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What is Macro Environment?
The macro-environment is the totality of all factors that are external to the business organization and are totally uncontrollable in nature. The forces of the macro-environment create both opportunities and threats to the firm.
The macro-environment components have a greater influence on business operations directly or indirectly or negatively or positively. Its components include legal, political, economic, social, environmental, competitive, demography, technology, etc.
All the forces of the macro-environment are totally external, unpredictable, and uncontrolled by the firm. Thus, a business firm has to adjust those forces instead of trying to change them which totally worthless effort. It is important for any marketer, manager, or firm needs to understand the dynamics of the macro-environment in order to succeed, sustain, and prosper in this ever-changing environment for successful marketing and other activities by satisfying customers and achieving planned goals.
Components of Macro Environment
The components we are going to understand are what makes the macro-environment complete. It is also studied as PESTEL analysis. PESTEL analysis can be defined as the framework that is used to study the factors of macro environment which have a significant impact on business organizations.
Economic Environment
The economic environment is a significant macro-environment variable that affects both the marketing firm and consumers. The economic environment consists of factors that affect consumers’ purchasing and spending power. The marketing of a particular product largely depends upon two factors- the ability of the consumers to spend and their willingness to spend.
Total purchasing power is a function of the current level of income, monetary & fiscal policy, level of employment, rate of inflation, etc. Marketers should be able to study and analyze the following major trends of the economy.
Level of income: The income level of consumers is fundamental to their purchasing power. The higher the level of current income, the higher will be the purchasing capacity. As such, the people will be able and willing to purchase more products and services. The people of rich nations have comparatively more purchasing power and buy more products and services as compared to the people of poorer nations.
The economic policy of the government. The economic policy of the government mainly consists of monetary policy and fiscal policy. These policies have a direct impact on economic condition, and thereby the purchasing power. Higher the level of money supply, higher will be the level of income and higher will be the purchasing capacity of the people. As such, they tend to buy and consume more commodities. Similarly, the higher the level of the tax burden to the people lower will be their saving capacity and thus, lower will be their purchasing capacity.
Level of employment: Employment is the major source of income. If the level of employment in the country is high then the level of income of the people becomes higher, as such, their purchasing power will be increased and they tend to buy and consume more products.
Rate of inflation: Inflation is the killer of the people’s purchasing power. The higher the level of inflation, the lower will be the saving capacity of the people. As such, they tend to buy and consume less. On the other hand, if the rate of inflation is low their saving capacity will be improved, they tend to buy and consume more products and services.
Demographic Environment
Demography represents the statistical study of the human population and its distribution characteristics. It is an important task for managers to study changing patterns of the demography of the nations. The demography of a nation can be studied in two ways.
Total population and its growth: China and India are two of the biggest growing market for products or services. What does it signify? It signifies the population and its growth is a key demographic macro-environment variable for the marketing firm. Greater the population size bigger the market for products and services.
Structure of population distribution: It refers to the makeup of the composition of the population. Population structure has a major influence on the marking activities. It is thus important to study the structure of the population distribution of a market. The population of the country is distributed in different ways such on the basis of geographical area, sex, marital status, and so on.
Socio-Cultural environment
A society is a group of people having distinct beliefs, knowledge, costumes, habits, taste, values, cultural lifestyles, etc. Culture is the means used in adjusting to the biological, environmental, psychological, and historical components of human existence. These socio-cultural characteristics differ from people to people and society to society.
Therefore, their choice of products and services also differ. With the changing time, these characteristics go on changing. A successful market is one that can adjust its product to the changing stock cultural environment. Therefore marketers must be able to make a detailed study and analysis of the socio-cultural variables such as demographics of society, the cultural value of society, socio-economic characteristic of society, aging of the population, consumerism.
Technological Environment
One of the major macro-environment factors that have changed the entire dynamics of marketing activities is the technological environment. It is the primary force that is redefining our destiny. It changes rapidly and creates an array of marketing opportunities.
The economic, social, and industrial development of advanced countries is due to the development of appropriate and advanced technology.
If marketers want to cope with the global change, they must be able to adapt to t modern technology. For this purpose, they must analyze the following technologic factors that impact the marketing activities of a firm. Such as levels of technology, the pace of change in technology, technology transfer, research, and development budget.
Political and Legal Environment
The political and legal environment is a broad term covering the firms and institutions by which the nation is governed. It consists of an interacting set of laws, government agencies, and pressure groups that influence and constrain the conduct of various organizations and individuals in society. While formulating a marketing plan and program, a marketer must be able to analyze all these political and legal factors.
Type and permanency of government: Type of government refers to a particular ideology and principle associated with the government governing the nation. The type of government has a direct impact on the nature of business policy adopted in the country. Some government may have a greater intervention on business activities, while other may be liberal.
Government laws, rules, and regulations: Government laws, rules, and regulations are concerned with the legal environment of the country in which firms operate. All marketing organizations must follow government laws, rules and regulations. In that re, government laws, rules, and regulations control all activities of the marketing organizations. There are several forms of laws such as consumer law, competition, law, employment law, health, and safety law, etc.
Natural Environment
Natural environment refers to the totality of natural resources that are essential as input for marketers or are affected by marketing activities. Resources are not distributed by nature in all the countries in the same ratio. Whatever resources are available; they cannot be used forever, because they will be fully deployed after a certain period. Therefore, the marketers need to be aware of the consequences of the non-availability of natural resources and alternative solutions to the problems should be determined.
While analyzing the natural environment, the following natural variables may be incorporated such as the availability of natural resources, unable cost energy, increasing levels of environmental pollution, etc.
Competitive Environment
The competitive environment is another major macro environment variable. With the competition now unavoidable aspects for every business, it is important to understand the various aspects of the competitive environment. Success in the marketplace is dependent not only upon identifying and respond’ customers’ needs but also upon the company’s ability to ensure that its response is judged by consumers to be superior to that of the competitors. In other words, the development of a marketing strategy must be based on both customer satisfaction competitive differentiation.