Industry competition, legal constraints, the impact of technology on product design and social concerns are some of the many important conditions that shape the business environment.
Introduction
Industry competition, legal
constraints, the impact of technology on product design and social concerns are
some of the many important conditions that shape the business environment. This
lesson examines the forces that define marketing’s external environment. Every
organization needs to think seriously about the environments in which it
operates. All firms must identify, analyze and monitor external
forces and assess their potential impacts on the firm’s goods and services.
Although external forces frequently operate outside the marketing manager’s
control, decision makers still must consider those ‘uncontrollable’ influences
together with the variables of the marketing mix in developing the firm’s
marketing plan and strategies.
Environmental Scanning and Environmental Management
Marketers must carefully and
continually monitor crucial trends and developments in the business
environment. Environmental scanning is the process of collecting information
about the external marketing environment to identify and interpret potential
trends. This activity then seeks to analyze the collected information and
determine whether identified trends represent opportunities or threats to the
company. This judgment, in turn, allows a firm to determine the best response
to a particular environmental change.
Environmental scanning is a vital
component of effective environmental management. Environmental management is
the effort to attain organizational objectives by predicting and influencing
the firm’s competitive, political-legal, economic, technological and
social-cultural environments. The development of a global marketplace has
complicated environmental scanning and environmental management. These
processes may now need to track political developments, economic trends and
cultural influences anywhere in the world. While the marketing environment
may exceed the confines of the firm and its marketing mix components, effective
marketers continually seek to predict its impact on marketing decisions and to
modify its conditions whenever possible. Tags : MARKETING MANAGEMENT - Marketing Environment
Last 30 days 778 views