The market environment is a marketing term and it refers to all of the forces outside of marketing that affect marketing management's ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers. Company, its suppliers, distributors, and its competitors are also impacted by what is happening in the world. To succeed therefore, it is necessary to continuously monitor, anticipate, and adapt, to that environment, and wherever possible, shape that environment. The market environment consists of both the macro environment and the micro environment.
MICRO ENVIROMENT
This environment influences the organization directly. It includes suppliers that deal directly or indirectly, consumers and customers, and other local stakeholders. This determines the relationship between consumers, suppliers, distributors, public and dealers.
MACRO ENVIROMENT
This includes all factors that can influence and organization, but that are out of their direct control. A company does not generally influence any laws (although it is accepted that they could lobby or be part of a trade organization). It is continuously changing, and the company needs to be flexible to adapt. There may be aggressive competition and rivalry in a market. Globalization means that there is always the threat of substitute products and new entrants. The wider environment is also ever changing, and the marketer needs to compensate for changes in culture, politics, economics and technology. The acronym “PEST” is used to describe framework for the analysis of these macro environmental factors.
PEST Analysis of the Mobile Phone Industry
There are many factors in the macro-environment that will affect the decisions of the managers of any organisation. Tax changes, new laws, trade barriers, demographic change and government policy changes are all examples of macro change. To help analyse these factors managers can categorise them using the PESTEL model. This classification