MARKETING INTELLIGENCE:

SCANNING THE MARKETING

ENVIRONMENT
by Martin Evans
Cardiff Business School, University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology

Introduction
This article addresses the issue of what is, in some senses, the less tangible dimension of a marketing information
system, namely, understanding the marketing environment through environmental scanning. "Less tangible"
because such investigation by an organisation is less focused than marketing research or marketing model
building, and what is studied may be totally irrelevant to the organisation.
Aspects of marketing's environment are overviewed, with examples given of the importance to marketing
of monitoring such influences; then various approaches to scanning the environment are examined together
with scanning techniques. First, an overview of the environment itself.

The Marketing Environment Direct and Indirect Implications for Marketing

The marketing environment refers to those conditions Management
and influences impingeing or potentially impingeing on Depending on the specific influence, marketing
marketing. Examples include the effects of government activities might be directly affected (new technology
economic policy, changes in technology and the providing alternative methods of conducting the same
implications of societal change. activities, or legislation governing these) or, alternatively,
market behaviour might change — due to changes in
The importance of the environment comes from the the social structure or social attitudes, or perhaps due
nature of marketing itself, indeed from standard to changed life-styles resulting from technological
definitions of marketing — for example, the one put and/or economic change — thus with indirect
forward by the Institute of Marketing: ". . .the implications of these for marketing response.
management process responsible for identifying,
anticipating and satisfying customer requirements It is the latter which probably provides the greatest
profitably". This importance is based on the word challenge. This is because the former (the direct
anticipate which requires a degree of forecasting and influences) are generally easier to spot — they are more
projection into the future. To (merely) identify customer obviously relevant to the organisation's marketing
requirements usually involves specific market research activities because they are concerned with marketing
programmes, but to anticipate requires a broader activities themselves. However, those influences which
perspective — continuously monitoring current trends are indirect will often be "further away" from the
(not all of which are necessarily obviously relevant) in immediate focus of the organisation, since they are the
order to plan ahead. "knock-on" effects of environmental change elsewhere,
and, in some cases, their eventual impact within the
It is the marketing function in an organisation which market-place could be relatively obscure.
is primarily responsible for looking outwards; indeed it
is generally the case that this function, being at the A further point is the interaction of influences — the
interface of the organisation and its environment is at combined impact of economic and technological
least theoretically in a particularly good position to change, for example, might give extra momentum to
understand what is happening — and what might (say) the home-centred society in certain segments,
happen — outside, in order to initiate appropriate since in-home entertainment expands with
organisational response. technological development, and leisure time expands
with high unemployment or increases in high-tech
Having said this, it should be added that marketing's production processes.
environment is not only concerned with things external
MIP 6,3
to the organisation, but also with those influences 1988
internal to it but external to the marketing function — Marketing's "Environments"
such as the organisational position and relative power It is worth pointing to the types of environmental 21
of the marketing function vis-à-vis other functions. influence concerned — some have already been briefly
 of what customers are buying rather than what the
supplier is selling. Levitt (1964) expounded this when
he encouraged organisations to ask themselves the
question " w h a t business are we in"? and to answer
with a market orientation such as, in his example of
Hollywood, "in the entertainment business rather than
merely 'making f i l m s ' . "

In one way, this is outside the scope of environmental

scanning, since it is a role of other elements of a
marketing information system to concern themselves
with aspects of this — marketing research investigates
specific dimensions of market behaviour and marketing
models attempt to describe the market behaviour to
investigate.

