Mark 4

Question 1

Define the marketing environment

Answer 1

The marketing environment consists of the actors and forces which affect a company’s capability to operate effectively in providing products and services to its chosen markets. It can be classified into:

The microenvironment - Everything in the immediate vicinity of concern to the firm

The macroenvironment - Everything that is external to the firm

Question 2

List the factors that the Macro-environment governs

Answer 2

• Economic forces
• Social forces
• Political and legal forces
• Ecological forces
• Technological forces

Question 3

Macroenvironment: What factors affect economic forces

Answer 3

1. Economic growth and unemployment
2. Interest and exchange rates
3. Taxation and inflation

Question 4

Macroenvironment: What factors affect social forces

Answer 4

1. Demographic forces
2. Cultrual forces
3. Corporate social responsibility and marketing ethics
4. The consumer movement

Question 5

Macroenvironment: What factors affect Political and legal forces

Answer 5

1. The european union
2. Pro-competitive legislation
3. Consumer legislation
4. Codes of practice

Question 6

Macroenvironment: What factors affect ecological/physical forces

Answer 6

• Climate change
• Pollution
• Conservation of scarce resources
• Recyclable and non-wasteful packaging
• Use of environmentally friendly ingredients
• Animal testing of new products

Question 7

Macroenvironment: What factors affect Technoloical forces

Answer 7

Question 8

What are the factors that affect the microenvironment

Answer 8

Customers - Examining customer behaviour to determine their needs and adapting to changes.

Distributors - Middlemen who provide services to customers when and where they require them.

Suppliers - Companies rely on the supply of required goods for suppliers.

Competitors - To be successful in the marketplace, companies must also be able to gain differential advantage to their competitors.

Question 9

Discuss the process of environmental planning

Answer 9

The practice of monitoring and analysing a company’s marketing environment is known as environmental scanning. Two key decisions that management needs to make are what to scan and how to organize the activity.

The first task is to define the feasible range of forces that require monitoring. The second is to design an effective scanning system that provides a fast response to events that are only partially predictable, emerge as surprises and grow very rapidly.

In general, environmental scanning is conducted by members of the senior management team. a judgement needs to be made regarding the costs and benefits of each alternative. The size and profitability of the company and the perceived degree of environmental turbulence will be factors that impinge on this decision. Environmental scanning provides the fit between strategy, organization and the environment.