Account planning in advertising agency management : one rejoinder to dynamics which exist among second- and first-order consumers of advertising

Members of the public at-large are actively avoiding exposure to advertising. Simultaneously, manufacturers are becoming increasingly anxious about advertising performance. With annual ad budgets often spilling over into the millions if not tens of millions of dollars, the latter are becoming increasingly critical of advertising's contribution to meeting marketing objectives.

The above phenomena are indicative of current environmental conditions under which United States agencies must operate; during the early 1960s British advertising also suffered flat rejection by both advertisers and the masses. However, more recent British advertising is often recognized for innovative, adept solutions to advertising problems. It is felt that one major contributor to this turnabout is an advertising management system known as "Account Planning."

Studies have indicated that organizations which match the differentiation of their management tasks with the environment in which they operate tend to be more productive in their output. Collaboration across management departments is essential to the success of this idea.

Traditional structures are extremely hierarchical, vertically designed; therefore, communication and integration is largely vertical. Cooperative integration does occur— but is largely restricted to only upper agency management ranks. Account Planning's organizational structure is more horizontal in nature and maintains inherent devices for very active middle management integration. What is more, Account Planning also involves a high degree of consumer identity in advertising development. For these reasons. Account Planning is deemed a viable alternative to traditional (current) agency management.