quality products. Clinical trials delayed further because new clinics had to be solicited. Company eventually ran out of money.
93 1) A competitor entered the market. I required an adjustment of pricing and promotion. 2) We lowers our prices and advertised viadirect mail/internet 3) Our sales recovered well. The competitor has since left the area.
1) A couple of promotions were rearranged due to an increase of cost from another. This in turn changes advertising plans as well.
94 2) Line Item budgets were gone over to see where the needed money could be shaved from. Needs were prioritized. 3) So Far So
Good. Because we weighed out the consequences before, it was a natural decision to take from a unmeasured event or promotion
to fund one that has been proven to be successful.
........
tv
o
1) A new service was offered midway through the plan. Found alternative means to communicate it to clients. 2) New market that
95 was never reached was established. Unique demographics regarding client location and an untested delivery location. Identified
communication opportunity and executed decision. 3) Clients were please and we increased our business significantly for new
location. More growth potential exists.
1) Budget cuts prevented multiple promotions. So the entire media, promotions and ultimate lauch plan of the new products were
99 reworked. 2) Lots of posturing amoung the heads of the other product teams for more money. Forced people to really contemplate
what were the most critical "must-do" tactics. 3) A broad launch became extremely focused and targeted.
1) Capabilities of the organization were not as broad as we believed. We had to cut back on what we offered customers. 2) We
101 reviewed the marketing strategy and re-directed the sales effort to more effectively target prospects. 3) We were able to identify
specific opportunities that kept us in a more narrow channel, and allowed us to focus our efforts.
104 1) Changes to our ability to internally produce the products to suport the plan. 2) We grew the business faster than we could add
manufacturing capacity and support people. 3) We reduced our marketing plan a segment of the business.
1) COGS increase. / What features were we willing to give up and how did that affect market. / Gave up features for a small
106 potential loss in market. 2) Gave up features for a small potential loss in market. 3) As most of marketing is speculative, there was
no solid base line existing to measure the success or failure of the specific decision. / That being said, the product was still
successful in meeting the sales targets.
1) competitor products became priced better, needed to change the focus from price to service and build more personal
107 relationships. 2) Started loosing customers as the direct result of price, stopped selling on price ALONE and began better educated
the customers about all the other included benefits of their policy. 3) So far very successful, retention has been steady. Customers
love the calls and time we are taking to better explain their products.
1) Did not consider the cost of professional liability insurance (e and 0) which needed to be addressed for one consulting
108 engagement. 2) Could not engage with the client until insurance was in place. Needed to restructure price scheme and then
include the cost for future quotations. 3) Secure deal and now using that as part of the marketing effort.
1) Due to loss of a major customer just as plan was nearing completion stage, had to refocus target which also meant a refocus on
services being marketed. This caused a delay to implementation of plan. 2) Biggest headache was reviewing current, future
109 network capacity so that we ensured that we were marketing the correct services. Due to the potential lost of service, it opened
capacity on network and we were required to add a service in attempt to take the place of the lost customer. 3) Adding a service
required reviewing all the collateral to ensure that the proper services were included. Actually, was a successful outcome.
Realized more sales that expected over the lifetime of that plan.
--N
--
1) Interest in a distinctly different category of product that my firm usually offers popped onto the scene. Made sense to pursue it
because it wasn't a significant user of time or money, and it was related to my interests. I publish books for Nordic skiers and
complementary gadgets for training them. This new product was an inclinometer that's very easy to use (sits on a ski pole) and
would be used to reduce avalanche risk. 2) The key for me was that I had the subject-matter expertise to move on this opportunity
114 without a lot of background time. I conceptualized the product almost instantly as a result of my own time spent in the winterbackcountry. It was a fit even for Nordic skiers, who are crossing over more and more to alpine touring to take advantage of their
fitness and basic skills, while expanding their total ski experience. 3) Prototypes were created and are being tested, refined. I'd say
that there is a 60%+ chance of it being introduced within the next 24 months. The prototype worked. And many of my specialty
retailers also offer backcountry gear, so there's likely a decent fit with existing channels. It's also small and so fulfillment would be a
snap.
1) Learned that getting people to the web site required more bill boards than first planned 2) We asked people how they found us. I
116 lin my opinion bussiness and marketing plans are maps and direction. Once they set sail, the winds can change, the weather can
cause them to get off course. In my opinion, they should be built to change and if they don't, I may be missing something. 3) We got
four times the web visits than we were getting
117 1) Market and buyer decision changes 2) The overall plan was delayed in execution by 3x the change period 3) Better Strategy
1) My expectations with one advertising method were not up to par so I reviewed my plan and determined that there were several
119 other approaches I needed to pursue. 2) I hadn't considered the approaches before. They provided new markets that connected
with my past and previous connections. 3) THe new market was very successful and increased revenue 20%.
1) New information became available that justified modifying the marketing plan implementation. 2) Competitor launched a new
120 product earlier than anticipated. 3) Go-to-market strategy was adjusted in light of the new competition. Targeting was refined to
circumvent competition.
122 1) New trade show opportunity presented itself which was not in the budget. 2) Dropped some other activities to pay for attending
this show 3) Will be attending show Sept. 08
1) Opted not to buylrent a list of business appropriate contacts; rather, cranked up our own inhouse call &gather contact
information, history of our type service use, future plans, frustrations -- began a dialogue that wizened our language and
subsequent direct mail &email campaign. Focused counting -- how many completed calls, how many retargeted accounts. 2) the
123 script! the listening script! the hearing script! Bullet points on white boards and tear sheets on the walls in the calling center. the
script pulled valuable updates, new directions and key information -- the results recast the marketing message. Everyone on the
team felt AHA moments that moved the message only after a weekly vetting. 3) ... brand recognition and a better sales
conversation. The sales cycle here is 6 - 9 months on average.
.......
tv
tv
1) Original Media methodology did not have the affect I anticipated, deviated from plan and changed the media type to address the
issue and overcame the situation and made a dramtic difference in the overall results in executing the plan; accomplishing the
original goal, strategy and targeted audience but with a different type of media. 2) Media launched and traffic for the retailer was not
as expected. Within 2-weeks made adjustements to media buy and executed again to accomplish the desired result. Memorable
124 because it was a large media buy and had to negotiate with media planning and buyer to accomplish the change with vendors
communication companies etc in a very demanding, expensive and dense population. /3) Success. Achieve the ultimate desire
goals with the same strategy but with a different media execution. Client was impressed with the measurement, astute observation,
nibbleness in response and ultimate execution that ultimately had no effect on retailer and accomplished desired and planned
results.
1) Our plan was to pursue business with selected European turbine engine repair firms as our primary market. We made a very
good contact with an engine repair firm. This senior manager then accepted a position as CEO of an airline. We continued to
125
develop this contact and it has proven to be highly instrumental in us establishing ourselves as the principal supplier of aircraft
components and parts to this airline. 2) It's a simple story. See above. 3) We are now supplying over half of the aircraft parts and
components to this airline, and because of the good relationship with the CEO they are paying us very well. The bottom line is this:
in any plan one must be prepared for the unexpected and be ready to deviate from the plan when it's appropriate, rather than to
stubbornly adhere to a plan and iQnore Qreat opportunities that may pop up along the way.
126 1) Price increase from vendor 2) Advertising vendor increased prices mid-stream causing us to re-evaluate our media plan. 3)Yes...we revised media delivery and vendors aliowinQ for more reach and measureable results /
1) Product lines took advantage of opportunities to promote the product prior to launch dates, in forums that were not included in
our plan. Although the opportunity was valuable, it created challenges for us in quickly communicating the new product attributes to
127 existing customers. 2) Some existing customers approached us about the new product, and mentioned that they would have liked
to have heard about the new service directly from our company instead of secondary sources. 3) We reconciled the situation with
our customers by extending a special offer not available to the public, and smoothed over the situation with the customers who had
alerted us to the initial situation.
128 1) Situational, budgeting and tactical variances. Cost of goods and fixed expensed variances leading to profit gap. 3) Use of salespromotion, gorilla marketing to increase volume and aggressive reduction of costs. /
1) Some of the promotion strategies did not need to be accomplished. Sales reached desired levels before the next phase of
129 promotion was to implemented. 2) It was all good ...more sales less expenses are positive. No need to spend money when the
product doesn't need any more advertising. 3) Yes total success
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1) the idea was to market segment within msa areas from top dollar areas to lower. A national broker with connections persuaded
us to focus on distributors instead disregarding end users. That the distributors with highly trained managers & years of experience
utilizing total market saturation (a shot gun approach) would successfully pepper the area and sales would sprout, through strategic
product placement. 2) Distributors highly trained personnel were cUltivating a new culture of / self greed. Owners did not have sway
over their sales managers nor the sales managers with front line people. Whats memorable we had commitments of 200+ locations
in Manhatten from a trade show to having nothing come about with / the distributor. / 3) Complete bust, a marketing plan was
created in the beginning from the / supposed success of NY, the Florida plan was started on a presumption. / That later proved
false, in a state of paralysis alternative strategies / were difficult to filter, going from a national strategy to a localized / strategy. A
knee ierk decision was made that was fatal.
1) The main core of the business was supposed to be product selling but because its an IT company we thought of consolidating
the servicing and maintenance of IT equipment as well hence the change in the plan 2) We realised that we were going to lose a lot
of potential revenue if we had not co-opted this part of essential service to the plan 3) It was successful because once you create
your own identity in the market on how you perform your work you will never go wrong. It has been an experience where we are
getting a quite significant amount of revenue from what we had ommitted initially in our marketing plan
1) The plan didn't take into account a recessional situation in the city it was located in. More than 70% of clients and revenue was
from that same city, so the plan needed to be expanded to other geographic areas. 2) We built on areas where we had some
existing clientele, using referral marketing and networking. Our plan to expand in other geographic areas was heavy for the first six
months, then tapered over the following six months. 3) The plan was successful. It was very labor intensive, but we were able to
meet our numbers and actually grew the business about 30% more than anticipated, even with our local losses.
1) We began a large (for us) TV advertising plan. We had set schedules and stations to run on. We decided (after the fact) to
avoid running these ads during holiday periods. / / We thought our campaign would be much more effective if it wasn't run during
these periods where potential customers were on vacation, home with their families, etc. 2) We found it was a good decision. Our
call volumes were significantly higher during non-holiday periods compared to hoilday periods. 3) We were very glad we skipped
the holiday periods for our advertising because our service (back pain) had nothing to do with holidays such as Christmas, July 4th,
etc.
1) We conducted an email survey to a mail-list of 30,000 (built up by the business over the prior 2 years). The participation rate
was higher than we had planned, and so we decided to conduct some additional surveys, and make the email survey element a
more significant part of our overall marketing outreach. 2) We had expected a 1/2% to 2% response rate. The actual response rate
was 4%+. That caused us to conclude that the survey population was interested and willing to provide meaningful input ... so we
developed some additional survey instruments. 3) We continued to experience a 4-6% response for a series of 3 surveys.
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1) We found that our product had an affinity for the 5MB markets. It was first targeted at Enterprise customers. We had to add to
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our plan a way to get to the 5MB market -- thus, began to establish channel partners that focused in this space. 2) We had to
convince our BOD that the 5MB market was worth pursuing through channel partners ...Presenting to the BOD was a challenge as
they were set on only the Enteprise market. 3) We delayed the decision to enter the 5MB market -- as the BOD would not
appropriate any funds. We still believe that we left many $ on the table because of this.
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1) We launched a new T-Shirt lined and quickly found out that our market was off as well as our projections. 2) We were at a trade
show and the t-shirt which gained the most attention was for women not men. 3) We changed our focus and began to concentarte
on women apparel.
1) We planned to introduce managed services for a select group of clients in one vertical industry. It turned out that our market
research was flawed and the revenue streams did not materialize as planned. We switched gears by diverting resources to the
development of other resurces and not entering this new, less-developed area. 2) Basically, customers did not buy the services at
the rate we anticipated. Offerings were made but were either pocket vetoed (client did not respond to our offer) or phone calls were
143 received stating that the client was not interested "at this time". 3) By diverting our resources to more established service lines, our
return on investment immediately increased. By marshalling our resources to better defined markets within our community, we
were better able to concentrate our talent to specific projects while at the same time re-training our staff and re-educating our clients
to the newer ervices. Eventually, this will bear fruit but in the interim our marketing plans had to be revised to take into account this
apparent deadend. We have not given up on expanding managed services but we are taking a more methodical approach and
doing out research in more detail.
1) We were implementing the marketing of the University ad found out that one market segment was not repsonding at all for a
144 reason we only confirmed at a late stage. 2) we had to cancel the addressing of that market segment. 3) It saved us some money
in the marekting project.
1) while implementing mktg plan in one project successfully the owner of the project being association incharge appointed me as
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consultant of the association. ideviated from my marketing strategy of one to one marketing to group marketing thus having
unforeseen cash crises and focus changed from short term to long term strategy implementation. still by reViewing my original
strategy i have been able to blend it again with my main plan. it seems to be an example of emergent strategy concet by prof. henry
mintzberg. in case you are interested ican give more details later.contact 2) as above 3) as above
1) A major component of the plan was to utilize a partner for marketing. 2) I pulled out of the partnership due to lack of confidence
148 in the partner. It turne dout he was not a good fit with my values and goals. 3) I successfully temrinated the relationship ... but
needed to fill that marketing gap with other means.
1) As a professional services provider, we need to deviate from the marketing plan when key staff changes occur either on the
150 client side or the provider side. 2) We opened an office in a new geographic location - with staff moving, our plan of who would be
the key contact for whom had to change. 3) Too soon to tell, just happened in Dec. 2007
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1) Assesment of local areas faltering economy required a minor deviation and adaption basad on consumers input. Essentially
bringing in lower priced merchandise. 2) A consumer simply stated that they wanted to do business with us but" I just do't have the
151 money", we asked what we could do to help her become a customer she said" offering lower priced items outside our normal
product line". We chose items that complemented our current inventory without bringing down the value of our stock. 3) we have yet
to recieve the inventory.
1) Budgetary considerations arose unexpectedly to table some early campaigns in a project that I implemented for a client. We
postponed the preparation for the campaigns and moved to a less capital dependent activity. 2) What I realized that when
discussing the markeing plan/ business plan that the client was much more positive about the implementation before it came time to
153 write a check. Resistance due to existing market dynamics (real estate) was a tough objection to overcome despite conservative
analysis and projections. 3) The incident was definitely delayed and although we can measure the tangible cost savings I cannot
measure for certain the lost revenue. Since the plan has not been only delayed and not tabled completely I am not sure I could
measure success. Lost time however, is a huge consideration.
155 1) Changed from direct mail to out bound phone calls. 2) The calls were much more successful. 3) Yes. Had more orders for the
new product.
156 1) Changed the criteria for potential clients. 2) Allowed us to focus attention on a more qualified prospect base. 3) Better qualifiedleads resulting in more business.
159 1) Creation of products not exactly on the plan 2) They sold in the situation in which they were offered. 3) I consider it successful
and planning is underway to provide more / of this type of product.
162 1) Direct e-mail campaign to membership list (double opt in). 2) Percentage of positive responses was lower than anticipated. 3)Split list into more refined targets and tailored message to each target group. Response rate increased to a satisfactory level.
1) Discovery of how certain services are contracted in other regions caused reconsideration of certain plan aspects. 2) Certain
163 regions do not use prescribed contract language for specific services, causing the same service name to be delivered with varying
content. 3) We have published a "catalog" that includes the appropriate contract language for all regions.
1) Entrance of a new startup competitor in the area caused a deviation from the budget (increase) and solidfying relationships with
suppliers. 2) Saw a big increase in online marketing spend to counter the new competitor. 3) In the end, the increased budget
165 worked better than expected and slowed the competitor's growth and foothold, and had an immediate impact on increased inquiries
and bookings throughout the year. With a 30% increase in online marketing spend saw a 85% increase in sales directly attributable
to the new budget.
