The Marketing Environment

What this page covers

This unit page collects material on the actors and forces outside a business that affect how it builds relationships with customers. Most of it is mind maps, with flashcard decks, a handful of notes, flowcharts and quizzes alongside. Everything was made by GoConqr users, so styles and course references vary.

Where to begin

Start with the big picture. The PRESTCOM Analysis mind map walks through political factors such as government stability, trade policy and business attitudes. Marketing Environment (unit 11) links the environment to business strategies like growing sales and increasing profits. For a written overview, open the note called Marketing Environment, which defines the term.

Micro and macro, step by step

1. Read a micro-environment map, such as Chapter 3: Analysing the Marketing Environment, which covers customer markets, competitors and publics.
2. Move to the macro side with the Macro Environment flashcard deck, which asks what the macroenvironment is and lists its demographic and other forces.
3. Add the frameworks: PESTLE, SWOT and Porter's five forces all appear as maps, decks or flowcharts.
4. Look at applied examples, including the ASOS competitive factors maps and the Porter's 5 forces flowchart on Samsung.

Using quizzes and maps together

Study a map first, then take a quiz without looking. MARKETING CH 3: Analyzing the Marketing Environment asks about the demographic, economic, natural, technological, political and cultural forces. Marketing in the 21st Century - Chapter 2 Practice Quiz covers wider marketing questions, such as how firms choose a target market. Note the questions you miss, then go back to the matching map or deck. The flashcards titled The Marketing Environment help with definitions like the marketing concept and customer orientation.

Where it fits

This unit sits in the Marketing Foundations strand of the Marketing, advertising and sales subject. A small share of resources is aimed at school level, including a deck that mentions GCSE Business, while most suits university study.

Ready to begin? Choose one map that matches your course, and see how much of it you can explain from memory.