However there are some senses in which this whole

area is of great importance in understanding the
environment. First, it is not only the marketing function
which should be so market orientated; it is also
important for this philosophy to pervade the entire
organisation. Thus, the internal environment of the
organisation should be understood — and influenced,
mentioned and Figure 1 provides a framework for if need be.
considering these and others.
Secondly, the market is not static and there will be
This is put forward as merely a picture of a way of changes in market behaviour which straightforward
thinking of the variety of environmental influence on "targeted" market research (even continuous research
the marketing process. It should not be analysed much programmes) will not even be attempting to pick up.
further per se because this might misleadingly imply Such changes might emanate from other environmnetal
some mutual exclusivity of such influence — "lists" influences — for example, economic or technological
of influence are prone to imply this, as Glaser (1985) in origin — which may eventually be reflected,
warned. indirectly, in new and changed market behaviour. For
example, highly focused market research into the
The previous example of economic and technological cinema market might not, in itself, have identified
change interacting with each other in a "Gestalt" or changes in the broader entertainment market (as
synergistic manner to create societal and market implied by Levitt).
change demonstrates this point, which might not have
been foreseen from monitoring and analysing Thirdly, Figure 1 included the competitive environment
" d i s c r e t e " environmental influences. as a component of the market, and a greater
understanding of the competitive nature of the market
If the marketing process is thought of in this way, it environment is probably becoming more important —
reinforces the market environment as the focus of as Unger (1981) has suggested:
marketing activity and, taking its direction from the
market, the marketing mix is then the organisation's Knowing what the consumer wants is often not too helpful
marketing response. The whole process is therefore if a dozen other companies also know...a company must
influenced and affected by changes in economic, be competitor oriented. It must look for weak points in the
technological and societal factors and the changes in positions of its competitors and then launch marketing
attacks against these. . .
levels and types of competition in factor, reseller and
consumer markets and so on.
Moving to m o r e specific m a r k e t and social
environmental influence, currently topical trends
include changes in the demographic structure and
changes in social attitudes.
Environmental Influence
Space prevents anything more than a cursory coverage
The former trends are easily monitored and projected,
under this heading, so, in order to provide something
from population statistics such as Social Trends and
of a flavour of environmental influence, the following
Regional Trends, and show the current " a g e bulge"
review looks briefly at a few events and considerations
of 16-24s — more than ever before and more than is
in market, social, legal and technological change.
forecast for the foreseeable future. One importance to
many marketers of this segment is that the 16-24s
MIP 6,3
1988 The Market and Social Environments (despite high unemployment levels) spend considerable
The most obvious aspect of the market environment sums on consumer goods and services, and demand
22 is concerned with a fundamental marketing principle: more p r o d u c t s for themselves than previous
customer orientation. Marketers should think in terms generations of 16-24s (Piper 1978). Thus the
segment(s) with this age characteristic provide Increases in unemployment have obvious implications
significant marketing opportunities. for lower spending power in those segments, but, at
the same time, new buying requirements come from
Of even greater importance to projecting the future is changed life-styles and greater amounts of spare time.
that this population statistic means that although
constituting a large number now, there will, of course, This is a simplified example, but it does show that
be a decline in the number of 16-24s — for example, economic policy changes do not affect all market
by over 30 per cent by 1990 (MINTEL, 1981). So segments in the same way. For example, 9 4 per cent
forward planning is important if these opportunities are of all jobs lost since 1979 were lost in "the North"
not to be short lived. (Employment Census, 1984), confirming the popular
perception of the two-nation concept — important for
geographic segmentation in marketing.
In some of these markets, although there is some
difficulty in creating brand loyalty among "young
adults" — among other factors because of a scepticism
about advertising (Piper, 1978) — once achieved, that The Legal Environment
loyalty can be quite strong in subsequent years. The
This "environment" concerns legislative changes which
extreme example of the large bank marketing budgets
may impinge upon the marketing activities of a firm.
spent on influencing 18 year olds (especially prior to
For example, changes in food labelling and description
going to university/college) demonstrates this point.
laws will directly affect packaging and possibly
promotion. There will be implications for international
A related aspect of "the market" is that these young marketing of different countries' rules (for example,
adults are more conservative and at the same time more margarine must be packed in oblong packs in Belgium
interested in self-expression than their counterparts in and butter in square packs).
previous generations (Evans, 1981; Shay, 1978; Lazer,
1981). Laws constraining what can be included in advertising
will, likewise, directly affect this element of marketing
An inference from this is that whereas they may, in mixes. Again, there will be international differences —
general, be less interested in " n e w n e s s " per se, there the interpretation and imposition of some of these will
are possibly more marketing opportunities because self- become more interesting in the future as DBS expands
expressionism is manifested as greater societal international advertising possibilities.
pluralism. So there may be many more, though smaller,
market segments to identify and cater for.

