Importance of Marketing Environment to Marketers - Literature review Example

Importance of Marketing Environment to Marketers Name Institution Course Tutor Date Importance of Marketing Environment to Marketers Introduction Making a new product available in a market, or introducing an existing product into a new market requires more than just having knowledge on the product use and its intended market volume. Making the product known to customers and attracting them toward the product require that marketers understand the marketing environment that influences market mix for the product. Marketing function is meant to create time, place and ownership utilities of a product. Therefore consumers’ behaviours as well as marketing ethics and corporate social responsibility is important to marketers. In this paper, significances of understanding marketing environment by marketers, characterised by the above mentioned aspects are discussed. Marketing Environment According to Shan (2008), marketing is described as such activities and processes that are meat to create, communicate, deliver, and exchange offerings amongst producers of a product and the intended consumers of the product with some set of geographical locality. Therefore, it can be argued that, making a product that is of value to a particular set of consumers available through processes of communication and delivery is influenced by quite a number of factors and forces referred to as “marketing environments” (Oslanda & Yaprak, 2010). Marketing environment is consist of forces from suppliers, customers, competitors, distributors, technology, socio-culture, economy, politics, and legal factors, basically classified into macro-environment and micro environment as illustrated in the figure below. Figure 1: Marketing Environment Significance of Understanding Marketing Environment Understanding the relevant macro and micro forces affecting marketing is important since these forces affect the effectiveness of marketing strategy as well as it management. According to research of marketing environment by Chaneta (n.d.), some of the factors that are best to be understood by marketers when coming up with marketing strategies and implementing them effective are sociocultural, political, legal, and economic environments amongst others. It is important for marketers to understand cultural and social marketing environment. Kaur & Chawla (2016) supports this argument, demonstrating in their research study that different markets contain consumers with different cultural and social perceptions. For instance, metropolitan areas are characterised by consumer of difference ethnic and religious perceptions who strictly observe how a product meet their expectations. Therefore this environment majorly influences how and who makes the product available for them. Some markets are characterised by individuals that consider some marketing activities taboos, or even against their cultural and/or social practices. Therefore, marketers have to considers and adopt cultural and social requirements of a particular market of focus. Political marketing environment is becoming a major factors affecting marketing nationally as well as in international markets. Introduction of a product or a business operation; general marketing; is majorly dependent on the attitude and reactions of people alongside their social critics toward the product or the business being marketed (Fogel, 2010). Chaneta gives example of how Philippines business executives have tried to drive Chinese businesses out of the Philippines. It is also imperative for marketer to understand legal attachments to marketing activities. It should be understood that there are quite a number of laws and jurisdiction governing business activities nationally and internationally (Jackson & Wood, 2013). National regulatory bodies such as Advertising Standards Authority in UK govern most of marketing activities by businesses in the country. It is evident that political and legal forces set rules by which business can be conducted within a particular area and this influences the effectiveness of marketing strategies. Another force that should be considered by business marketers whilst marketing is economic environment. According to Barbu & Orzan (2012), national and international economies generally influence the ability of a business to commence and prosper. This comes as a result of different growth rates which determine level of unemployment within a particular region. Low rates reflects high level of unemployment which intern influence their ability to utilize offered products. This is for instance observed in motor vehicles industry marketing where the ability of a market to absorb products offered majorly depends of the ability of the intended consumers to acquire it (Oslanda & Yaprak, 2010). It is also important for marketers to be aware of the impacts of their marketing activities on the physical environment of a particular geographical locality. Different policies have been introduced into the market to help regulate and evaluate the standards of products introduced into the market by different businesses. To avoid issues involving the set penalties for violating those policies, marketers should consider communicating couscous elements of their products. It is also vital for the marketers to consider corporate social responsibility and its practices to help protect the environment against pollution and other environmental degradation factors (Toffler, 2016). This is an ethical practice that will greatly influence the popularity of the product offered and its company amongst consumers in the market. Another marketing environment that should be well understood is technology. In this era of technological advancement, different targeted markets employ different aspects of technology, especially when it comes to information and communication. According to (Toffler, 2016), technological changes provide new market opportunities for products developments and, sometimes, challenges to the existing markets. The introduction of cell phones and the wide use of interments have led businesses to adapt different ways of communicating depending on the target groups (Jackson & Wood). Therefore, depending on the target market characteristics, marketers should consider technological forces before formulating marketing strategies to serve those markets. Generally, microenvironment factors affecting marketing effectiveness, as illustrated by the above figure, comprises of factors that can be managed by the business. Customers’ characteristics, employees, competitors, amongst others, are some of the internal forces that should be considered for the effective marketing strategy. Understanding these factors allows the marketers to understand changes in consumers’ taste, employees’ attitude towards the product, as well as competitors marketing activities in the same targeted market (Oslanda & Yaprak, 2010). Conclusion In this paper, the significances of macro as well as microenvironment of marketing have been discussed. Forces such as political and legal, physical, economic, cultural and social and physical environment has been discussed as macro environment affecting marketing whilst factors involving customers, employees and competitors have also been discussed as microenvironment influencing effectiveness of marketing strategy. It is imperative that marketer understand these environments since they entirely affect marketing activities and results. Reference List Barbu, K., & Orzan, R. (2012). Impact of Economic Environment on Marketing. Journal of Marketing Management, 4(2): 102-157. Channeta, I. (n.d.). Environments That Affect Marketing Management. 25 October, 2016 Retrieved from < http://ir.uz.ac.zw/bitstream/handle/10646/635/Environments_That_Affect_Marketing_Management.pdf;jsessionid=88908E90B689D6D2DE31D476438A1F6F?sequence=1> Fogel, G.K. (2010). Business Environment in China: Economic, Political, and Cultural Factors. MBAA Proceedings Papers. Jackson, R.W., & Wood, C.M. (2013). The Marketing Environment: A New Paradigm. Academic of Marketing Studies Journal, 17(1). Oslanda, G.E., & Yaprak, A. (Eds.) (2010). Learning through Strategic Alliances: Processes and Factors that Enhance Marketing Strategy Effectiveness. Scholarship and Professional Work-Business, 241. Available from http://digitalcommons.buller.edu/cob-papers Shan, P. (2008). The Marketing Environment and Marketing analysis. Retrieved 25 October, 2016 from < https://studentvip-notes.s3.amazonaws.com/2580-sample.pdf> Read More