An overview is taken of the modern process of strategic marketing planning. It is concluded that it is more appropriate for larger companies. Indeed, its very complexity, especially in relation to the marketing audit, can be a demotivator for small and medium enterprise (SME) managers. Such SMEs require a simpler tactically based methodology. Research was undertaken amongst a sample of SME managers and their prejudices against marketing planning processes were confirmed. They were also questioned in terms of what type of marketing planning structure would most suit SME needs. This resulted in a proposal for a new tactically based methodology, that has now been successfully trialled and applied in three dissimilar SMEs.
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Lancaster et al. (1998) studied this question.