The centerpiece is always consumers.
Consumers may be influenced directly by the immediate actions of:
The firm is therefore, indirectly, influenced by the macroenvironment, which includes:
First factor that affects the consumer is the firm itself
Successful marketing firms focus on satisfying customer needs that match their core competency
Marketers can use analyses of their external environment, like the SWOT analysis, to categorize any opportunity as attractive or unattractive.
country culture: entails easy-to-spot visible nuances that are particular to a country, such as dress, symbols, ceremonies, language, colors, and food preferences, and subtler aspects, which are trickier to identify.
Best answer is to establish a universal appeal within the specific identities of country culture
regional culture: the influence of the area within a country in which people live
affects many aspects of people's lives, including the way they might refer to a particular category like soft drinks
demographics: information about the characteristics of human populations and segments, especially those used to identify consumer markets such as by age, gender, income, and education
Studies show that higher levels of education lead to better jobs and higher incomes.
For some products, marketers can combine education level with other data such as occupation and income to obtain a pretty accurate prediction of purchase behavior.
Health concerns, especially those pertaining to children, are prevalent, critical and widespread.
New advertising guidelines therefore require marketers to product food in reasonably sized portions, basic nutrients, have less than 30 percent of their total calories from fat.
Consumers' interest in improving health opened up several new markets and niches focused on healthy living
green marketing: involves a strategic effort by firms to supply customers with environmentally friendly merchandise
Many consumers, concerned about everything from purity of air and water to the safety of beef and salmon believe that each person can make a difference in the environment.
Demand for green-oriented products have been a boom to the firms that supply them.
Marketers encourage consumers to replace older versions of washing machines and dishwashers w/ water and energy-saving models.
greenwashing: exploiting a consumer by disingenuously marketing products or services as environmentally friendly, with the goal of gaining public approval and sales
More and more consumers worldwide sense a loss of privacy.
Consumers are upset about this issue, as such marketing industry as a whole sought to find solutions and self-regulations that would calm customers, regulators, and still enable marketing firms to gain access to invaluable information about consumer behaviours.