Companies operate in a macroenvironment of forces that shape opportunities but also threats to the companies’ marketing management. Those external factors that companies have to consider include demographic, economic, natural, technological, political, and cultural forces.
Demographic and economic forces are the forces that interest the most companies because they define the type of customers that marketers will target by segmenting the population regarding factors such as age, occupation or even purchasing power. However, certain types of demographic segmentation are not always the best way to divide population. For example, my work on a Marketing Plan (See Sources) has shown that generational marketing is not always the best solution to segment the population. In my research to market a phone case for smartphones, I discovered that the Millennials are not the only generation to target. Baby-Boomers are a generation we might not forget because they also buy smartphones. They care about their phone and want to protect it, and above all they possess the biggest purchasing power of all generations.
Natural and technological forces create the biggest challenges for marketers. First, policy makers implement new regulations that companies must follow regarding social and environmental sustainability – for more information, I have developed this topic on my Corporate Social Responsibility in Marketing page. Technological forces can offer interesting opportunities for marketers but these must watch this environment closely because it changes rapidly and new technologies replace older technologies perpetually. If marketers don’t follow or miss a trend, consequences can be serious, as has demonstrated Kodak which did not believe in the digital camera market and then failed to keep up and ended closing.
Political forces represent laws, government agencies and pressure groups that have an influence on businesses and hence on marketing strategies. Those political factors can, for example, modify the legislation on competition or pricing and those regulations are implemented to establish more socially responsible behaviors from marketers.
People’s values, perceptions and behaviors constitute cultural factors that affect companies’ way of doing marketing. Speaking of values, people develop two categories of values during their lives: core – persistent – values and secondary – more open to change – values. My work on Discussions Questions (see Sources) allowed me to understand that marketers are more likely to change customer’s secondary values that are more open to change through time.
Some of those forces can be unpredictable and uncontrollable and some other can be predicted and handled. That is why companies must take proactive actions in addition to reacting to changes.
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