Lesson 7: Internal

and External
Factor
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PRESENTED BY: GROUP 3
BS ENT 3-2
✗ Internal influences sometimes called the internal environment include
price, human resources and firm culture. External influences, or the
external environment, include technology, competitors and the economy.
Small businesses tend to have more control over internal influences than
external ones. External influences are sometimes so powerful for
example, if the economy slips into a depression and consumer spending
plummets that the original marketing strategy becomes untenable and
must be completely revised. There are many potential internal and
external influences which shape and influence the marketing objectives
of a business.

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 Internal Influences on
Marketing Objectives
Corporate Objectives
As with all the functional areas, corporate
objectives are the most important internal
influence. A marketing objective should not
conflict with a corporate objective
 Finance

The financial position of the

business (profitability, cash flow,
liquidity) directly affects the scope
and scale or marketing activities

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 Human Resources
For a services business in particular,
the quality and capacity of the
workforce is a key factor in
affecting marketing objectives. A
motivated and well-trained
workforce can deliver market-
leading customer service and 5
Operational Issues
Operations has a key role to play in
enabling the business to compete on cost
(efficiency/ productivity) and quality.
Effective capacity management also plays
a part in determining whether a business
can achieve its revenue objectives
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Business Culture
✗E.g. a marketing-orientated
business is constantly looking for
ways to meet customer needs. A
production-orientated culture may
result in management setting
unrealistic or irrelevant marketing 7
External Influences
on Marketing
Objective
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 Economic Environment

The key factor in determining

demand. E.g. many marketing
objectives have been thwarted or
changed as a result of the recession.
Factors such as exchange rates would
also impact objectives concerned with
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COMPETITOR ACTION

Marketing objectives have to take

account of likely / possible
competitor response. E.g. an
objective of increasing market
share by definition means that
competitor response will not be 10
Technological Change
✗Consumer and other markets are now
affected by rapid technological change,
shortening product life cycles and
creating great opportunities for
innovation. These have to be taken into
account when setting marketing
objectives. 11
 Social & Political Change
✗Changes to legislation may
create or prevent marketing
opportunities. Change in the
structure and attitudes of
society also have major
implications for many markets.
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THANK YOU!

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