The importance of the internal and external environment and their effect on the development and implementation of marketing planning is crucial and should be highly considered by any organisation wishing to be profitable in the increasingly competitive international marketing arena. Multinational companies that desire to prosper, should develop a coherent international marketing plan having, as a starting point,the analysis of the environment. Based on that, the company objectives, strategies and tactics are drawn, aiming for organisational success and profitability.Multinational companies should have in mind that effective marketing strategies couldnot be developed without firstly analysing the external and internal environment in whichthe company operates.The external environment for a company covers many aspects. It is suggested that the environment covers two main areas:
* the macro-environment * the micro-environment.
The macro-environment consists of forces such social, cultural, legal, economic, political and technological. Within this are included factors such as demographics, green issues andlarger societal and environmental forces. The micro-environment includes other environmental constraints, such as the structure of the market, the suppliers, customers,trends of the market, the public and competition.Equally important is the internal environment incorporating the examination of thecompany’s marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion) and service mix (people, process management, physical evidence). An analysis of the internal environment also covers other factors such as sales, profitability, market share and customer loyalty.The internal audit examines the company’s own resources and supplies suggestions as to the company’s strengths and weaknesses. Internal considerations are mainly controllable by the company and, therefore, companies should mostly avoid any problems from this area. It