Hoofdstuk 2
The marketing environment represents a complex array of threats and
opportunities for the organisation, and can sometimes seem difficult to
categorise. Generally speaking, the marketing environment can be divided into
two areas: the external environment and the internal environment. The external
environment is concerned with everything that happens outside the organisation,
and the internal environment is concerned with those marketing factors that
happen within the organisation. There are two basic approaches to dealing with
environmental forces: reactive and proactive. The reactive manager regards
environmental factors as being uncontrollable, and will therefore tend to adjust
marketing plans to fit environmental changes. Proactive managers look for ways
to change the organisation’s environment in the belief that many, even most,
environmental factors can be controlled, or at least influenced in some way.
The external environment consists of two further divisions: factors close to the
organisation (called the micro-environment), and those factors common to
society as a whole (the macro-environment).
At the simplest level, managers can use SWOT analysis to take stock of the firm’s
internal position: SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats. Strengths and weaknesses are factors which are specific to the firm;
opportunities and threats arise from the external environment.
STEP (Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, and Political) analysis is a useful
way of looking at the external environment (it is also sometimes written as PEST).
STEP and SWOT analyses are simply different ways of looking at the environment
and at the firm’s place in it.
The micro-environment is made up of those factors that impact closely on the
organisation, and typically consists of the following elements:
• competitors;
• customers;
• suppliers;
• intermediaries;
• some publics.
Grouping consumers with similar needs and characteristics is called
segmentation. Since each segment has different needs, the threat from
competition will come from different sources in each case.
Michael Porter’s Five Forces model offers a useful approach to competitor
analysis.6 The five forces are as follows:
1 The bargaining power of suppliers: the greater this is, the stronger the
competitive pressures.
2 The bargaining power of customers: again, the stronger this is, the more
competitive the environment.
3 The threat of new entrants.
4 The threat of substitute products and services. This threat is often not seen
until it is too late.
5 The rivalry among current competitors.
t. The macro-environment tends to be harder to influence than does the micro-
environment, but this does not mean that firms must simply remain passive; the
inability to control does not imply an inability to influence. Often the macro-
environment can be influenced by good public relations activities. The main
elements of the macro-environment are:
• demographic factors;
• economic factors;
• political factors;
• legal factors;
• socio-cultural factors;
The marketing environment represents a complex array of threats and
opportunities for the organisation, and can sometimes seem difficult to
categorise. Generally speaking, the marketing environment can be divided into
two areas: the external environment and the internal environment. The external
environment is concerned with everything that happens outside the organisation,
and the internal environment is concerned with those marketing factors that
happen within the organisation. There are two basic approaches to dealing with
environmental forces: reactive and proactive. The reactive manager regards
environmental factors as being uncontrollable, and will therefore tend to adjust
marketing plans to fit environmental changes. Proactive managers look for ways
to change the organisation’s environment in the belief that many, even most,
environmental factors can be controlled, or at least influenced in some way.
The external environment consists of two further divisions: factors close to the
organisation (called the micro-environment), and those factors common to
society as a whole (the macro-environment).
At the simplest level, managers can use SWOT analysis to take stock of the firm’s
internal position: SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats. Strengths and weaknesses are factors which are specific to the firm;
opportunities and threats arise from the external environment.
STEP (Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, and Political) analysis is a useful
way of looking at the external environment (it is also sometimes written as PEST).
STEP and SWOT analyses are simply different ways of looking at the environment
and at the firm’s place in it.
The micro-environment is made up of those factors that impact closely on the
organisation, and typically consists of the following elements:
• competitors;
• customers;
• suppliers;
• intermediaries;
• some publics.
Grouping consumers with similar needs and characteristics is called
segmentation. Since each segment has different needs, the threat from
competition will come from different sources in each case.
Michael Porter’s Five Forces model offers a useful approach to competitor
analysis.6 The five forces are as follows:
1 The bargaining power of suppliers: the greater this is, the stronger the
competitive pressures.
2 The bargaining power of customers: again, the stronger this is, the more
competitive the environment.
3 The threat of new entrants.
4 The threat of substitute products and services. This threat is often not seen
until it is too late.
5 The rivalry among current competitors.
t. The macro-environment tends to be harder to influence than does the micro-
environment, but this does not mean that firms must simply remain passive; the
inability to control does not imply an inability to influence. Often the macro-
environment can be influenced by good public relations activities. The main
elements of the macro-environment are:
• demographic factors;
• economic factors;
• political factors;
• legal factors;
• socio-cultural factors;
