Business Environment Analysis: Stakeholders and SWOT Factors

Key Business Stakeholders and Environment Factors

Market Participants

• Suppliers: Provide essential inputs to the firm.
• Intermediaries: Include physical distribution firms, marketing service agencies, resellers, and financial intermediaries.
• Competitors: Companies offering the same or similar products/services.
• Publics: Groups with potential interest or impact on an organization's ability to achieve its objectives. This includes financial, media, government, citizen, local, general, and internal publics.
• Customers: Encompass consumer markets, business markets, reseller markets, government markets, and international markets.

SWOT Analysis: Microenvironment Factors (Internal)

Strengths and Weaknesses

The internal assessment focuses on the company's inherent attributes:

• Strengths: Beneficial company attributes, such as brand name, reputation, a strong value chain, and access to resources.
• Weaknesses: Company drawbacks, such as a lack of brand recognition, poor reputation, a costly value chain, or limited resource access.

SWOT Analysis: External Factors

Opportunities and Threats

• Opportunities: Favorable aspects in the external environment conducive to growth.
• Threats: Unfavorable aspects in the environment that hinder growth.

PESTLE Analysis (External Macroenvironment)

This analysis examines broader external forces:

• Demographics: Population size, density, rural/urban distribution, age, race, and occupation.
• Economic: Growth or constriction, consumer spending levels, income distribution, interest rates, exchange rates, and inflation rates.
• Natural: Raw material shortages, pollution levels, and government interventions concerning environmental sustainability.
• Technological: New opportunities arising from technology and the safety of new offerings.
• Political: Legislation, public policy, social codes, and professional ethical rules.
• Cultural: People's general views and societal norms.

Market Strategy Foundation

Market Segmentation, Targeting, Differentiation, and Positioning

Each company must divide the total market, choose the best segments, and design strategies for profitably serving those chosen segments. This process involves:

1. Market segmentation
2. Targeting
3. Differentiation
4. Positioning

Marketing Research Process

Detailed Internal SWOT Assessment

SWOT Analysis - Internal Factors

Strengths

What the company has that is beneficial, e.g., Brand name, IP protections, good reputation, strong value chain, access to resources (people or natural), etc.

Weaknesses

Drawbacks facing a company, e.g., Lack of brand name, lack of IP protections, bad reputation, costly value chain, lack of resource access, etc.