Page 88 - Foundations of Marketing

The Marketing Environment, Social Responsibility, and Ethics | Chapter 3 55

Responding to the Marketing
Environment
The sponsors of this ad are
trying to educate drivers about
the dangers associated with
texting and driving.

PR NEWSWIRE/AP Images

environmental forces as uncontrollable remains passive and reactive toward the environment.
Instead of trying to influence forces in the environment, its marketing managers adjust current
marketing strategies to environmental changes. They approach with caution market opportu-
nities discovered through environmental scanning and analysis. On the other hand, market-
ing managers who believe that environmental forces can be shaped adopt a more proactive
approach. For example, if a market is blocked by traditional environmental constraints, pro-
active marketing managers may apply economic, psychological, political, and promotional
skills to gain access to and operate within it. Once they identify what is blocking a market
opportunity, they assess the power of the various parties involved and develop strategies to
overcome the obstructing environmental forces. Microsoft, Intel, and Google, for example,
have responded to political, legal, and regulatory concerns about their power in the computer
industry by communicating the value of their competitive approaches to various publics. The
computer giants contend that their competitive success results in superior products for their
customers with benefits to society.
A proactive approach can be constructive and bring desired results. To exert influence
on environmental forces, marketing managers seek to identify market opportunities or to
extract greater benefits relative to costs from existing market opportunities. The advertise-
ment launched by the National Highway Traffic Safety Commission attempts to bring about
desired results by showing the dangers of texting and driving. The advertisement purpose-
fully covers the face of the man texting to demonstrate how texting can distract or “blind”
people when they are on the road. Political action is another way to affect environmental
forces. The pharmaceutical industry, for example, has lobbied very effectively for fewer
restrictions on prescription drug marketing. However, managers must recognize that there
are limits on how much environmental forces can be shaped. Although an organization may
be able to influence legislation through lobbying—as the movie and music industries are
doing to try and stop the piracy of their products—it is unlikely that a single organization
can significantly change major economic factors such as recessions, interest rates, or com-
modity prices.

Competitive Forces

Few firms, if any, operate free of competition. In fact, for most products, customers have many
alternatives from which to choose. For example, while the five best-selling soft drinks in the
United States are Coke Classic, Diet Coke, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, and Diet Pepsi, soft-
drink sales in general have flattened as consumers have turned to alternatives such as bottled
4
water, flavored water, fruit juice, and iced tea products. Thus, when marketing managers
define the target market(s) their firm will serve, they simultaneously establish a set of com-
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petitors. The number of firms that supply a product may affect the strength of competitors.

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