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1) First, it wasn't an incident. And deviation from any of my plans is expected. Time changes things and you need to be flexible. A
plan is not a rock-solid entity... it's fluid. The timing of in-store delivery of one of the featured products changed, so we needed to
accommodate that. We simply re-worked the numbers and didn't count on sales contribution from that item. 2) As manager of the
project I check in on a regular basis with the key contributors. If there is ever change in timing, delivery, expectation, etc... I work
with that. Assess the new situation and make any course corrections, if necessary. I try my best to ensure we can implement what
we plan - as the plan is connected with anticipated revenue. So if execution of the plan changes, so might the deliverables. 3)
Absolutely successful. Going into a project knowing that things in and out of your control may affect what is ultimately implemented
is okay. We moved the communication of that product to the next phase in the calendar and it made its appearance then. The
customer never knew the difference. THAT is the important thinQ.
1) I had planned on writing articles about the workshops, but found that the time between writing and publication was simply too
long to have any kind of immediate impact. So I abandoned the idea. Also, the initial queries got no responses, so what was i to
do? 2) It was so disappointing for I really thought articles could be a really good marketing tool for me, and a way to help readers
with real, solid information. 3) No marketinQ effort.
1) I wrote the marketing plan to assist in a start up company. The CEO of the company did not stick to the business plan and
therefor strayed from the over all marketing plan. 2) The sales and marketing departments were extreamly over burdened by the
constant changes to the products and services being offered. The company was changed significantly to the point of voiding the
marketing plan within 3 months. 3) The company is still operating, but I resigned do to the instability with in the company.
1) In correct wording on a brochure resulting in missed sales. 2) The client ordered a service that was advertised as a stand alone
service, however the service was only meant to be offered as an additonal service to a package. 3) We had to honor the client
request and made the needed changes to the print media.
1) In the pUblic sector,weare dependent on taxpayer funding. If tax revenue goes down, so does funding. In California, career
technical education (Regional Occupational Programs) has been asked to slash 10% of its budget. The superintendent decided to
delay implementation of our strategic plan--all marketing--until times are better, and we are meeting now to rethink class offerings
and marketing. 2) The decision to delay the strategic plan was unilateral--the team had no say. 3) Can't be sure--it is a plan
undone--so how can we know the outcome of a plan unimplemented? The one sure thing is, we will not spend $100,000 this year
we otherwise would spend.
1) Introduced a membership type that was not in the original plan. Basically circumstances and competition dictated some course
corrections. 2) Actually enjoyed the abiltiy to quickly respond to changing market conditions and introduce options not offered
amongst the competition. 3) It was somewhat successful. However not doing it would have not been useful and certainly couldn't
have been deemed a success.
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1) Launching a complementary software product to an existing line. We were looking to supplement the software with a directory
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SUbmission. In order to get the rankings for the website a blog was created. 2) The reason for the deviation was market timing, and
also resource allocation. Time and money assumptions were made during the creation of the business and marketing plan, which
eventually changed. This led to a change in scope and a change in plan execution. 3) Yes, the rollout of the new product was
successful, but only after significant changes in the design, functionality, and naviagtion of the directory submission process.
1) Marketing plan called for implementation of simple user interfaced software as primary tool for B&M store promotion. Software
however advanced to intermediate knowledge base user and education program had to be revised to include intermediate to
advanced classes at B&M retail stores 2) A real division amongst the founding partners as to how to best approach target market.
Neither partner could resolve their differences and the entire education program was postponed leaving many retailers disillusioned.
182 As a result of the quagmire, the business Alliance that had been built up surrounding the software component ceased to play an
active role in the development of the entire project. Very discouraging situation and I left the company, a senior Marketing Director,
as a result. 3) As stated above, the result was the Alliance dwindled in participation and some companies left the Alliance
altogether. The two partners were engineers and had little regard for Marketing professionals. The resources for my salary were
proVided by a grant from the government of Montreal so the partners did not have a vested interest in my marketing plans. Most
unfortunate for them. A year has passed and the Alliance is a non-functioning entity.
184 1) New opportunities for marketing became available. 2) Had the opportunity to form relationships with potential referral sources. 3)Still waiting to see; expect good results
1) One word says it all -- budget. The money we anticipated wasn't there, so drastic changes had to be made. 2) We had a long
188 drawn-out period of "nothing-ness". 3) No. We couldn't implement anything, and then, when we did get the $$ we were WAY
behind!
1) Our marketing plan was rather general and therefore when we targeted a specific market we had to deviate to meet the needs of
the target industry. 2) As a service provider we are able to adjust to the market and actually modify our services to accomodate the
market or potential customer is we forsee future work that can help sustain and/or build our business. If the need was too extreme
189 from our core capability we would either decline to offer our services or refer them to other companies that can better service them.3) Not Sure, as yet. The wheels of motion can turn slowly in our industry depending upon a variety of factors such as the
customer's objective, urgency, budget constraints, and a variety of other factors. We are still cultivating relationship and
maintaining contact without pushing the hard sell. Please be aware that we are a construction company and work for alot of public
agencies.
1) Outside vendor was not able to complete an essential task and the launch date had to be moved. 2) The realization that we didn't
190 have absolute control was uncomfortable to quite a few people. / 3) One person at the vendors company was let go. The
continuing relationship between our businesses is thriving however.
1) ppe ads were not effective for this product. We changed ad budget to press releases. 2) we determined that we were loosing
192 money using adwords cost-per-sale analysis. and we determined that we needed get more organic search visitors. 3) we sent
targeted press releases distributed online and it helped our search engine placement and increased site traffic and sales.
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1) Problem concerned errors in the project database, which caused errors in analysis, costs, and estimated timelines after the
initiative was launched and we were taking public comments on the environmental impacts of the proposed projects. 2) We had to
193 re-run the data and re-evaluate the cost benefit ratios, as well as respond to scrutiny from stakeholders, local governments, project
sponsors, community and environmental interests, and the media. 3) The projects were finally approved, after several months'
delay and re-evaluation.
194 1) reacting to increased ROI. 2) when ROI was better than anticipated, increased bUdget for better performing campaigns. 3)
increases sales and profitability resulting in increased budget.
195 1) Re-seller pricing had to be re-adjusted to gain the support of re-sellers. 2) Re-sellers contacted simply said that they needed
more profit for them to get involved in selling the products. 3) We adjusted the pricing.
1) sales data from the field caused us to constantly fine-tune and adjust our forecasts and message 2) overwhelmingly pointed and
196 consistent information came in from sales reps in the field regarding a particular package of services we offered 3) the package of
services was adjusted by our VP of WW Sales according to customer and prospects' specific feedback related to their obiectives
1) Sending out one of our books that had been recently published to cold leads. We did not get a response, so decided to move
197 away from the approach 2) After mailing the books and following up with phone calls, we did not get a response. I thought the $80
book was a good way to introduce our company, but it did not work.3) The plan was unsuccessful.
1) Service upgrade could not be launched due to resource constraints (underfunded non profit caused underfunded engineering for
web based service upgrade). Online digital books for the blind required a rewrite of the transformation code from scanned copy to
198 navigable text in order to deliver on marketed promise of better quality books for the education market. 2) Customers did not renewin many cases because of non delivery of promised service. Took a number of steps back in the effort to make this non profit
program self sustaining (minimal fee to various market segments would make the program self sustaining with two years). 3) I
resigned the program and the job.
201 1) target market was not responsive. we changed targets 2) 2 staff members would have continued doing the same thing expecting
a different outcome. 3) signed up 6 accounting firms. so it was most successfull.
1) The client wanted to try direct mail, which was an unbudgeted item. He also wanted to try to reach an older, more conservative
202 audience on specific promotions/programs. Which was another unplanned foray. 2) We did not fail and actually managed to
increase awareness, trial and purchases of products and services from my client. 3) It was successful.
1) The initial product mix had an item that ran slow, but had very high margins. It was going to be made durning the warm up phase
of production each day. Large manufactures,like Weyerhaeuser, exited the market because it did not process enough paper fiber
(tons) for a the ROI models. Once starting up a selling a few customers it was discovered that a large void existed in the market of
203 high value product. My filling that need, we were able to become profitable within a shorter period, and finance internally ourgrowth. 2) being able to sell five truck loads a day with a minimum gross profit of $2,700 per TL 3) Was able to secure a contract
with customer whose growth was being limited because of lack of reliable sources of supply. Their business had increased
annually enough trhree years in a your to support a plant like ours with three full shifts of production. this customer is under the
radar of traditional markets for our product.
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1) The need for cash flow can change the intended direction of the implementation. 2) A service opportunity arises that generates
204 I cash and due to the need for cash we are inclined to tak ethe project even if it is off target. 3) It did generate cash flow adn we were
able to get back to the target strategy.
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1) The plan included requiring sales staff to choose segmented markets at the beginning of the year. I allowed staff to change from
chosen segment in mid-year, based on results to date. For example, one manager chose automobile dealerships as a target. Mid-
year, opportunities arose in another market and we pursued it. 2) Part of the marketing plan was to work on specific segments.
Flexibility remained, however, to recognize new markets. When this arose, we shifted direction to the new market. 3) Record sales.
New doors opened and the new market is now part of this year's plan.
1) The plan was for a non-profit HOA needing to increase its annual fees. I The community is diverse, 2/3rds are absentee owners
who don't use the amenities in the community that drive the fee increase needs. Fees hadn't been raised since 1989 and increased
costs were funded by reserves and expanded volunteer work. The crisis has been building for several years. 2) The Community
completed a certain amount of marketing and was able to get a majority vote but fell 16 votes short out of 1321 possible to get the
necessary 2/3rds necessary for the bylaw change. So the Board had to vote in a special assessment to meet the financial crisis.
The lack of financial sophistication on the part of the community surprised me. Also, one member of the Board derailed and stifled
some of the necessary marketing and the culture discouraged active confrontations over this behavior. 3) A partial solution was
reached with the special assessment and the Board will try again this year with more and expanded marketing such as over the
Internet and pursuasive mailings.
1) The timetable was not realistic and we fell behind in the implementation. 2) The person providing the advertising was difficult to
reach and caused us delays. 3) The whole project had to be put on hold for 5 months.
1) We altered the sequence of offering the different iterations of the product. We had patent applications and design license issues
that precluded our submitting designs to public scrutiny and when we first offered our entry product, we found that the successor
offering needed change based on inquiry from customers and prospects. 2) Opinion leaders and early adopters within two key
target market segments immediately inquired about our initial product along lines that conicided with a model of our product we
intended for later offering in series. We resisted, at first, introducing the line as we had prepared our sourcing and production for
another, but the economies of making the change were significant, so we did so and we're glad we did. The logistics of our mix,
now, are much less challenging than would have been the case had we proceeded as originally planned. 3) Very successful. A cost
reduction in the product mix of 35% from budget and gross sales increment of 8% over budget.
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1) we are an IT services provider since 1990,two years ago we were to launch new solution business intelligence and we used the
same database without taking into consideration the fact that this new introduced solution audience target was totally far from IT
people and engineers and that business people were to be invited as to understand the concept and interact with their needs from
function or analysis perspective then rely on IT department for tools knowledge or so ... 2) during the event held ,the audience were
frustrated from one end and confused with regards to their role and future role. I speakers were obliged to focus more on tools as
to be more familiar and friendly with the engineers attending 3) it was surely not successful ,message not relayed and people
backfire on the organization ,the remedy was to send later new documents to IT and business people as to convey the right
description of the new solution and make sure all parties will get informed and invoved benefitting from the power of the solution I
another gathering was also necessary ,in a round table and the invitees were the decision makers
1) We decided that we would sell our products in Ireland with sales being controlled in-house. (We sell to the UK, Northern Ireland
and the Republic of Ireland.) 2) We were approached at a trade show (we were exhibiting) by an Irish wholesale company who
wanted to take over the Irish distribution from us.3) We were having trouble breaking in to Ireland as we didn't have a sales force on
the ground there. In the end we made an agreement with the Irish company that they would have exclusive distribution rights for
Ireland. This means that we supply them only, and not a lot of individual stores. They get an initial 20% discount from our
wholesale prices rising to 25% depending on sales. This has proven to be very successful on both sides as, although we only make
half the profit on the goods that we sell to the Irish company, they have sold more than twice as much as we could have since they
are already in the marketplace. Also, our admin to achieve these sales is very small. Win-win situation.
1) We did not do enough assumption busting. Probably could have identified more issues and risks. Perhaps did not have a clear
what and why, and the sponsor changed their mind or did not have correct information or a clear idea of the what and why? 2)
Sponsor started asking for additional elements to be added to marketing plan without a clear understanding of the impact to quality,
budget, and resources. Severely stressed productivity and morale of creative services and bUdget. 3) Reached the goal but getting
there was painful.
1) We expected to produce more leads from direct mail then we were currently getting so we had to shift resources into other areas
to make up for the short fall in leads. 2) We were tracking leads, quotes and closed sales. We were able to see what was working
and what was not working and we reacted to it. I 3) We are still working on developing cost effective lead generation programs we
can exporet to the channel. We are the manufactuerer and sell through a dealer channel which is not used to selling newproducts. I
1) We fine tuned the recurring revenue model as we released new products or services. We changed the way we charge
customers for software services provided on a annual basis. This related to our web-based or internet portal of software services.
2) We had some strong resistence from our Sales team at first but once they understood the new pricing model they liked it much
better. 3) Still in process, but initial results have been promising. Sales are coming in from our customer base using the new price
model.
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1) We had a business issue that was game changing for us and at the time we needed to make a decision to deviate from the
marketing plan. A competitive product we anticipated coming to market did so, but 12 months before we had assumed or had
intelligence that it would. This forced us to accelerate our strategies and tactics to blunt adoption of this competitive product. 2) We
had a 12 month pUblication plan as one arm of our strategy. However, we had just lost the time cushion we had planned to have.
Therefore we commissioned the planned work and rushed some of the work in progress to help meet the competitive threat of this
new (early)entrant into our market. 3) While we reacted and changed some of our plans, we found that our competitors were
caught off guard as much as we were. Therefore, our accelerated publication planned help raise awareness to our product and
was able to leverage the increased visibility the catagory got from the new product entry. We were able to pick up 2 more
prescriptions over the new product entry as a result of our work.
1) We had licensed a technology from another company. Part of the requirement to keep the license was a specific growth rate and
revenue that the licensing company had dictated to us. Once into the project and realizing how entrenched the competition was, we
had to back off on the growth rate and revenue that the licensing company had dictated to us. That caused me to renegotiate the
contract with the licensing company, which was successful after I showed them my research into the market place and how the
product was gaining market acceptance. 2) The key issue that made this memorable was the fact that we could have lost the
license for non-performance. However, the performance measure was set by the licensing company and it was their "best guess"
at what could be acheived, not backed by all of the research I had done. 3) I was successful in negotiating a revised contract that
had a slower growth rate than the one forced upon us. I was successful because I had the back up of my research into the market
size, the portion of the market that each of the existing competitors held, and my strategy to exploit the holes in each of my
competitors approach to the market place.
1) We may have planned for a daily scheduled in-house, non-promotional marketing activities to generate leads. However, we
encountered several differences in the way we deal with prospects from diff. industries. Some industry appeared costly to do
prospecting while others are very easy, even if we are selling the same service to them. 2) In every marketing activity we do to
generate leads, we make sure that we generate the particular or safe number of prospects given the time and budget. Even if a
particular client profile appears profitable but takes so long to develop its business, we think twice about it. The reason being is that
the sales team's motivation diminishes over time as they get rejected over and over again, losing their quality of client profiling.
What we did was turn our efforts to market to less profitable prospects with easy access so that the sales team will feel more and
more motivate as they begin to close accounts one after the other. 3) In our case, it was successful. We saw that the less profitable
prospects take less time to close so they close more given the same amount of time trying to win high-profit prospects.
