Marketing Management 3(2+1)

Lesson 06 : The Marketing Environment

External partially controllable forces

Customer demand

• Customer demand is ever-changing, unpredictable and also un-measureable in accuracy.
• Customer needs and desires act as the centre of the marketing universe.
• Marketing policies, programmes and strategies are planned, organised and executed with the main objective of customer satisfaction and service.

Suppliers

• Supplier plays an important role between company and customer delivery network.
• They constitute one of the five forces shaping competition in any industry with their own bargaining power in the industry.
• They influence the costs of raw materials and other inputs to a firm and in turn the profit to be gained.
• Suppliers also keep introducing frequent changes in their products, processes and business practices.
• The supplier may be competitor of the firm or industry as end product manufacturer. Ex: Air conditioner compressor manufacturer such as Kirloskar, Carrier, Aircon, SIEL.

Marketing Intermediaries

• It constitutes an important component of the value delivery network of the company.
• Marketing intermediaries includes – resellers, physical distributors, marketing service agencies and financial intermediaries.
• These sources help in promoting, selling and distribution of goods to the customers or final buyers.