A．social cultural factorsB．economic factorsC．legal poli……
TEXT A
Because markets are often
unpredictable, successful marketing is rather like hitting a moving target.
Consumer tastes vary depending on fashions and trends, causing the demand for
products to fluctuate with alarming frequency. It is because of this uncertainty
that we need to analyse and know as much as we can about customers and markets,
and also about our own businesses.
blot all marketplace
opportunities are real opportunities for every business. Only those which a
business can successfully exploit -- those which match its capabilities -- come
into this category. The process of analysing marketing opportunities therefore
begins with an internal analysis of a business itself -- a process which must
include not only the specifically market-related aspects of its operations, such
as sales and advertising, but also other aspects, such as financial resources,
work-related aspects of its operations, such as sales and advertising, but also
other aspects, such as financial resources, work-force skills, technology and so
on. A useful framework for undertaking this internal analysis is to divide these
aspects into four areas: customers, sales, marketing activities and other
factors. We must determine who the business’s customers are, how many there axe
and what their requirements are. We must then estimate how many products the
business can be expected to sell in order to determine what product development
will be required. Product development includes market research, which is vital
to ensure that the business’s products are right for the market, and to enable
the business to set pricing and discount policies which will maximise sales.
Finally, we must examine how all of these factors relate to other aspects of the
business that may affect sales levels, such as management and work-force skills
and corporate goals.
Having carefully analysed these internal
factors, it is time to look at the outside world. An external analysis also
needs to examine carefully a wide range of areas -- such as legal/political
factors; economic factors; cultural/social factors; technology; institutions and
competition There may be restrictions on the production or sale of particular
products: for example, the age restrictions that exist in many countries on the
sale of alcohol; and tobacco will obviously influence the size of the market for
these products. Rising or falling interest rates affect people’s disposable
income, and may alter demand and therefore market size. Development of the
society and its population, and how people’s requirements will he affected, must
also be considered. New technologies may affect both people’s expectations and
other products that are likely to become available. Consequently it may be
expected that traditional, social and economic institutions will alter over
time, so that people may no longer buy, sell and distribute products in
traditional ways through wholesalers and retail outlets; instead they will order
products from home using the latest computer and cable television technology.
And lastly, we must consider any potential competition from other businesses at
home or overseas which produce similar products, and whether or not our business
would be able to remain profitable even with this competition.
Identifying the competition is in many respects the most important aspect
of an external market analysis and, to be useful, it must be as objective as
possible. Many marketers greatly overestimate or underestimate the competition
that their business will face from other businesses, especially if they look at
the competition from their own standpoint rather than seeing it through
the eyes of their customers. In other words, many people identify competitors by
looking at apparently similar products, how they are made and what features they
have, rather than at the benefits these products have for users and at ways of
meeting market needs. With personal computers, for instance, this approach would
mean assessing competitors on the basis of the type of microchip circuit used
and the elegance of the software. A much more useful comparison would focus on
the ability of the various computers to provide what the personal computer user
wants: ease of use, flexibility and the ability to grow with the user. This way,
we are much less likely to overlook competition from businesses that products
which appear to be different from our own, but which produce similar benefits
for customers.
When the internal analysis is taken together with
the external analysis, the result is an all-round picture of the current
situation. This is usually known as a situation analysis or marketing audit.
Developing this analysis requires a mass of information, which is the raw
material for analysing market opportunities in order to identify- the most
promising.
Possibly the most powerful, and certainly the most
widely used, technique for structuring the analysis of the information is the
SWOT analysis. This refers to Strengths of the organization, Weaknesses of the
organization, Opportunities in the market place, and Threats to it( especially
competitive threats) in the market place.
Strengths and
weaknesses relate to the finding of the internal analysis, as seen from the
viewpoint of the customer -- things it or its product does better than the
competition, and things it does less successfully. Opportunities relate to
findings from the analysis of the external environment. For instance, the trend
among the educated middle classes in many countries to adopt "healthier" eating
patterns opens up demand for a wide range of health feed products. The other
side of this coin, however, is market threats: factors which inhibit demand for
a business’s products. For example, for a manufacturer of highly processed
convenience foods containing chemical additives, the trend towards more.
"natural" eating is a marketing "threat".
It is important to
remember that the attractiveness of a market depends largely on the strengths
and weaknesses of the assessor. For this reason, an opportunity for one business
may well constitute a threat to another. Similarly, the definition of any factor
as a strength or a weakness depends largely on market conditions. The some
organisational factor may constitute a strength in one market and a weakness in
another.
According to the passage, the age range of some businesses’ customers may be limited because of ______.
A．social/cultural factors
B．economic factors
C．legal/political factors
D．factors of state