1) We planned on using temporary staffing, but discovered they were not able to explain the service to an acceptable level. 2) After
listening to the temporary staff explain the service, we discovered the issue. 3) Due to low attendance at the event, our sales
numbers suffered.
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1) We started with the plan to provide basic services that were the core competancy of the business currently. In this process, we
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found that the market was so highly competitive and offshoring so prevelent, we had to divert our efforts in a way to capture the
market at another angle. 2) After numerous attempts with doors slammed in our faces, we developed a strategy to offer a service
that they desperately need in order to obtain the services we were known for. 3) The outcome was we secured many contracts this
year 3-10 million dollar contracts with the new service as well as the existing services we offer.
1) we target the smb space but had a unique opportunity to bid and win the business form a forture 500 company 2) we had tried
225 unsucessfully to win this account over a period of tdhree years. / / we won the deal becasue we really listened to the customer and
committed to be brand agnostic in the selection of technology. 3) we have a commited contract for $300,000 a year at fairly good
marqins and a chance to double or thripple the business by addinq other locaions from the same cusotmer
1) When the plan came first into focus we did not take into account the immediate impact the introduction of new product line being
introduced into / the market. / Almost shortly after we had let it roll out we saw the risk we were facing / from the immerging
competition of new entrants due to the attractiveness of the business. / we were therefore forced to go down the plannig stage and
226 lay new strategies. 2) The major city which was focus of our nieche is known of being hotter during / summer and most of its
workers had wanted to have something they could take / to cool them down-confectioneries. / These confectioneries were to be
found in our new stalls before we got shock of new entrants who opted to make delivery to their office door steps. / we therefore
had to review our distribution plans to cover neigbouring cities as well inoder to maintain the volume at the same time reach new
customers. 3) the move was a success as we embarked on new promotional drive while making same customers speak for us
1) When we were executing the go to market, market, we changed the order of the market priorities due to an unexpected market
227 opportunity. 2) The American Heart Association listed the product as a Class II device which is the second highest must have
rating. Based on this we focused on AHA implemented markets. 3) Still working the market. It has gone very well based on the
uptake in the market.
233 1) customer wanted to target new group of clients 2) my customer's clients actually went for the product but bought it only during 2
month period 3) it was successful as clients bouqht several real estate properties
1) In the year 2007, I was running DRTV (Teleshopping) business in Albania. / Due to an energetic crisis, there was power supply
reduction from 6 to 12 h/day in capital Tirana and up to 18h/day over the rest of the country. In such circumstances it was impossed
to deviate from both BP as well as from MP! 2) During the incident I started cooperation with local licenced TV stations among
236 national ones. The reason for this lays on: local TVs could be contracted with extremely lower price; it was possible to contract TV
time that shifts power reduction itenerary, so people can watch our TV adverts. 3) During the mentined incident it was successful
we avoided bankrupcy and, among DRTV channel we started developing other sale channels, e.g.wholesale, retail and internet
sales!
241 1) our main suplier closed up his factory. 2) we had dificulties to find new supplier and we had to make some corection to the line ofproduction 3) Our plan got 8 month delay and we haven't achieved the original goal.
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242 1) plandaten umsezung in praxis is heavy there to itself around new inovation acts 2) we redefine costumers anew, because quite
new customershas responded to ours product 3) after chance had we follow now steadily rises
243 1) react to survey on client needs 2) clients identified need to adapt 3) adapted service
244 1) Sales did not reach planned levels 2) Board meeting identified problem and requested immediate solution 3) Instituted a radio
campaiqn to fill perceived qap in the plan
245 1) Switched primary market niche due to market conditions 2) substantial downturn in market necessitated shift to new, morefocused niche 3) Partially successful - notably more successful than had I stayed with oriqinal plan
1) The company allowed internal issues to supercede the plan and we lost focus.We did not review the plan on a regular
246 basis.There were staff changes after the plan was written whihc contributed to the above. 2) Important things that were planned for
were not executed. 3) Our objectives were not achieved.
1) This was my first marketing plan for a new consulting business. Two months after i started, I noticed that a particular service
was overtaking my time as compared to another service, so my marketing focus had to change. i have not rewritten my plan yet, as
I've only been "open" for four months. 2) People are not taking me on as a Trainer (service), but more as a consultant. I now am
249 focusing on how to expand my marketing better for my consulting clients. 3) So far, so good. The ultimate goal NOW is to retain
these consulting clients for a year at a monthly fee schedule accepted by both of us. This is more < what I call) Internal marketing,
ie. how my forms, conversations and general feel of the experience can further the relationship in the long run. NOT so much
changing my marketing efforts, yet.
1) We decided to offer wine tasting at our home on the weekend to provide an atmosphere that was not present at the usual
location as a beta test. We found that because of the rain in the Pacific Northwest customers generally want to be in a cozy
250 atmosphere such as their homes. 2) The customers enjoyed it. We included videos of wine vineyards and on our big screen in our
recreation room which is also where the tasting bar is located. They felt "right at home" as many of them stated. 3) So far we have
been doing it only on Saturdays and during the Winter season. It has been somewhat successful but we are not sure of the long-
term prospects of includinq our home as a part of our business in wine education.
1) We had intended for our new product to be released on a specific date, so the plan was based on this predetermined date. The
product release was delayed a couple months and our advertising and marketing was already set in stone, which is kind of a
problem blc no one is going to remember the campaign 2 months later if they never saw the product. We implemented some ad-
251 hoc activities to continually reach out to our audience during that timespan. 2) It invloved a lot of work in a very short time.
Everything went well and people continually signed up for webinars and product trials. We all know money doesn't grow on trees,
so the hard part was finding some at or near no-cost activities. I have found that educational webinars, which are pretty much free
(except for the time involved), have been a fruitful activity. 3) I would say it has been successful so far. We're still evaluating the
process (unfortunately only as time permits). We've had a decent number of companies miqrate to our product.
254 1) Advertising. Budget was cut to O. 2) Made the review more difficult 3) Had to rely on no cost advertising.
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1) Based on entry into a new market we re-aligned the product mix to what we had learned about the customers in that market 2)
The deviation allowed us penetrate a market much more effectively as we measured the actual attributes and buying behaviours of
256 these clients against our pre-conceived notions and could make a direct correlation to the outcomes. 3) It allowed us to be
successful with that client in the new market and then word of mouth got us business with other business in the same market using
the same approach.
257 1) Change in top management created new priorities and direction for the company 2) Re-worked budgets and forecasts in line with
new priorities 3) It is too earlv to measure the outcome of the incident.
1) feedback from customers, standard voice of the customer research 2) customer interviews and focus groups confirmed actual
259 value proposition which was slightly different than my client's perceived value proposition 3) redeveloped the message in terms of
benifits to the products
1) Largest Customer became impossible to satisfy on wholesale level so we terminated relationship 2) They decided to pay less for
265 service provided which we had been made aware of before contract was signed so we put in an escape clause 3) Succesful ...we
went out and replaced with 6 clients
1) new opportunities presented in media, and new products offered by client. Client found new market opportunites for expanding
267 product line with great potetnial. New media opportunities become available that requires allocations to be shifted. 2) Used more
direct media, email's to promote new products more directly. Excellent results. 3) Increased direct sales of newproducts and
produced new leads and sales for exisitnq products as add-ons to new products.
268 1) One aspect of the plan was advertising, wich became very expensive and did not have time for some new creative
advertisement. So I stop. 2) The advertisement did not qive the excepted results. 3) Unsuccessful
270 1) Production delays caused reanalysis of selling season. 2) Simple production delays 3) Missed Christmas season so sales were
not as high as could have been.
1) The media selected for generating leads was under performing our expectations, so we cut that particular media and replaced it
272 with one that was performing. 2) All promotional activities are tracked and measured and based on whether or not they perform up
to or above plan, they are either left alone, dropped, or modified. 3) The under performing media was successfully replaced with
media that performed up to plan.
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1) The product development program was running behind schedule. In order to release a product to the marketplace some key
features and specifications were delayed for later launch. The marketing plan needed to be adjusted to reflect the lower feature set
release and needed to be geared to a second launch later in the year. 2) The project delay was communicated to sales and
marketing after the initial wave of marketing material was released to the marketplace. New collateral needed to be developed
quickly and sent to the sales channel as well as to the anticipated early adopters. The original marketing budget was exceeded by
approximately 60%. 3) The marketing budget was exceeded by approximately 60%. The expected product sales ramp up was
pushed out by more than 6 months. The marketing plan revision was successfully implemented however it is too soon to know
whether we were hurt in the marketplace by the delayed and two-step product roll-out.
1) Cost of promotion and timing of expenses. Not matching the cash flow of the whole business. Had to be delayed 2) The manager
committed the company to purchase promotional space, according to budget, but the cash flow timing forced us to renogatiate with
the supplier to avoid higher costs due to delaing the purchase order. 3) It came out well, but the timing of the promotion, due to the
delay was a little bit off the ideal target and some opportunity audiences were lost. lin the end, the marketing plan had to be in sync
with the whole company cash flow, otherwise these kind of things will repeat inevitably.
1) It was a fully planned POS marketing strategy that was supposed to feature entertainment however it all changed when the chain
of stores we were supposed to go into canceled our promotion through some practices that were less than ethical 2) The way we
ended up moving the product despite the incident through alternate methods of promoting it 3) It was very succesful we changed
our venue to the street adjacent to the place we were supposed to have the event and became a very succesful strategy
1) Our last project was a mortuary and funeral services house in Mexico City targeting low income level people. Staffing right
people is quite hard in third world countries. It takes time to find them and testing right profiles. Lack of discipline and commitment is
also a big trouble. Last time took me more than 7 months to hire right people. This caused a high increase in our expenses,
schedules, etc. 2) Most of our original strategy was to have yelow pages,four types of brochures and radio spots. As we spended
more time in staffing and hiring, we had to have to do direct street marketing by flyers and by visiting medium size factories asking a
chance to talk to their employees. 3) Yes. It was succesful and very stressing. We achieved our break even point in month 3th. To
potential customers it was better to have a direct contact with our pec:)ple_delivering flyers than to take a look into yelow pages.
1) the ad budjet and sales process 2) ad budget was cut and sales process altered to let sales do more with it. 3) Did all promotion
of the pain through direct mail that we developed and sent. Developed a plan to help slaes understand a process to send out
information about our new product and service.
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1) When the major competitor in the market laucheched a $1 million raffle for its products. This was a major challenge because
because almost all the consumers were asking for the product of the competitor because of the moneys involved with the hope of
winning the raffle whiach had on it 5 new motor vehilcles and some good amount of cash to be worn. 2) All the consumers opted for
282 the highly advertised product because of the prizes to be won in the competition. / / It made our sale team work extra hard because
they had to run upand down to put up some adverts on our products and change a few strategies in our marketing plan. / / 3) We
managed to win a few share of the market but not as planned becasue our competitor had invested alot in marketing and sale
promotion for their products. / / We have learned some lessons and have grown in our operations with an anticipation to aome up
with a similar strtateQY ny investinQ alot in marketinQ as our competitor did.
1) A big gap between the sheduled test lauch and the actual launch period because of the technical department shifted the chances
283 of us being first movers to early movers and this led us to re-survey essentials 2) re-survey results threw up a few entirely different(positively) level of awareness and wants among the earlier TA. It also gave us 4 new sets of TA categories to be focussed on. 3)
Yes the re-worked strategy is still effective after 7 months and giving us results at higher levels than expected
284 1) Appearance of changes in behavior of the market and directions consumed 2) Change of the services came progress to
customers of the company 3) unsuccessful
1) Competitor creates/launches new products / new strategies. 2) When competitor made a guerrilla attack, we have to modify our
286 strategy and counter the attack. 3) We succesful to counter the attack but our marketing strategy can't run well.. We fail to achieve
the tarQet.
1) Deviation due to: / 1)Change in marketing strategy / 2)Change in Market scenario / 3)Pricing difference 2) Competition was high
287 due to significant pricing wars.Consumers wanted new products with better quality & evenly priced,this would hit our
bottomlines.Hence we deviced a strateQY to seQment our market/customers & position our product accordinQly. 3) Useful
1) during our leads generation process 2) w had a problem qualifying the list forthe telemarkting process 3) Instead of simply
289 acquirig list to do telemarketing, we simply diverted our activities to events in order to generate highly probabale prospects for the
leads generation. It was successful.
1) New investors require more information on its product and services, especially revenue and P&L forecast. /2) We had to request
294 all supporting departments such as sales and marketing, corporate planning and production, to furnish more information on product
costinQs and Qross profit. /3) It was successful because investors begin to see its market potential and its ROI.
295 1) One incident was that I introduced another product unknown to the market. They became curious and bought one to test i. 2) The
market were amazed of the product I introduced. 3) It increased my produtionline for at least 3 months
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1) The business climate changed and we were not able to legally execute some portions of our plan (signage). In another situation,
we found that one avenue of marketing worked so much better than we thought that instead of taking the risk on another medium,
we stuck with the one that was producing results. 2) We got calls from the city, from neighbors, and from other businesses
complaining that our signs were in violation of city ordinances. We discovered that they were not indeed in violation and that there
was no fine for placing signage where we placed it (yard signs). The campaign was extraordinary effective and we kept doing it until
the city changed the law to "outlaw" our strategy. Pretty memorable as it was in the news for over a year (which only continued to
help our business believe it or not). 3) The outcome was that we looked at the benefit of the marketing medium and saw that it
outweighed the consequences. The launch of our business was state-wide news and we are one of the leaders in our category.
1) Things change so fast that by the time you complete a plan 40% of it is obselete. One has found himself on many occasions not
considering the exigencies of business that does not come from marketing efforts described in the plan (networks, old/past clients,
family members, former classmates, suppliers etc) 2) Too much planning can make one underestimate the value of your immediate
networks and our case those people with access to opportunities but not working for the company. One had to make room for
"other commission paid" in the financials 3) High successful, one had to therefore accomodate this aspect in most marketing plans
going forward
1) unforeseen obstacles with our existing customer base and their fear that we were going after theri customers, which we were,
and had to abandon an ad campaign and pioneer the soft sell. we pionerred the selling of our service B@B in face to face settings
marketign the new value proposition. we met face to face with exisiting customers that this was actually good for them that we were
growing our menu base to offer full idea (design/research) to tooling at our facility in US and UK. 2) just the reaction on their faces
that our new division woudl bring them more busienss and they wanted to get on our list as preferred converters! 3) our new
business unit (Leverage Industrial Design leveragerandd.com , rdtool, and rdprototype) now offers brand owners (P&G, Cadbury
Schweppes, SCJ, HEINZ etc.. ) and one stop shop for their structural bottle deveopment. We can manage and build the brand
equity and operational goals including that the designs are creative and bradn positioend for success AND meet manufacturable
goals!
1) We manufacture aerospace components. Developing trust with customers takes a lot of our time. One of our marketing plan
objectives was to contact other companies who were similar to the customer base we have now. Once we began contacting new
customers we discovered that we could put similar effort into existing customer base, and just expand the % of business we were
getting from them. 2) While having a conversation with a couple of different existing customers, I found out they had some new
projects that I was unaware of. These new projects were not being discussed by the purchasing managers we usually deal with.
We noticed that in both cases, with 2 different customers, that we needed to interact with people other than purchasing agents or
materials mgrs. We needed to be conversing with project managers and engineers on a regular basis. 3) We pulled back from our
efforts with new customers. We put the effort into our infrastructure and customer service with existing customers, as well as on
time delivery. We spent more time talking to project managers and engineers about upcoming projects. We were able to increase
our business by 34% over the year before without more employees, or new customers.
