Marketing Environment

Module 2

Marketing Environment
SWOT ANALYSIS- Strengths, weakness (internal to an organisation) Opportunities and threats (external to an organisation) Need for scanning environment- because of increased rate of environmental change. Environmental forces may fluctuate rapidly or slowly but one thing is certain that they are dynamic. Although the future is uncertain but some estimations can be made by scanning and marketers can modify their strategies in response to the dynamic environment. Precaution is better than cure and thus need for scanning arises.

Categories of Marketing Environment

1. External Environment or Uncontrollable Factors 2. Internal Environment or Controllable Factors

1.External Environment
1. a. b. c. d. e. 2. a. b. c. d. External Factorsare uncontrollable and thus needs to be monitored continously and its effects needs to be incorporated into marketing plans. Following are the external forces: Macro Factors: Demography: Age, sex, location, climatic conditions, population Economy: income, wealth, buying habits, consumption patterns Political and legal: fiscal and monetary policies, state regulations, taxation, anti pollution legislations Technology: technological upgradations, advancements and growth Socio- Cultural: religions, customs, rituals, norms, beliefs, values Micro Factors: Suppliers Customers Marketing Intermediaries Competition: type of competition and its analysis

2. Internal Environment
Internal Factors: can be controlled a. Firms production b. Finances c. Internal policies d. Research and development capacity e. Human resources f. Image

Marketing Information System (MkIS)

MkIS : It is an organised set of procedures, information handling routines and reporting techniques designed to provide the information required for making marketing decisions. MkIS can also be referred to as an orderly procedure for the regular collection of raw data both internally and externally and the conversion of these data into information for making marketing decisions

Sources Of MkIS
1. Human Sources: Friends, consultants, customers, competitors, family, relatives, employees. 2. Documentary Sources: a. Published Public Documents: internet, magazines, journals b. Unpublished Private Documents: restricted access, intranet and specific access 3. Sensory Perceptions: person has to land up himself and through own feel, touch, smell and sight.

Importance of MkIS
Complex marketing activities and their broadness compels to have MkIS Short time span alloted to an executive to take decisions. Therefore he requires a readymade system and thus need for MkIS Scarcity of resources have led the effective and utilisation of resources and MkIS helps a lot by providing uptodate information to the executives Information explosion has led to develop a system which can process, store, retrieve the information whenever required.

Marketing Research( MR )
It is the systematic problem analysis, model building and fact finding for the purpose of improved decision making and control in the marketing of goods and services Today it has become necessary to study systematically the different aspects relating to marketing process with regard to fulfilling the expectations of customers by the right product at right time and place and thus research is required. MR is a part of MkIS

MR Process
1.Defining the problem and deciding the objective 2. Conducting a situation analysis 3. Conducting an informal investigation 4. Conducting a formal Investigationa. Selecting source of data b. Deciding methods for data collection c. Preparing frames and forms d. Pretesting the forms e. Collecting data 5. Analysis and interpretation 6. Preparing a written report