Marketing strategy has adjusted over the years to challenges from competitive and economic pressures. During the 1960s, marketing strategy primarily focused on developing long-range forecasts and budgets.
Since this was a period of economic boom, management had the luxury of long term planning horizons. During the 1970s, many organizations adopted a product management structure, whereby each product was managed by one or more managers. However, market volatility, in the form of high inflation, high unemployment, and a wave of consumer discontentment, proved this strategy ineffective in maintaining competitive positioning. The 1980s brought increased global competition that negatively impacted consumer loyalty. This decade also brought transportation deregulation, opening the way to strategic logistics options that were once closed to the marketing manager.