Marketing Environment Chapter 3

Marketing Environment

• The marketing environment consists of internal and external factors that affect a company's ability to serve its customers.
• Internal marketing environment:
  • Factors within the company but not in the marketing department.
  • Includes mission, vision, strategy, company processes, and departments.
• External marketing environment:
  • Factors outside the company.
  • Includes microenvironment and macroenvironment.

Microenvironment

• The microenvironment consists of actors within and close to the company that affect its ability to serve its customers.
• Actors in the microenvironment:
  • The company itself.
  • Suppliers.
  • Intermediaries (resellers, logistical services, marketing services, financial services).
  • Competitors.
  • Publics (financial, media, government, citizen-action, local, general, internal).
  • Customers (consumer, business, reseller, government, international).

Macroenvironment

• The macroenvironment consists of larger societal forces that affect the microenvironment.
• Macroenvironment factors:
  • Demographic (population demographics, age structure, changing family, geographic shifts, diversity).
  • Economic (purchasing power, income distribution, changes in consumer spending).
  • Natural (ecological environment, environmental sustainability).
  • Technological (new technologies, digital technologies, the internet of things).
  • Political (laws, government agencies, pressure groups, ethics, socially responsible actions).
  • Cultural (socio-cultural trends, values, lifestyles).

Responding to the Marketing Environment

• Companies must respond to changes in the marketing environment to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers.
• Analyzing the marketing environment involves identifying and understanding these external factors to make informed marketing decisions.### The Socio-Cultural Environment
• The socio-cultural environment involves a society's values, preferences, and behaviors.
• Socio-cultural trends include how people think, changing world views, changing hobbies, and changing dietary behavior.

Persistence of Cultural Values

• Core beliefs and values are passed on from parents to children and are reinforced by schools, churches, businesses, and government.
• Examples of core beliefs include moral values, such as stealing not being acceptable.

Shifts in Secondary Cultural Values

• Secondary beliefs and values are more open to change and include people's views of themselves, others, organizations, society, nature, and the universe.
• Examples of secondary cultural values include downloading illegal music, which some people may not consider to be a serious issue.

Responding to the Marketing Environment

• Companies can respond to the marketing environment in three ways: react, watch, or take action to affect or change forces in the environment.
• Reactive companies watch and react to forces in the environment, while proactive companies take actions to affect or change forces.

SWOT Analysis

• A SWOT analysis is a framework used to identify a business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
• Strengths (S) are internal capabilities, while weaknesses (W) are internal limitations.
• Opportunities (O) are favorable factors or trends in the external environment, while threats (T) are unfavorable external factors or trends.

Conducting a SWOT Analysis

• Internal analysis includes company organization, departments, marketing mix, and other factors that can be influenced by the company.
• External analysis includes competitors, suppliers, intermediaries, major DESTEP trends, and other factors external to the organization.
• The results of internal analysis are mentioned in the strengths and weaknesses, while the results of external analysis are mentioned in the opportunities and threats.