Marketing Strategy Planning

• Evaluating the marketing environment is essential for strategy planning.
• It is important to understand how economic, technological, political, legal, cultural, and social environments affect marketing strategy planning.
• Understanding how demographic trends affect strategy planning is also important.

Marketing Strategy Planning

• Considers competitors, the company itself, and the external market environment.
• Company considerations include objectives and available resources.
• Understanding current and prospective competitors is important.
• External market factors: economic, technological, political, legal, cultural, and social.
• Evaluating opportunities involves screening criteria and using planning grids.
• The goal of marketing strategy is to pursue the best opportunities.

The Marketing Environment

• Resources and objectives of the company and both customers and competitors are key.
• Direct marketing environment is directly impacted through the 4 P's: Product, Place, Promotion and Price.
• The external market environment has social, cultural. economic technological, political and legal factors.

Direct Marketing Environment

• Includes company specific factors and can be influenced by the company.
• Key players are the company, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customers, competitors, and publics.

Hierarchy of Objectives

• Company objectives branch into finance, marketing, HR, R&D, and IT.
• Marketing Objectives branch into production, product, Place, promotion, price, mass selling and sales promotion activities.

Analyzing Competitors

• Don't engage in head-on competition, instead know the market situation.
• Types of competition: Monopoly, Monopolistic Competition, Oligopoly, & Pure Competition

External Marketing Environment

• Factors are common across industries and are difficult to influence.
• Includes demographic, economic, natural, technological, political, and cultural forces.

Knowledge Check Examples

• Moderately-priced jewelry stores trying to differentiate themselves from other jewelry stones shows monopolistic competition.
• National chain restaurants already in the area are a competitive barrier to Chris' family restaurant.
• Rising interest rates is an economic environment trend.
• Development of autopilot systems is a technological advancement.
• State-level regulatory business practices of utilities and other industries are part of the legal environment.
• The Federal Trade Commission stopping Tropicana from advertising "heart healthy juice is a legal environment event.

Technology

• Technology adoption has races across continents - cell phones, internet, and AI are key.

Political Environment

• Includes laws, government agencies, and different pressure groups.
• Includes increasing legislation, changing Gov't agency enforcement, and more emphasis on ethics and socially responsible actions.

Legal Environment

• Consists of key antimonopoly laws
• Sherman Act (1890)
• Clayton Act (1914)
• Federal Trade Commission Act (1914)
• Robinson-Patman Act (1936)
• Wheeler-Lea Amendment (1938)
• Antimerger Act (1950)
• Magnuson-Moss Act (1975)

Canadian Legislation

• Competition Act
• National Trade Mark and True Labeling Act
• Motor Vehicle Safety Act
• Food and Drug Act
• Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act

Cultural and Social Environment

• Consists of changes in cultural and social environment through cultural changes and demographic data.

Population

• Includes: population growth, location, and mobility.
• Shifts from rural to urban regions.

North America Consumer Market Population Trends

• Graying of America
• Generation X (1965-1977), fewer in number
• Generation Y (1978-1994), techno savvy
• Generation Z - cautious

Baby Boomers

• 9 million born between 1946 and 1964
• Account for 1/3 of the population
• Have high disposable income
• Aging increases Canada's average age
• Major influencers of demographics and socioeconomic changes

US Households Trends

• More "traditional" family is decreasing
• Trends include high divorce rates, married couples without children, and single adult households.

General Electric's Strategic Planning Grid

• Industry Attractiveness
• Business Strengths
• No Growth, Borderline or for Growth

Continuum of Environmental Sensitivity

• Ranges from insensitive to sensitive.
• Products move from industrial, commodity-type consumer products, to consumer products linked to cultural variables.

Marketing Strategy Planning

• Understand how the economic, technological, political, and legal, cultural, and social environments affect marketing strategy planning.
• Understand the environment and how demographic trends affect strategy planning.