The Marketing Environment of a Company

The actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management ability to build and maintain successful relationship with target customers. The environment continues to change rapidly and both customers and marketer’s wonder what the future will bring is called marketing environment. The environment, where found consumers, marketers, marketing researchers, marketing intelligence and some other engaged in marketing process & goods or product is being supplied, is known as marketing environment. The entire marketing environment can be classified into 2(two)
• Micro Environment • Macro Environment
For most companies, the micro environmental components are: the company, suppliers, marketing channel firms (intermediaries), customer markets, competitors, and publics which combine to make up the company’s value delivery system. The macro environmental components are thought to be: demographic, economic, natural, technological, political, and cultural forces. The wise marketing manager knows that he or she cannot always affect environmental forces. However, smart managers can take a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to the marketing environment.

Micro Environment
Macro Environment
1. Micro Environment:
The microenvironment can be separated into the internal environment and the external environment. The internal environment consists of the firm’s own management structure, that’s mean the company itself. The characteristics of the firm’s internal environment affect its ability to serve its customers. The external environment comprises suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customers, competitors and publics. As well as obvious groups such as shareholders, publics can also include local interest groups who may have concerns about the marketer’s impact on the environment or on local employment.
Marketing management’s job is to attract and build relationships with customers by creating customer value and satisfaction. However marketing managers cannot accomplish this task alone. Their success will depend on the other factors in the company’s micro-environment, which are:
a). Company: In designing marketing plans, marketing management takes other company groups into account such as top management, finance, research, and development, purchasing, manufacturing and accounting. These interrelated groups form the internal environment.
b). Suppliers: Suppliers are the important link on the company’s overall customer “value delivery system.” Marketing managers must watch supply availability (supply shortages, delays, strikes) as they can seriously affect marketing.
c). Marketing Intermediaries: Firms that help the company promote, sell and distribute its goods to final buyers; they include resellers, physical distribution firms, marketing service agencies and financial intermediaries.
d). Customers: The company needs to study its customer markets namely – • Consumer Markets (individuals and households that buy goods and services for consumption), • Business markets (for further processing of goods),
• Reseller Markets (reselling goods and services at a profit), • Government Markets (agencies buying goods and services to produce public services), and International Markets. e). Competitors: As business is full of competition, marketers must do more than simply adapt to the needs of consumers. Each firm should consider its own size and industry position compared to its competitors. It should then devise proper strategies to sustain in the market. f). Publics: Any group that has an actual or potential interest, or impact on an organization’s ability to achieve its objectives. There are seven types of publics: • Financial Publics
• Media Publics • Local Public • General Public • Citizen Action Publics • Internal Publics • Government Publics
2. Macro Environment:
The company and all of the other actors operate in a larger macro environment of forces that shape opportunities and pose threats to the company. There are six major forces (outlined below) in the company’s macro environment. There are six major forces (outlined below) in the company’s macro environment.
a).Demographic Environment Demography is the study of human populations in terms of size, destiny, location, age, gender race, occupation and other statistics. The demographic environment is of major interest to marketers because it involves people.
b).Economic Environment Marketers require buying power as well as people. The economic environment consists of factors that affect consumers’ purchasing power and spending power/ patterns. Marketers must pay close attention to major trends and consumers’ spending patterns.
c).Natural Environment The natural environment involves the natural resources that are needed as inputs by marketers or they are affected by marketing activities. Environmental concerns have grown steadily during the past three decades. Marketers should be aware of several trends in the natural environment.
d).Technological Environment The technological environment is perhaps the most dramatic forces now shopping own destiny. Technological environment involves forces that create new technologist creating new product and marketing opportunities.
e).Political Environment Marketing decisions are strongly affected by developments in the political environment. Political environment consists of laws, government agencies, government itself and pressure groups that influence or limits various organizations and individuals in a given society.
f).Cultural Environment The cultural environment is made up of institutions and other forces that affect a society’s basic values, perceptions, preferences and behaviors. There are few cultural values which affect marketing decision making. These are, persistence of cultural value, shifts in secondary cultural value, people views of organization/ others, etc.
In order to correctly identify opportunities and monitor threats, the company must begin with a thorough understanding of the marketing environment in which the firm operates. Though these factors and forces may vary depending on the specific company and industrial group, they can generally be divided into broad micro environmental and macro environmental components.