A company’s marketing environment consists of the actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management’s ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers.

The microenvironment consists of the actors close to the company that affect its ability to service its customers.

The macroenvironment consists of larger societal forces that affect the microenvironment.

THE MICROENVIRONMENT

Marketing management’s job is to build relationships with customers by creating customer value and satisfaction.

The Figure below shows the major actors in the marketer’s microenvironment.

 

The Company

All the interrelated groups form the internal environment.

All groups should work in harmony to provide superior customer value and relationships.

Suppliers

Suppliers provide the resources needed by the company to produce its goods and services.

Marketing managers must watch supply availability—supply shortages or delays, labor strikes, and other events can cost sales in the short run and damage customer satisfaction in the long run.

Marketing managers monitor the price trends of their key inputs 

Marketing Intermediaries

Marketing intermediaries help the company to promote, sell, and distribute its products to final buyers. 

· Resellers are distribution channel firms that help the company find customers or make sales to them. These include wholesalers and retailers.

· Physical distribution firms help the company to stock and move goods from their points of origin to their destinations.

· Marketing services agencies are the marketing research firms, advertising agencies, media firms, and marketing consulting firms that help the company target and promote its products to the right markets.

· Financial intermediaries include banks, credit companies, insurance companies, and other businesses that help finance transactions or insure against the risks associated with the buying and selling of goods.

Marketers recognize the importance of working with their intermediaries as partners rather than simply as channels through which they sell their products.

Competitors

Marketers must gain strategic advantage by positioning their offerings strongly against competitors’ offerings in the minds of consumers.

No single competitive marketing strategy is best for all companies.

Publics

A public is any group that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on an organization’s ability to achieve its objectives.

· Financial publics influence the company’s ability to obtain funds.

· Media publics carry news, features, and editorial opinions.

· Government publics. Management must take government developments into account.

· Citizen-action publics. A company’s marketing decisions may be questioned by consumer organizations, environmental groups, etc.

· Local publics include neighborhood residents and community organizations.

· General public. The general public’s image of the company affects its buying.

· Internal publics include workers, managers, volunteers, and the board of directors.

Customers

Five types of customer markets:

1. Consumer markets: individuals and households that buy goods and services for personal consumption.

2. Business markets buy goods and services for further processing or for use in their production process.

3. Reseller markets buy goods and services to resell at a profit.

4. Government markets consist of government agencies that buy goods and services to produce public services.

International markets: buyers in other countries, including consumers, producers, resellers, and governments.