Market research may be. . . affected

The Economic Environment by changes in the laws of
In many instances, it is difficult to separate the confidentiality. . .
economic from the political environment because one
is often, to some extent, a manifestation of the other.
That is, government philosophy will be reflected in the
economic policies adopted. Consumer protection legislation may fundamentally
change what is permissible in terms of product and
For example, a dramatic demonstration of this goes service features, and, indeed, the whole area of
back to 1979 with the change in government, when, consumerism may become a s persuasive a force as it
almost overnight, there was a reduction in income tax is in the US.
and an increase in interest rates. The former had
different effects on different market segments — the Market research may be similarly affected by changes
base rate was reduced from 3 3 to 3 0 per cent, giving in the laws of confidentiality — the Data Protection Act
such payers a certain amount of extra disposable and Freedom of Information Acts are obvious examples.
income, but the top band went down from 9 0 to 60
per cent, giving these payers a substantially greater A continuous monitoring of the press and of the
amount of extra disposable income. At the same time, reporting of parliamentary affairs will help spot proposed
it is generally known that the latter category have a legislation which might affect marketing operations. In
higher marginal propensity to save and the former a some instances, the organisation might, by itself, if it
higher marginal propensity to consume. Higher interest is particularly powerful or influential over politicians, or,
rates had the effect of eating up more than the extra collectively, in an industry group, be able to lobby MPs
disposable income of the base rate tax payers because to influence the nature and wording of such Bills. This,
of higher mortgage and other credit repayments, but itself, is a topical debate in ethics; whether it is
those paying higher rates of tax were attracted to the legitimately a part of the democratic process or whether
increased dividend returns associated with high interest business should not ethically be able to influence
rates. For "income segments", it has been shown that lawmaking in this country. This "influence of the MIP 6,3
1988
only six per cent of the population were better off in environment" is conducted through the use of PR
1986 than they were in 1979 as a result of income tax consultants who carefully select MPs who have a 23
changes (Institute for Fiscal Policy Studies, 1986). personal, as well as, or instead of, a professional interest
 in the area. These will then be targets of (in some cases) conduct their financial transactions through the cable
quite lavish hospitality and entertainment budgets — links to banks, and also to be able to work from home
and possibly even more persuasive incentives! The in some cases. The "attendance ethic" at a place of
concept of attempting to influence the environment (not work has been replaced with a sort of ultimate
only the legal environment) has been discussed by "flexitime". The home terminal allows people to do their
several writers (for example, Thorpe, 1975; Kotler, work whenever they feel like it, and to download results
1984). to their employer's central computer.

There are a great many social implications of the

tremendous increase in home-centredness that this
The Technological Environment brings, but, from a marketing perspective, the changes
Currently especially topical, of course, is technological in life-styles which result will change the product and
change. This affects marketing in three main ways: first, services requirements of people affected in this way.
it contributes directly to new product development
because technology itself sometimes provides new In the UK, there have been, for several years now,
products which customers might demand if they are examples of each of these developments (Prestel for
shown to satisfy needs. Secondly, there may be new mail order and even for the odd survey conducted by
ways of conducting marketing activities, and, thirdly, the big catalogue companies. The Royal Bank of
technology may change life-styles and therefore market Scotland with its home banking system, also using
behaviour; indirectly, therefore, marketing mixes would Prestel, and some employees at British Aerospace in
have to respond. Hatfield working from home through a modem link
between home terminals and the firm's computer).
The Sinclair C5 is an example of technology providing
a new product, but is also an example of a less than What is likely to happen in the future is the kind of
convincing market offering in terms of customer synergy as exemplified in Ohio — with all the
satisfaction. consequences for marketing opportunities, but only if
the scanning process is capable of not only identifying
The home computer is a more obvious example of the trends, but also able to project specific market
technological change (smaller and cheaper silicon implications for the organisation concerned. This is
chips, etc) providing something which customers are therefore a suitable point to turn to the scanning
prepared to purchase. process — models of scanning and techniques for
scanning.

