• Marketing environment: “Actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management's ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers.”

• Micronenvironment:
  • Marketing environment close to the company.
  • The company, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customer markets, competitors, publics.
• Macroenvironment:
  • Larger marketing environment.
  • Demographic, economic, natural, technological, political, cultural forces.

• Success depends upon working with the company, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customers, competitors, and publics.
  • These groups make up company's value delivery network.

Must take other groups within company into account:

• Top mgmt
• Finance
• R&D
• Purchasing
• Operations
• Accounting

These other groups all impact marketing's decisions through their input into product delivery.

• Supplier problems seriously affect marketing.
• Must watch availability.
• Supply problems can damage satisfaction in long run.

Intermediaries are firms that help promote, sell, and distribute goods to final buyers. There are four types:

1. Resellers
   • Distribution channel firms.
   • Help find customers and make sales to them.
   • Large resellers have power to dictate terms and shut products out of markets.

1. Physical Distribution Firms
   • Help company stock and move goods.
   • Determine best ways to ship, store.

1. Marketing Services
   • Marketing research, advertising agencies, media firms, marketing consultants.
   • Help target & promote products to the right markets.

1. Financial Intermediaries
   • Banks, credit companies, insurance co., etc.
   • Help finance transactions or insure against risks.

Marketing must partner carefully with marketing intermediaries to ensure top performance.

• Study 5 types of customer markets closely.
  • Consumer markets – end users.
  • Business markets – purchase for further processing or use in production.
  • Reseller markets – purchase for resale at profit.
  • Government markets – purchase for public services.
  • International markets – these markets in other countries.

• Position offerings stronger than competitors' in minds of consumers.
• Consider size & position vs. competitors.

Public: A group that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on an org's ability to achieve objectives.

Seven types of publics:

• Financial:
  • Banks, investment houses, stockholders.
  • Influence ability to obtain funds.
• Media:
  • Newspapers, magazines, etc.
  • Carry ads, news, editorial opinion.
• Gov't:
  • Must take gov't developments into consideration.
  • Product safety, truth in ads, etc.
• Citizen-action:
  • Consumer orgs, enviro-groups, minority groups.
  • Marketing decisions may be questioned by groups.
• Local:
  • Neighborhood residents, community groups.
  • Contribute to these orgs.
• General public:
  • Public's image of co. affects buying.
• Internal:
  • Workers, managers, volunteers, board of directors.
  • When employees feel good about co., feeling spreads externally.