Marketing Management

MARKETING ENVIRONMENT & ENVIRONMENT SCANNING

PURPOSE OF MARKETING ENVIRONMENT

·         To know where the environment is heading; to observe and size up the relevant events and tends in the environment.

·         To discern which events and trends are favorable from the stand point of the firm, and which are unfavorable; to figure out the opportunities and threats hidden in the environmental events and trends.

·         To project how the environment – each factor of the environment will be at a future point of time.

·         To access the scope of various opportunities and shortlist those that can favorably impact the business.

·         To secure the right fit between the environment and the business unit, which is the crux of marketing; to help the business unit respond with matching product – market strategies; to facilitate formulation of a marketing strategy in the right way – in line with the trends in the environment and the opportunities emerging therein.

In marketing environment analysis, a firm gathers relevant information relating to the environment, studies them in detail, takes note of the changes in each element of the environment and forecast the future position in each of them. Since marketing environment has two parts:

i.)      Mega/Macro Environment, and

ii.)     Environment that is specific to the given business

Under the Mega/Macro environment the firm studies:

i.)      The Demographic Environment

ii.)     The Political Environment

iii.)   The Socio – Culture Environment

iv.)   The Economic Environment

v.)    The Natural Environment

vi.)   The Technology Environment

vii.) Legal Environment (Business Legislation)

As regards the environment that is specific to the given business, the firm studies:

i.)      The Market Demand

ii.)     The Consumer

iii.)   The Industry

iv.)   The Competition

v.)    Government Policies (Specific to the business concerned)

vi.)   Supplier – related factors