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Lloyd C. Harris: Lecturer in Marketing and Strategy, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Wales, UK
Huw Jenkins: Researcher in Sports Marketing, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Wales, UK
Introduction
The ability successfully to generate and implement strategic marketing plans constitutes a powerful source of market advantage (Hooley et al., 1998). However, despite the potential worth of strategic marketing planning, a series of recent studies by both academics (Brown, 1995) and practitioners (Brady and Davis, 1993) have suggested that "marketing" functions are declining, triggered by a failure to deliver sustained superior value. A likely explanation for this apparent failure may be found in the work of Peter Doyle (Doyle, 1997) who proposes that few organizations succeed in developing beyond the trappings of marketing to the substance of "robust marketing strategy". Indeed, research indicates that despite strong top management commitment to planning (Gray, 1986), comparatively few organizations plan strategy in a meaningful way whilst the vast majority of plans are not implemented (Hooley et al., 1990; Hoskin and Wood; 1993). Further, contemporary evidence suggests that the initiation of planning is difficult, whilst problems of formulation and implementation are well documented (Harris, 1996a, 1999a; McDonald, 1989a). Nevertheless, executives and theorists continue to extol the virtue of developing strategic marketing planning in a range of different industrial contexts and situations (Johnson and Scholes, 1998).
Given the generally accepted operational and strategic benefits of planning activities, it is frequently suggested that, since planning is applicable to most types of organizations, planning operations ought to occur in modern business organizations (Johnson and Scholes, 1998; Wheelen and Hunger, 1998). This paper aims to provide contemporary empirical evidence of the extent of strategic marketing planning within sports organizations, specifically, rugby union clubs. First, this paper seeks to supply an exploration and description of the extent to which UK rugby union clubs are undertaking strategic marketing planning. Second, in order to provide interesting insights for theorists and practitioners, the aim is also to identify, explore and outline the main intra and extra-organizational barriers and impediments (if any) to the development of planning within rugby clubs. Given these aims and objectives, the targeted audiences of this paper therefore includes general management, marketing, strategy and sport management executives and academics interested in the dynamics of developing...