Changes in the wider macro-environment may not be as close to the marketing firm’s day-to-day operations, but they are just as important. The main factors making up these wider macro-environmental forces fall into four groups.
Political and legal factors
Economic factors
Social and cultural factors
Technological factors
(Often referred to as the ‘PEST’ factors in the marketing analytical context, a useful aide-memoire, although in some texts it is sometimes referred to as ‘STEP’). To this is sometimes added ‘Competitive factors’ and although ‘PEST’ analysis relates to a specific organisation ‘Competitive factors’ tend to be subsumed under ‘Economic factors’. Such a PEST analysis means listing all possible points that may affect the organisation under review under each of the P.E.S.T. headings. Recently, some texts have added ‘L’ (standing for legal) and ‘E’ (standing for environmental) to this classification, making the acronym ‘PESTLE’. Even more recently, some writers have incorporated yet another ‘E’ (standing for ecological) with the new acronym ‘STEEPLE’.
3.1 The political and legal environment
To many companies, domestic political considerations are likely to be of prime concern. However, firms involved in international operations are faced with the additional dimension of international political developments. Many firms export and may have joint ventures or subsidiary companies abroad. In many countries, particularly those in the so-called ‘Third World’ or more latterly termed ‘Developing Nations’, the domestic political and economic situation is usually less stable than in the UK. Marketing firms operating in such volatile conditions clearly have to monitor the local political situation very carefully.
Many of the legal, economic and social developments, in our own society and in others, are the direct result of political decisions put into practice, for example the privatization of state industries or the