S1:

Scanning the Marketing Environment

Scanning the marketing

environment is the starting point of any new
venture that involves understanding and
knowing the intricacies of the macro
environment, micro environment, and
internal environment.
If That’s A Market What Do You See?
 3S of Opportunity Spotting and
Assessment
Seeking, Screening, and Seizing
The 3S of opportunity spotting and assessment is the framework
that most of the promising entrepreneurs use to finally come up with
the ultimate product or service suited for a specific opportunity.

An opportunity is an entrepreneur’s business idea that can potentially

become a commercial product or service in the future. As a reward,
the entrepreneur earns profits when the customers are satisfied and
delighted.
S1: Seeking the opportunity

Opportunity seeking is the first step and is

the most difficult process of all due to the
number of options that the entrepreneur will
have to choose from. It involves the
development of new ideas from various sources
as follows:
1. Macro environmental Sources

a. STEEPLED – this is a mnemonic for

socio cultural, technological, economic,
environmental, political, legal, ethical, and
demographic factors. This represents the general
environment where the entrepreneur can identify
business opportunities from and where the future
business is about to operate.
 b. Industry – this is the source of current trend on
what is happening in the industry where the future
business will belong to.

c. New discovery or knowledge – these are new

trends that can be the core business model of a
new venture.

d. Futuristic opportunities – these are projected

new opportunities that can possibly affect the new
business while it is running.
2. Micro market
a. Consumer preferences, interests and perception –
these are the current needs and wants of potential customers that
should be discovered right away by a budding entrepreneur. A need
is recognized when a customer believes that there is a difference
between his or her current situation versus his or her desired
condition. A want, on the other hand, is recognized when a
customer believes that there is a specific product or service that
can perfectly suit the need.
 b. Competitors – recognizing and understanding potential
customers will aid the entrepreneur to develop a product or service
that is unique and will surely stand out from the competition.

d. Talents, hobbies, skills, and expertise – the entrepreneur’s

talents, hobbies, skills, or expertise can be a source of business
opportunity.

c. Unexpected opportunities from customers – existing

problems and bottlenecks often give rise to an unexpected
opportunity.
 e. Irritants in the marketplace such as deterrents,
problems, complaints, and delays – generally,
entrepreneurs see opportunities in situations where there
is a recurring problem or sometimes where there is no
more hope in solving the problem.

f. Location – often, entrepreneurs just have to look at

their ecosystem and they will be able to spot a business
opportunity right away.
 Methods of Generating Ideas

Recognizing and understanding the vast

sources of opportunities is one difficult activity to
do. Either one or a combination of the methods
given can be employed by the entrepreneur in
generating new ideas.
1. Focused Group Discussion (FGD).

In this method, a moderator handles a very

open, free-flowing, and in-depth discussion with
a group of people who can provide insightful
ideas about a new product or service that will fill
a market need.
2. Brainstorming

Similar to an FGD, brainstorming is an

activity that allows the participants to share
creative ideas using the following rules: (a) no
destructive criticism or judgment is allowed, (b)
wilder ideas are accepted. (c) more ideas are
preferred, and (d) improvement of others’ ideas is
allowed.
 3. Brain writing or Internet brainstorming. This is
exactly the same as brainstorming except that the channel
used is not face-to-face, but in writing or online.

4. Problem Inventory analysis. This method is

similar to the FGD except that the participants are
already given an inventory of product or service
problems.
 How is opportunity spotting and
assessment important in your daily living? How
will you relate it to you as a student?
 The concept of opportunity spotting and
assessment and the macro environmental sources as
well as the micro environmental sources and methods
of generating ideas shall be emphasized.
 Do an opportunity spotting and assessment
activity in your own locality or barangay. Identify
the potential opportunities from the macro
environmental and the micro environmental
sources. If there is really no opportunity in a
particular source, indicate none. Follow the given
example.
Potential Product or
Opportunity Source Findings
Service

The number of OFW

Remittance business,
Demographics families is increasing in
cellphone load business
Barangay Segismundo