1.

Describe the environmental forces that affect the company’s ability to serve
its customers.
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 marketing environmental factors can be
classified into Microenvironment and Macro-environment. The company’s
microenvironment consists of actors close to the company that combine to form its value
delivery network. It includes the company’s internal environment, which influences the
marketing decision. Microenvironment consists of the company, suppliers, Marketing
intermediaries, competitors, publics, and customers. The macro-environment consists of
larger societal forces that affect the entire microenvironment. The PESTLE analysis in a
framework used to scan the organization’s external business environment. Macro-
environment consists of political, economic socio-cultural, technological, legal, and
environmental.

2. Discuss how companies can react to the marketing environment.

There are two approaches organizations can follow while responding to the
environmental forces of marketing forces. These are popularly known as reactive
marketing and proactive marketing. The reactive marketing views marketing
environmental forces as totally uncontrollable and difficult to predict. This is a passive
approach, under which, the organization tries to adjust its marketing mix and program
according to the changes in the environment. The adjustments take place only after
changes occur in the environment. The organization analyses the environmental changes
and finds suitable way to avoid the threat and utilize the new opportunities in the market.
In essence, they wait for the environment to change and react only after the change takes
place. Organizations that adopt the environmental management perspective follows
proactive marketing. Proactive marketing believes that although many of the
environmental forces such as demography, economy, culture and natural factors are not
controllable, the environmental forces such as politics, law and technology can be
influenced by correct and calculated moves. Proactive marketing uses political,
psychological, economic and public relations skills ti influence the environmental forces
to the organization's benefits. The technique of political lobbying, financing political
parties and elections, using publicity to shape public opinion and many others are used by
organizations to bring the environmental forces to their favor.

3. Define the consumer market and describe the four major sets of factors that
influence consumer buyer behavior.
A consumer market is a system where customers buy products and services for consumption or
sharing with others rather than for reselling. Most of the products in this market are consumer
needs for daily lives. A consumer market allows individuals to purchase products and services.
There are four factors that influence consumer behaviour. These factors impact whether or not
your target customer buys your product. They are cultural, social, personal and psychological.
How do cultural and social factors play a role in consumer behaviour? Culture and social
factors can play a major role in the popularity of a product. Industry groups spend a lot of money
trying to influence popular opinion because they know how influential culture can be on industry
sales. Be mindful of culture and social factors when creating your marketing. You want to attract
as many customers as possible without offending anyone. How Do Personal Factors Play a
Role in Consumer Behaviour? In addition to cultural and social factors, personal factors also
influence consumer behaviour. Tastes change over time. According to aging experts, senior
consumer behaviours are highly variable, meaning that as a group they have more reasons for
buying something than teenagers. If this is your target market, it’s important to know what those
reasons are. Lifestyle, personality, and economic class may also influence behaviour. Class
impacts education level, background, occupation, and health. As a result, the buying behaviour of
one economic class can be very different from another. You want to make sure everyone in your
target audience has access to your product regardless of age or economic class. The more people
that have access, the better. How Do Psychological Factors Play a Role in Consumer
Behaviour? There are four psychological factors that influence consumer behaviour: Motivation,
perception, learning, and attitude or belief system. Motivation speaks to the internal needs of the
consumer. Understanding how to motivate your customer is a powerful tool. The way your target
customer perceives the world or learns about your product, whether online or in person, can also
influence behaviour. Finally, belief systems have the ability to influence all of the above. For
example, some people learn best visually. This explains why pictures and images are so
important for marketing.
Consumers make purchase decisions every day. When they make a decision about your product,
they’re thinking about solving a need. That need may be driven by a variety of factors. Each of
the factors listed above can be tied back to ways a small business can leverage its storefront or
website to increase the probability of a sale. Keep these factors in mind when designing your
marking materials.