A phenomenological perspective on the work of the marketing manager

In order to explore the reality of marketing planning a research methodology based on the phenomenological interview was developed. Analysis demonstrated that the complexity of marketing planning cannot be collapsed into one analytical model. Managers were found to explain their life worlds narratively, using stories and socially constructed metaphors. Although managers plan, this research revealed that the content and style of plans do not coincide with the tenets of the mainstream marketing approach. Marketing decision making and action was found to be based within a locally enacted, hermeneutical circle of talk, relationships, tacit knowledge and emergent issues, rather than in functional, text based systems. These all represent experientially based areas that the traditional model of marketing planning fails to encapsulate in its framework. The research further established that the written plans of marketing managers functioned as cues, rather than as being prescriptively directive. Based on findings, a revised structure is proposed for understanding marketing planning,drawing on the metaphors used by marketing managers.