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1) We were launching a bunch of new products across 22 markets or countries in Sub Saharan Africa.So naturally a "one -size fits
all strategy" would not work.Had to fine communication across each market.Above the line advertising may work in South Africa but
when when one goes to Uganda it more of below the line etc.Electronic marketing would be virtually non existent in most countries
303 except South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and to some extend Zambia and Uganda etc 2) As detailed above there are challenges in
media buying and placing adverts in Africa so we had to employ various agents in some countries at highly exorbitant budgets. 3)
We were largely successful across the board in building awareness for our new products but activations or sales conversions were
a different cattle of fish!
1) / Part of the promotion plan had been to develop a marketing brochure. Along the line, financial problems led to the termination
of this actiVity. Dwindling revenues were cited as the major problem 2) / What made this variation from the plan was that a lot of
305 ground work had been done - the advertising agency had completed all its work and we were all set to go for printing when then
bombshell came. What was more, we had not produced any brochure for a few years. 3) / We had to attend two exhibitions without
the brochure. We produced a makeshift writeup of our services and printed several copies on A4 paper and used this as a
substitute. Needless to say, it was not UP to scratch - there were no pictures
1) Due to poor planning, web development had to be delayed by up to a year as overspending in other business departments
resulted in the business being incapable of setting up online purchasing, this caused the changing of majority of our marketing
310 campaign, further web development and promotional strategies. 2) everyone was unsure of the up coming job roles as plans andpromotions were already set to take place in the up coming months. 3) It was unsuccessful as we lost a percentage of market
share due to user friendly competitor sites with full online functionability. Within our industry it is vital that we stay abreast of
technology.
1) I/we found new market segments along the way. We also found we were redundant in some of the agencies we were working
313 with. 2) Some of the agencies, departments and individuals we worked with were in or had dual roles. 3) We saved time and
material during the presentation to these groups.
1) The cost of Yellow Pages advertising for the coverage area increased significantly. 2) Some very tense interactions with the
318 sales staff at Idearc (Verizon Yellow Pages). 3) We slashed the coverage area for YP advertising and diverted the funds to other
media including local internet directory entries. The strategy worked as well if not better than YP in terms of lead generation.
1) The market was not ready for the new product and we had to start some grass root marketing to create the market trust. 2) From
320 resource we thought our target market was ready to be early adopters, but few were ready to purchase. Need more information totrust the product. 3) We were about three years early and we are making adjustment now as the market is much more aware and
ready to move.
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1) The plan called for re-directing advertising funds from indirect space advertising to direct mail. At least half of the space
advertising was going into magazines that, in all probability, would not and could not reach important decision-makers and
influencers; whereas direct mail could be specifically targeted to the most likely who could purchase or influence the purchase of
the company's products. 2) The president of the company's advertising agency advised the VP Sales against making this move.
However, the advertising guy's view was dictated by the fact that his commission level would go down as a result of this decision. 3)
In the end, budget cuts forced a sizeable cut-back in space advertising, which, in turn, demonstrated to everyone's satisfaction that
cutting back on space advertisinQ had no influence whatsoever on sales results.
1) There was a change in philosophy about which product to promote due to competitive forces in our community. 2) Just the short
rush of time to change gears and move in the different direction. 3) Yes it was successful. We were able to open up 300 new
checking accounts.
1) This was a family business where a family member was trained to manage the tailoring business and carry out training of young
people for payment. The trainer would raise the funds and not account for them, the trainers some of them thought the training was
free and expected to be paid training allowances. I had to change the approach by discarding the training bit and concentraiting
more on tailoring which is not bringing in the resources I had anticipated for. 2) I lost a lot of resources, after buying the training
machines and cannot possibly sell them to recoup my input. 3) Still trying to change the strategy and possibly get back to training
with different management/training team.
1) We were going to launch a targeted investment campaign for investors focus on our small cap offerings and and given market
changes and investor appetite we had to broaden our campaign to included a more diversified approach to investing. 2) It was a
reactionary effort on our part to broaden our campaign and we learned the importance of not being too narrow in scope. 3) It was a
successful campaiQn except for the level of detailed sales feedback was not as hiQh as we had hoped.
1) WHEN THE MARKETING GUIDELINES WERE CHANGING ON A DAILY BASIS, HAD TO MODIFY MY PRODUCT MIX. MANY
LENDERS WEN OUT OF BUSINESS, MY TOTAL BUSINESS MODEL WAS CHANGING FOR ABOUT 6 MONTHS. NOW THE
GUIDELINES ARE CHANGING BECAUSE OF THE SUB-PRIME MARKET STILL NOT SETTLING OUT. 2) DURING THIS
PERIOD, A LOT OF LESSONS WERE LEARNED AND MY GOALS WERE CHANGING IN KIND. INITIALY I WENT FOR ONE
PRODUCT BECAUSE I FELT I HAD AN EDGE ON THE MAEKET. HOWEVER, DUE TO THE INCIDENCE OF A DECLINING
MARKET, THE HOME VALUES BECAME TO DECLINE AND EQUITY WAS BEGINNING TO ERODE. I WAS THINKING WHAT
PRODUCT CAN BE A HEDGE AGAINST THE DECLINING MARKET? THIS TOOK TIME AND ADJUSTMENT. 3) IN 2008 I
BECAME TO START MAKING MONEY SLOWLY. WHAT I FOUND IS THAT I HAD TO INVEST TIME AND MONEY IN
EDUCATION. IN MY OPINION, IT IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE WAY TO GET INTO THE MARKET. DESPITE OTHER
INSTRUMENTS, LIKE FORECLOSURES, SHORT SALES, REO'S, LOSS MITIGATION PACKAGES RESULTED IN LONG
TIMES TO CLOSING A DEAL. AFTER CHOOSING THE PRODUCT, ESTABLISHING A STRATEGY, I HAVE GRAVITATED TO
FIVE DIFFERENT METHODS IN PROSPECTING THE RIGHT VEHICLE AND ESTABLISHING THE LENGTH OF THE CLOSING
CYCLE. THE PROGRAM WAS NOT ALL THAT FLEXIBLE IN PLUGGING IN THE NEW CHANGES IN THE MARKETPLACE.
1) the givea ways there where not anouth 2) had to go and buy the the cd,s and shirts 3) worked out
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1) We were forced to delay a launch date of thr product due to the fact at a critical moment when we were trying to get an
337 international certification, we found out that the conditions were changed from the original parameters. 2) We were to send 10
product units, but when we submitted to the certification center in Europe, it was change to a minimum of 30 product units. 3) We
are currently providing to the examining body 30 new product units for certification ..
338 1) A sales of inventory wasnA't planned initially 2) We made a special offer in the newspaper 3) It was successful
339 1) Because of a merger with another company 2) Suddenly we had 4 different countries after the merge so we had to adapt theplans for this new scenario 3) It was successful
1) Information about our macroeconomics factors such as exchange rate value really had a great impact on our plan. In the last 02
years and in most recent days, fluctuation of dolar related to our national currency has changed the plan. 2) Made us to rethink
341 about our way to establish a price level policy, which must be reviewed from time to time. 3) As we sell our products in the medical
sector, quotation made at that time is confirmed few months after, which give us a hard time cause prices varies in accordance with
the international currency most used in Brasil (dA3 Iar). Brasil has not adopted any exchange rate control and therefore every dollar
sold in order to convert it into real gives us less money back. This is because real is getting more strong against dollar.
1) Plan did not fit into circumstances surrounding client goals and needs. Was not able to generate/stimulate client interest. Needed
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to send clients something to make them take note of the message I was trying to get across. 2) After reviewing what I was doing I
realised I would probably also throw the letter I sent away as it did not do anything to make me read further on. 3) The outcome was
to shorten the letter, have a BOLD heading and message that grabbed the clients interest to read on and be brief enough in detail
to make the client want to know more.
1) Sometimes you have plan your action plan and marketing strategies.Sudenly without notice the government or authorities
change their policies which totally discard your earlier plan strategies even though you have conducted PERT and SWOT analysis.
2) For example here in my country formation of companies either private or limited is governed by The Company
343 Commision.lndividuals can either form on their own by lodging the required forms or make use of the service of management
company.This has been going for almost 40 years.The revenue is lucrative.Suddenly the Company Comision change policy by not
allowing management firms to conduct company or business registration.The individuals have to lodge on their own.There was a
loss of revenue for the management firms. 3) Of cource we have to quickly diversify and look for new service industry to turn to.Now
we are providing tarining programs on motivation ,soft skills etc
1) The market is shifting rapidly and new opportunities to put the product suite in front of decisionmakers presented themselves.
We added events to the tactical calendar. 2) By being very strategic regarding our spending at meetings/events early in the year,
we were able to add events to the calendar for 02 and 03. While we were strategic in our sponsorships, we were still able to get
344 some big bang for our spend. Also, selecting events where we had some champions helped us to spread the word and thechampions are well regarded in their local community. 3) After learning of an influential group that was negative towards the product
suite, we offered to sponsor events at their annual meeting, meet personally with KOLs and invited several influentials to join an
existin industry board. While you can't say that they are enthusiastic about the product suite, they are now more open to discussing
it and at least acquising to using it in niche siutaitons.
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347 1) / ceo request 2) new service, shotqun approach no real target 3) difficult to measure - created awareness
1) - weakness of the service provider. / - weakness of customer support. / 2) - the product was internet through WIMAX technology,
349 unfortunatly the covering area was 30% of target area and the plans were not correct and always we face with the customer a
problem on disconnecting when he browsing and the bad signal, and we he contac 3) due to this problem the provider freeze the
sales temproary tell he fix the coverinq area and to buildup the requalifide service center.
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1) a competitor offered a price reduction on virtually the same service we offered. 2) This was a drastic price reduction. We had to
look at our services, rethink our charges and look at other services we offered as a differentiation. 3) We did a direct mail piece
explaininq a new (our first) bundle.We kept most of our customers and increased the number of services they used.
1) A decision to create fliers and do cold calling to generate business was, when the plan was written, seen as the best way
361 forward. Before the plan was fully implemented it was seen that more could be achieved by delivering video e-mail with a follow up
phone call 2) During the early days of plan implementation it was discoverd that geater efficiencies could be achieved by changing
my approach 3) Greater feedback was achieved with more positive outcome was pleasent to witness
363 1) a new competitor entered the market 2) significant shift of business to try new provider 3) temporary erosion, halted then
reversed by an aqqressive counter campaiqn
1) A new market opened for an existing product that we had not anticipated. This required coming up to speed on this market,
365 needs of user group, purchasing procedures, product benefits to this market, etc. 2) The overwhelmingly positive response to the
application and its immediate benefit to the client group. 3) Growth within the market and immediate purchase decisions.
Willinqness of new clients to promote the application to colleaques at other institutions
366 1) A new market opportunity & new set of rules & regulations 2) Different versions of legal framework forced us to review our pricing
the services. 3) The outcome was successful.
1) a new middle east market opportunity came along that we had never foreseen and therefore it needed to be incoprated in plan as
367 it was a major item 2) it was during a conversation with 1 of our customers that he mentioned he was getting involved in a new
country, i then asked him more about it and if we could become involved 3) so far it is early days but believe in next 12 months it
could be siqnificant and more detailed planning will be needed
1) a new opertunity came along that changed our entire plan. We have been looking into getting into lawn care for three years now
368 and have gotten close once. But we unable to attract the right person. 2) i recieved a phone call from a close friend asking me to
look at equipment at a golf course that was closing its doors. I ended up hiring the greens keeper that was going to be out of a job
sortly. So far it has worked out alriqht. 3) Not shure yet will take more time.
369 1) A new opportunity came up that I had not planned for - a trade show. Had to change the budget 2) Not know yet - have not
attended show. 3) Unknown
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1) a new product was launched with similar indications. We did not have enough intelligence to foresee this coming. / 2) we had
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postioned our product as the choice for that particular indication as no other was vailable with such an activity profile and after that
we had to work on the presentation form and on the application form in order to make it again unique 3) in the end we aere
extremely successful because our product was perceived as a medical act during its application while the competitor (even with a
sliqhtlv better profile of action) was not perceievd as a medical treatment, was just another treatment.
375 1) Actual Real Estate industry and mortgage guide lines affected my plan. 2) Value of properties decline and mortgages are higher
than the value of properties, also qualification of buyer change. 3) If the macro economy change, the plan and strategy change.
377 1) Additional services were beinq requested. 2) Developed new service packaqe 3) successful
1) An email campaign was supposed to be followed by a phone campaign but the latter was delayed until our product could be
381 more fully developed. 2) The email campaign had such a negative response that I decided to postpone it until another time. Theincident is memorable because it was recent. 3) The phone campaign will be implemented in the next few weeks so I can't specify
its outcome.
1) An unexpected opportunity became available 2) We were contacted by a community organization that was attempting to have
382 major builders commit to doing business with community based businesses 3) The deviation was successful as we received a
significant contract that will double our projected income.
383 1) Arrival of new competitors 2) Almost similar launch of competitor's product 3) marqin pressure, lower budqet
1) As a Chief Investment Officer in Nigeria's Investment Promotion Agency, we offer frontline services and facilitate
investments(FDI) in the country and do image laundering promoting Nigeria as a preffered destination for investment in emerging
markets. This is no mean task with the percieved international(mind set)image of the country. / / Challeges occur mostly at the
budgetary level as government allocation is usually grossly inadequate. 2) Oversea direct marketing services we call (BIF)Business
and Investment Forums, this time in Canada 5th - 9th november 2007. / / The request was presented by the Canadian trade office
in Nigeria to do an awareness campaign in Canada with recent increased investment by Canadian in the Oil and gas sector in
384 Nigeria there arose the need to do an image laundering and attract more quality canadian investors in other sectors in Nigeria like
mining./ / The planning got into a hitch as the US dollar fell at the project execution stage, and funds packged under PPP public
Private partnership / dwindled. / Another area was the stringent visa requirements of the Canadia consular section, as many
participants had not been granted visas to attend the event in Canada, as such critical private sector that is the growing Nigeria's
medium class that was wiped out in the military era could not be showcased. 3) / The event was succesful as the offshore strategic
partners were able to rend a hand mostly in mobilising the localbusiness community and in sponsoring some events and other
logistics. There is also an enthusiastic feedback from there. we also learnt that the group of 8 countries are quite expensive in doing
event like these.
1) As a small business, the normal interactions with customers tend to swamp us. Despite having a long-term strategy, day to day
386 tactics just obliterate it. 2) nothing dramatic. Scope changes and all of the sudden a six week project becomes a six-month project.
It's considered fine because you're getting paid more, but there goes the strategy. 3) Got more money from existing client, didn't
spend money getting new clients. But now you are more dependent on that ONE client.
........
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1) As part of our marketing plan, we had made a decision to form a stratigic alliance with another company to expedite the delivery
of our product to the market, taking advantage of existing marketing channels to save us time, and more importantly money. 2) The
387 company claimed to be a responsive, proactive company. We assumed this to be correct as they were a more successfulorganization than we were. As the relationship progressed, it became clear that the pace in which they implemented the program
was much slower than indicated and much much slower than we were satisfied with. 3) It was successful for us to sever the
relationship, and we developed distribution channels of our own. The down side was we had more expenses, the upside was we
had significantly increased sales that more than made up for it.
1) Available udgets changed and we had to respond. On another occasion a competitor launched a product which required that we
389 reconsider our messaging. 2) See above. 3) We worked around the budget issue by changing our plan of attach re: market
research. Re: the competitor issue, we made both product changes (attributes) and messaging changes (feature/benefits and
some branding changes).
391 1) Because of the need to revitalise the product specification which suits to consumers especially the packaging cvriteria. 2) Poorpacking strategy made us to revitalise the same in a rejuvenated form. 3) Yet to ascertain the outcome.
1) Budget adjustments or identification of market forces that required adjustment to the plan 2) The investment we planned needed
392 to be cut back due to investment needs in other sections 3) Successfull in the area we shifted investment to, unsuccessful in our
plan for areas where budget was removed.