. . . changes in life-styles . . . will

change the product and services Environmental S c a n n i n g
Scanning has been described concisely by Jain (1981)
requirements . . . as "an early warning system for the environmental
forces which may impact a company's products and
markets in the future". In this way, scanning enables
Secondly, the dynamic nature of technology has an organisation to act rather than to react to
provided and is projected to continue to provide, new opportunities and/or threats. The focus is not on "the
ways of conducting marketing activities. Many of these immediate", but rather has a longer-term perspective
are not actually new marketing activities, but the which is necessary for being in a position to plan ahead.
methods of conducting some of these activities are Some writers have gone even further; Thorpe (1985),
affected by new technology. For example, cable and for example, concludes that the whole effectiveness of
satellite broadcasting provide new ways of advertising; organisations is to some extent dependent on their
the former helps target in a more focused manner abilities to understand — and use this understanding
(narrowcasting as opposed to broadcasting), and the — of environmental uncertainty.
latter has implications for international advertising.
"Cable" has other implications for marketing, such as Thus, as a component of a marketing information
conducting market research surveys directly into system, environmental scanning has a less immediate
consumers' living-rooms via the cable, TV screen and role than, say, market research, and, in many ways, a
key pad. Mail order buying has been given a boost less focused field of interest than other elements.
through this as well, and the future is likely to see
One key point is that environmental influence is not
increased use of Viewdata technology (through cable)
static but continuously changing, hence the need for
in consumer purchasing from home.
continuous monitoring of various influences, both
internal and external. A danger of not thinking in this
The third level of influence, of technological change is way might be analagous to Toffler's "Future Shock";
that, in an indirect way, market behaviour is altered as Johnson and Scholes (1984) point out:
because of the effects on life-styles which technological
developments sometimes bring. The examples here can The speed and frequency of change is such that managers
MIP 6,3 and management systems often cannot cope; what occurs
1988 probably be summarised with references to Columbus,
is a sort of internally generated shock which is rooted in
Ohio, where all homes have been cable wired — not managers' inability to see the strategic impact of possible
24 only so that they can receive several TV channels and changes and therefore make the changes necessary to
shop from home, but also so that they may be able to adjust the organization's strategy to its environment.
Along with these writers, Cravens et al. (1980) also draw
attention to the increasing speed of change.

Another essential consideration in managing the effects

of environmental change is that many influences may
superficially appear to be constraints on marketing
activities, but opportunities should always be sought,
and even these supposed constraints, where possible,
should be converted into opportunities. To reinforce this
point, it has been suggested that marketing should think
of positive and negative opportunities, rather than
merely opportunities and constraints (Book, 1981).

Environmental Scanning Models

So far, the nature of the environment has been outlined,
together with some examples of how marketing might
be affected, but what of the way to scan the
environment in the first place?

Several models have been suggested as ways of

considering and structuring the scanning process.
Cravens et al. (1980) propose a straightforward
sequential model of scanning stages, summarised in
Figure 2.

A more comprehensive model was suggested by Jain

(1981), as can be seen in Figure 3. This model is useful
for its integration with corporate planning and strategy
decision making.

Organisational Considerations
Aguilar's model is similar to the above, but incorporates
some organisational dimensions of w h o should be
involved in the process, and when this involvement
should occur (see Figure 4). However, the introduction
of the human element now raises other issues.

Some writers and researchers point to organisational

problems in the pratical implementation of scanning
procedures — indeed, as well as more general aspects
of marketing decision making. Piercy (1985) argues that
the corporate environment's effect on marketing
management has been a neglected area of research and
understanding, and proposed a model of this process,
showing that marketing decisions are taken in the scan. That is, that management was more concerned
context of internal power struggles, political influences, with the more immediate state of specific industries and
organisational uncertainty and so on. markets than with scanning widely in order to identify
longer-term trends and effects.
Aguilar (1967), for instance, demonstrated that those
w h o m o s t n e e d s c a n n i n g information (top Greenley (1986) also found an emphasis on the
management) are not those who most deal with the appraisal of more immediate aspects of specific product
collecting and analysing of such data, and that this is markets and less interest in broader perspectives and
a problem because there is quite a distortion and loss trends, and his research (extending Aguilar's original
of information before it reaches the decision makers. research) covered larger organisations and was, of
course, more recent — and related to the UK.
Generally, then, because there is reliance on people in
the scanning process, there can be failure to see the Three organisational scanning modes were identified
relevance of some information and/or other problems by Jain (1981), namely, that scanning is conducted by:
of information distortion in its transmission. In smaller
companies, Aguilar found that top management were (1) line managers; MIP 6,3
the main scanners, but, whereas this might appear to 1988
overcome the above problem, the information they (2) by planners, or
generally scanned was somewhat narrow and too (3) by a specific environmental scanning 25
focused in nature to be considered a true environmental department.
 A related consideration is whether scanning should be
conducted centrally or decentrally. Cravens et al.
(1980), for instance, argue in favour of devolving to
specialist departments, such that the technological
environment is scanned by technical departments in
the organisation and so on. The logic of Jain would
conflict with this, and other writers also would disagree.
Johnson and Scholes (1984), for example, point to the
importance of being able to scan the environment more
globally and therefore more synergistically —
something which would be difficult if different
environments were scanned by different departments
for their own relatively narrow perspectives and uses.

Indeed, Seger (1977) even suggested that because of

the obscurity and superficial irrelevancy of many
environmental influences, the "working environment"
for scanners should be more akin to the "ivory tower"
than to the more blinkered and focused corporate
environment. However, this approach in practice is not
common. Jain (1981) notes that General Electric was
an example of the minority of organisations which use
a specific environmental scanning department — type
(3) above. Levi Strauss is another such example, as
reported elsewhere (Cravens et al., 1980).

