Abstract

This paper contends that the conventional rational model of strategic marketing planning is flawed. It is argued that the latter leads to the subsumption of individual perceptions of marketing reality within universal systemic based theories, which are unable to take account of the subjective and discontinuous worlds of marketing managers. It is proposed that in order to better understand marketing decision making in organisations, a phenomenological perspective be adopted. Further research, utilising the phenomenological interview, should aim to examine the local circumstances and practical reasoning used by marketing managers in their ‘life worlds’, as they go about making marketing decisions.