1) Budget changes and inaccurate forcasting forces us into reactive mode from proactive mode. At which time we are normally
393 looking to scale back the projects, causing a snowball effect. 2) Our 1st qtr projects were off by 30%, causing the company to scale
back vrs increase marketing and project efforts. 3) The outcome was a project that generated less leads, causing less sales, and a
lower gross profit and percentage to goal.
399 1) business focus changed so the plan had to change with it. 2) Networked with medical industry - not something I had though
about 3) this is where a majority of the profits come from
403 1) Change in matket expectations 2) Change in practices to accomodate a major customers requirements 3) Mutual agreedperformance and product alterations
407 1) change of business location which caused new demographics and situations. 2) it really went smoothly. With some new numbers
and a few details switched everything fell into place. 3) it was successful.
1) changed focus from Japanese service provider management and went directly to business customers of service provider 2)
410 realized that Japanese service provider was not totally committed and did not understand criticical benefits of our services 3) no
sure, business volume growing, but too early to tell
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1) Changes were made in an attempt to adjust to very slow response by key advocates of the service provided. 2) The head of a
department requested the services offered, yet once offered, failed to promote the service as needed for success. Change in the
416 marketing plan was necessary; the original objectives revolved around the promotion (through education) of the services by thisdeparment head. Without this critical component, the plan would fail. 3) Other potential markets were defined; promotion plans
shifted. Elements of the original plan continue to move very slowly causing implementation delays; the success of the newly
desiqned plan has vet to be determined.
1) Changing economic conditions led to the delay of a promotional campaign that I had considered launching. 2) The rising cost of
417 transportation services has caused my (potential) clients to be weary of investing in additonal services. 3) This has not played itself
out yet. I am currently envisioning a revised strategy.
1) Client decided to pursue an additional segment of the market than originally planned. He decided that the new segment would
result in quicker revenue results with limited impact on operational costs. 2) The new market segment had been discussed as an
419
option for a different strategic reason but had been deemed a long shot by the client earlier. His (new) change of mind and
direction meant a re-positioning of the client's focus with new marketing materials needed along with different sales lead generation
requirements. My concern was that he was shifting direction without much thought or preparation. 3) I developed new marketing
plan components (new marketing materials, new lead generation system, etc.). However, is has been unsuccessful so far - client
has found other reasons why this won't work at this time and so he has delayed the initiative for a few months.
1) Client feedback provided information for plan and course correction. 2) Initial sales feedback provided from sales team provided
420 information to change marketing and pricing strategy. 3) Change in direction allowed us sell more and provide different marketing
plan with enhanced sales tools than originally planned.
1) Client would not implement production of marketing piece designed because of final cost to produce. Brochure was scaled back,
421
re-written with focus maintained for key message. Client approved new format and costs. 2) Secondary product was actually better
and sent more powerful message about the product. Enabled us to plan differently for future marketing piece and hone our ability to
deliver a key message in a more reasonable product for the client. 3) Not sure, because it hasn't reached the target market yet. We
will track the leads generated from this effort to determine if sales result.
1) company acquired new international businesses that required us to reevaluate the corporate marketing plan and evaluate foreign
markets 2) The foreign buyers appeared to have different interests from domestic clients. While domestic clients assumed
422 corporate stability and expertise because of the company's longevity and leading position in the industry, foreign clients were moreinterested in engineering expertise and specific problem solving capabilities. 3) Too early to tell if efforts are overwhelmingly
successful. Initial indications, based upon sales generated in the new markets indicates that our efforts to reposition the company in
response to their interests are workinq.
1) Competition from health providers in retail stores prompted us increase our hours of availability and add more urgent care time
423 slots 2) Several of our patients defecting to retail store health providers and they telling us how convenient it was. 3) Not sure yet
but we seem to be retaining more of our patients
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1) Competitite products were releases to the market before our prdocuts. 2) The competitor's products included new features that
424 we were developing. We had no data or information that they were doing the same thing as us. 3) We changed the product feature
set impactinQ product definition and lauch date and chanqed the process on obtaining competitive data.
1) Customer expectation did not meet the product expectation. 2) Product message did not connect with customers and they began
429 to ask what is term A, S, or C have to do with the product. 3) We refocused the message using different terminology, which is now
having a direct effect on the sales operations.
1) Decided to change the priority level on the geographic locations. Re-thought the priority on North America and Europe. 2) Had
433 placed too much of a priority on North America and Europe. Decided to change that prioity to South-East and South Asia area.3)
Was successful. It showed us that we must be flexible in choosing markets based on ever-changing economic situations, i.e.
currency chanQes, economic slow-downs etc.
435 1) devaluation hit target country and all financials became useless. 2) client company execs were extremely cautious for 6 months
and became paralyzed by event 3) we had to revise down financials and plan became a skeleton of the oriQinal plan
443 1) Didn't expect drought to be as impactful. Had to create a deviation to market perception of need of product. 2) Very stressful.However, it was excitinQ to see that drouqht and economy can be overcome wiht persistance. 3) Made plan.
446 1) Difficulty in financial situation, cut the budqet for marketinq 2) have to cut budqet for website 3) not sure
447 1) Direct mail budget was substantially different due to postage increases and other factors. 2) Expensive. Had to cut-back.Affected whole plan. 3) Relatively successful.
1) Direct mailing did not elicit any responses after 2 months so I did not continue. 2) Follow up phone calls only elicited a response
448 that they would "get back to me", usually through a third person (gatekeeper). 3) Unseccessful immediately but I consider these
contacts are still "alive" but will require a rethink as how to enqaqe these potential clients.
1) Due to budget changes with our customer, we had to expedite the delivery of products and services we had not planned for. 2)
451 Our client asked for a complete change in schedules, and we brought out a product scheduled for introduction 6 months in the
future. 3) We had to re-orient our internal production and sales efforts to concentrate on our client's request. There was significant
stress, but we were successful, yes.
1) During the implementation meeting, the marketing manager told the Vice President that he didn't want "his" customers cross
454 marketed by anyone 2) He got up and walked out and his flunkie followed him. I told my partner that my department will do it
without him and I will eventually fire him for the insult. 3) Unsuccessful but my division of 35 people do not acknowledge his
existence. We throw it in senior managements face every chance we get
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1) Execution by the field sales team was ineffective because of a lack of direction by the team's leader and because the sales team
did not possess the confidence and professional skills for implementation. 2) We modified the initial implementation of this
456 commercial market development program so that all approach work and lead development would be conducted by the field
marketing staff. Leads are forwarded to the sales team for closure. 3) This approach proved that this new target market was valid
because we closed a number of new accounts. However, the volume of business was much less than we hoped because there
was no field sales contribution to creating new opportunities.
1) Existing dealer needed to be replaced and a target market was awarded to a new dealer. 2) Existing dealer failed to reach their
458 commitments. Terminated that dealer but word spread that the dealer was being terminated and a replacement dealer agreed to
come aboard in the same week. 3) Successful. Replacement dealer proved to order better product, was financially stronger, better
reputation, and better facilities.
459 1) External conditions changed, such as funding running out for a new enhancement that negated the need to do certainpromotions for that new feature. 2) (BLANK) 3) (BLANK-)
460 1) External funding reasons caused change of plan 2) No details provided 3) The focus of the services shifted which was not my
original plan - I would like to QO back to the oriQinal plan, but market conditions will not allow it for the next couple of years
462 1) Financing levels required changes in the scope of services that were avaialbe. 2) Couldn't reach the level of funds required toimpliment the plan as proposed. 3-) Counln't reach maximum penetration in the market due to reduced capitalization.
1) Funding not available as promised led to scaling back promotional activities. 2) Very stressful to create a plan with a certain
464 budget figure in mind and then find out that the budget was not real. 3) Smaller scale marketing communications led to lesser
customer impact and fewer distribution channels engaged with product
1) Had to buy pas system that ended up being twice as expensive as I had budgeted, but the pas system has marketing bundle
466 included and is very flexible (MD Ware, from Salonspaware.com) 2) Nothing in particular, except I had to redo the budget
accordingly. 3) Don't know yet...
1) Hiring sales reps - the plan called for 1. But the opportunity to hire 3 qualified individuals presented itself so we deviated from the
468 original plan. 2) Hiring qulaified sales people in the right locations is at best difficult. In our attempt to hire one we found three in
ideal locations. 3) The jury is still out. Two of the three are on plan, the third is struggling. I consider it successful even if the third
fails. It has siginificanlty negatively impacted our budget, however our sales have exceeded our goals as well.
,.......
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476
477
478
1) I AM ALSO A MARKETING CONSULTANT TO A JAPANESE KOI FISH FARM OPERATIONDURING OUR INITIAL
MARKETING PHASE, THE u.s. GOVERNMENT TIGHTENED THE RULES ON THE IMPORTATION OF KOI FISH FROM JAPAN.
WE WERE REQUIRED TO CHANGE THE FORECASTED ESTIMATE OF FISH WE WOULD IMPORT FROM JAPAN. 2) THE
U.S. GOVERNMENT TIEHGENED THE HEALTH INSPECTION REGULATIONS REGARDING THE IMPORTATION OF FISH,
REUQIRING VETERNARIAN INSPECTIONS PRIOR TO AND AFTER RECIEPT OF THE FISH, ADDING UNFORESEEN
EXPENSES TO OUR OPERATION 3) WE WERE ABLE TO WORK WITH THE STATE OF HAWAII VERERNARIAN OFFICES TO
WORK OUT INSPECTION SCHEDULES AND IMPROVE THE THROUGHPUT OF THE FISH TO OUR FISH FARM.
1) I am involved with youth guest house business in Nepal. During the initial marketing of the business, I planned to market the
business outside Kathmandu valley to target students and visitors who come to kathmandu for different purposes. however, I never
went outside Kathmandu valley. Instead we went to different colleges to establish a partnership for full board accommodation
facilities for the students who are from outside of Kathmandu. So, there was a major shift from the original plan and target
customers. the major reason for this was the finalcial limitations prevailing at that time. 2) I realized that my marleting plan was very
extensive and expensive at the same time in proportion of the start-up budget and size of the business. FOr a start, the
accommodation capacity was of 35 pax only. The plan is still there and we intend to implement is within the next two years as our
business expansion strategies. 3) OFcourse, the last minute changes were very difficult to carry out specially because we didn't
have much networks to look up to. We had to maintain the facilities for 7 months without any results. Now, the business is well.
50% occupancy.
1) I decided to make a directional change due to the cost of product entry for retail. 2) My original plan was to create a solid base
built on retail ie Safeway, Alberson's etc but the cost of entry was so high I changed to private label and club. 3) successful we have
grown 3X in the past 2 years
1) I decided to purchase air time on an radio station and did not refer to my advertising costs in the marketing plan. 2) It got very
expensive and frustrating to focus on the ad because I was to concerned with the cost. 3) I did not buy the radio time because the
cost was not in my budget.
1) I decided to withdraw from providing a certain service which no longer interested me since it was far less profitable than another
service. I told my existing clients that I would no longer be doing this, and helped them find alternate suppliers. 2) A valued
colleague recommended me for my previous service to a large vendor. I had never gone out to my network and told them that I was
withdrawing from that service offering. So despite my decision, I engaged with the new client as a warm lead, and agreed to provide
this service for them. 3) Well, I ended up doing the work and getting paid for it. So that much was a success. But I deviated from
my plan to focus on another area, which is more profitable for me, so that was not a success. And now I am engaged with a new
client who expects me to continue to service them, and I have not yet repositioned myself in the minds of my colleagues.
1) I had no idea how much I'd spend on creating relationships (lunches, informal meetings, stuff like that). I budgeted way too little.
2) I upped the budget in accordance with what I spent. 3) It was successful because the plan changed.
.........
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1) I made some assumptions about who would be willing to purchase my services and I had to admit I was wrong and start over
480 with new assumptions. 2) The money never materialized for the first idea so we had to regroup and try something more basic to the
needs of our customers and build on that basic need. 3) We have been rolling now for three years with the retool, we are breaking
even and beginning to move ahead with revenue increases. It takes a long time to make this happen, we must never Qive up.
1) I run a retail shop so a new shop was opened just next to mine so i had to make some changes to match up with the new
482 changes 2) In our positioning, we positioned ourselves as the cheapest shop there so when the other shop was opened, they also
used the same strategy so we needed to think about creating more space for our shoppers to move around undisturbed 3) The
changes worked well and we survived the competition
1) I was surprised by regulations changes in our industry. Those changes opened up new possibilities of action and I'd to replan all
over again. I Basically, all of a sudden the market changed positively, but in a way we only dreamed of. One difficult part of the job
- talk about everything in a new way we were not used to. An then, set up a new plan. 2) It was very interesting but it caused too
485 much work and a complete new mind set. It's very hard to explain the changes to the whole organization and redirect it toward new
goals and, specially a new business mission. The most part of the earlier job became useless. 3) The outcome was very
successful. The whole industry, not only our organization, grew. We developed new products and services, a new relationship with
new partners and got new costumers too.
1) Implement a timed, staged and personalised direct marketing campaign to named business owners introducing a new service.
Maximum 10 letters per week, with 72 hour follow up to identify clear prospects, reject interest only targets. Driven by need to
489 generate new prospects and new clients, idea gleaned from existing client who had identified a good success rate with this
approach. 2) Failure to implement due to time pressures on delivery of services to eXisting clients. Lack of clarity in the service
offer, those initially approached did not understand the offer, could not differentiate my services from other providers, did not see
the USP. 3) Unsuccessful due to poor implementation
490 1) Implementation date changed due to engineering resources. 2) Delayed by 4 months, huge impact to schedule. 3) Secured
resources and met 2nd delivery date.
491 1) improved upon the text in the marketing letter to be more appealing to the target audience 2) the text related better to the target
and improved the response rate 3) it was successful because our response rate went up by a measurable amount
1) In our plan we talked about the timeline for getting our marketplans rolled out to the staff. Our goals, had to be changed several
493 times and extended. 2) I recall the staff not being flexible and will to roll with the changes. 3) Our board had a meeting and we set
new goals and a better timeline that fit as many groups and teams as possible
,........
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498
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512
1) in the consulting business where I work, unexpected situations arise continuously. The marketing plan called for increasing
penetration of the domestic consulting market and decreasing operation in foreign markets; however, the domestic markets proved
a tough nut to crack and foreigh opportunities were available so for financial reasons, it was necessary to continue to accept foreign
assignments 2) I recall having very low expectations of a trip to southern Africa ... instead I was pleasantly surprised by the country
I visited, by the kindness and competence of the people and by the opportunities for downstream work there. 3) the outcome was a
successful visit that may well lead an onQoinQ revenue stream in the future.
1) Industry demand picked up for services we had product inventory of - so we obliged to them. One was of refurbished lasers.
Other was for semiconductor automation. 2) Top customers that trusted us asked us to perform these services for them. One being
Intel. Another being a top Taiwanese company. 3) Very successful in that they will work with us on exactly how they want the
services performed. And, to what specification. And, at what price.
1) Initially, the Marketing plan was based on sales that our sales team had projected. One of the problems was that they projected
based on marketing. The bottom line was that the sales department based sales assumptions on the marketing plan which was
based on assumptions by the sales team. Neither group had based projections on any other criteria. The result was having to
cancel a number of trade shows due to the lack of sales. 2) We did trade shows as a method of introducing product and sales staff
to the client world. In other words "marketing". The sales staff felt that the "quality" of the leads generated at the trade shows was
not of high enough quality, therefore sales suffered. In retrospect, it might have been a self fullfilling prophacy whereby the sales
team felt that the leads were not good - so they fluffed them off. in doing that, the sales projections were not meet. 3) We tried
various other methods of generating sales leads that "were of better quality" for our sales team. As we tried various methods, (ie.,
telemarketing, direct mail, sales lists, etc.) we updated our marketing plan to reflect the new "MOM" (method of the month). We
spent more time on the marketing plan then executing it.
