Does your company have a program for selecting and developing sales and marketing management personnel for the longer term? Does your management climate and your management compensation plan attract and keep top-notch marketing people?

Every single problem touched on thus far is related to good marketing planning. ``Hip-pocket'' tactics are going to be harder to apply. Many food and beverage companies are already on a highly planned basis. They have to be. With greater investments in plant facilities, with automation growing, you cann't switch around, either in volume or in product design, as much as was formerly possible -- or at least not as economically.

Are planning and strategy development emphasized sufficiently in your company? We find too many sales and marketing executives so burdened with detail that they are short-changing planning.

Are annual marketing plans reviewed throughout your management group to get the perspective of all individuals and get everyone on the marketing team? Do you have a long-term (5 -- or 10 -- yr.) marketing program?

The key to effective marketing is wrapped up in defining your company's marketing problems realistically. Solutions frequently suggest themselves when you accurately pinpoint your problems, whether they be in the market, in marketing methods or in marketing management.

If companies will take the time to give objective consideration to their major problems and to the questions they provoke, then a long constructive step will have been taken toward more effective marketing in next decade.