SWOT analysis and marketing environment

1. What are the main elements of SWOT analysis?

To identify the following, what the company or any product line is facing: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.

1. Strengths: All the good and useful resources and capabilities what can help to develop and maintain an advantage on the market. Examples: patents about technology or processes, know-how, exclusive access to various resources, advantage in location, great previous costumer satisfaction etc.

2. Weaknesses: All the things what could be strengths, if a marketer could have them, but at analysed time they are not present. Examples: Lack of technology and equipment, lack of special resources, poor location, high cost structure, weak brand etc.

3. Opportunities: field of improvement in case of profit and growth because of changes and easy to use opportunities, what has advantage for the company. Example: new technologies, cheaper resources, free but effective viral marketing, loosening of regulations.

4. Threats: Changes in the external and/or internal environment, what presents disadvantage for the company. Example: more expensive resources, more strict regulations, changes in international law etc.

2. Describe the following:

1. The internal environment: That part of the company and its products environment what can be effected and changed by the company, is called internal environment. First of all it focuses on “Target costumers”, than to support it, “Product, Price, Promotion, Place”. Also all the marketing activities belong here: the “Marketing Planning – Marketing Implementation – Marketing Control – Marketing Analysis”. The least effected internal environment elements are the: “Marketing Channels, Publics, Competitors, Suppliers ”

2. The task environment :

· Markets. Changes in: market size, growth, geographic distribution and profits. Define major market segments

· Customers. Customer ratings on quality, service and price. Customer buying decisions analysis.

· Competitors. List major competitors. Competitors SWOT.

· Channels: How are the mainly used channels performing for product distribution.

· Suppliers: Availability of resources analysis, supplier trends.

· Publics. Key publics for opportunities and threats. How to deal with them.

3. The public environment: The public environment is one part of the wide internal environment. Public environment means different sized groups of people, smaller organisations. They react together on products and services. The company can have some impact on them.

4. The macro-environment: It is the environment what surroundings a company, affects it, but the company cant control it. Its elements are: Demographic- Economic Environment, Technological- Natural Environment, Social- Cultural Environment, Political-Legal Environment.

3. List and describe the 7 main publics

· Financial: investment sources, banks, shareholders, financial funds

· Media: radio, TV, printed press

· Government: politics

· Citizen Action: customer groups, environmental groups (i.e. Greenpeace)

· Local: neighbourhood-, resident-, smaller community groups

· General: individuals, or who don’t fit in the other 6

· Internal: employee, inside the company organisations

4. Explain what is covered by PEST/STEEP

PEST is an acronym of those external macro-environmental expressions, what has effect on market opportunities:

Political: law regulates what and how can be done, taxes, custom tolls are in use. There can even embargos be in use, so you can hardly buy new American cars in Kuba.

Economic: in a global downturn its harder to reach steady growth. When customers have less money, they tend to consume regarding that. Less luxurious goods are bought.

Social: for example Japan’s ageing population. Can sell less clothes for young people, and more for older.

Technology: worse businesses can be made if somewhere is no telecommunication or roads. For example no internet business can grow if somewhere there is even not electric power.

STEEP is the acronym of the above plus;

Ecological Environment: today when global warming is happening, also from rational, also from business point of view it is more important for all companies to turn green as much as they can. GE has a development pathway, called “Ecomagination”.