Jun 4

Companies sometimes utilize pro-active methods to cope with the high uncertainty.Instead of adapting their organizations to the changes, they prefer to change those elements in the environment causing changes. Some tech­niques widely used are: advertising and public relations, political activity and lobbying, and trade associations.

Advertising and Public Relations: Advertising is an effective way to man­age demand for company products. The objective is to influence customers to buy the company’s product by changing their tastes and purchasing behavior. Public relations attempts to influence public opinion about the company itself. Under the influence of advertising and public relations activities administered by the company, customers and the public may change their purchasing behavior toward company’s products and build positive opinions about the company image.

Political Activity and Lobbying: Organizations attempting to influence government legislation and regulations for their interests best describes politi­cal activity. One of the most widely used political activities to affect state legis­lators and other national or local governing bodies is lobbying, that is a political activity operated by professionals In a continuous and professional way. Many organizations pay lobbying companies to express their views to effective gov­ernment individuals and institutions.

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Jun 2

As a part of the external environment, the industry environment is closer to the business people and firms and has a more direct effect on them relative to the general environment. Industry can be described as a group of companies that produce similar products which are close substitutes. These companies fight for the same customer acceptances for their similar products. The impor­tant factors in the industry environment are the customers, suppliers, competi­tors, substitutes and the labor market.

Customers: Customers are the potential buyers of the products that are supplied by the firms in the industry. They acquire the goods and services pro­duced to satisfy their particular needs. Managers and business people consid­er the potential customers together with their particular needs. Three major groups of customers are: consumers, retailers and wholesalers, and Industrial or institutional buyers. The companies monitor the customer needs and wants and select a target market to develop a marketing mix that will eventually satis­fy the customer groups. Read the rest of this entry »

Jun 1

The general environment consists of the elements in the broader community that can influence the industry and the companies within it. As mentionec earlier, we group these elements as political and legal, economic, demograph ic, socio-cultural, technological and international segments. None of the companies in any industry can control these segments. These segments Influence  the companies and industries by providing both opportunities and threats of them

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