1) Internal partner related conflicts cause constant deviation from plant. 2) Unable to execute plan due to redeployment of capital
allocated a marketing plan. 3) Marketing outcome inconclusive
1) Introduction of a new competitive product 2) We had to review the priorities of the product development plan 3) We lost quit
some sales, but we picked up our competitive position within a year
1) Largest deviation involved key staff person hired to execute plan. Was under performing, and separated from the company.
Took one quarter to transfer operations load to reengage in plan. 2) All major marketing efforts ceased in the short term. Utilized
low effort methods (mailings, emails, etc) to start back up. Then slowly reengage in face to face and higher effort methods for
marketing. Most memorable: Poor hiring decision I need to more closely manage position. 3) We definitely lost momentum.
Referrals have still been solid, so it is hard to say how much we actually lost in terms of lost referrals I customers. We continue to
produce revenue above plan with quarter over quarter growth, and operate near full utilization.
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1) lEGISLATION CHANGES INFLUANCED THE WAY OF DOING BUSINESS. I pRODUCTS NORMALY USED SUDDENLY
513 BECAME LOWER QUALITY AND WE HAD A RUSH OF CUSTOMERS REQUESTING OUR BETTER QUALITY. 2) cUSTOMERS
STARTED WRITING US AND WANTED LONGTERM CONTRACTS TO MAKE SURE THEY COULD GET THE PRODUCT PRICE
WAS NOT A ISSUE. 3) iT WAS SUCCESSFULL BUT WITH ALOT OF EFFORTS TO SHIFT MARKETS.
1) Lost key regulatory affairs resources to support product expansion project. 2) Higher priorities within the corporation ended up
516 consuming entire available bandwidth of resources. Had to negotiate with senior regulatory management to gain approval to
outsource needed skills. Achieved agreement contingent on regulatory management identifying and approving outside consultant.
3) Ultimately, attracted and hired outside consultant and achieved necessary outcome. Outcome delayed proiect 3 months.
517 1) Mailers were not working so we changed to email distribution. 2) Responses tripled. 3) Responses tripled.
1) Mainly work with publications, so when a ad does not work we change that ad. 2) No countable response from the ad campaign,
518 so changed ads 3) More responses to the ad. Do not know how successful ad campaign for the client business was, the company
never related that information back.
519 1) Major change in uncontrollable variables (foreign exchange issue) 2) Major price adjustments to compensate for higher relativeprices in foriQn markets. 3) Succsessful. No loss of customers.
1) mareting strategy clled for promoting offers via web, email, brochure and print media. developmental issues required change in
521 strategy to focus only fewer media and postponed weblaunch and email activities 2) memorable: I revised allocation of resources
conflicted with promotiontactics activities. 3) ongoing efforts to recapture strategy while diminishing problems in website launch
timinQ
1) Market changed, opening up opportunities in new markets. 2) Redirected marketing resources to investigate new market and
522 prepared mini-plan to address the new market. 3) Successful. Visited trade shows to discuss research and market for product, and
was able to direct marketing efforts to right decision makers.
1) Market changed. New competitors with same exact products came into the market as well as old competitors with knock off
523
products. 2) We had to make adjustments quicker then planned an change our product mix. 3) It's ongoing. Successful in some
parts and needs more adjustments in others. II feel a marketing plan is an ongoing,moving object. Your have your core beliefs that
should not change(basic business 101 concepts change: paradigm senergy but the heart of it doesn't). The market, competitors,
products, sytems, are always changing so the plan has to be adjusted
1) Market conditions changed. Ownership of primary business changed. 2) The acquisition of the business necessitated a delay
524 change in our ability to execute against the plan. 3) The plan is still a working document. The Company has a new CEO and head
of MarketinQ. They are developing a new plan and utilizinQ the last one as a preliminary roadmap.
529 1) Most of our target customers are become netitizen by the hit of globalization .2) Buying habit of customers are dynamically
chanQe. 3) selling online is necessary to become market leader.
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1) My business is based in Romania and my experience comes from the US. My business is real estate based and my experience
is software based. Therefore my planning needed to be tweaked in places to match reality here. Therefore was a siuation where we
530 excluded some of our fixed cost. / I had to adapted some extra social situations not inked with my concrete plans which where
included in the marketing plan. 2) I tried to apply the experience I had from my prevoius jobs in the US, but I ended up spending
most of the time socialising as marketing is doneon relationships and bribes not on quality and offering. 3) Yes. We were able to
reach a blend of strategies between traditional marketing and specific Balkanic strateQies...
1) My CFO refused to give me numbers for history so it was very challenging 2) Without proper numbers... budgeting and
531 projections was nearly impossible... but I did my best to guesstimate! 3) I had little to no cooperation with other department heads
and thus the marketing plan was shelved.
1) My plan was promotion of copper applicatios in Mexico, specifically on copper roofing, during the frst quarter of the year the
Intenational Miners Association (one of the most important sponsors and tecnical project directors)decided to suspend all promotion
on cooper roofing on Latin America(it was 60% of the total budget. / / / / / / / / / / / 2) We ahd to reasign funds to promote
532 piping and electric wiring and cable copper uses, without sufficient time and market information, depite that those applications did
not needed that kind of marketing support, they was covered by producer companies. / Then we went to previous market studies in
order to redesign campaigns, and of course objectives ave been lost. 3) From the point of view of the mktg administrative
distribution of funds at international level it was successful because campaigns were made as they decided, but I think that from
the marketing point of view all thah money was lost. / / (sorry for my english)
1) New opportunity took me in a driection not in the marketing plan. 2) I relied on it and the follow on easy business without referring
541 back to the marketing plan that applied to a wider universe of clients. 3) Both. I got a new client with easy follow on work for which I
had to do no marketing. however, that undercut my initial plan, took me way off course, and left other potential opportunities
untapped. I should have focused more on the marketinQ to otherw while I had the one sure thinQ--which eventuallv wound down.
1) New product development was an important part of the plan, but it has been significantly delayed by both internal issues and
542 customer commitment (or lack thereof) in evaluating the new product. 2) Not yet finished - still in progress. Customer has renewed
commitment and internal issues have been mostly resolved. Still, it is taking far too long to move to the next stage. 3) We'll see!
546 1) New sales data arrived that led me to allocate more promotional funds. 2) The sales forecast was way off. 3) We were able to
capture the increase to sales.
548 1) Not enough budget to implement the ads and other marketing activities 2) poor budget planning and spent at the wrong place.
wasted the money at the wrong person and wasted the time too. 3) need to review the plan and to top up the budget
549 1) Not getting good response to existing marketing and changed to more direct marketing. 2) Slow sales 3) Not sure, sales are
continueing to be slow, but customer recognition is improving.
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1) Not having the time to implement the plan. Pieces of the plan get done but not the whole. 2) General business needs interrupt
550 the implementation. Not having the dedicated resources to carry out the plan. 3) We achieve part of what we want to achieve. How
will we know what we could have done?
1) Once the complete due diligence was completed on the delivery cost for a JIT progam showed the freight to cost more than the
551 product. 2) Holding a series of meetings with outside suppliers and finding no alternatives to meet this need. 3) The program was
scrapped.
1) One of our internal colleagues was unavailable. It was important that they were involved in the implementation process.
However, we had to push on with other aspects and as such the marketing plan and its priorities needed to change. 2) The issue
553 did not have too negative effect on the plan and once my colleague was available we were able to get the person up to speed and
after a slight deviation, get back on track. 3) The plan was able to be delivered on time and the new internet functionality was
implemented (with some late nights!).
554 1) One of the 5 business units was not achieving revenue and we need to shift resources to backfill the resoueces 2) x 3) x
1) Only in the event we get enough feed back to change. 2) We were offering a program where it gives sellers a guranantee. We
555 would sell there home in 60 days or we would sell it for free. We never changed the message just some of the guidelines. 3) Now
it's running very nice.
1) Our business is an internet record label. We started this before it became the "in thing". We were in the process of marketing an
artist. At first we were against using traditional methods such as regular radio and standard marketing thought processes. However,
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that changed once we took a chance and hired a consultant. Big Mistake. 2) The consultant was a senior executive from a
previously succesful time period. He talked me and partner in to using his services and contacts. It became a disaster, we went way
over our budget and the music video that was developed at the time we thought is was good but now after getting back to our plan
and learning each segment of the business in bite size chunks, we have realized that we bamboozled. 3) the outcome in our
opinion is not to hire consultants unless you have a specific agenda for them to follow and measurable metrics along the way.
560 1) Our Business out grew our Marketing Plan. From $6 Million in Sales to $35 million in four years. 60 employees to 140 2) New
Markets 3) Not sure, we grew to big to fast
561 1) Our direction was diverted becuase of market demand 2) We chose a service that was more in demand. 3) It was successful as
the company now will do over $2,500,000. more in business /
1) our plan relied heavily on a key strategic partnership that didn't work out as originally planned. they did not meet
volume/financial commitments that we were essential for the partnership's ROL 2) it was in essence a lack of due diligence,
commitment by them, and clear-cut roles & responsibilities when handling common client engagements. we did not exhaust the
562 research process in order to find the best partner in our space who shared a common version of success, and our implementation
plan did not receive buy-in on both sides of the fence. 3) we have not officially cut ties with this partner yet, however we have made
strides to build up our own internal capabilities which cover a few of the partner's value-added services that originally attracted us to
them.
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1) Our script for solicting was found to be frequently ineffective so we reworded our script to better engage prospects. 2) Prospects
563 rebutted the claims we made in our solicitation script so we reworded the script to avoid or overcome objections more effectively. 3)
More prospects became clients and sales increased.
1) outside competition forced a reactive change. 2) competitor targeted our client base and we reacted to counter the potetnial lose
564 of clients and business revenue. 3) Changed service focus lead to improved service offering to all clients and reenforced the
original marketing plan objectives. This lead to client retention and some increase in revenue in addition to the targets identified in
the marketing plan
1) Part way into the implementation we determined that our prospects would be better (10 times the adoption rate) if we changed
the delivery model of the product. 2) During development of the marketing messaging and marketing surveys, I had the idea to
change the delivery to make it easier for the customer to accept and implement and having vetted the idea with product and
565 financial people, we altered the delivery model and reworked the plan (and the schedule). 3) We have adopted the revised delivery
model and product development is currently making the adjustments which are due for testing in March. The marketing plan has
been adjusted (delayed) to the availability of the revised product. At this time, we still consider the changes to be positive and that
the adjusted plan will be successfully executed.
1) Partner had to back out - conflict of interest with new day job. This is a small company so this affected our sales strategy. His
work with outside sales is performed primarily with inside sales, web, email, and flyers promoting occasional training we provide etc.
566 2) This was to be a part time business for a few people. During negotiations of key line one of the partners had to back outbecause of a conflict with his new job. This has and will continue to slow the growth of the business. We are seeking a
replacement. 3) To early to know. We are in business and have profitable revenue but whether we are and continue to provide
level of service required has not been shown.
1) Planned funding forced us to cut back on planned marketing. An "angel" investor dropped out causing us to scale back
568 marketing. 2) We simply could not implement the plan as written. It caused us to revamp revenue projections which ultimately lead
to the overall business plan to be scrapped. 3) We did not open the new service.
1) Planned to expand our service offerings into the automotive industry. As the market began to show signs of slowing, we found
569 the automotive industry decsion makers were reluctant to move forward. We began to focus on other industries (medical, law) that
were more recession-resistant. 2) We have been successful in growing our medical and law serives levels as a result of being in
touch with a chanQinQ economy. 3) So far, so Qood!
1) PRESSURED BY CLIENTS TO TAKE ON WORK OUTSIDE OF MARKETING PLAN 2) TWO INCIDENTS / /1) DECLINED TO
TAKE ON WORK OUTSIDE OF MARKETING PLAN / & REFERRED TO OTHER COMPETITORS / /2) TOOK ON WORK
571 OUTSIDE OF MARKETING PLAN / THIS LEFT ME OPERATING OUTSIDE MY EXPERTISE &WITH TOO MUCH BACKLOG OFWORK / / 3) 1) DECLINING WORK OUTSIDE OF MARKETING PLAN BROUGHT BOTH PEACE OF MIND AND MORE
PROFITABILITY / /2) TAKING ON WORK OUTSIDE OF MARKETING PLAN DROVE ME NUTS AND RESULTED IN POOR
RETURN ON MY TIME INVESTED
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1) Pricing by competitors resulted in adjusting prices to be competitive. Service offering driven by menu pricing which simplied
offering to customers. 2) The simplified pricing resulted in an increase in unit received for service repair. / / Note the initial
574 questions do not allow answers for a business that is involved with products/ services. 3) The simplified pricing resulted in anincrease in unit received for service repair. The response from the customers was positive they liked the fact that they could quote a
customer before contacting my company. The result was a faster service for our customer and their customers and an increase in
our business.
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1) Pricing strategy did not work as weak US dollar allowed US competitors to enter the market and compete on price. 2) Competitor
made a specific push on our major accounts with lower prices. 3) We matched the new lower price. Kept customer and sales
volume but at a lower marqin.
1) Probably universal to any deviation would be lack of execution. Mainly relating to the Lack of buy in to the marketing process
since it is new to this company. There is no tie in to their overall business plan. The current sales team didn't support it. Currently
we are retooling though and trying it my way - a little bit. There are also cash flow issues (some parts of the business are in high
risk), lack of follow through or decision making. 2) See above answer. Our sales were below where we wanted and we spent a lot of
576 time and money developing proposals for prospects who weren't qualified or who had projects that weren't feasible or had no
funding. The positive side of this, they now see the wisdom in prequalifying prospects, projects and developing competitive and
customer intelligence files (instead of just in their heads). Overall, the "shotgun" approach and inability to say no to a project was
not successful from a revenue standpoint. Additionally, the amount of time and energy the engineers had to spend quoting
machines and proiects that never came to fruition wore on their enthusiasm and support of the sales department.
577 1) Product positiong change secondary to competition failure 2) Competition failed @ a head to head competitive study which theyinitiated. 3) Basically we positioned ourselves based upon the market study they funded
579 1) Re-allocation of budget from one media to another form of media - TV to print 2) was not an "incident" - conscious decisionbased on trackinq and measurement 3) Not sure but we increased inquiries/leads as a result of the move
1) Really, only deviations from marketing plan have been delays in implementation timeline - primarily due to funding issues and the
580 overall state of the economy. 2) I'm afraid there was nothing really memorable 3) Too early to tell - but I do believe if I had moved
forward with planned advertisements they would have hit at the peak of a market panic, and they wouldn't have had any effect.
We'll see what effect there miQht be in the cominQ months.
1LRequest for expansion of our offerings. Changes in healthcare industry. 2) Article in NY Times illustrated a 'killer app' for our
581 system. Engaging a health system partner allowed our moving forward. 3) After constructing a marketing/business plan and model,
next step is presenting to Big Pharma.
582 1) Research & Development has run into several roadblocks 2) The design of the connectivity is propriatary. There have beenissues finding the people with specific skill sets without ieopardizing the confidentiality issues 3) It's onqoinq
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1) Results did not match projections. Identification of the target market as well as strategies to reach the market were altered. Three
584
months of work ende with no closed business. We re-evaluated the consumer perceptions, did targeted research and decided that
the target market identified was not as robust as first thought. It was memorable because theortically this should have been a great
target group. Never really sure why it wasn't. We may revisit this at a later time. Sometimes marketing should work but doesn't. 3)
Please see above
1) Revised some of the services based on feedback from the target market. 2) We realized that our initial marketing program, while
586 well directed, was not using the terminology familiar to our target market. Plus, we needed to revise our benefits matrix and make it
more clear. We needed to simplify our marketing language. 3) We are in the process of implementing the changes at present. Our
initial interactions with the tarQet market indicate we are on track.
