MARK101 Week 2 - Environmental Scanning & Market Research Notes

MARK101 Week 2 Thursday: Environmental Scanning & Market Research

The Marketing Plan

  • The marketing plan comprises several interconnected elements:

    • Action Programmes

    • Implementation Plans

    • Evaluation & Control

    • Budget

    • Controls

    • Organisation Mission, Goals & Objectives

    • Organisation Strategy

    • Marketing Strategies & Tactics

    • Product Programme

    • Market Targeting & Positioning Strategies

    • Pricing Programme

    • Communication Programme

    • Distribution Programme

    • Competitive Analysis

    • Macro-environmental Analysis

    • Product Analysis

    • Situational Analysis

    • Customer Analysis

    • Channels & Logistics Analysis

    • TOWS Analysis

    • Marketing Objectives

  • Understanding the Brand’s Identity is crucial.

Lecture Outline

  • Situational Analysis

  • Macroenvironmental Analysis

  • Secondary Research

  • Macroenvironment: 6 Forces

  • Key Takeaways

Situational Analysis

  • Definition: A situational analysis is the process of conducting research on both the macro- and microenvironment of an organization.

  • Purpose: It helps identify threats and opportunities to guide marketing strategy, planning, and implementation.

  • Process: It is not a linear process.

  • Components:

    • Competitive Analysis

    • Macro-environmental Analysis

    • Product Analysis

    • Customer Analysis

    • Channels & Logistics Analysis

    • TOWS Analysis

Marketing Research

  • Marketing research involves:

    • Systematic design

    • Collection

    • Analysis

    • Reporting of data

  • The data should be relevant to a specific marketing situation that an organization is facing.

  • Types of Data:

    • Secondary data: Information that already exists, collected for another purpose.

    • Primary data: Information collected for the specific purpose at hand (to be covered next Tuesday).

The Marketing Environment

  • Definition: A company’s marketing environment consists of the actors and forces outside of marketing that affect marketing management’s ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers.

  • Marketers use disciplined methods like marketing research and marketing intelligence to gather information about the marketing environment.

  • By carefully studying the environment, marketers can adapt their strategies to meet new marketplace challenges and opportunities.

  • Components:

    • Microenvironment

    • Macroenvironment

Major Forces in the Macroenvironment

  • Demographic

  • Economic

  • Natural

  • Technological

  • Political

  • Cultural

Demographic Environment

  • Definition: Demography is the study of human populations in terms of:

    • Population size, density, and diversity

    • Age and gender

    • Race and ethnicity

    • Family size and structure

    • Educational characteristics and occupation

    • Other demographic statistics

  • Marketers closely monitor demographic trends and developments.

Demographic Shifts in New Zealand (NZ)

  • Growth in Baby Boomers: Expected to increase from 600,000 in 2013 to over 1 million in the early 2030s.

  • Aging Population: In the next decade, there will be more people over 65 than those under 15. The school-aged (0-19 years) population is projected to decline by 0.1%0.1\% per annum.

  • Increasing Diversity: Minority ethnic and religious communities will make up a larger proportion of the population.

  • Slowing Population Growth: Projected to slow from an annual average of 1.6%1.6\% (2011-2021) to 0.9%0.9\% in the next decade (2021-2031).

  • Regional Growth: 60%60\% of the country’s population growth through to 2038 will occur in Auckland, with overspill growth in Hamilton and Tauranga.

Economic Environment

  • Definition: The economic environment consists of factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns.

Natural Environment

  • Definition: The natural environment involves natural resources needed as inputs by marketers or affected by marketing activities.

  • Marketers should be aware of trends in the natural environment.

Technological Environment

  • Definition: The technological environment comprises the forces that create new technologies, creating new products and market opportunities.

  • As products and technology become more complex, the public needs assurance of their safety.

Political and Social Environment

  • Definition: The political environment consists of laws, government agencies, and pressure groups that influence or limit various organizations and individuals in a given society.

Cultural Environment

  • Definition: The cultural environment is made up of institutions and other forces that affect a society’s basic values, perceptions, preferences, and behaviors.

Marketing Research Focus

  • Marketers need to focus on the most pertinent macroenvironmental factors.

  • For assignments, it is important to identify which factors are relevant and important, and to justify those choices.

Class Exercise: NZ Nut Butter Market

  • Identify current trends in the macro environment that impact the NZ nut butter market and Fix and Fogg.

Marketing Research: Gathering Secondary Data

  • Evaluation Criteria:

    • Relevant (fits research project needs)

    • Accurate (reliably collected and reported)

    • Current (up-to-date enough for current decisions)

    • Impartial (objectively collected and reported)

Macroenvironmental Analysis

  • Conducting a macroenvironmental analysis is useful.

  • TOWS analysis will be covered in more detail next week.

Key Takeaways

  • The macro marketing environment and its components.

  • The 6 macroenvironment forces.

  • Forces relevant to the lovers of nut butter in New Zealand.

  • Marketing research (secondary research) and the macroenvironment.