Principles of Marketing, 17/e

Part 2: Understanding the Marketplace and Consumer Value (Chapters 3–6)

3 Analyzing the Marketing Environment

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So far, you’ve learned about the basic concepts of marketing and the steps in the marketing process for engaging and building profitable relationships with targeted consumers. Next, we’ll begin diggingdeeper into the first step of the marketing process—understanding the marketplace and customer needs and wants. In this chapter, you’llsee that marketing operates in a complex and changing environment. Other actors in this environment—suppliers, intermediaries, customers, competitors, publics, and others—may work with or against the company. Major environmental forces—demographic, economic, natural, technological, political, ...