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Environmental forces are always dynamic. Changes in the marketing environment create uncertainty, threats, and opportunities for marketers.
The marketing environment is composed of the forces and actors that affect a company's ability to operate effectively in providing products and services to its customers.
The microenvironment consists of the actors in the firm's immediate environment or business system that affects its capabilities to operate effectively in its chosen markets. The key actors are suppliers, intermediaries, customers and competitors.
The macroenvironment consists of number of broader forces that affect not only the company, but also the other actors in the microenvironment. These can be grouped into political, legal economic, social, technological and ecological forces.
The microenvironment is called controllable environment.The macroenvironment is called uncontrollable environment.
Recognizing and addressing such changes in the marketing environment are crucial to marketing success.
Companies need to look outward to the environment in which it operates, adapting to take advantage of emerging opportunities and to minimize potential threats.
The process of continually acquiring information on events occurring outside the organization to identify and interpret potential trends is called environmental scanning.
Marketing management's job is to build relationships with customers by creating customer value and satisfaction. But marketing managers cannot do this alone.
Suppliers provide the resources needed by the company to produce its goods and services.Supplier problems can seriously affect marketing.
Marketing managers must watch supply availability and costs.
Rising supply costs may force price increases that can harm the company's sales volume.
Most marketers today treat their suppliers as partners in creating and delivering customer value.
Global sourcing is the practice of sourcing from the global market for goods and services across geopolitical boundaries.
Global sourcing increases risks and monitoring costs because it is more difficult to monitor product quality relative to domestic supply.
Marketing intermediaries are firms that help the company promote, sell, and distribute its products to final buyers. They include wholesalers, retailers, physical distribution firms, marketing services agencies, and financial intermediaries.
Marketing intermediaries form an important component of the company's overall value delivery network.
In its quest to create satisfying customer relationships, the company must do more than just optimize its own performance. It must partner effectively with marketing intermediaries to optimize the performance of the entire system.
E-commerce is a good tool for companies to open new markets all over the world.
Today's marketers recognize the importance of working with their intermediaries as partners rather than simply as channels through which they sell their products.
Customers are the most important actors in the company's microenvironment.
An in-depth knowledge of customers is a prerequisite of successful marketing.
The company might target any or all five types of customer markets: consumer markets, business markets, reseller markets, non-profit organization market, and international markets.
Each market type has special characteristics that call for careful study for the seller.
To be successful, a company must provide greater customer value and satisfaction than its competitors do. Thus, marketers must do more than simply adapting to the needs of target consumers. They also must gain strategic advantage by positioning their offerings strongly against competitors' offerings in the mind of consumers.
Competitors are other firms whose market products are similar to or can be substituted for its products in the same geographic area.
Brand competitors produce market products with similar features and benefits to the same customers at similar prices.
Product competitors compete in the same product class but market products with different features, benefits, and prices.
Generic competitors provide very different products that solve the same problem or satisfy the same basic customer need.
Total budget competitors compete for the limited financial resources from the same customers.
Marketers need to monitor the actions of major competitors to determine what specific strategies competitors are using and how those strategies affect their own.
No single competitive marketing strategy is best for all companies.Each firm should consider its own size and industry position compared to those of its competitors.
The external environment involves uncontrollable elements outside an organization that may affect performance (positively or negatively).
Companies that understand and adapt well to their environments can thrive.
For US-based companies, 75% of sales potential is outside the US.
For Japanese companies, 85% of potential is outside Japan.
The attitudes and reactions of people, social critics, and governments all affect the political environment.
Firms must understand how the changing political climate affects them and develop marketing strategies that will allow them to succeed under various conditions.
Political environment includes the attitudes and reactions of the general public, social and business critics, and other organizations.
Global marketing activities take place within the complicate political environment.
Each nation has a political culture that reflects the relative importance of the government and provides a context within which individuals and corporations understand their relationship with the political system.
Any company doing business outside its home country should carefully study the political culture in the target country and analyze salient issues arising from the political environment.
Political risk is the possibility of a change in a country's political environment or government policy that would adversely affect a company's ability to operate effectively and profitably.
Changes in the political environment often lead to changes in the legal environment.
The legal environment consists of laws, courts, attorneys, legal customs, and legal practices. The countries of the world can be broadly categorized as having either common-law legal systems or civil-law countries.
For any organization, the marketing decisions are constrained, directed, and influenced by regulatory forces.
The main purposes of regulations include ensuring businesses compete fairly with each other and ensuring businesses don't take advantage of consumers.
It is the duty of marketing managers to understand these laws and conform to them because failure to comply with regulations can have major consequences for a firm.
The global legal environment is very dynamic and complex. The best course to follow is to get expert legal help.
However, the proactive marketer can do a great deal to prevent conflicts from arising in the first place, especially concerning issues such as jurisdiction, patents and trademarks, antitrust, licensing and trade secrets, bribery, and advertising and other promotion tools.
The economic environment consists of economic factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns. Marketers must pay close attention to major trends and consumer spending patterns both across and within their world markets.
