Illusions of Marketing Planners

The article highlights the risks of using self-evaluation as a substitute for primary and secondary market research when designing and monitoring marketing programs. Included is a study of 110 management teams that suggests internally dominated marketing analysis may breed illusory evaluations of a company’s own marketing programs versus competitors. If acted upon, such illusions could lead to oversights in developing marketing offerings. The overriding potential implication of the study addresses the allocation of a company’s substantial marketing assets—most notably, the risks of bypassing secondary market data and primary market research when developing and evaluating marketing programs. 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Companies no longer have the luxury of committing marketing miscues that were commonplace in the past. Today’smarkets are swift and harsh in rejecting strategies that do not respond appropriately to dynamic market needs and aggressive competitive offerings. Despite the rapidly rising costs and risks associated with ill-designedmarketing initiatives, many companies persist in “shooting from the hip,” disdaining the systematic use of secondary market data and formal market research in deference to “marketing by feel.” For these firms, internal management views and related biases tend to dominate the assessment of customers, competitors, and the performance of the companies’ ownmarketing programs. This top-down approach to marketing analysis is particularly risky and mystifying today, because it persists despite a corporate back-