Marketing Environment

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Marketing environment:

marketing environment consists of the actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing managements' ability to develop and maintain successful relationships with its target customers. The marketing environment offers both opportunities and threats. successful companies know the vital importance of constantly watching and adapting to the changing environment. The environment does keep on changing rapidly for example, once we used to go to shopping malls in order to buy goods but now we can buy them online by just a click. The marketing environment is made up of a micro-environment and macro-environment. Micro-environment is those forces which are close to the company and affect its ability to serve its customers. The macro-environment is made of those elements which are beyond our control and they affect the micro-environment.

Factors in the micro-environment:

Micro-environment is the environment made up of the elements which are more or less within the control of marketing managers. As a marketing managers' job is to attract and build relationships with customer by creating customer value and satisfaction, they have to maintain a good relationship with other departments,suppliers, marketing intermediaries,customers, competitors and various public who are related to the company. These elements make up the micro-environment and a positive outcome from these will make up the company's value delivery system.

The company:

The company itself is an element of the micro-environment, because it is within the control of marketing managers. A company is made of various departments working together, so while designing marketing plans, marketing management takes other departments into account. Basically top management sets the company's mission , objective, broad strategies, and policies. Marketing managers make decision withing the plans made by top management. The marketing plans have to be approved by top management before they can be implemented.

A marketing manager must keep a good relation with every department as they have an impact on the marketing department. A marketing plan before going to the top management has to go through the other departments to get the green signal. Finance is concerned with finding and using funds to carry out the marketing plan. The R&D (Research and Development) department focuses on designing safe and attractive products. Purchasing worries about getting supplies and materials, whereas manufacturing is responsible for producing the desired quality and quantity of products. Accounting has to measure revenues and costs to help marketing know how well it is achieving its objectives. Thus, a marketing manager has to be cordial with all of the departments. The entire company, every single employee irrespective of their department has to "think consumer" and they have to work in harmony to provide superior customer value and satisfaction.

2. Suppliers:

Suppliers are an important link in the company's overall customer value delivery system. They provide the resources needed by the company to produce its goods and services. Suppliers problems can seriously affect marketing. Marketing managers must watch supply availability, supply shortages, delays, labor strikes and other events. As these events do not only hamper business but damage customer satisfaction in the long run and ultimately makes the company lose loyal customer. Marketing managers also monitor the price trends of their key inputs. Rising supply costs may force price increases that can harm the company's sales volume. Most marketers today treat their suppliers as partners in increasing and delivering customer value.By doing these the company ensures that the supplier is partial towards it,gives a smooth delivery of best quality goods and suggests new materials.

3. Marketing intermediaries:

In simple words intermediaries are people who are involved in between production and distribution of final product. They help to promote, sell, and distribute its goods to the final buyer. They include Retailers, Physical distribution firms, Marketing service organization.Their main job is to make sure the goods reach the final buyer. Retailers are the people who display the product and buy in bulk to sell to individual customers. If there is a warm relation with these retailers then they give back to the company by showing the company's products, even suggesting them. When a company gives out a new product retailers are usually reluctant to show them, but if there is a good relation with them then they will keep those products on top shelf for display. This in turn helps with brand recognition. Manufacturers now have to be very careful when dealing with such intermediaries because there are no small retailers anymore they have grown into bigger organizations. So, now these retailers can make or break a company's product. Physical distribution firms help the company to stock and move goods from their points of origin to their destinations. They get the goods before they reach re-sellers, usually they are the ones who transport the goods to them. It isnt necessary that a company will have its own transport service thus it has to take help from other organizations who work in these sectors. Now a marketing manager has to be cordial towards these people because even though they are delivering goods against money but if there is a good relationship then factors such as cost, delivery, speed and safety will be kept in mind. Marketing service agencies are the marketing research firms, advertising agencies, media firms, and marketing consulting firms that help the company target and promote its products to the right market. Today's marketers recognize the importance of working with their intermediaries as partners rather than simply as channels through which they sell their products. For example, when a company decides to bring out a new product, the first thing they do is conduct a research on the products acceptability. The marketing services agencies do these work, then if the outcome is positive they advertise it and finally promote it. Physical distrutors then transport and store the goods as required and finally retailers buy them in huge amounts and sell them to individuals.

4.Competitors:

The first thing that a company has to do is identify its competitors, competitors in the market, that sector or industry. As because the marketing concept clearly states that to be a successful, a company must provide greater customer value and satisfaction than its competitors do.Thus, marketers must do more than simple adapt to the needs of target consumers. They also must gain strategic advantage by positioning their offerings strongly against competitors offerings in the minds of consumers. Basically there are three types of competitors, direct, indirect and potential competitors. Direct competitors are those who sell the same good, indirect competitors are those who don't sell the same product rather an alternative to that product. Potential competitors or replacement competitors are those who can eventually sell goods that customers may prefer more than the company's selling goods. Mainly a company has to find out their competitors and find their strengths and weaknesses then formulate a strategy that will work. So that the company can keep its target market and make sure that not other company wins them over.

5.Customer:

The company needs to study its customer markets closely. There are five types of customer markets. Consumer markets consist of individuals and households that buy goods and services for personal consumption. Business markets buy goods and services for further processing or for use in their own production process, whereas resealler markets buy goods and services to others who need them. Finally international markets consists of these buyers in other countries including consumer, producers, resellers and government.As customers are the most important actors in the company's micro-environment. The aim of the entire value delivery network is to serce target customers and creat strong relationships with them.

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