Aguilar (1967) identified another problem related to all

of this, that those collecting the information are not the
decision makers, and therefore there is the problem of
whether the right kind and sufficiency of information
is collected. These aspects (of the same problem), he
suggested, also resulted in a lack of integration of the
very diverse types of data.

With these problems and dangers in mind, some

suggestions are now submitted for how to scan the
marketing environment.

T e c h n i q u e s for S c a n n i n g
A useful framework integrating the models or stages
of the scanning process with specific techniques for
conducting the work can be inferred from Jain (1981),
whose empirical research resulted in a systematising
of environmental scanning. Figure 5 is proposed as a
scanning model incorporating this work along with the
other points discussed here.

Stage 1
Environmental events are picked up from a continuous
literature search (and any other source of information,
such as personal contacts and so on). Information
collection should not be conducted " b y a r e a "
according to specialist departments, but rather by freer-
thinking teams (preferably including representation
from the decision-making planners).

Cravens et al. (1980) suggest the main commitment Stage 2

to scanning should be on the part of line managers, Relevant trends may be screened using Trend-Impact
but this is possibly a rather narrow view; it is probably Analysis (see Table I).
MIP 6,3 appropriate for more than line managers to scan,
1988 because the former tend to be very, and sometimes For this (indeed for cross-impact analysis and oppor-
too, close to their own spheres, so that broader tunity-threat matrices), DELPHI panels are set up, in
26 horizons of perspective can be difficult to achieve. This the case of trend-impact analysis here, to identify, for
is certainly the view adopted by Jain (1981). each environmental event:
 (a) the desirability of the event;

(b) the organisation's technical feasibility of using

or coping with the event;

(c) the probability of the event occurring, and

(d) the likely time (within the next few years) of the
event occurring.

These may be assessed quantitatively, for example, from

0 through 0.5 to 1.0.

It is also likely that the team discusses the nature of

organisational impact in terms of areas of marketing
affected, such as direct implications for advertising or
market research procedures, or implications for changes
in market behaviour to which marketing should
respond. Table I summarises a typical resulting "grid".

Because the problem essentially is to identify change

and trends and then to determine likely impact on the
organisation in the future, Kotler (1984) describes a
matrix for evaluating environmental influence in terms
of threats and opportunities. This uses two main criteria:
the degree of probability of the influence happening at
all, and, secondly, the degree of impact it will have on
the organisation if it does happen.

. . .the problem . . . is to identify

change and trends and then to
determine likely impact . . . in
the future

This is suggested as a useful approach for projecting

events' probabilities of occurring and their level of
organisational impact. Thus, it may be a possible
additional approach for determining those events on Perhaps opportunity-threat matrices could help provide
which to concentrate and those to leave for the probabilities and the analysis would then go on to show
moment. It would lead to the construction of that (say) if event No. 3 does occur (probability of 0.5),
opportunity/threat matrices as exemplified by Figure 6. the probability of event No. 1 occurring increases from
0.6 to 0.8. If No. 2 occurs, it has no effect on the 0.4
According to the priorities identified in this way, the probability of event No. 5 occurring, and so on.
organisation should presumably concentrate on " 1 " and
"2" because these are the most likely threats to occur If opportunity-threat matrices are combined, a picture
and are also likely to affect the organisation most. The of the organisation's general state may emerge (Figure
first opportunity to go for is presumably " 8 " , since it 8), and, as Kotler suggests, the organisation can
would not only help the organisation the most, but is respond to its environment by;
the most likely to succeed.
(1) opposition — it can fight the constraints;

(2) modification — it can change its market seg-

Stage 3
ments or mixes, and
This next stage is to analyse relevant events' current
and future organisational impact, and this requires more (3) relocation — it can change to another market.
detailed consideration of the selected events —
MIP 6,3
analysing effects "between" events. Cross-Impact Scenarios, again probably created and analysed by 1988
Analysis can help here. A grid, plotting events against Delphi expert panels, extrapolate how these events,
themselves is constructed, thereby forcing analysis of interacting with each other, might impact marketing 27
the interaction of events (Figure 7). (directly or indirectly).
 information collectors not being the decision makers,
resulting in poor use and integration of information
(points made under the heading "Organisational
Considerations").

