The marketing environment includes the actors and forces outside marketing that affect

marketing management’s ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target
customers.

Marketers can adapt their strategies to meet new marketplace challenges and opportunities

Microenvironment: forces close to the company that affect its ability to serve its customers
Ex: the company, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customer markets, competitors and
publics

The Company
● Requires to build successful relationships with different departments in the company
● All departments share the responsibility for understanding customer needs and creating
customer value
Suppliers
● Treated as partners to provide customer value
● An important link in the company’s overall customer value delivery network
● Marketers must watch supply availability and costs (events such as supply shortages,
delays, labor strikes, natural disasters may happen)

Competitors
● Direct competitor: A brand that is offering to the same customer segment
● Indirect competitor: A brand that offers the same or similar services which can be served
as a viable substitute.
● Ex: Starbucks direct competitor >> Gloria Jeans Coffee, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
● Indirect competitor: Yakun, Nespresso, KOI, Gong Cha

Marketing Intermediaries
● Help the company promote, sell, distribute products to final buyers
4 types of Marketing Intermediaries
- Resellers
- Help the company find customers or make sales to them. (Fairprice)
- Physical distribution firms
- Help the company stock and move goods from their points of origin to their
destinations
- Marketing service agencies
- Advertising agencies, marketing consulting firms that help the company target
and promote to the right markets
- Financial intermediaries
- Banks, credit companies, insurance that help with financial transactions with the
buying and selling of goods
The Publics
Any group that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on an organization’s ability to
achieve its objectives. Media, government, local, general, internal publics.
Macroenvironment: larger societal forces that affect the whole microenvironment (forces
beyond the company’s control)

1. Economic
a. Changes in consumer spending & income distribution
2. Demographic
a. Geographic shifts in population, diversity
3. Social
a. Lifestyles, self-expression, “me” “we” societies, patriotism
4. Environment/Natural
a. Pollution, shortage of raw material, environmental sustainability
b. Companies are responding to customer demands with environmentally
responsible products.
5. Technological
a. Most dramatic force in the changing marketplace
b. New technologies >> RFID technology to track packages
6. Political and Legal
a. Laws, government agencies influence or limit various organizations and
individuals in the given society

Stakeholder Attributes

Stakeholder
Def: Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of an
organization’s objectives

3 Factors to define a stakeholder

1. Power
○ Ability to influence the focal firm’s behavior

2. Legitimacy of their claim

○ Social standing or acceptability
○ Actions of the stakeholder is desirable appropriate within the company’s
accepted level or when claims are socially accepted

3. Urgency of their claim

○ Which stakeholder claims are time-sensitive and are important to the stakeholder

Salience
Def: the degree to which managers give priority to competing stakeholder claims.
Four categories of Stakeholder (Mitchell et al, 1997)

1. Latent Stakeholder (Least Salience)

○ Only one of the three attributes (power, legitimacy or urgency)
○ May not be aware of the existence of this group and marketers may ignore

2. Discretionary Stakeholder
○ Only have legitimacy
○ No power to influence the marketers and do not have urgent claims
○ Can be referred to as corporate social responsibility where firms do not engage
with such stakeholders
○ Ex. Charitable or arts organization

3. Expectant Stakeholder (Moderate Salience)

○ Two of the three attributes
○ They may be ‘expecting’ something such as their stance is active rather than
passive
○ Types of stakeholders with two attributes:
i. Dominant Stakeholders
● Powerful & legitimate
● Have a mechanism in place to deal with interest and firm may
proactively produce reports to meet information needed by them
● Marketers use public relations to build relationship with them
● Ex. Share Investors
ii. Dependent Stakeholders
● Urgent & Legitimate claims
● Rely on other groups to help them execute their claims or power
on their behalf ex. media, politicians
iii. Dangerous Stakeholders
● Urgency & Power
● It may be expressed via terrorist acts, sabotage and strikes
iv. Definitive Stakeholders (High level of Salience)
● Must have all 3 attributes
● Likely to be dominant stakeholder with urgent claims
● Marketers normally attend and give priority to them