Scanning of Environment for Marketing Ideas and Decisions

Marketing Management Revision Article Series

Unmet needs of people always exist. Companies can make fortunes if they can find a solution to problems of people like cancer, mental diseases, nonfattening but tasty food etc. There are many more problems awaiting a solution. Marketers have to scan the environment and find out problems requiring solutions and report them back to their product development specialists to facilitate focused efforts to develop solutions for them.

For this purpose marketing executives scan macro environment. Macro environment is further divided into different environments for study purpose.

Demographic Environment

The first macro environment that marketers monitor is global and domestic population and trends in it. The parameters they look for are worldwide population growth, population age mix, and geographical shifts in population, household patterns, educational groups and ethnic groups.

Economic Environment

An exchange market requires purchasing power for transactions to take place along with people who want goods. The available purchasing power in an economy depends on parameters like current income, prices, savings, current debt levels and credit availability. Marketers have to identify major trends in income and spending patterns.

Natural Environment

Marketers need to consider the threats and opportunities associated with four trends in the natural environment: the shortage of raw materials, the increased cost of energy, the increased levels of pollution, and the changing role of governments.

Technological Environment

There is a rapid technological change. Technology is creating opportunities for new products and services. Research and development expenditure is an important variable that determines development of new technologies. Marketers have to promote R & D activities both at company level and country levels through government funds. Government regulation of technology has increases to assure public safe technologies.

Political/Legal Environment

Regulation of various businesses by government and liberalization of some businesses are issues that need to be monitored by marketers.

Social/Cultural Environment

There is high persistence of core cultural values of societies. There are subcultures in every society. There are shifts in secondary cultural values through time. Marketers have to be alert to such changes and analyze marketing implications of such changes.

( Interesting Note:   http://crab.rutgers.edu/~ckaufman/ConsumerbehaviorCultureSubculturenotes.html           )

For Further Reading

Philip Kotler, Marketing Management

Marketing Management Online Text Book by Tanner and Raymond - Principles of Marketing


Originally posted on Knol


Knol number 122

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