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The external marketing environment (1 000 words) Choose two environments within the external environment to analyses demographic, socio-cultural, economic, technological, natural, competitive and political and legal (500 words per environment) Provide a definition of each chosen environment and justify in relation to your product (4 marks) Explain how each chosen environment impacts your product, using evidence from your research (business sources) to justify (20 marks) Discuss the opportunities presented for your chosen product in each environment (8 arks) Discuss the threats presented for your chosen product in each environment (8 marks) 1) Political First of all, political factors refer to the stability of the political environment and the attitudes of political parties or movements.
This may manifest in government influence on tax policies, or government involvement in trading agreements. Political factors are inevitably entwined with Legal factors such as national employment laws, international trade regulations and restrictions, monopolies and mergers’ rules, and consumer protection. The difference between Political and Legal factors is that Political refers to attitudes and approaches, whereas Legal factors are those which have become law and regulations. Legal needs to be complied with whereas Political may represent influences, restrictions or opportunities, but they are not mandatory. One of the important aspects that Apple Inc. Just consider is a market and product launching regulations.
In Europe, many residents do not even have a land line phone system, and the mobile phone is the primary and only) phone number. Thus, the political environment is more possessive Of the cellular standards. This is also one of Apple’s biggest weaknesses. Keep in mind there are different political systems in different countries that must agree on the same cellular standard. The cellular standard must be transparent to a country that is a monarchy as well as a socialist country. The E has made it clear that the political aim of the government’s role in cellular standards is to entertain more competition that shares the same standards. One more issue that Apple must confront is the apparent “De facto” reductionism of Monika and Ericson.
These two companies are extremely important to their economy, as Monika has been mentioned as one of Rupee’s most important companies. The future is pretty safe for those two telecommunications giants, and Apple will be at a disadvantage if it must wrestle with them. There is an argument that with cellular standard conforming to European standards, US companies such as Motorola and Apple may be at a disadvantage in keeping up with Rupee’s cellular manufacturers. One can argue that this can be supported by the 2. G release of the phone Europe as opposed to the G standard. Apple can argue the European standards are exclusionary and discriminatory as Apple has invested large amounts of money into R standards.
At present, mobile devices based on current US technology are now locked out of the E market since the W-CDMA standard has been converted into a requirement. (Wallis- Brown, Von Hellene, et al, 2000) The development of the phone under two different standards is a burden for Apple. The ELI arguably also protects its two telecommunication giants, Monika and Ericson. Apple is not alone in this fight, as Korean manufacturers such as LEG and Samsung face these burdens. Apple also shares this dilemma with Motorola on IIS soil. However, these competitors are established companies that have introduced product since the early adopter phase of mobile technology. Apple is a late entry in mobile phones.
The development of the phone must balance the development of the phone to conform to US standards, E standards, and still maintain its uniqueness that the Apple brand has always maintained. 2) Technological The technological environment refers to new technologies, which create new product and market opportunities. Technological developments are the most manageable uncontrollable force faced by marketers. Organizations need to be aware of new technologies in order to turn these advances into opportunities and a competitive edge. Technology has a tremendous effect on life-styles, consumption patterns, and the economy. Advances in technology can start new industries, radically alter or destroy existing industries, and stimulate entirely separate markets.
The rapid rate at which technology changes has forced organizations to quickly adapt in terms of how they develop, price, distribute, and promote their products. The four Up’s of marketing are directly affected the moment a new sign is created. New technology is an ever- growing competitive industry based on consumer demand. Consumers want to do everything faster and easier, thus causing companies to combine their technologies into one product. The idea of multi-media device is not new, mobile phones have been able to make calls and access the internet for some years now. With the latest craze of listening to music outside of the car and Disdain’s becoming a history channel special, digital music; MPH has skyrocketed.
With many Pad’s supporting a Window’s based SO, consumers were able to buy a memory arid, load music, insert that into their phone, and listen via Windows Media player. The phone is different because it allows music to be stored directly onto either a 4 or KGB hard drive (Apple Inc. , 2014). The phone uses a new multi-touch display and new software so everything can be controlled by touch. It capabilities of listening to music and watching videos are amazing compared to standard software on Pad’s and other multi- media phones currently available. The phone capabilities are the same, you just simply touch a name and press call on the display, and there are no buttons to press.
