MARKETING ENVIRONMENT

INTRODUCTION

Nigeria is now part of the ‘global economy’ and the ‘global village’. These expressions imply that the Nigerian economy and businesses are affected by things that happen throughout the world. The economic consequences of the decline of the Far-Eastern economies are already impacting on the Nigerian economy, and also on each and every business as well as on every Nigerian citizen. These consequences include a decline in exports to these countries and a drop in the Nigerian Naira exchange rate against the major currencies of the world such as the British pound and the American dollar. This will make it more expensive to import foreign products but will hopefully make Nigeria’s products cheaper when exported.


The flip side, however, is that with the devaluation of the Far East’s monetary units (e.g. the Singapore dollar, Malaysian ringgit and the baht of Thailand) exporting from these countries will also be more competitive, thus, creating an extremely competitive international marketplace. This is but one example of the influence of the marketing environment on our country, its businesses, employees, and citizens.

Some of the effects of the market environment are felt more directly by enterprises, while others have a more indirect way of influencing the business environment. For example, a major slump in the economic activity of a country such as Nigeria brought about by a poor

agricultural output as a result of inadequate rainfall will have a resounding effect on the employment figures in the agricultural industry. This will then have a knock-on effect on tertiary industries such as the tractor repair and service industry, food sales and the general economic survival of several rural towns in Nigeria. This is an example of the more indirect manner in which variables of the marketing environment may influence Nigerian enterprises and citizens.


Taking into account the effects of variables such as those discussed above, it is therefore necessary to understand the functioning of the marketing environment. Within the marketing environment there are three sub-environments (i.e. micro-environment, market environment and macro-environment) – each of which affects the day-to-day running of an enterprise.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an enterprise and its management team should evaluate the effects of the marketing environment on business, and one of the ways of doing this would be by means of a SWOT analysis (i.e. identifying the Strengths and Weaknesses of, the Opportunities for and the Threats to the business). Remember that any business should be able to do a SWOT analysis, and that most enterprises are doing so on a regular basis!

 OBJECTIVES

At the end of this unit, you should be able to:

• explain the marketing environment 
• explain micro-environmental variables 
• explain macro-environmental variables 
• differentiate between opportunities and threats 
• explain the implications of these variables to marketing companies
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