Chapter 3 NotesRest Stop: Previewing the Concepts• Describe the environmental forces that affect the company’s ability to serve its customers• Explain how changes in the demographic and economic environments affect marketing decisions• Identify the major trends in the firm’s natural and technological environments• Explain the key changes in the political and cultural environments• Discuss how companies can react to the marketing environmentMarketing Environment• Defined - The actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management’s ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers• Studying the marketing environment allows marketers to take advantage of opportunities and combat threats• Marketing intelligence and research are used to collect information about the environmentMicroenvironment• The actors close to the company that affect its ability to serve its customers—the company, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customer markets, competitors, and publics• General Idea• Marketing management’s job is to build relationships with customers by creating customer value and satisfaction. However, marketing managers cannot do this alone. Marketing success requires building relationships with other company departments, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, competitors, various publics, and customers, which combine to make up the company’s value delivery network.Actors in the MicroenvironmentMarketers must work in harmony with other company departments to create customer value and relationships. For example, Walmart’s marketers can’t promise low prices unless its operations department delivers low costs. In creating value for customers, marketers must partner with other firms in the company’s value deliverynetwork. For example, Lexus can’t create a high-quality ownership experience for its customers unless its suppliers provide quality parts and its dealers provide high sales and service quality. Customers are the most important actors in the company’s microenvironment.The aim of the entire value delivery system is to serve target customers and create strong relationships with them.The Microenvironment – The Company• Other company groups must be considered when designing marketing plans• Marketing decisions are made within the broader strategies made by top management• All departments share responsibility for understanding customer needs and creating value• General Idea• Marketing managers must work closely with other company departments. With marketing taking the lead, all departments—from manufacturing and finance to legal and human resources—share the responsibility for understanding customer needs and creating customer value.The Microenvironment – Suppliers- Provide resources needed to produce goods and serviceso General Idea Suppliers form an important link in the company’s overall customer value delivery network. They provide the resources needed by the company to produce its goods and services. Supplier problems can seriously affect marketing. Marketing managers must watch supply availability and costs. Supply shortages or delays, labor strikes, natural disasters, and other events can cost sales in the short run and damage customer satisfaction in the long run. Rising supply costs may force price increases that can harm the company’s sales volume.The Microenvironment – Marketing Intermediaries- Firms that help the company promote, sell, and distribute its goods to final buyerso Resellerso Physical distribution firmso Marketing services agencieso Financial intermediaries General Idea- Marketing intermediaries help the company promote, sell, and distribute its products to final buyers. They include resellers, physical distribution firms, marketing services agencies, and financial intermediaries. Resellers are distribution channel firms that help the company find customers or make sales to them. These include wholesalers and retailers who buy and resell merchandise. Physical distribution firms help the company stock and move goods from their points of origin to their destinations. Marketing services agenciesare 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. The Microenvironment – Competitors• A company must provide greater customer value and satisfaction than its competitors do• The company must position its offerings strongly against competitors’ offerings in the minds of consumers• General Idea• The marketing concept states that, to be successful, a company must provide greater customer value and satisfaction than its competitors do. Thus, marketers must do more than simply adapt to the needs of target consumers. They also must gain strategic advantage by positioning their offerings strongly against competitors’ offerings in the minds of consumers. Ask the students to discuss how different brands of a particular type of product are positioned in the minds of customers.The Microenvironment – Publics• Any group that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on an organization’s ability to achieve its object• Financial publics• Media publics• Government publics• Citizen-action publics• Local publics• General public• Internal publicThe Microenvironment - Customers- General Ideao Customers are the most important actors in the company’s microenvironment. The aim of the entire value delivery network is to serve target customers and create strong relationships with them. Discuss the various types of markets and explain how a company’s marketing message for a single product may vary across the different types of markets.Macroenviorment- Consists of the broader forces that affect the actors in the microenvironmentActors in the MacroenviormentThe Demographic Environment- Demography: The study of human populations in terms of size, density, location, age, gender, race, occupation, and other statisticsBuy for personal consumptionConsumer marketsBuy for use in production processesBusiness marketsBuy to resell at a profitReseller marketsBuy for public purposesGovernment marketsBuyers in other