1) Sales not as expected, over estimation of market maturity/readiness 2) Reduction in price and free introductions improved
588 uptake, creating more market awareness 3) Successful, volume was higher than originally forecast although because of lower sales
value, financially service fell short of original expectation, however because of increased market awareness price increases have
successfully been implemented bringinQ service sales back into plan
589 1) Salesperson came in for a new yellow pages came in a new add. 2) Convinced us to stay with YP one more year. 3) Don't knowyet.
590 1) Service deployment time 2) R&D was delayed 3) took longer to market service
1) Setting up a web pages through a designer who was not fully sure of the patent pending concept. After the initial plan started,
592 the sales never increased. We had to rely on the conventional way...which worked better after the change from one designer to the
next. 2) The loss of money and connections made with the consumer because the first designer was lax and confused as to the
proper text and information to be offered to the viewer of the site. 3) Unsuccessful. Too much money spent.
595 1) Slipping deadlines 2) Vendor did not deliver on time 3) Sales target delayed
1) Some clients were not yet at the stage of being ready to work with a training service we were providing. There was quite a lot of
preliminary groundwork to be done before people were ready for that level of work. In particular, there were staff members who
were way 'behind the eight ball'. When we tried to implement the plan, there was some resistance from these people because they
were fearful of change. 2) Some people made meetings difficult to run by constantly interjecting and preventing the enthusiastic,
learning participants from moving ahead. They were constantly bringing down the energy of the training process. Some of these
597 people were also taking part in subterfuge - like creating gossip suggesting that there were hidden agendas for a training
programme which was designed to help staff be better professional communicators All of the really enthusiastic participants could
see why this problem was occurring but it was difficult to do anything about it. 3) We took the original plan and revised it so that it
didn't include all particpants. We took the emphasis off the outcome and put it on the people. We offered the new 'package' in a
different format - as Peer Coaching. We 'invited' participants who were enthusiastic and asked them to monitir their progress closely
and contribute an article about how well they dio. This stage is in its early days at the moment but it looks positive.
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1) Started out utilizing newspapaer ads and got poor results. Changed to full color insert and face to face marketing. 2) Face to
600 face marketing produced excellent results. Full color insert produced some return. 3) Local Store Marketing should consist of face
to face tarQet marketinQ.
1) Tactical marketing strategies did not generate dessired results, so we adjusted and moved on 2) Undertook a massive fax blast
602 in several cities - simultaneously with little resuts. We then developed a massive e-mail campaign which gave the desired results 3)
Result was we generated more leads and sales than expected
606 1) The budget was not sufficient. Costs went up. Hence, we made a few media changes. 2) as the costs escalated, and new
information came in, we had to revisit the media mix strategy 3) not sure
1) The budgetting part. A part of our budget plan was derrived from the previous cost of the services. Because of the wrong budget
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pannning the quality of our services almost sufferred. We have to add more to the cost so the quality would not suffer. 2) Charging
the clients less than the supposed service costWe almost did not earn because most of the time if you tell the client the cost. Thats
it.You cannot change it or the clients would not like it at all. 3) We became very honest with the client and the client went to other
agencies she ended up coming back with us because of our honesty and being polite.
1) The client changed the telemarketing incoming/outgoing plan which / effected sales - 2) It was very hard to implement the
611 program because of the media running during the holiday of Thanksgiving week - and the telemarketing company were notprepared ot take the orders. 3) We are still not complete as far as the marketing/media plan are as far as implementing our
program.
1) The comeptitor change price and marketing strategy which force us to answer in a propriate way 2) We change our strategy in
612 implementing Marketing plan due to market trends. 3) After changing our strategy in implementing our Marketing plan we rich
defined target.
1) The company changed (reduced for 20%) the amount of the budget dedicated to marketing 2) I proposed to cut the least
613 important activites (one event and one coference press), but I increased the investment on the web 3) We were able to recover the
situation. / The good result was that we increased the culture on Internet as medium
615 1) the competitors had acquired new capacicity and where dumping there sevice in the market 2) we changed our value propistion3) partially successful as the competitors left the market
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1) The deviation was from a specific element in the marketing plan but within the general description of that particular portion of the
plan. The deviation was the use of an altenative radio station, however, the alternatie radio station communicated with the intended
target market. 2) In this particular incedent I was attempting to reach the hispanic market through radio advertising. I was made
aware of the alternative radio station during my conversation with a radio account representative which focused on a totally different
listener demographic. The account rep pointed out the alternative hispanic radio station eventhough the alternative hispanic radio
station was with another company and had the potential to reduce the bUdget for her radio station. This is memorable because she
was more concerned about the success of my company what with making a few more dollars for her radio station. 3) I am not sure
of the success of this chanQe. It has yet to be completed and needs more time to draw an adequate analysis.
1) The economy with diposable income has taken a major effect on people's daily lives and how it effects their decisions. The need
to adjust maketing plans, alter course for a small business is easier and absolutley essential in business today 2) My business is
involved with the launch of licensee (future frnachised) mobile auto repair. As I indicated above, the changes experienced by
people's disposable income currently has led to a huge gap between initiating the decision to have proactive/preventative service
work completed on their vehicles before the fact. My business is increasing du to the increase of emergency repairs brought upon
by the lack of preventative service work planned or executed before the fact. 3) I have changed my marketing focus to increase
awareness of "emerngency repair" and breakdown services at the homes and/or offices of perspective clients. The previous
marketing just touched on the "time savings" element of mobile auto service. The poor judgement of consumers putting off required
auto repairs proactively, has led to an increase and re-branding awareness for my businesses' Qrowth.
1) The field sales process was assigned the responsibility for executing the "neighborhood marketing program" and the "commercial
market development program" for a services based client. / / The field sales team did not possess the experience or skills to
execute either of these programs. 2) The field sales team developed an array of alibis for not executing the programs and the owner
of the business did not want to force the issue. As a result, we moved the "neighborhood marketing program" to planned status and
changed accountability for the commercial market development program to the field marketing process. 3) The field marketing
process has generated a number of commercial account leads for the sales team, but the level of production is less than half of our
desired results.
1) The form of media advertising we used was not effective enough so we changed it. 2) Well the advertising prompts potential
buyers to call for an information brochure. No calls were received from this particular campaign so the campaign for this particular
area had to change. 3) It was not successful initially which is why it was changed and the changed campaign was probably about a
50% improvement over the initial. So was it successful probably not too much
1) the implemtnation was not working and we had to readjust the market stratergy and we changed the focus of the market plan to
accomodate the product and the chairman of the comapanies wishes 2) constant changing of the statergy put a damper on the plan
to action· 3) the plan had to be rewritten to accomodate the constant changes this had a seruous effect on the plan /
1) The market changed dramatically and made the plan obsolete. 2) Price of the product we sell dropped severly and affected all
our projections. 3) The incident was unsuccessful.
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1) The market requirements changed such that the product mix was no longer valid. We were able to anticipate this based on real
market experience and have integrated strategies that allowed adjustment of the product mix before we were reacting. This is
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critical as we are regulated by FDA and it takes a minimum of 90 days to acquire new marketing clearances; without you can not
sell the product. 2) I can't detail these situations, as the details would divulge Intellectual Property (IP) gained form actual market
experience that can not be obtained via any written documentation from external sources etc. 3) It is being very successful. The
validation being,,,key market leaders (Customers) are contacting us trying to get involved. Customers are cancelling orders with
more established competitors and purchasing our device.
1) The marketing effort was not generating the required amount of leads so we changed the positioning and implemented a better
626 plan for the market. 2) Not enough leads, which cost us time and money, we changed and it improved the effectiveness. 3) Not
enough leads, which cost us time and money, we changed and it improved the effectiveness.
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1) The original plan called for seminars on investment management. No such seminars have taken place due largely to time and
lack of need. 2) No one single incident, but rather a decision not to implement a major tactical strategy in the oringal plan -
seminars. Relied instead on referrals which surpassed all expectations. 3) Very successful with great cosUbenefit ratio.
1) The plan depends on hiring & training independent manufacturers' reps in various regional markets. None could be found for
634 Chicago so I am acting as a rep inthe area. 2) There was nothing memorable about the situation; it happens frequently 3) I am
beginning to generate sales and using that experience to reach reps outside the Chicago area how to generate sales
1) the plan has to adjust to changes in international economic changes; exchange rates, interest rates, etc. 2) In last 24 months,
635 dollar value has been steadily declining to the point it did not make sense to pursue the business model we had 3) we moved all
purchasinq operations from China
1) the plan intended to cut competition threat by by atleast 50% but we only attained approx 25% we changed plan to a more
aggressive approach. We utilised a larger media mix. Before Newspapers wherenot in the budget (only outdoor, radio and mall
636 branding)we added them later and went into heavy sponsorships of events via providing prizes. 2) the aggressivness in the radio
and the newspapers (even though we had to use our 10% emergency budget) paid up. Our name became as a destination for
entertainment products 3) Footfall increased by 40% and average basket went up by 12%. Since we had one show being
broadcasted live from the store.
1) The plan was based on a funding level that was later reduced. Some elements of the plan had to be dropped and some were
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reformulated. 2) The customer changed the focus of their overall strategy. The product which was the focus of the plan became
secondary and the funding was reduced 3) The goals of the original plan were not achieved. The customer wanted to meet the
sales goals of the original plan without implementing all of it. There was a heavy emphasis on promotion in the original but none of it
was funded in the end. As a result there was little effect on the sales of the product even with the revised plan.
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1) The plan was to compete with established artists in national venues. We redirected our efforts regionally when it became clear
that there was more opportunity at that level. 2) Repeated attempts to generate recognition failed in a highly competitive field. This
was quite daunting, since the artwork is very high quality. We realized that additional steps were needed to build up to that level of
acceptance. The decisions was made to redouble efforts to gain acceptance in local/regional art galleries. 3) We are gaining
traction in local markets, although slower than we would like. So there has been success, but limited. This is OK, since we are still
in the ramp-up stage of the business for the next two years.
1) The Plan was to have 1 core product line and several 'soft' line, after all contracts were signed we couldn't place 1 core product
line in a start-up operation, but rather a wider spectrum of principal line. 2) Chaos!! / Difficulties from the customer's point to assess
what we wanted to achieve and what was our objectives. 3) Yes, launching was a great success thanks to our sales capabilities to
adpt,but the marketing aspect has taken a 'back seat', so to speak. In the medical industry we rely heavily on marketing strategy to
launch but never take in consideration that we miQht need a 'Plan B'.. .!
1) The plan was to use newspaper advertising as a method of indroduction of the product Women's Glamour Photography, but the
editorial staff deemed the content not appropriate for their publication 2) The representative on the phone equated the morality of
the product with the offerings of a strip club. 3) The money allocated to that portion of the campain was reallocated into other
advertising methods.
1) The plan's focus was changed abruptly by upper management. 2) Deadlines the were earlier than expected, or last minute
changes to ad designs that changed the ad message cmopletely. 3) Ultimately, it was successful. Just the completion was
stressful.
1) The prime reason for changing was our relationship with a large chemical comapany who wanted us to operate in a different
market to the one we had originally envisaged. As they were expending a significant amount of funds in the Project we obviously
accommodated their objectives. 2) Nothing in particular, just that we were required to change our emphasis on the market. 3) The
involvement of he larger company assisted us in reaching markets we would not otherwise be exposed too. Therefore giving us
more exposure to the printing industry.
1) The product availability to our client was delayed due to one of our major supplier who had his factory destroyed by a major fire
that affect the whole industry. This brought some difficulties in obtaining eqUivalent product on the market. We had to change all the
publicity, demonstration, appointment, special even that affected revenues as well. 2) The whole company was mobilized. The
difficult part was to establish the new relase date. Since all event were very well planned, it was easy to reschedule. We just add
some promotional activities during this extended delay. 3) The new approche is under way and we can say it was more a favorable
opportunity than a conterproductive even. Formal intent of purchase increased above forecast and this extra activity would enable
to increase our forecasted sales for the year.
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1) The reason for the deviation was the new competitor who entered the market with stronger financial muscle. We therefore had to
645 I reconsider our planning. 2) Because marketing planning involves the budget and time allocation, these issues had to be revisited to
prepare for the shift in the planning. 3) The outcome was positive as we were able to counter the new entant's strategy and were
able to obtain a significant share of the market.
1) The sudden apperance of Hypermrkets in our country, with many branches opening in different cities in a short span of time,
required quite a different approach to distribution of products and service. / The tradional trade at first did not react fast enough to
compensate / the end-consumer behavior. Thus many opportunities were lost. / This scenario required a deviation from the original
marketing plan by / trying to secure call-orders in bulk from the Hypermarket Departments / directly and register as authorized
vendors. At the same time to initiate a turn around at the traditional retail outlets by providing / special Value Packs and Bonus
648 I Packs and concede returns, if after 3 months theSeasonal Sales had not cleared. 2) Competitive edges developed between
Hypermarkets and Supermarket Chains. / Our traditional clientele were open for marketing campaigns with"silent / salesmen" which
were put for display in strategic well chosen areas. / On the other side the Hypermarkets and Supermarkets operated with
Gondolas and Bins for short periods to conquer volume sales first hand in short periods. 3) Overall our tactic to take the different
market segments in confidence to gain their cooperation in their specific capacity and interestpaid off well, because we had not
hesitated to get the products "tailormade" to each group.
1) The tactics were not as effective as anticipated. Response was lower, and modifying the message did not trigger significant
changes, so we reinvested funds in another area that was working better than we had expected. 2) Hmmm. Not sure I can answer
this question. We set expectations for return for each of our marketing plans. We try to be somewhat detailed about Why we have
set certain expectations. Then we measure results against expectations and try to learn why results were different. If we have
649 I adequate resources we'll test our theories about why results were different and try to improve results. If we're too busy or don't want
to take the financial risk, often we'll just shift funds to something that's working better for us. 3) In this case the shift was successful
because we got a higher return for our investment. We also decided to stop trying to pursue the tactic because we've had three
attempts that just didn't offer enough return regardless of our approach. For our business and markets, other methods appear to be
more effective. At least at this time.
1) The union entered one of the States we offer our services in of which we controlled about 70% of the market. The union using
political arm twisting lifted the state requirement for our services and began to spread word that the service we offer was not
650 I needed to members and others in the industry. Contracts began to cancle requiring us to take immediate action and crwate a
counter campaign emphasizing the need and benefit of our services and negating the misinformation provided by the union. This
counter campaighn resulted in less than 20% loss of business of which of that 20% some are beginning to come back to us. We
considered this successful as the end result could have been far worse. 2) See above.3) See above
1) timeline. changed due to equipment delivery causing move back of opening date 2) food service equipment delayed...opened the
656 I property in two stages 3) initail programs had to be adjusted ...but adapted to situation.After several similar situations in openings,
initiated an established soft openings and other alternatives
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658 1) Unanticipated shortfall in funding created a need to revisit plan. 2) We needed to reevaluate the product offering, and eventuallydetermined that we would not pursue that offering due to lack of funding 3) See above
1) Unexpected event offering in which promotion was needed 2) not all that memorable, had padded the plan bUdget to take in
660 account unexpected needs. So financially there was not an impact, it was more of a rush to plan out the marketing pieces. 3) Yes,
successful aQain which I attribute to budQetinQ for an unexpected need.
1) Unresponsive targeted mfgrs. required a different plan of contact to attract mfg. against prototype. 2) Just a lack of response to
661 web mail and e-mail efforts. We resorted to wave-mail, and follow-up telephoning. 3) Successful presentation to a mfg. company
who is now interested in taking the desiQn and prototype to the mfQ. staQe.
1) We altered approach to new clients from a seminar style to one on one meetings 2) We found that that prospect was more open
666 in one on one settings than a group. We were able to get more information that allowed us to customize our service delivery. 3)
Closing rate went from 20% to 70%
1) We are a non profit organization that receives funding from our state and at the federal level, plus we obtain grants. Often, the
state and federal funding can be adjusted or augmented mid-year which requires us to deviate from our original plan, budget wise.