The internet allows you scroll web pages while downloading, just like a computer. However, in the international market, if Apple were to enter into Europe, they would be faced with a challenge of accommodating their technology. Rupee’s largest mobile phone service provider, Videophone, uses G/LISTS technology, which the phone does not support. Phone currently operates on GSM; however rumors have been spread about the possibility of Apple developing two versions of their phone. If a contract between Videophone and Apple was generated and the two versions of the phone were available for OTOH markets, the launch of the phone would be astounding.
As technology is growing fast it is a big advantage for Apple because if it continue innovates like today it will be able to keep a pace of the high technology growth in the world. Increasing demand in technology can lead the company to new success. One of the biggest mobile wireless developments in 2008 was the increased availability of G mobile phones, such as Apple’s phone G. Moreover, Sprint is planning to offer a Woman based G services by 2009. Other mobile providers (including AT &T, Verizon wireless, and T-Mobile) are currently purporting new Long Term Evolution (LET) G technology based on the SIMMS cellular standard. Chips are already developed that support both types of G networks and are expected to be included in Notebook computers, mobile phones, digital cameras and other consumer devices.
Moreover, the mobile cloud is the recent trend, which includes not only giant carriers and Mobile device makers (Apple, Samsung), but also a full convergent of internet based companies and software giants (Amazon, Google, Face book, Microsoft and more). Apple launched cloud in October 201 1 and this new service stores music, applications, photos, calendars, intact, and documents and wirelessly pushes them to multiple ISO devices, Macs and Windows-based computers (Apple Annual Report, 2011 Apple Inc. Is on top of the market because of investing highly in research and product development. Moreover, innovation has shown big portion of this brand and has shown to pay out (Apple Inc. , 2014). B.
Consumer buyer behavior (1500 words) What type Of buying decision is used for your product? Justify your answer by considering the level of involvement and other factors influencing this (10 marks) How might need recognition be triggered for your product? Explain how one factor influences this stage (1 0 marks) How could information search be undertaken for your product? Explain how one factor influences this stage (10 marks) Provide an example of a typical evoked set for your product and describe how alternatives could be evaluated for your product. Explain how one factor influences this stage (10 marks) How might the decision to purchase be made for your product?
Explain how one factor influences this stage (ID marks) How might a consumer undertake post-purchase evaluation for your product? Explain how one factor influences this stage (10 marks) Studying consumer attitudes toward brands is of paramount important because that’s what comes closest to revealing if a consumer intends to buy the brand in question. The Attitude toward object model is suitable for measuring attitude towards a product category or specific brands. According to this model, the consumer’s attitude toward a product/brand is a function of the presence (or absence) and evaluation of certain product-specific beliefs and/or attributes. That explains the number that turned up at various launches of the phone across the country.
This also explained by the ‘Attitude toward behavior’ model. This model is designed to capture the consumer’s attitude toward behaving or acting with respect to an object rather than the attitude toward the object itself. The appeal of this model is that it seems to correspond somewhat more closely to actual behavior than the attitude toward object model. Now this where Apple fails. There are 5 important steps that a consumer makes before they decide upon purchasing a product or using a service. What goes on in their head? Understanding these processes will help with developing marketing strategies targeted to the consumer. Brand awareness plays a huge role in the consumer decision making process.
When consumers show an interest in buying a certain product, many of them will follow a decision making process which follows the next steps: problem recognition (unsatisfied need), information search, evaluation of expected outcome, purchase, post- purchase behavior. This process is a guideline for studying the way consumers make decisions, but it is important to remember that they can abandon the whole idea at any stage, and they do not necessarily continue with this decision making process up to a purchase. Consumer behavior is influenced by many things, including environmental and marketing factors, he situation, personal and psychological factors, family, and culture. Businesses try to figure out trends so they can reach the people most likely to buy their products in the most cost-effective way possible.
Businesses often try to influence a consumers behavior with things they can control such as the layout of a store, music, grouping and availability of products, pricing, and advertising. While some influences may be temporary and others are long lasting, different factors can affect how buyers behave whether they influence you to make a purchase, buy additional products, or buy nothing at all. The first stage in the buying decision is problem recognition. Problem recognition occurs when a consumer is faced with an unsatisfied need (the need for a more convenient mode of communication) and desires a fulfilled outcome that satisfies this need. Problem recognition is triggered by either external stimuli (advertisements) or internal stimuli (hunger or thirst).
