CIM Coursebook Assessing the Marketing Environment

Diana Luck

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781136442667
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

'Butterworth-Heinemann's CIM Coursebooks have been designed to match the syllabus and learning outcomes of our new qualifications and should be useful aids in helping students understand the complexities of marketing. The discussion and practical application of theories and concepts, with relevant examples and case studies, should help readers make immediate use of their knowledge and skills gained from the qualifications.'
Professor Keith Fletcher, Director of Education, The Chartered Institute of Marketing 'Here in Dubai, we have used the Butterworth-Heinemann Coursebooks in their various forms since the very beginning and have found them most useful as a source of recommended reading material as well as examination preparation.'
Alun Epps, CIM Centre Co-ordinator, Dubai University College, United Arab Emirates Butterworth-Heinemann's official CIM Coursebooks are the definitive companions to the CIM professional marketing qualifications. The only study materials to be endorsed by The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), all content is carefully structured to match the syllabus and is written in collaboration with the CIM faculty. Now in full colour and a new student friendly format, key information is easy to locate on each page. Each chapter is packed full of case studies, study tips and activities to test your learning and understanding as you go along. •The coursebooks are the only study guide reviewed and approved by CIM (The Chartered Institute of Marketing).
•Each book is crammed with a range of learning objectives, cases, questions, activities, definitions, study tips and summaries to support and test your understanding of the theory.
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CHAPTER 1

The Importance of the Marketing Environment

Learning Outcomes

Appreciate varied organisation types within public, private and voluntary sectors.

Assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of different types of organisations.

Understand the diversity of organisations and their objectives.

Appreciate the dimensions, which influence organisations.

Understand the nature of organisations and their environmental influences.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MARKETING ENVIRONMENT

CIM’s definition of marketing:

the management process which identifies, anticipates and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably.

Key dimensions encompassed by this definition:

– The importance of the marketing environment, including competitors.

– Identification and anticipation of customer requirements.

– Internal review of organisational situation, including employees and shareholders.

Large firms may be able to exert greater influence due to their financial clout.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) may respond to change easier due to simpler and flatter structures.

– External review of the marketing environment, in particular opportunities and threats.

QUESTION 1.1

List the aspects of the environment, which you consider to be most important to a marketer’s understanding of

1. Its potential customers

2. Its potential profitability.

Provide four different examples of external factors where you feel ‘change’ seems fastest

DEFINING ORGANISATIONS

– They bring together people with common interests in a systematic effort to produce goods and services that they could not readily have produced as individuals.

– They enable the specialisation and division of labour.

Saves time and raises productivity.

– They are social as they provide mutual support and opportunity for development.

Multinationals:

– Are engaged in simultaneous manufacturing or operations in a number of countries.

– Decisions are taken from a global perspective.

Some common characteristics of organisations are:

A framework of written or tacit rules (e.g. articles of association).

A decision-making hierarchy (e.g. Board of Directors).

A record of proceedings (e.g. minutes of meetings).

A means of coordinating efforts and resources to determine what and how to produce, in what quantities, using what channels of distribution (e.g. CEO).

QUESTION 1.2

Make a list of the dimensions which you think an organisation must take into consideration with regards to operating in a given market environment?

How do you think this list and its subsequent analysis will vary in line with the size and nature of an organisation?

STUDY TIP

Acquire the habit of using the glossary in www.marketingonline.co.uk for definitions of all key terms. Also start compiling your own list of terminology.

BUSINESS CLASSIFICATIONS

National and international business organisations can be diverse in the following ways:

Based on their objectives, strengths and even weaknesses, organisations target potential and existing customers in different ways.

Businesses operate as buyers as well as sellers.

The implications of competition, growth and innovation vary not only in terms of the size of the business but also with regard to the market environment.

The growth in self-employment, reduction of the size of the public sector and rising importance of non-profit organisations all impact the market environment.

Organisations may be classified in the following ways:

Ownership

Is the business private, public, owned by a cooperative?

Legal form

Is the business a limited company? Is it owned by a sole proprietor? Is there a partnership (more than one owner)?

Control

Who is in charge of decisions? Are there directors? Are the shareholders the main deci...