The microenvironment of a company involves close entities that directly affect the way it provides a product or service to customers. It consists of the following factors:
- The company
- Suppliers
- Marketing Intermediaries
- Customers
- Competitors
- Publics
The Company
Various sectors of the company are taken into consideration when formulating marketing plans. Each department is interconnected and they come together to form the company portion of the marketing microenvironment. These departments work together to discover customer needs and create customer value.
Suppliers
Suppliers provide the goods needed by a company to produce its product and create value for its customers. Marketers have to constantly monitor changes in the cost and availability of supplies and adjust strategies accordingly. When supply costs rise, a company may have to increase the price of its product(s) which could have a negative effect on sales.
Marketing Intermediaries
Marketing intermediaries are organizations that assist in the company’s promotion, sales, and distribution of its products. They are crucial to the ability of a company to deliver value to customers. When chosen properly, they help the company to operate as efficiently as possible.
Customers
Customers form the most important factor in a company’s microenvironment. Every aspect of a company’s operations is intended to create value for its customers, who keep the company in business. Customers could include consumer markets, business markets, government markets, or international markets.
Competitors
Companies constantly compete with their competitors to provide customers with the greatest possible value. Each company adjusts its strategy against competitors based on its size and position. Larger companies take on different positions than smaller companies because they are more relevant.
Publics
Publics are groups that play a role in a company’s ability to operate successfully. They can be divided into the following different types of publics:
- Financial publics
- Media publics
- Government publics
- Citizen-action publics
- Local publics
- General public
- Internal publics
In both the practicum assignment and the market planning assignment, my group chose to use Apple. In terms of microenvironmental factors, top management within the company sets objectives for the firm which are used by the marketing department to develop marketing strategies. Apple uses a number of suppliers in the production of its devices, most notably Foxconn. The link below provides access to one of the company’s webpages where a list of its top 200 suppliers is available. Apple also uses many different marketing intermediaries to market and sell its products. For example, the company’s products are available through its authorized retailers such as Best Buy and Target. There is a wide range of customers that purchase Apple products from individuals to schools to corporations. It has a number of competitors in the consumer electronics market, but most notable of all is Samsung. Apple is involved with a number of different publics and staying in good standing with these publics is crucial to maintaining positive public relations.
Apple suppiers – http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/our-suppliers.html
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