The marketing environment contains two different words with different meanings. Marketing is about a firm’s efforts to satisfy needs of its target markets. Environment represents all those forces that affect firm’s activities and operations.
All companies, no matter their nature of the business, have three marketing environments – internal environment, micro, and macro environment. All these three marketing environments contain forces that affect a company’s ability to produce, promote, and distribute products and services to its target market. Let’s understand these marketing environments of a company one by one:
Internal environment
Internal environment is the company’s own environment. It is constituted by employees, policies, procedures, work culture, departments, etc. If anyone of these forces becomes weak, it could have a severe impact on business.
Say, for example, you hold salaries of your employees for a month or two, they will show poor performance. Their productivity will increase when you provide them salary on time, and incentives.
Similarly, simple procedures yield greater employee or worker productivity as employees feel easy to practice them at the workplace. Clear company policies can increase efficiency in your organisation. A supportive work culture will induce happiness and employees will give their utmost performance to the company.
These were some forces that live in the internal marketing environment of your company. They can affect your business operation, so you better take proper care of them.
Micro environment
Microenvironment exists beyond your company’s premises. It is also called an immediate marketing environment. The microenvironment contains your customers, competitors, intermediaries, and suppliers.
Customers are people who sell your products and services. Their satisfaction is a key to success of your company. But, their dissatisfaction can lead you to face miseries. So, you better serve their expectations.
Competitors are your rivals who are capable of hurting your business when they launch similar or alternative products and services in your market. So, you better be cautious about the actions of your competitions. Plan and use appropriate strategies to counter their actions.
Intermediaries are groups that help bring your products and services to your target markets. Incentivize your wholesalers, retailers, etc. as they are your customer touchpoints.
Suppliers are people, who provide you materials, equipment, etc. you need for product productions. Cultivate a healthy relationship with your suppliers.
Never ever dare to fail your relations with your suppliers as their unhappiness can lead your business to cease its operations. When you have nothing to procure, you will have nothing to serve your customers. Never do late payments to your suppliers.
Macro Environment
The macro-environment represents forces that affect your business operations but you are powerless to control them. Economic factors – customer income, market recession, inflation, etc. live outside your company’s premises, and micro marketing environment.
Social and cultural factors, technology, and even government in control of your state are included in your company’s macro marketing environment.
When the income of customers increases, your sales also increase as they acquire more purchasing power. When the government increases taxes, you increase your product prices which in turn could lead to sales decrease.
Disfavor of macro-environment factors is not a good sign for your business. However, they are also sources of opportunities. So, be always alert to counter macro-environment threats and cash in opportunities.
In conclusion, you will always have to monitor your company’s environments. Business owners who ignore to give importance to their marketing environments are fated to meet failure.
