Analysis of the external environment in marketing, and why it is needed.

What is the external environment? What parameters are included in it, and what impact do they have on the choice of a marketing plan?

What is the external environment? This is all that can affect the company and its activities, but does not apply to the company itself. In other words, new laws that are adopted in the country, an increase in the number of children in relation to adults, climate change and the development of electronic commerce - all this is called the external environment.

Why do we need environmental analysis in marketing? First of all, this is done so that the company and the product that it releases are successful in the market. In order to successfully sell, you need to not only imagine who will buy the product, but also understand the conditions under which people will buy it.

If we look at why a company or any of the products it offers crashes, the main reasons for this will be called conditions such as an unsuccessful time to market, or lack of market demand for this product. For example, you do children's skis and offer them to parents of schoolchildren - for physical education lessons. But the climate has changed, winters have been warm for several years, there is no snow, and skiing is not needed for lessons.

Thus, in order to be well able to successfully plan your actions, the marketer must analyze three large segments:

• Macroenvironments to establish what is happening in the country and in the region and understand what will happen in the future.

• Consumer behavior - in order to understand what they need, what their needs are not satisfied, what they need, and also to identify possible new and unclosed niches.

• Market - what is now, what may appear in the future, what is the structure of the market.

It is also important to analyze competitors: who is the competitor and what they offer.

For the analysis of the macro environment, the so-called PEST analysis is used. The first letters of the abbreviation means respectively:

• Political parameters - what is happening in the country and the world, and what it can lead us to.

• Economic parameters - how stable is the economic situation, what can affect it. The possible demand for the product, as well as how the company will position its product, depends on this. In a crisis, more economical goods are good; in an era of economic prosperity, others.

• Social parameters - how a society lives, who enters into it, what is its structure. It is also useful to understand what is in fashion now and what may become fashionable in the near future.

• Technological parameters - new technologies that can help us to be more efficient, and can lead to the fact that our product will become unnecessary.

The set listed above is minimal, sometimes a few more parameters are added to it. Such an analysis is called STEEPLE. Additional parameters are added to it:

• Environment - the environment and everything connected with it. Including how the created product affects the environment.

• Education - everything related to education and human resources in relation to this product.

• Legal - changes in the law, as well as everything related to the law. So, some new laws may affect the ability to use the product, and the lack of the ability to protect their copyrights will significantly reduce profits.

Such an analysis allows marketers to get a lot of useful information for drawing up a marketing plan.