A final item to note from the definition of a marketing plan is that the planning period or horizon varies from product. Retailing, for example, traditionally has short planning cycles to match seasonality and the vagaries of fashion trends. Industrial firms and firms manufacturing consumer durables tend, more so than frequently purchased consumer product or service firms, to have longer than annual marketing plans. Automobiles, for example, have longer planning cycles because lead times for product development or modifications are longer. With such long lead times, the plan would cover several years with annual updates and would focus on tactical issues such as promotion. Other factors contributing to variation in the length of planning horizons are rates of technological change, intensity of competition, and frequency of shifts in the tastes of relevant groups of customers. the typical horizon, however, is annual, as the data in Figure 2.1 indicate.
The Internet has had a substantial impact on the planning cycle times. "Internet time" has come to mean that planning assumptions are often voided quickly by changes in the