Abstract:

According to Kotler planning means "to decide at the present time what needs to be done in the future." Marketing planning forms part of the overall planning of an enterprise. The marketing-mix being a combination of various kinds of marketing activities, such as product design, sales system, price strategy, advertising, and selling efforts. The application of the individual instruments of the marketing-mix package necessitates future oriented decisions. The glimpse of the future cannot be achieved merely by looking at past processes and results extrapolating these into the future. The thinking in 'feed back' terms will have to be replaced by a 'feed forward' orientation. This is characterised by forecasts or by short and medium-term prognostics. Long-term studies and their results constitute a way to projecting future developments into the present.