Marketing Environment

Marketing Environment:

Definition: The Marketing Environment includes the Internal and the External that surround the business and influence its marketing operations. Or anything that effects the marketing activities is called marketing environment.

There are two factors of marketing environment:

Micro: The Micro Marketing Environment includes all those factors that are closely associated with the operations of the business and influences its functioning. The microenvironment factor includes:

Company: Company organizations consist of a board of directors and functional managers. Marketing plan is grown up as per the philosophy of the top management.

Suppliers: Suppliers can control the success of the business when they hold the power. The supplier holds the power when they are the only or the largest supplier of their goods; the buyer is not vital to the supplier’s business; the supplier’s product is a core part of the buyer’s finished product and/or business.

Intermediaries: If the product the organization produces is taken to market by 3^rd party resellers or market intermediaries such as retailers, wholesalers, etc. then the marketing success is impacted by those 3^rd party resellers. For example, if a retail seller is a reputable name then this reputation can be leveraged in the marketing of the product.

Competitors: Those who sell same or similar products and services in the market place. 

Publics: Every organization has a duty to satisfy the public. Any actions of your company must be considered from the angle of the general public and how they are affected. The public have the power to help you reach your goals; just as they can also prevent you from achieving them.

Customers: Every business revolves around fulfilling the customer’s needs and wants. Thus, each marketing strategy is customer oriented that focuses on understanding the need of the customers and offering the best product that fulfills their needs.

Macro: The Macro Marketing Environment includes all those factors that exist outside the organization and cannot be controlled. These are also called as PESTLE framework.

Demographic: 

Economic: Economic factors have a significant impact on how an organization does business and also how profitable they are. Factors include – economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates, inflation, disposable income of consumers and businesses and so on. These factors can be further broken down into macro-economical and micro-economical factors. Macro-economical factors deal with the management of demand in any given economy. Governments use interest rate control, taxation policy and government expenditure as their main mechanisms they use for this. Micro-economic factors are all about the way people spend their incomes. This has a large impact on B2C organizations in particular.

Natural:

Technological: We all know how fast the technological landscape changes and how this impacts the way we market our products. Technological factors affect marketing and the management thereof in three distinct ways:

New ways of producing goods and services

New ways of distributing goods and services

New ways of communicating with target markets

Political: These are all about how and to what degree a government intervenes in the economy. This can include – government policy, political stability or instability in overseas markets, foreign trade policy, tax policy, labour law, environmental law, trade restrictions and so on. It is clear from the list above that political factors often have an impact on organizations and how they do business. Organizations need to be able to respond to the current and anticipated future legislation, and adjust their marketing policy accordingly.

Social: Also known as socio-cultural factors are the areas that involve the shared belief and attitudes of the population. These factors include – population growth, age distribution, health consciousness, and career attitudes and so on. These factors are of particular interest as they have a direct effect on how marketers understand customers and what drives them.

Cultural: