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BUS 109 Marketing Written assignment Content page 1. Introduction3 2. External macro-environment3 2. 1Social and cultural forces3 2. 1. 1Changing gender roles3 2. 1. 2Attitude towards health, nutrition and well-being3 2. 1. 3 Cultural beliefs in a country4 2. 2Technology4 2. 2. 1Advantages of technology4 2. 2. 2Disadvantages of technology5 2. 3Demography5 3. Conclusion6 4. References Lists7 1. Introduction This report is discussing about how three major forces of macro environment affecting an organisation’s marketing program.
The three major forces discussed are social and cultural forces, technology, and demography. 2. External macro-environment Macro environment defined as the major external and uncontrollable factors that influence an organization’s decision making, and affect its performance and strategies (C. J. Hayden 2011). Three major forces that affected an organisation’s marketing program are social cultural, technology and demography conditions. 2. 1Social and cultural forces Social and cultural forces involved our lifestyles, social values and beliefs, which are changing faster than they used to be in the past (Rix 2011, 54).
A company need to adjust their products to blend well with the fast changing environment for it to grow profitable business, as it will attract the customers. 2. 1. 1Changing gender roles Changing gender roles has been very obvious in our society for the past decade, especially those of women. In the past, male occupied most of the work force, however since women today are growing politically and economically, women are now able to compete against the men in the work force.
In this case, cars seller used to focus only the male, however since nowadays there are increasing number of women in workforce and they are able to earn money for living by themselves, they have the purchasing power to buy cars. In order to attract the women’s attention, marketers introduced cars that suit female in term of sizes and colours. For instance, Honda makes a new product which is Honda Jazz. It created especially for the women, from the form and sizes and colour that suit women, specifically pink in colour. This specially designed Honda Jazz is trying to capture the market of women. . 1. 2Attitude towards health, nutrition and well-being People start to concern about their health, proper diet and spiritual well-being. Marketers realised the needs of customers and introduced physical fitness activities such as aerobics and yoga (Rix 2011, 56). Increasing health diseases also make consumers start to aware to consume nutrition food. In this case, fast food restaurant may experience less patrons coming to them, as in most of people’s perspectives, fast food restaurant such as McDonald’s or KFC do not provide healthy food.
On the other hand, modern market like Fair Price and Cool Storage may be at the state of advantages as they attract customers that want to consume healthy food by selling organic vegetables and fresh fruits and meats. 2. 1. 3 Cultural beliefs in a country Each of a country has its own unique cultural beliefs. Before marketers start their business in a country, they have to understand the cultural beliefs in the country they operate in it. Even though McDonald’s products are standard in all franchises all over the world, they have to accustom to various cultures within which it operates in. n this case, McDonald’s in India came out with veggie-lover’s menu by considering the fact that India is a vegetarian country (Joshua Morgan Brown 2009). They decided not to offer beef products in India due to their local beliefs. If McDonald’s in India fail to suit itself with the cultural in it, they may not be able to do attract customers to purchase their goods. 2. 2Technology Technology nowadays has improved drastically as compared to last decade, where only a few people can connect to the internet. In the past, the technologies like online ads are not really popular because only minor people can use it.
But nowadays, that technology and the internet is improved significantly and is being use be the by most of the people around the world. Marketers now can provide customers more convenient way of purchasing products and services by the improvement of technology. 2. 2. 1Advantages of technology With electronic magazine, marketers can expand their product reach across the country, rather than just focus in local. In this case, online shopping is one of the examples. Customer can purchase their needs from online shopping overseas. All they need is to pay for the shipping fees for it to ship across the country.
