| A study of the adoption and adaptation of the discipline of Account Planning in the Mexican advertising industry. In the last 20 years, the advertising industry has transformed around the world as large conglomerates have formed and consolidated in the largest advertising markets. The Mexican industry was ranked 12th in 2006 and 14th in 2008 based on advertising expenditure. However, little is known about the practices of local advertising agencies, and the way these practices were adopted. This study seeks to address this dearth in the literature by looking specifically at the discipline of Account Planning. Using a Grounded Theory methodological approach, through in-depth interviews with advertising practitioners a tentative model is developed. The findings provide insight into the lack of clarity as to how account planning is conceptualized. According to virtually all the participants, account planning in Mexico is more a verb than a concept which is adapted to the corporate culture of each agency, and to the style of the person heading the department. Limitations of this study and future research recommendations are also presented. |