Economic environment includes the income, expenditures, and economy development level.
A consumer's ability to buy is related to income, which consists of gross, disposable, and discretionary components.
Gross income is the total amount of money made in one year by a person, household, or family unit.
Disposable income is the money a consumer has left after paying taxes to use for necessities such as food, clothing, housing and transportation.
Discretionary income is the money that remains after paying for taxes and necessities.
Changes in total discretionary income affect sales of non-necessities, such as furniture, large appliances, travelling, and luxury goods.
People are sometimes more willing to consume if they have the buying power. However, a number of other elements also influence willingness to consume.
In global market, the consumption model and willingness vary widely around the world, Two factors of consumption should be considered: propensity to consume and structure of consumption.
Average Propensity to Consume (APC) refers to the percentage of income spent on goods and services rather than on savings.
The value of APC is generally less than 1, because often a part of income is saved.
The available APC in an economy depends on cultural background, political systems, social security system, etc.
Engel's Law is an economic theory that the proportion of income spent on food decreases as income increases, other factors remaining constant.
Engel's coefficient means that consumers increase their spending on food by a smaller amount than the increase in income.
Engel's coefficient can be used as an indicator of living standards in different countries. If the coefficient is high, it means the country is poorer and has a lower standard of living.
Current economic conditions and changes in the economy have a broad impact on the success of organizations' marketing strategies.
Business is a pattern of economic fluctuations that has four stages: prosperity, recession, depression, and recovery.
In the prosperity stage, unemployment is low and total income is relative high, and marketers often expand their product offerings to take advantage of increased buying power.
In the recession stage, unemployment rises and total buying power declines, stifling both consumer and business spending.
In the depression stage, unemployment is extremely high, wages are very low, total disposable income is at a minimum, and consumers lack confidence in the economy.
In the recovery stage, high unemployment begins to decline, total disposable income increases, and the ability and the willingness to buy rise.
The general state of national and international economies can have a profound effect on a company's prosperity.
From a global perspective, different regions of the world may be in different stages of the business cycle during the same period.
Economic variation in the global marketplace creates a challenge for firms that sell products in multiple markets around the world.
Social environment includes general cultural and social traditions, norms, and attitudes.Society shapes the beliefs, values, and norms that largely define these tastes and preferences.
People in a given society hold many beliefs and values. Their core beliefs and values have a high degree of persistence.
These beliefs shape more specific attitudes and behaviors found in everyday life.
Marketers have little chance of changing core values.
Culture is the combination of traditions, values and attitudes of the society in which an individual lives.
Cultures can also span national boundaries.
Cultural differences also have implications for business-to-business marketing.
Successful marketing depends on knowing the cultural differences that exist among consumers all over the world.
Technological environment are forces that create new technologies, new products and market opportunities.
Technological environment includes production technology, new product technology and management technology.
Technology can have a substantial impact on people's lives and companies fortunes. Changes in technology can provide significant threats and opportunities.
Many technological breakthroughs change the rules of the competitive game.
Technology influences how consumers satisfy their needs and wants, the basic concept underlying all marketing activities.
The cost of technology is plummeting, causing the customer value assessment of technology-based products to focus on other dimensions such as quality, service, and relationships.
Rapid development of new technology changes the competition principles.
Information technology has been an important force during the fierce competition. Developments in information technology have revolutionized marketing practices.
Technology provides value through the development of new products.
Technological change can provide opportunities for new product development and create new markets.
Marketing and R&D staff should work closely together to ensure that investments are purposeful and not just for the sake of technology.
Technology can also change existing products and the mode of production.
Many firms are already using RFID technology to track products through various points in the distribution channel.
Technology changes the way firms promote their products.
E-commerce and M-commerce give marketers new ways to reach consumers.
New technology speeds up communications and enables multiple interactions by using various media.
Ecology is the study of living things within their environmental context.
In a marketing context ecological environment concerns the relationship between people and the physical environment.
Environmentalists are concerned with the environmental costs of consumption, not just the personal costs of the consumer.
Environmental costs are costs connected with the actual or potential deterioration of natural assets due to economic activities.
However, not all initiatives mean adding costs.
The use of disposal of products can have a harmful effect on the quality of the physical environment.
Marketing managers need to be aware of the environmental consequences of their decisions and activities, and recognize the danger of environmentally irresponsible actions to the reputation of their companies and brands.