667 When we obtain a specific grant, we must develop a plan for marketing implementation based on the goals of the grant. 2) We
decided to develop a web site product to market to other similar non profits, this required a whole new, for -profit change of
direction. We began looking at receiving fees for specific services such as this versus our normal, required service delivery at not
cost. 3) It has been successful so far, yet is still in its infancy and ongoing.
1) We are a technology services provider and seek to take advantage of technoligcal trends that optimize and support our company'
overall business strategy 2) New technological advances were launched within the market place and we rode the wave so to speak
668 of the product and solution launches initiated by comapnys like Micorosoft, HP and CISCO 3) The changes were a success since
they were able to tie in with the message being put out in the marketplace by the bigger comapnies that have prominance in the
marketplace
1) WE ARE IN THE AIRLINE GENERAL SALES AGENCY BUSINESS, THE PARTICULAR AIRLINE THAT WE HANDLE IN SRI
LANKA WAS PULLED OUT OF THE COUNTRY DUE TO SOME REASONS. IN THIS SITUATION, I AS COMPELED TO
669 DECIATEFROM THE ORIGINAL PRICING LEVELS AS WELL AS THE POSITIONING. 2) IN SPIT OF THE HIKE IN PRICEING
LEVELS, CUSTOMER BASE WAS IN TACT DUE TO THE RELATIONSHIP AND THE CREDIBILITY. 3) IT WAS VERY MUCH
SUCCESFUL.
670 1) we changed advertising because of lack of response 2) we mailed postcards and did not get the response we expected. 3) We
stopped mailing postcards
671 1) We changed from direct sales to a sales agent strategy. 2) We had an opportunity to bring on an agent that had a close
relationship with our prospects. 3) We are not sure of the success yet, although it has certainly slowed our schedule to a crawl.
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1) We designed a new offering for our Christmas Event. The Marketing plan called for a focused message on the quality artists we
had at our festival. Which is the brand of the festival craft show. The CFO stepped in and desperately wanted to change the"focus
to be more sales driven vice the qulaity of our offerings. / / Since this deviate from our plan and the brand essense of the event as
the marketing director I was against it. The President of the company decided to go with the CFOs concerns and forced a change
in the marketing. 2) As this occured as marketing director I pulled out the marketing plan pointed out how if we deviated from this
the outcome would be loss of reputation, thereby loss of sales and our core group of community su[pporters would be angry. My
words fell on deaf ears. 3) The event was a 40-day event. On day 8 it was apparent tby the headlines in the newspaper that our
core group of community supporters were indeed angry at us. Our sales dropped significantly over the next week. / / The
president came to me and actually appologized and asked if I could somehow turn it around and go back to the core brand
essense. It was a dificult task but by the third week we started to turn sales around. In the end we did a little bit better than break
even but had we not had to deal with the issue early on we would have turned a much bigger profit. / / Both my boos (president)
and our board of trustees have now gained faith in my ability to handle a marketing plan and I believe now have more confidence in
my planninQ.
1) We discovered we had some internal personnel issues with distribution so had to change how we went to market to avoid
conflicts. 2) When implementing the plan our feedback from our distributors was not positive so we followed up with personal visits
to discover we had some personality conflicts. We changed the plan to avoid the conflicts and were very successful. Before any
plan can be successful you must listen to the Voice of the Customer. 3) Yes it was successful with changes in strategy.
1) We encountered some resistance from the marketplace in connection with the proposed warranty allowance program and
readjusted the program to provide additional options to the customers. 2) In face to face meetings with existing customers, they
reacted negatively while we were promoting a new product line. The product line was new to their segment of the business and
would allow customers to purchase the product and the ancillary items needed for installation, which were often sales lost to the
traditional sources of the new product. 3) The actions we took as a result of the incident were successful. With some changes in
the marketing and product handling, we grew the sales of the new products 3-fold in 3 years.
1) We expected to use a distribution channel for a product line that the market considers a commodity. The market is saturated with
suppliers (at least 8). Even though our product is of a much higher quality (read that as higher cost to us and higher price to the
market), we could not generate enough interest at the distributor level to move an appreciable amount of product. 2) I have worked
in this industry fo over 25 years and have many contacts that I consider personal friends. After going to 6 or 7 of these people, it
became almost comical trying to get any interest at all. One of them actually brought out a stack of catalogues of competing
products about 2 feet tall. 3) We have moved to a direct sales approach and pulling the business from specialty sales through
distribution rather than the push model with commodities. Once we establish a big enough base with the specials, we should be
able to gain some ground with the commodities.
1) We felt that sales were not proceeding at the pace we wanted to we did a special target mailing with a deadline and special
incentive. 2) It worked and sales picked up. 3) Successful, we sold out early.
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682 1) We had a chance to work a street fair 2) We meet a lot of people and pickup some new clients 3) So successful that we aredoin!=l it a!=lain in April 2008
1) We had envisaged that the main method of communication would be by email - we found after a short period of time that faxes
684 were much more effective. 2) EMails were not getting through to the right person, but faxes were hitting the right desk and getting a
very good response - somehow people think that faxes can't be personalised so assumed it was not a bulk send. 3) The campaign
was a great success.
1) We had not considered a marketing segment that was presented as an unbudegeted opportunity. 2) We had planned to limit our
685 resources to an existing cutomer and ended up servicing another customer in the same commodity because they were dis-satisfied
with their existing vendor. In addition, we "forced" to handle another commodity because of our strong dpendence on a major
customer. .3) We were able to accomodate all of the customers needs with qood utilization of equipment.
1) We had the chance to advertise alongside one of our clients who was keen to promote us along side their own services/products.
686
We develop websites and they where promoting their products to potential resellers at a trade fair. 2) We managed to gather up a
lot of feedback about our services and what potential clients required. normally we only get to speak to people who contact us
through our website or on the telephone. 3) We managed to generate a small amount of business from the fair but the feedback
was very welcome and helped us out a !=lreat deal.
1) We had to change the look and feel of a brochures which were designed by a graphic designer in the beginning stages of the
marketing plan. After receiving the first brochures from the printer, we start handing it out to potential prospects with a clear reply
that it was not communicating correctly the service offering and the theme of the brochures created more confusion than anything
else. We had to do a serious back flip, fired the graphic designer and appointed a new crowd to design a more appropriate
brochure. 2) The service/ product was a new process improvement methodology which are in competition to 6 Sigma and Lean
687 Manufacturing. It is a difficult product to market with a huge emphasis on consumer education. The first designer suggested that
we based our market communication on using a musical methaphore. This was a great idea, but we failed to realy test it before
implementing it. A little high on all the hipe and energy at the initial presentation. This has been a very memorable experiance for
me in that it took me back to the basics: Test, Test, Test - before implementation. Therefore, I will allow a section in my next
Marketing plan for pilot implementation or test marketing. 3) We managed to switch themes in having a theme called "The Face of
Change". This was more in line with the product benefits and are speaking directly to the target market. However, this was a costly
mistake in the be!=linninq - it turned out to be the best thinq we could have done.
1) We had to do away with print advertising and spent the budget on exhibitions instead. 2) Frantic calls from the quarterly print
688 publication with whom we advertised in the previous years. 3) No increase in advertising cost. / There was increased awareness inthe extended market targeted by the exhibition. / There was immediate feedback on the coverage and possible effect of the
decision.
1) We had to go over budget on marketing collateral due to demand for new materials from different business units within our firm.
689 2) Some of our business units requested specific marketing materials for their areas. We had to develop new brochures and other
pieces to complete our marketing package. 3) We now have a complete set of materials that speak to the various service areas of
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690
695
697
698
the firm.
1 ) We included a telemarketing strategy in our marketing plan. We implemented a three tiered marketing approach that included
our telemarketers calling prospects shortly after they received a direct mail piece from us. Their objective was twofold; 1. Attempt
to set an appointment for our sales team and 2. To gather data regarding the prospects current employee benefit plan. We focused
on Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA's) as an alternative funding vehicle. The approach fell flat on its' face, and we were
forced to retool a new approach that was easier to explain and understand. 2) It was memorable because it put a lot of pressure on
our management team to quickly redeploy a new plan that would succeed. Our sales team relies heavily on the projects success to
achieve their sales goals each year. I will admit that there was a "gulp" factor as we launched the new campaign for fear that it too
might fall short or not succeed. We were already behind our first milestone expectation on the number of Introductory
Appointments that would be set. 3) The new approach was successful. We focused on a new product that we had exclusivity on.
We had already planned on launching this campaign, but it simply moved up our timeline.
1) We offer a series of business classes and face-to-face counseling to small business. We found that many of our clients for
counseling had no concept of what was involved in starting a new business. Our classes normally cost $35.00, and we decided to
offer our Pre-business Orietation class free, to avoid much repetitive work at our counseling sessions. 2) There really was not an
incident as such - just a realization that we could be more efficient by doing this. 3) This was a very successful decision, and is now
part of our overall product offering.
1) wE PLANNED FOR ONLINE CAMPAIGN BUT THE SALES TEAM WAS NOT COMFORTBLE WITH IT HENCE WE HAD T
ADOPT AD IN LOCAL YELLOW PAGES DIRECTORY 2) WE DID GET IRRELEVENT RESPONSES FROM THE YELLOW PAGE
PRINT DIRECTORY 3) WE WENT BACK TO ONLINE AD STRATEGY. BUTWE LOST AROUND 6 MONTHS OF TIME
1) We planned on advertizing in regional publications that catered to specific trade show attendees in the apparel market. Due to
the lackluster,economy, soft retail in 2007 and the publications decision to increase prices for ads and change distribution policies
to home subscriptions only, we chose to shift resources to dirct marketing efforts instead. 2) Trade show attendance was very low
for the first two quarters of 2007. We noticed the shift in second half of 2006 from companies attending the trades shows and
speding 'open to buy' and companies not attending and spending capital with road sales reps instead. 3) We shifted our marketing
to direct mail and shifted our showroom only sales representation to new reps in the field. This shift required the direct marketing to
introduce and support the reps. Our sales had tripled in 2006 from 2005 and started to stall as a result of the trade show
attendance declines across the country. The shift helped us to recover from what would have been a 50% decline in sales for
2007 to only a 25% decline. Others in our industry who were not as flexible have lost more than 50% in sales as a result of this
shift. and some are out of business at this time because they were not able to react in time to the shift.
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1) We planned to spend x dollars and x time on postal marketing and x time on email campaigns ...well after the first 3 months of 2
699
solid campaigns running together, we were ONLY getting responses from the email campaign, which cost less in all aspects, so we
pulled the postal campaign (although postal takes longer for results, it wasn't worth the expense for the wait). 2) We focused a lot of
time and manpower into creating the "perfect" email campaign and it worked! It incrased the RIGHT kind of business that we were
targeting. 3) It was successful; however, it was far from what our plan of action originally was.
1) We shifted market focus to a different customer group that we had previously not planned for. 2) We shifted marketing bUdget
700 and created new messaging as a response to the strategic shift. 3) Yes, the new target group exceeded expectations and the
investment ROI was within corp targets.
1) We started by focusing on one product to attract a specific customer. Then decided to open the plan to include all our products.
701 Because our products are custom built to the specific needs of our customers, we needed to modify our plan as our customer's
needs changed. 2) Basically since our customer's needs changed from their original degign we had to adapt and change our
product design. 3) Yes, we were sucessful becuase we were able to modify our product to fit our customer's new requirements.
1) We stated that we would target the franchise industry with in 90 days of the marketing plan being written. This did not happen,
and has not happened to date (plan was written 6 months ago) 2) Our marketing team (and more specifically me) took on additional
702 initiatives that came up that took priority. Also, we have had web team challenges that have delayed other projects (due to their
bandwidth. SOme of my marketing initiatives are dependant on processed that need to be completed by our web team. 3) It has
been unsuccessful to date, as time as not been made to target this business catagory. The plan has not been update to reflect this
and other deviations from the marketing plan, but it needs to be.
1) WE tried a new website marketing company and the results were not what was expected so we had to change which direction
703 our company was moving to spending our advertising dollars a different direction. 2) The reason why it is memorable is because I
had to spend alot more money that was anticipated. 3) Not successful because of the budqet that was messed up.
1) We went through a rebranding process so we had developed a marketing plan that included developing and implementing a
brand building campaign (an integrated plan involving targeted media activity, advertising etc.)lt simply didn't happen. 2) The
Marketing Director at that time (my manager) had no understanding of communications and was very risk averse. She was
704 overwhelmed by what needed to happen at her level to support the implementation of the plan and took the easier route of
persuading the CEO to withdraw his support (even though it had been approved and budgeted for). 3) No change in our brand
profile. No external promotion of our new visual identity. Now we have a new Marketing Director but he needs time before he's
willinq to approve a maior campaiqn. So we're back where we started!
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1) WE were marketing a segment of our business to outside investors. We were told that our business plan needed to be much
larger so that the advisors to the investors, lawyers and accountants, would find enough billable hours toscrutinizing our
information. It took us additional months to enhance our data and the delay and cost was the deviation to the marketing plan. 2) Our
705 original business plan material was one 3-ring binder four inches thick. / Our finished "data room" was 50 four inch binders fourinches thick. We located the data rooms in Washington DC., Boston Mass. and at our home office in Canada for the convenience of
potential investors. 3) It was successful in raising international interest in our company and its proprietary technology and
intellectual capital. We have taken the company off the market (pending the development of new technology) until spring 2008.
Suitor are already lining UP so we anticipate a sale this summer.
1) We were not getting the right response to justifed the cost. Once we revamped the target market, we were able to see positive
706 results. 2) We were able to get more press coverage, and sell out the tickets. It was a performance group new to the college
scence. 3) We sold out and had to add another night performance.
1) When new information was gained on the effectiveness of unforeseen channels, we changed our marketing strategy drastically
to accommodate. Over time, the new channel became less fruitful than originally anticipated, and we were back to reworking a new
710 plan. 2) Analytics demonstrated the impact of the new channel. This sparked a broad slew of investigations into similar channels
instead of executing in those defined by the marketing plan. 3) The incident was successful in the short term. Long term, it was
okay.
713 1) when there was no buisness in my target area, ended up going into very area/region. 2) got the business all right but it was very
costly. 3) It was a loss.
714 1) When we had a new competitor enter our market 2) we enhanced consumer services and realationship marketing activities 3) we
expanded our revenue with a 4.6% increase in profits.
1) Whenever there is a shift in the market or a new competitor arises it's necessary to adapt your plan. 2) In one instance, the
716 product was an optional health care product that would improve consumer care for a specific group of the population at a modest
cost. The insurance providers didn't reimburse at the rate expected, so it became clear that we had to adjust our positioning and
target the technology to a broader market. 3) The outcome is unclear at this point. Enough time hasn't elapsed.
1) With gas prices constantly rising the transient room nights forecasted began to fluctuate dramatically and we had to search our
717 market statistics and revise our room night forecast up and our ADR. 2) Things (market began to level off)and we moved more of
our ADR goal onto the king rooms and away from the double rooms 3) We were still able to exceed our forecasted ADR by mixing
the room types to the demand in the market.
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1) With higher education, economic downturns can have the opposite effect on enrollment. In order to make the most of the
opportunity, we expanded scope of our target audiences, and focused on the underemployed. In order to attract these individuals,
additional micro-campaigns were developed to target marketable skills and to entice those looking to get back to finish their degree.
718 I 2) It's hard to say whether the success was a result of the marketing campaign, or simply attributable to normal, long-standing
trends. The vehicles we used to target this audience (newspaper ads) is typically where a good deal of traffic among adult learns
originates from, so we had a difficult time differentiating. We also used a specific telephone number for response, but that it's
effectiveness was inconclusive, for the most part. 3) Adult learner enrollment did go up, but in admissions screenings, there was a
lack of conclusive information related to what vehicle was the source of this success.
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169
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