Marketing 1B 2012, session 6

Macro-environment
Thomas Anker

The view
from

nowhere

Key question

How does external factors influence

organizations and marketing strategy?

3 business environments

Why bother?
The external environment might impact on your
business
External environment is uncontrollable and
unpredictable

The External environment is a

high risk factor

Not so happy meals

Not so happy meals

Not so happy meals

The societal focus on health and obesity has forced
McDonalds

To experience its first loss (2000)

To reformulate products and introduce new ones

To invest in marketing campaigns (repositioning)

PESTLE analysis

Political influences
These guys and girls are influencing our businesses,
but how can we influence them?

Political influences
Politicians make the rules of the game
How can businesses influence policymaking

Lobbyist (trade associations)

Politicians as non-executive directors

Public relations (PR)

Influencer marketing (press, spin-doctors)

Political influences

18 Jan 2012: Wikipedia

are blacking out to protest
against laws on
intellectual properties and
piracy
Protest drives massive
PR
Raises public awareness

Imagine a World
Without Free Knowledge

Political influences
Businesses try to influence factors such as

Tax

Education

Marketing regulations

Minimum wages

Constraints on trading times/days

Immigration

Economic influences
Wage inflation (wage increases)
Price inflation (scarce supply price increase (e.g.
petrol))
Gross domestic product (GDP) (consumer
purchasing power)

Corporate and income taxes

Exchange rates

Economic influences
Markets are partly psychological entities. Loss of
consumer confidence causes

Reluctance

Postponement

Savings

How can marketers instill

consumer confidence?

Economic influences
Marketing strategy during recessions

Stimulate demand by price falls. But be vigilant

Are your consumers necessarily recessed, or just cautious?

PR to instill confidence across stakeholders

Socio-cultural influences
Demographics
Lifestyle

Values

Demographics
Age mix (i.e., proportion of 15-64, 65+ in a market)
Are market populations expected to rise or fall
(+India, +China, -Russia)
Gray or silver segment

Lifestyle changes
10% in US identify themselves as homosexuals
Pink segment

Going pink
Focus group research showed that gays had a
strong preference for messages target directly at
them
Spill-over: openmindedness might appeal to
libertarian cosmopolitans who are possible core
influencers

Co-creation
Consumers increasingly willing to interact with
marketers
Crowdsourcing or consumer co-creation

The technological environment

New marketing tools: social media marketing,
geofencing, QR-readers.
Innovation becomes a necessary condition in the
strategic marketing decision-making of hightechnology firms

The legal environment

Product safety, packaging and labelling

This product is healthy

The legal environment

Codes of practice

Alcohol

Tobacco

Children

The legal environment

Battle between academics and corporations
Fierce battle over self-regulation (e.g., Advertising
Standards Association)
British Medical Association call for a ban on alcohol
advertising