The Marketing Environment & Tracking Trends

Summary

In this Walters World video, Mark Walters discusses the crucial elements of the marketing environment for businesses. He emphasizes the importance of understanding both the immediate environment, including competition and corporate partnerships, and the macroeconomic environment, which encompasses culture, demographics, social trends, technology, the economy, and legal/political factors. Walters suggests that adapting to these factors is key for businesses to thrive and stay ahead of the competition.

Takeaways

• 🌳 Businesses thrive or fail based on their marketing environment, similar to how people thrive or struggle in different environments.
• 👥 The marketing environment is primarily influenced by customer satisfaction, as they are the ones who determine the success of a product.
• 🔍 Companies need to monitor their environment to ensure they adapt and respond to changes effectively.
• 🏢 The immediate environment includes the company itself, competition, and corporate partnerships, which are directly controllable and influence customer perception.
• 📱 Competition affects how a company is perceived; for instance, Nokia's downfall was due to the rise of the iPhone and changing consumer perceptions.
• 🤝 Corporate partnerships play a crucial role in shaping customer trust and can either enhance or damage a company's reputation.
• 🌐 Macroeconomic effects include broader influences such as culture, demographics, social trends, technology, economic conditions, and legal/political factors that affect all businesses.
• 🌍 Cultural differences can significantly impact business strategies, necessitating adjustments to align with the local customs and beliefs.
• 📊 Demographics are vital for understanding customer segments, such as age, income, and gender, which can dictate product offerings and marketing strategies.
• 📈 Social trends and technological advancements can create new opportunities or threats, requiring businesses to stay agile and innovative.
• 💹 Economic conditions directly affect consumer behavior and business strategies, with companies needing to adjust their approaches during booms or recessions.
• 🏛 The legal and political landscape can create challenges or opportunities, with businesses needing to comply, adapt, or leverage regulations to their advantage.

Q & A

What is the analogy used in the script to describe a business?

A business is compared to a person, suggesting that just as people thrive in certain environments and fail in others, businesses also need the right environment to survive and prosper.

What are the two main components of a company's marketing environment discussed in the script?

The script discusses the immediate environment and the macroeconomic environment as the two main components of a company's marketing environment.

What does the immediate environment consist of according to the video script?

The immediate environment consists of the company itself, competition, and corporate sponsors.

How can a company influence its immediate environment?

A company can influence its immediate environment by improving its products, choosing its partners wisely, and competing effectively.

What is meant by the macroeconomic environment in the context of the script?

The macroeconomic environment refers to external factors that affect all companies, such as cultural, demographic, social, technological, economic, and legal/political influences.

Why is it important for a company to understand the cultural aspect of the macroeconomic environment?

Understanding the cultural aspect is important because it helps a company adjust its products and services to align with shared beliefs and practices of the target market.

What demographic factors should a company consider in its marketing strategy?

A company should consider factors such as age, income, gender, and age distribution of its target market to tailor its marketing strategy effectively.

How can social trends impact a company's marketing environment?

Social trends can impact a company's marketing environment by influencing consumer behavior and preferences, which can affect the demand for certain products or services.

What role does technology play in the macroeconomic environment for businesses?

Technology can directly affect businesses by changing the way they operate, offering new opportunities, or rendering existing products or services obsolete.

How does the economic situation influence a company's marketing environment?

The economic situation can influence a company's marketing environment by affecting consumer spending habits and the overall demand for goods and services.

Why is it crucial for companies to be aware of the legal and political environment?

Being aware of the legal and political environment is crucial because laws and regulations can directly impact business operations, and companies need to adapt their strategies to comply with or take advantage of these changes.

Outlines

00:00

🌳 Understanding the Marketing Environment

The first paragraph discusses the importance of the marketing environment for businesses, comparing a business to a person who thrives or fails based on the environment they are in. It highlights that a company needs to consider both its immediate environment, which includes competition, the company itself, and corporate sponsors, and the macroeconomic environment, which encompasses broader cultural, demographic, social, technological, economic, and legal factors. The focus is on how businesses must adapt to their surroundings to succeed, emphasizing the need to deliver products that customers want and to be aware of external factors that can influence business operations.

05:00

📊 Analyzing Macroeconomic Factors in Marketing

The second paragraph delves into the macroeconomic factors that affect businesses, starting with culture and its impact on consumer behavior and business strategies. It moves on to discuss demographics, explaining how age, income, and gender can influence business decisions. The paragraph then covers social trends, using examples like environmental consciousness and cost consciousness during economic downturns to illustrate how businesses must adapt to changing consumer preferences. It also touches on technology's role in shaping the market and the necessity for businesses to keep up with technological advancements. The economic situation is highlighted as a critical factor, with examples of how it can lead to strategies like offering deals during a recession. Lastly, the legal and political environment is mentioned, with a smoking ban example showing how businesses must navigate regulations.

