Analysing the marketing environment

Question 1

What is Micro-environment?

Answer 1

The actors close to the company affect its ability to serve its customers are called publics. Publics is the group of people that influence the business activities of a company or people who have real or potential interest in the company. This public is responsible for building your company’s image amongst the customers or the industry.

Question 2

What is Macro-environment?

Answer 2

Larger societal forces that affect the company and its micro-environment.

• Demographic forces
• Economic forces
• Ecological forces
• Technological forces
• Political forces
• Cultural forces

Question 3

What is Demographic environment?

Answer 3

• The study of human populations in terms of size, density, location, age, gender, occupation and other statistics.
• Changes in the demographic profile of population
• Changing family structures
• Geographic shifts in population - urbanisation
• A better-educated, more white-collar and more professional population
• Increasing diversity

Question 4

What is Economic environment?

Answer 4

• Economic factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns
• Fluctuation of economies by the “business cycle”
• Changes in income and spending
• Changing cost structures

Question 5

What is Ecological environment?

Answer 5

• The ecological environment involves natural resources that are needed as inputs by marketers or that are affected by marketing activities.
• Environmentally sustainable strategies
• Government intervention in natural resource management

Question 6

What is Technological environment?

Answer 6

The technological environment is perhaps the most dramatic force now shaping our destiny. Our attitudes towards technology depend on whether we are more impressed by its wonders or blunder.

Technological forces create:

• New technologies
• New products
• Market opportunities.

Question 7

What is Political environment?

Answer 7

1. Laws, government agencies, and pressure groups that influence and limit various organizations and individuals in a given society.
2. Legislation regulating business
3. 1 Protecting companies
4. 2 Protecting consumers
5. 3 Protecting the interests of society

Question 8

What is cultural environment?

Answer 8

• Institutions and other forces that affect a society’s basic values, perceptions, preferences and behaviours
• Cultural factors strongly affect how people think and how they consume
• Persistence of cultural values
• People’s views of themselves, others, organisations, society, nature.

Question 9

What is social environment?

Answer 9

Socially responsible behaviour: not covered by written regulations, but guided by social codes and rules of professional ethics.

Question 10

Name and briefly explain the principal groups of actors in the company’s microenvironment.

Answer 10

Publics- financial publics, media publics, government publics, citizen-action publics, local publics, general publics, internal publics

Question 11

Explain and define the marketing environment

Answer 11

• The actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management’s ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers
• The environment is changing at a rapid pace
• The vital importance of constantly watching and adapting to the changing environment