中外案例对比
Case Study Comparison
吉利汽车发布“蓝色吉利行动”新能源战略
2015年11月18日，吉利汽车正式发布了新能源汽车发展战略——“蓝色吉利行动”，开启了吉利汽车新能源发展的新纪元，公司将加快从传统汽车向新能源汽车转型，并致力于成为中国领先的新能源汽车公司。
“蓝色吉利行动”的核心内容是：率先承诺提前全面实现2020年国家第四阶段企业平均5.0L/百千米燃油消耗限值；实现消费者用传统汽车的购车成本购买插电式混动汽车的梦想；实现到2020年新能源汽车销量占吉利整体销量90%以上；其中，插电式混动与油电混动汽车销量占比达到65%，纯电动汽车销量占比达35%；在氢燃料及金属燃料电池汽车研发方面取得实质性成果；实现新能源技术、智能化、轻量化技术在行业的领先地位。
目前中国汽车行业的发展正处在重要的转折期，加快发展节能和新能源汽车已成为国家的重大战略举措。李克强总理多次强调加快发展新能源汽车是促进汽车产业转型升级、抢占国际竞争制高点的紧迫任务，也是实现“中国制造2025”宏观战略、推动绿色发展、培育新的经济增长点的重要举措。
在国家将环境保护放在发展策略重要位置的大背景下，吉利汽车发布了未来五年的新能源战略——“蓝色吉利行动”。吉利汽车将采用EV、PHEV和HEV三条技术路线、依托中高端纯电动汽车FE平台、小型专属纯电动汽车PE和CMA中级车基础模块化架构，大力推进新能源战略的快速实施。实施上述新能源战略后，到2020年吉利新能源车型每年将节省石油420万吨，减少二氧化碳排放300万吨，实现吉利汽车对环境保护和和谐社会建设的承诺。
为实现这一目标，吉利汽车还将从研发、技术、供应链及运营四个层面加大投入。吉利汽车将依托吉利汽车研究总院、欧洲研发中心（CEVT）和吉利英国研发中心三大团队，建立超过2 500人的研发团队；同时还将整合全球优质的供应资源打造新能源核心部件，并对新能源汽车在技术开发、制造工艺、平台建设、实验设备等各项技术研发上进行持续投入。
吉利汽车集团CEO、总裁安聪慧表示：“吉利汽车正式承诺提前全面实现2020年国家第四阶段企业平均5.0L/百千米燃油消耗限值，并让消费者能够以传统汽车成本实现拥有新能源汽车的梦想，这既源自我们对自身发展战略和技术路线的自信，也是我们承担企业责任，践行可持续发展战略的体现。‘蓝色吉利行动’吹响了吉利在能源汽车领域持续打造竞争力和领先地位的号角，这五条纲领将时刻指引着我们与国家、社会和公众一道共创、共享节能环保汽车技术，为美丽中国建设贡献自己的力量。”
（资料来源：改编自吉利官网，http://www.geely.com/news/news/info/10417.html，2015.11. 19）
The New Organic Walmart is Eating Whole Food's Lunch
Over much of the past 30 years, Whole Foods Market's co-founder John Mackey enjoyed wild success in selling organic groceries to the masses.That brought media buzz, fast growth, and high profit margins to his grocery chain. It also attracted imitators. Now, with the likes of Kroger and Wal-Mart Stores muscling into everything from organic milk to sustainably raised salmon, Mackey finds himself fending off challenges from bigger rivals intent on eating Whole Foods' lunch.
Mackey announced a plan to revive growth by starting a lower-priced chain aimed at millennials next year. The disappointing growth and seeming change in strategy spooked investors, who trimmed almost 10 percent from Whole Foods' stock price on the day after the news.
“Business has really slowed down compared with what it used to be,”says Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones,“I fear they're being a little complacent about what's going on in the competitive environment.”
So far, Whole Foods has said only that its as-yet-unnamed chain for millennials will be smaller and more focus on value, convenience, and technology than traditional Whole Foods markets. They'll also be cheaper to open and build, Mackey said.
“With the new stores, Whole Foods is targeting younger consumers who may not be as dazzled by its organic offerings, particularly when many of those items are increasingly available at their neighborhood grocery stores,”says Virginia Morris, vice president for global consumer strategy at retailing consultant Daymon Worldwide.“It's not unique to millennials—they've grown up with it,”she says.“There's no cachet.”
To hold on to shoppers, Whole Foods since 2014 has focused on lowering prices, especially on fresh fruits and vegetables. It also started running its first national ads, dubbing its campaign“Values matter.”But it hasn't pulled back on the fancy amenities that have given it an image to match its prices. A new store in Boston, for instance, has a spa; many others offer valet parking.
Whole Foods concedes that rivals are encroaching on its sales gains.“Everybody is jumping kind of on the natural and organic food bandwagon, and that's really frankly due to our success,”Mackey said on a May 6 analyst call. He and co-Chief Executive Officer Walter Robb declined to be interviewed for this story.
(Source: Adapted from Lesile Patton and Craig Giammona, Bloomberg Businessweek, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-14/whole-foods-walmart-costco-steal-growth-in-organic-groceries, 2015.5.14)
Case Implications:
Any company cannot operate marketing activities in the vacuum, but in a complex and changing environment. In the above case, Geely has to consider the requirements of the government and society on green cars, and focus on developing environment-ally-friendly technologies, so that it can gain the initiative in the market in future. Whole Foods has a bit of early advantage on selling organic and healthy foods, but it has to adjust its marketing strategy in a highly competitive market environment and to meet customers' demands on healthy foods, so that it can keep its market share. Companies should design flexible marketing strategy on the basis of environmental analysis and evaluations to fit the rapidly changing environment.