10:02

🏄‍♂️ Staying Ahead in the Marketing Game

The third paragraph serves as a conclusion, urging businesses to understand and anticipate market trends to ensure survival and success in a competitive landscape. It encourages viewers to learn more about business and marketing by visiting the provided website, www.engvid.com, for additional resources and videos.

Keywords

💡Marketing Environment

The marketing environment refers to the internal and external factors that can affect a company's ability to successfully market its products or services. In the video, it is likened to how a person thrives in certain environments and not in others. The concept is central to the video's theme as it sets the stage for discussing the various elements that can influence a company's marketing strategies.

💡Customer

Customers are the end-users of a company's products or services. The video emphasizes that a company's marketing environment is heavily based on customer satisfaction and preferences. It is highlighted that if customers do not like a company's products, the company faces significant challenges, making the customer a pivotal part of the marketing environment.

💡Immediate Environment

The immediate environment consists of factors that a company can directly influence, such as its own operations, competition, and corporate sponsorships. The video explains that these are the elements a company can control to improve its market position, like enhancing product quality or selecting beneficial corporate partners.

💡Macroeconomic Environment

This term refers to broader economic factors that affect all companies, such as cultural trends, demographics, and the economy at large. The video uses the example of smoking bans to illustrate how macroeconomic factors can impact businesses differently, depending on the nature of their operations.

💡Competition

Competition is a key component of a company's immediate environment. The video discusses how the actions and market strategies of competitors can influence a company's own success. It uses the decline of Nokia in the face of the iPhone's rise to demonstrate how competition can drastically affect a company's standing in the market.

💡Corporate Partnerships

Corporate partnerships refer to the relationships a company has with its suppliers, sponsors, and other business partners. The video explains that these partnerships can either enhance or damage a company's reputation and appeal to customers, depending on the partners' actions and public perception.

💡Culture

Culture, in the context of the video, refers to the shared beliefs, values, and customs of a society that can influence consumer behavior and preferences. The video discusses how a company must adapt its marketing strategies to align with the cultural norms of the market it operates in, using the example of McDonald's needing to adjust its menu to local cultural sensitivities.

💡Demographics

Demographics are the statistical characteristics of a population, such as age, gender, and income levels. The video highlights the importance of understanding demographics for tailoring marketing strategies, as different demographic groups have distinct needs and purchasing power.

💡Social Trends

Social trends are the prevailing tendencies or movements in society, such as environmental consciousness or cost consciousness. The video uses the example of the green movement and the subsequent economic recession to illustrate how social trends can shift and how companies must adapt their marketing to align with these changes.

💡Technology

Technology is a key macroeconomic factor that can directly impact how a company operates and markets its products. The video discusses how technological advancements can create new opportunities for businesses, like Amazon's rise in the online retail market, or render existing tools and methods obsolete.

💡Economic Situation

The economic situation refers to the state of the economy, which can influence consumer spending habits and business strategies. The video mentions how a booming economy might lead to increased competition and higher prices, while a recession might lead to more cost-conscious consumers and a focus on value offerings.

💡Legal Political Environment

The legal political environment encompasses the laws, regulations, and government policies that can affect business operations. The video uses the example of smoking bans in public places to illustrate how such regulations can necessitate changes in a company's marketing and operational strategies.

Highlights

Businesses need to adapt to their environment to thrive, similar to how people adapt to different living conditions.

The marketing environment is crucial for businesses, with customer satisfaction being the key to success.

The immediate environment includes competition, the company itself, and corporate sponsors.

A company can influence its immediate environment by improving products and customer relationships.

Competition affects how customers perceive a company and its products.

Corporate partnerships can enhance or damage a company's reputation based on the partners' actions.

Macroeconomic environment consists of factors outside a company's direct control.

Cultural differences can significantly impact how a business operates in different regions.

Demographics play a role in shaping business strategies, such as targeting different age groups.

Social trends, like going green, can influence consumer behavior and business practices.

Technological advancements can create new opportunities or threats for businesses.

Economic conditions, like recessions, can lead to changes in consumer spending habits.

Legal and political environments can impose restrictions or create opportunities for businesses.

Adapting to macroeconomic effects is essential for businesses to stay competitive.

Companies that anticipate and adapt to trends can gain a significant advantage over competitors.

