Introduction Due to immense technological advancements and the globalization of businesses around the world, everything seems to be changing dramatically, including the marketing planning function within a company. These two factors, among others, have forced companies to adopt more flexible marketing strategies to gain a competitive advantage. Zinkhan and Pereira (1994) note that marketing planning is a subset of strategic planning within a company that is integral to the success or failure of the company. Some marketing scholars and researchers argue that today's marketing strategies should be specially planned and executed for a company to develop a clear direction on where it wants to go and the best way to get there, notes De Wit & Meyer (2004). However, some argue that new marketing strategies emerge largely over time, as marketing managers proactively develop a workable marketing strategy or reactively adapt to changing market conditions. According to De Wit & Meyer (2004), developing a strategy involves sense-making, reflection, learning, visioning, experimentation and organizational change, which cannot be organized in an orderly manner and. Both planned and emergent approaches to marketing planning are useful, and can be used simultaneously by marketing managers to gain competitive advantage, notes McKee, Varadarajan & Vassar (1990). Furthermore, some managers may use each of the approaches at different times and to different levels, and therefore should not be seen as independent or mutually exclusive. Marketing Planning in the Context of the Competitive Approach to Strategy According to Brown & Eisenhardt (1998), borderline competition defines strategy as the creation of an incessant flow of c...... middle of paper...... Jaworski, A. K., & Sahay, A. (2000). Market-driven and driven markets. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences. Pp.45-54.McKee, D. O., Varadarajan, R., & Vassar, J. (1990). A taxonomy of marketing planning styles, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences, 18 (2), pp. 131-41.Piirainen, K., Kivijarvi, H., & Tuominen, M. (2008). Supporting strategic innovation: Scenario planning to promote organizational knowledge sharing. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference. Pp 351.Sharfman, M. P., & Dean, J. W. (1997). Flexibility in strategic decision making: Informational and ideological perspectives. Journal of Management Studies, 34, pp. 191-217. Zinkhan, G.M. and Pereira, A. (1994), An Overview of Marketing Strategy and Planning, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 11, pp. 185-218.