Stage 6
From here, there will be further progression as an input
to corporate strategy planning. However good the
scanning may be, the results should be properly used.
This again highlights the points made under "Stage 5 " ,
above, and further reinforcement comes from Fahey
and Narajanan (1986): "Perhaps the most significant
problem in many organizations is inadequate linkage
between environmental analysis and strategy analysis."

Strategy Implications
Response to "the environment" has been categorised
by Galbraith (1979) as (a) independent (b) co-operative,
or (c) manoeuvring. "Independent" strategy response
is probably the most likely (though not always the most
appropriate) — this is where the organisation changes
some dimensions of its marketing mix in order to
respond to environmental change. "Co-operative"
strategy response is where the organisation, together
with other(s) (implicitly, explicitly or through some other
form of co-operation or coalition) initiates some form
of group response. The third of Galbraith's strategy
responses is "manoeuvring", where the organisation
attempts to shape the environment, rather than respond
more passively.

Understanding the marketing

environment . . . requires more
than being armed with lists of
environmental influence

In a study of the public sector in Hong Kong, Mushkat

and Roberts (1986) used this framework and found that
the " i n d e p e n d e n t " strategy response was by far the
most employed.

In another study, Binsted (1986) produced a model of

the effectivness of organisational strategy response,
showing that organisations need not only to identify
Stage 4 change, but also to understand and use this knowledge
These results can be fed into more conventional SWOT of change, and indeed to learn and re-learn responses.
analysis (as concisely described by McDonald, 1984) Figure 9 describes these considerations and implies a
to relate events and their implications to the possible sequence of organisational learning with
organisation's strengths and weaknesses. respect to responding to the environment.

A "learning c u r v e " taking the organisation, in

Stage 5 sequence, from (1) to (4) is a likelihood for some
MIP 6,3
1988 The planners may also be involved in the re-working organisations, but others may progress directly from
of scenario building for the marketing impact of these (1) to (4), avoiding the difficult area between (2) and
28 events. This w a s a recommendation made by Aguilar (3) where many will simply not survive if further
(1967) because of the problem he identified over the progression is too slow.
Conclusion Employment Census, (1984), HMSO, Department of
U n d e r s t a n d i n g t h e m a r k e t i n g e n v i r o n m e n t ( a n d using Employment, London.
this u n d e r s t a n d i n g for d e c i s i o n - m a k i n g p u r p o s e s ) Evans, M.J. (1981), "So Who's a Dedicated Follower of
r e q u i r e s m o r e t h a n b e i n g a r m e d w i t h lists of Fashion? A Perspective of the Behaviour of Fashion
e n v i r o n m e n t a l influence. This article p r o p o s e s t h a t a Consumers", SSRC/MEG presentation, University of
synergistic p e r s p e c t i v e of " e v e n t s " is l e s s limiting, a n d Strathclyde.
t h a t a systematic p r o c e s s of s c a n n i n g for " e v e n t s " is Fahey, L. and Narajanan, V.K. (1986), Macroenvironmnetal
m o r e helpful in providing relevant a n d i m p o r t a n t inputs Analysis for Strategic Management, West Publishing, New
to s t r ate g y decision making. T h e proposed York.
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these considerations. Reading, Mass.
Glaser, S. (1985), "The Marketing System and the
In t e r m s of o r g a n i s a t i o n a l d e s i g n for s c a n n i n g , t h e Environment", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 19 No.
picture is n o t clear a n d d e p e n d s greatly o n t h e specific 4.
c o r p o r a t e e n v i r o n m e n t . However, it a p p e a r s t h a t
Greenley, G.E. (1986), The Strategic and Operational Planning
s c a n n i n g s h o u l d n o t b e d e c e n t r a l i s e d to specialist
of Marketing, McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead.
d e p a r t m e n t s for t h e s e to s c a n their o w n interest a r e a s ,
b e c a u s e of t h e s y n e r g y of influences. Hall, W.K. (1980), "Survival Strategies in a Hostile
Environment", Harvard Business Review, September-
-October.
Henley Centre for Forecasting (1978), "Planning Consumer
Markets and Leisure Futures", February; (1984), "Leisure
. . . the nature of scanning Futures", Summer.
techniques suggests that teams Institute for Fiscal Policy Studies (1986).
with broader perspectives should Institute of Marketing, 1975, Moor Hall, Cookham.
be employed . . . Jain, S.C. (1981), Marketing Planning and Strategy, South
Western Publishing, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Johnson, G. and Scholes, K. (1984), Exploring Corporate
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