Amazon is an example of a company that successfully anticipated and capitalized on technological trends.

Understanding the marketing environment is crucial for businesses to survive and prosper.

Transcripts

hi guys I'm mark Walters with Walters

World and today we're going to talk

about the marketing environment a little

bit of business today and what you need

to know is a business is like a person

we all would survive and live and thrive

in certain environments or fail in

certain environments I'm here with

beautiful fall air and then trees and

the little squirrels hopping around all

these things makes my life better it

makes it easier for me to enjoy the same

thing kind of happens with companies

they need to look at their environment

and if it's good for them they can

thrive and be prospered but the thing is

we have to watch and see what's going on

ok now if we look at the marketing

environment for any customer or I'm

sorry for any company their environment

is based on one thing good customer

because let's be honest if your

customers don't like your products your

customers don't buy your products you've

got some big problems so that's the

focus of your marketing environment ok

so you've got to make sure you're

delivering products that they wanted

that they're gonna want to want to buy

and use and things like that but what

we're gonna talk about today is we're

gonna talk about other parts the

environment outside the customers ok we

was called the immediate environment

these things that we can directly

influence and then you have what's

called a macroeconomic environment these

things outside that affect all companies

just in different ways you know for

example like smoking bans I don't smoke

so a smoking ban doesn't affect me but

if you do smoke it does affect you ok

but it's the same law we both it applies

to us just some people applies more than

others ok so let's go through now the

first things we're gonna look at is the

immediate environment these three

factors one is competition to the

company itself like your company

yourself and your corporate sponsors

these are three directly three things

you can directly relate to fight with

improve hurt whatever in order to be

more appealing to the customer now the

company will start to the company first

the company we can make good products we

can find out what customers want and

deliver that to them so obviously we can

influence their buying behavior because

we give them the best product possible

or give them what they want ok the

second part of the immediate environment

is competition obviously how our

competition does that will reflect

on how we're perceived you know nokia

was the best phone out there then the

iPhone came out with her touch screens

and the fancy to design all kinds of

stuff it didn't matter how that Nokia

was best five years ago all that matters

now is what people perceive it to be and

they perceive it not to be an iPhone and

that hurt Nokia I mean they crashed and

burned okay so we look at our

competition what are they doing and how

do our customers now perceive us in

relationship to them it's kind of like

if you're dating someone okay you look

at him you say hey am i doing better or

worse than last time hopefully you're

doing better okay so you look kind of

like that with the competition okay and

then the third part of the immediate

environment are corporate partnerships

who are you working with who are your

suppliers who your partners all this

kind of stuff and you'll see is

sometimes for customers that's very

important I mean if you're the organic

supermarket industry and you're getting

your buying supplies from a farmer Bob

who lives right down the road how it's

going to help you because then the

locals will say hey you know what you're

doing you're dealing with these people

right down the street so you have good

corporate sponsors or good corporate

partners just because hey down the road

I Drive by Bob's farm this makes me

happy I would have to buy from you some

more on the other side of things if you

have corporate partners that are doing

bad things

okay maybe oh I'm I'm getting my baby

formula from a country that had poison

baby formula that's gonna hurt you okay

so you always look the relationships you

have your corporate relationships

because don't you may say I don't do

much with them if they do something bad

you can get taken down too now that's

the immediate environment these are

things we can influence we can make

better products we can choose who our

partners are and we can fight our

competition but then there's the things

outside these macroeconomic effects and

with here you have it's kind of six

macroeconomic effects that we have to

take account of okay the first thing you

want to look at is culture the culture

is basically shared beliefs shared ideas

that people have so and sometimes you

divide in different ways sometimes you

may say a country culture well yeah if

we're going to we're going to the u.s.

the culture is more look out for myself

we want to have fast stuff now that's

how the culture is so we had to adjust

to that culture if we're going to ndm or

McDonald's we can't sell hamburgers

because a cow is a sacred animal and I

don't think anybody wants a ground-up

Jesus burger okay here in the US so you

have to take those things into account

how they influence you now they're

probably aside from country cultural

differences you also I mean those are

big things we say well we're not gonna

go work in India well you know what you

might work in different parts of the US

and if you're McDonald's well some parts

they call it soda some Peet parts they

call it pop some places they call it

soda pop well how do we standardize our

stuff so we can tailor to each one's do

we have in some in Ohio we call it pop

and then Illinois because soda or we

just call it soft drinks okay you have

to look at the different regional

cultures and are there differences that

are worth taking advantage of or that we

need watch out for so that's the first

macroeconomic thing the culture of the

place you're doing business

second thing you look at is demographics

how's this set up the age of the clients

there we're how much money people make

in income gender age all these things

you can divide it up because you may say

oh we're gonna have laws no one under 21

can drink well I'm 35 so it doesn't

bother me because I'm 35 but if you're

under 21 and you want to drink well it

does directly affect you but also

affects other businesses because now

restaurants when we have to hire people

to check IDs or bars make sure illegal

your legal cuz I don't wanna get in

trouble cuz that we have laws that go

there there's all kinds of stuff if they

go into it okay so you look at

demographics and sometimes you look at

house demographics and affect us maybe

not today but in the future and now you

have a lot of baby boomers in the u.s.