Consumers can recognize unfulfilled wants in several ways, for example when an old product is not performing as well as it should, or when consumers are made aware of a new technology that will enhance their current product experience. The core off marketers goal is to make consumers aware of possible unsatisfied needs, and to show the consumer how the product or service will fulfill that need. Look at how Steve Jobs came along with the phone. No one needed it, but he made sure that the phone was something that everyone needed to have. Human beings are social, and they need people around them to interact with and to discuss various issues in order to reach better solutions and ideas. We learned that these social factors typically consist of the consumer’s small groups, their family, and their social roles and status.
We also learned about social roles such as Initiators, Influences, Deciders, Buyers, and Users. These roles play a part within social groups consisting of friends and families in aggravating a buyers hunger for a certain product. The second stage in the buying decision is the search for information and the organization of this information within the individual’s frame of reference. The information search involves exposure to different sources, such as promotional material and displays of the product, actively researching the product, or relying on historic information in the consumer’s mind, such as reconciled ideas about a product or a previous experience (good or bad) with such a product (our personal and psychological factors).
Affecting consumer buyer behavior, Psychological Factors, are the consumer’s own personality is constructed by the unique psychological characteristics that create relatively consistent, lasting behavior in response to their own environment. These characteristics include Self Concept, Motivation and the five motivational needs, Perception, Learning, and Beliefs and Attitudes. In Summary, all Of these factors and stimuli illustrate an important point: nonusers are complicated. Not all buying decisions rely this heavily on the gathering of information, and the extent to which a consumer conducts an information search depends largely on the perceived risk of the purchase. When we are confronted with a decision, emotions from previous, related experiences affix values to the options we are considering.
These emotions create preferences which lead to our decision. We are capable of rationally processing information about alternative choices; but were unable to make decisions because they lacked any sense of how they felt about the options. However, for consumers, perhaps the most important characteristic of emotions is that they push us toward action. In response to an emotion, humans are compelled to do something. In a physical confrontation, fear forces us to choose between “fight or flight” to insure our self-preservation. In our daily social confrontations, insecurity may cause us to buy the latest phone to support our positive self-identity.
The third stage of the decision making process, is the evaluation of expected outcome. The consumer is now ready to make a decision based on all the information gathered, and those discarded. The consumer has now developed a set of criteria against which he will base this decision, and will most likely be able to narrow his search down to only a few products. The goal of the marketing manager is to determine which attributes of a product will convince a consumer to buy it. Recent studies have shown that attributes which plays on emotions (such as perceived trustworthiness, perceived comfort, perceived excellence or perceived status) are the ones that weighs the heaviest in decision making processes.
This stage of the decision making process is critical, because many consumers are not able to make a rational session by weighing up alternatives, and if they have reached this stager the more emotional consumer has reached an uncritical blindness in which they become obsessed with buying the product. The next step in the decision making process is to purchase the product. The consumer has decided which product to buy, or not to buy anything at all. If he decides to make a purchase, the next step in the process is an evaluation of the product after the purchase. While demographic variables such as income, education, and marital status are important, we will look at gender, age, and stage of life and how they influence purchase decisions. Men and women need and buy different products. They also shop differently and in general, have different attitudes about shopping. You know the old stereotypes.
Men see what they want and buy it, but women “try on everything and shop ’till they drop. ” There’s some truth to the stereotypes. Interestingly the process does not stop at the point of purchase because there is a stage five called the post-purchase evaluation. The process continues even when the product or service is being consumed by the individual or business. So if it doesn’t meet your needs or solve your problem o can take action to improve the product or service. Your actions at this point might inform other potential buyers who would be keen to hear about your experiences. The level of satisfaction that the consumer will experience will depend largely on how many of his expectations were met.
Let’s look at an example based upon buying a new Phone. The first stage is likely to be that you have a need for communication or access to the Internet, or problem because you cannot interact with friends using social media. So the second stage is where you speak to your friends and surf the Internet cooking at alternatives, which represent stage two – or your information search. As a buyer you might visit a local phone store and speak to the sales staff to help you complete stage three, I. E. Your evaluation of alternatives. Stage four is the selection of product and you go and make your final decision and buy your Phone from a local store or using an e-commerce website.
Stage five involves your post-purchase evaluation whereby you use the phone and have a positive, negative or mediocre experience of the product. If it doesn’t satisfy your needs you take action and more importantly you’ll tell ethers of your problems. If you’re pleased with the product, you will tell your friends and this will influence stage two (their information search) when they decide to buy an Phone.