MKTG topic 2

Well the power’s out & I accidently made my coffee double-strength but I’ve still managed to put together some decent marketing notes for topic 2.

The Marketing Environment

Internal Environment- Parts of the organisation that participate in the marketing process that are directly controlled by the organisation eg. Management, functional departments, employees, external vendors (outsourcing)

Micro Environment- Forces inside an organisation’s industry that impact on its ability to serve customers & clients eg. Customers & clients, partners (suppliers, financiers, advertising agencies etc) & competitors

Macro Environment- Factors outside the industry that influence the survival of the company. These include political, economic, sociocultural, technological & legal factors (PESTL framework)

Types of Competition

Pure competition- A situation in which there are numerous competitors offering undifferentiated products. This situation doesn’t exist in reality but a close example would be the sugar or wheat industries.

Monopolistic competition- In this situation numerous competitors offer similar products & strive to differentiate their product from other products. An example of this would be the electronic goods industry (fridges, tvs, laptops etc)

Oligopoly- In an oligopoly a small number of competitors offer relatively similar products. There are significant barriers preventing new entrants starting up in the industry. For example in the airline industry a new airline would require a huge amount of capital to set up a fleet of aircraft.

Monopoly- In this case there is only one firm in the industry & the barriers to prevent new entrants are huge. Consider the electricity or water supply industries, it would be terribly inefficient to have more than one company in charge of the supply.

Monosopy- The market situation in which there is only one buyer. I always think of something along the lines of battleships or jets; only the Australian government would purchase those in this country.

Levels of Competition

Total budget competition- Customers are limited by their financial budget & are forced to forgo some goods in order to purchase others. If you think about it this essentially means that firms are competing against all the other ways in which a customer could spend their money. I could choose to go to an expensive concert or I could spend that money buying food, clothes & books.

Generic competition- Customers all have a similar need that can be met by a wide variety of products. For example you could get to work via bus, train, car or bike.

Product competition- In this level of competition products are broadly similar when it comes to purpose but have distinguishing characteristics---- I would use the example of different types of drinks for this one.

Brand competition- The products are very similar at this level & have the same benefits, price & features. Your choice would be solely based on the brand name--- the book uses the example of the different Australian banks for this level.

Situation Analysis

Situation analysis involves assessing the current situation for the company, its competitors, the market in general & the macro environment. Once this analysis has taken place it should be considered along with the organisation’s objectives in order to come up with a market plan for the future.

The current objectives of the organisation should be:

Specific

Measureable

Actionable

Reasonable

Timetabled

SWOT Analysis

Strengths- Attributes of the organisation that help it achieve its objectives (what it does well & what makes it stand out)

Weaknesses- Areas that hinder the organisation in achieving its objectives (what it doesn’t do so well & what it receives complaints about)

Opportunities- Factors that could potentially help the organisation to succeed (emerging trends that could benefit the company, things that competitors could be lacking etc)

Threats- Factors that might harm the organisation’s efforts (competitors having an edge in some areas, negative growth in the industry etc)