getting to set to retire how is that

gonna affect things and we look at it

hey how can we take advantage of that

what could we do all maybe we build new

retirement communities so in 10 years

when there's a lot millions and millions

of more retirees they can move there

what do we do to take advantage of

Linux macroeconomic you sign factory

looked at is social aspects okay social

trends so what's trendy now and you may

say what fashions are trendy okay what

haircuts were trendy a few years ago

okay I'll have much hair so leave me

alone or you look at it what was trendy

today in America one going green okay we

want to have zero impact on the

environment our carbon footprint

important we want to recycle all kinds

of stuff well as you see trends change

because now I mean Prius is our Toyota

Prius is you couldn't mean you they were

selling like that boom boom then all of

a sudden the economy went bad and now we

don't have a lot of money to spend the

extra money to get the green environment

and then the other green becomes

important which is another trend we see

now is cost consciousness in a recession

in a bad economy people are worried a

lot about their pocketbooks so we're

seeing a lot more deals out there

special offers stuff like that dollar

menus and McDonald's this would be an

example of you know culture social

asociado social trends that are changing

another thing you look at a macro effect

is technology sometimes technology will

directly affect you you know if you are

working a manufacturing line and they

invent robots do your job I always just

going to directly affect you you're

gonna have a problem if you're the

worker and if you're the company hey how

do we take advantage of this what are we

doing we automate some stuff we get

programmers here we look at that as a

professor what a revolutionize is me

well hey I'm making a video right now

for my students so they can study at 3

o'clock in the morning versus having to

come to my lecture at 9:30 in the

morning

ok so it can make things easier for

different people and you got to keep up

with it because if you don't you could

be like the slide rule you don't even

know what that is go look up slide

really like wow I've never even seen

that before

yeah technology changes you got to keep

up with it

next thing you look at a macroeconomic

facts is the economy economic situation

out there I mean if it's a bad financial

time like right now it's a financial

crisis in the US there's an economic

crisis so how is that going to affect us

well we have more deals we have like the

dollar menu comes in because they

because these factors all influence each

other you know and so you have you

worried about these things we'll give a

boom economy well we know it's a good

economy hey if someone sell the house

for two hundred thousand well we got to

offer them two hundred and twenty

thousand because the economy's booming

and all kinds of stuff and that will

influence our strategies of what we do

and all kinds of stuff now the last one

of the macroeconomic effects is the

legal political environment basically

the laws regulations that are out there

and how do we take advantage them or how

do we fight them off or how do we just

deal with them okay if you look at let's

go back to that smoking example you know

they ban smoking in buildings well if

we're a bar we have a problem because

people like to drink and smoke and so

now they have to go outside to smoke so

how do I get them to come back inside

what do I do

ah let's make a beer garden so they can

just go outside enclosed in the bar at

the fence and they stay here to drink

some more make some more money and

that's the thing all these macroeconomic

effects you have to look at them and say

how can I take an advantage of it okay

how what what are the laws how do i I

mean if it's gonna hurt my business how

do I negate those as much as I can or if

it's gonna help us what can I do to take

advantage of it with technologies all

kinds of stuff because you'll see

companies that see the trends that are

coming and take advantage of it Amazon

with technology you know the Amazon was

nothing choice if you bought your toys

at Toys R Us you bought your books at

Walden books now you buy it all at

amazon.com from the internet because

they saw there or that's what was going

to happen so this gives you guys an idea

of the market environment that companies

find themselves in there's the immediate

environment which is the company your

company itself the competition and the

corporate sponsors these are ones you

can directly influence and then they

have the macroeconomic effects which are

the legal political kind of stuff social

trends technological changes economic

situation of the of the place you're in

cultural differences cultural things and

demographics so I hope this helped you

learn about a little bit about marketing

and how to end

environment and know the trends that are

out there so you can be ahead of the

wave so you could be the one that

survives the wave and how does it get

smashed by it so if you want to learn

more about business stuff or see some of

our other videos check us out at

www.engvid.com