Marketing Microenvironment and Macroenvironment Factors Explained

Marketing Microenvironment Factors

The microenvironment consists of actors close to the company that affect its ability to serve its customers, including marketing intermediaries, competitors, and consumers.

Customer Markets

Companies typically study five distinct types of customer markets:

• Consumer markets: Individuals and households that buy goods and services for personal consumption.
• Business markets: Organizations that buy goods and services for further processing or for use in their production process.
• Reseller markets: Entities that buy goods and services to resell at a profit.
• Government markets: Government agencies that buy goods and services to produce public services or transfer them to those in need.
• International markets: Buyers in other countries, including consumers, producers, resellers, and governments.

Responding to the Marketing Environment

Organizations generally adopt one of three views when responding to environmental forces:

• Uncontrollable: Reacting and adapting to forces in the environment.
• Proactive: Taking aggressive actions to affect forces in the environment.
• Reactive: Watching and reacting to forces in the environment.

The Marketing Macroenvironment

The macroenvironment comprises larger societal forces that impact the entire microenvironment, including demographic, economic, natural, technological, political, and cultural factors.

Key Macroenvironmental Forces

• Demographic Environment: The study of human populations in terms of size, density, location, age, gender, race, and occupation. Changes here have major implications for business.
• Economic Environment: Factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns, such as subsistence economies, industrial economies, and income fluctuations.
• Natural Environment: Natural resources needed as inputs or affected by marketing activities. Key trends include raw material shortages, increased energy costs, pollution, climate change, and government intervention.
• Technological Environment: Forces that create new technologies, leading to new product and market opportunities. Trends include the rapid pace of change and increased regulation.
• Political Environment: Laws, government agencies, and pressure groups that influence or limit organizations. This includes business legislation and socially responsible actions, encouraging managers to “do the right thing.”
• Cultural Environment: Institutions and forces that affect a society’s basic values, perceptions, preferences, and behaviors, including core and secondary beliefs.