However some marketers even provide free shipping to their customers in order to attract them for buying the products. For example, G-market provide free shipping if the purchase made is more than a certain costs. Improvement of technology enable an organisation to market their product online in order to make customers’ life easier. For example, McDonald offered 24 hours delivery through online service, and payment can be made by credit card or VISA. By doing so, customers that are busy and have no time to go out to purchase meals are attracted by McDonald 24 hours delivery service. 2. 2. 2Disadvantages of technology
Increasing number of online shoppers causes worries to the other competitors that do not provide online service. Online shopping appears to be more attractive as they provide cheaper goods and almost the same quality as those who own the shops. Marketers who do not offer online service may be in the state of disadvantage as lesser customers choose to purchase in their shop when they can have it cheaper through online. For example, G-Market is a Korean online shopping, which consisted of clothing and accessories, beauty and sports, electronics, baby and food, and home and books (Gmarket n. . ). All products in G-market are sold at reasonable prices so that customers sometimes prefer to buy it online. As a result, shops that do not offer online service may be in disadvantages, as the price is usually more expensive as compared to those online products. Besides that, those advertisements using website may appear to be tacky and sometimes this kind of advertisements may mislead as a spam to online user. Some companies advertise their product through unknown website, which lowering its brand image or reputation of their company.
Moreover, most of the internet users do not really pay attention to the advertisement on the website, because they are only attracted to the content on the website itself. 2. 3Demography Demography is the statistical studied that give pertinent information about various group. The behaviour consumer may affect by age, size, gender, population density, geographic distribution and other vital statistics. (anselmo 2011). Marketers need to understand the demography of an area in order to provide the right goods and services to citizens.
In 1990’s, Singapore’s experienced aging population, which contributed to the population’s increasing number of interest in healthcare (Ames Gross 1993). At that point of time, Singaporeans became health conscious, and demand better healthcare service and facilities. Marketers understand the need of residents, try to increase the number of healthcare and other support for the elderly. There are also many health insurance system helps its citizens in covering healthcare costs. At the same time, Banks also try to target those groups or senior citizens by offering more interest rate or other gift.
For example, OCBC bank in Singapore first to offer reverse mortgage loans for private properties in 25 august 2006, which aims to help the senior citizens during their retirement (OCBC Bank 2006). Marketers introduce all these is to attract the market of senior residents. When marketers face increasing number of children, they use different method. In this case, fast food restaurant such as McDonald’s came out with “Happy Meal” which aims to attract younger age of 4 to 8. “Happy Meal” is smaller in size as compared to the normal meal, which is more suitable for children.
It also provides healthy food choices such as fruits and milk, which are essential nutrition for children. Moreover, free toys came along with every meal purchase. Marketers understand that children love toys and need to consume nutrition food, which is the reason why McDonald’s came out with “Happy Meal”. 3. Conclusion In conclusion, marketers have to be aware with the changing environment in order to provide the right services and products. A company has to change its services and product to suit the needs of customers and satisfy customers’ wants.
In order for a company to do so, it has to understand the targeted market and identify what the market wants, so as to satisfy the market needs. Word Count : 1358 4. References Lists Anselmo, Donna. 2011. Marketing Demystified: a self-teaching guide. US: McGraw-Hill. Brown, Joshua Morgan. 2009. McDonald’s India Goes Veggie. Seeking Alpha. Accessed April 28, http://seekingalpha. com/article/139607-mcdonald-s-india-goes-veggie. Hayden, C. J. 2011. Web Technology in Marketing: Friend or Foe? About. com. Accessed April 5, http://marketing. about. com/od/internetmarketingstrategy/a/webtechnology. htm. Gmarket. n. . Gmarket in English. http://english. gmarket. co. kr/ (accessed May 1, 2011). Gross, Ames. 1993. Opportunities In The Singapore Medical Market. Pacific Bridge Medical. Accessed April 30, http://www. pacificbridgemedical. com/publications/singapore/1993_opportunities_in_the_singapore. Hayden, C. J. 2011. Web Technology in Marketing: Friend or Foe?. http://marketing. about. com/od/internetmarketingstrategy/a/webtechnology. htm (accesse OCBC Bank is Singapore First Bank to Introduce Reverse Mortgage Loans For Private Properties. http://www. ocbc. com. sg/download/media_releases/2006/August/250806ReverseMortg