Indroduction
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the elements of macroenvironment and microenvironment with respect to their implications on marketing plans. In order to be able to do this we shall first look at a definition of the marketing environment and the marketing plan before analysing those forces within the marketing environment which seem to be relevant for Macleans' marketing plan. Examples from industry will be given to support and illustrate the arguments. It will not be expanded on the marketing plans itself.
Dibb & Simkin (1991) define the marketing environment as "the environment that surrounds both the buyer and the marketing mix" and which "consists of political, legal, regulatory, societal, consumer movement, economic and technological forces".The marketing environment can be divided into the microenvironment and the macroenvironment. The microenvironment, on one hand, consists of suppliers, distributors, customers and competitors, all of which operate in the firm's immediate environment, and the macroenvironment, which on the other hand, can be grouped under economic, social/cultural, political and legal, physical, demographic and technological forces affecting not only the firm itself but and also the actors in the microenvironment (source:Jobber (1998)). Each of this forces has implications on marketing and the marketing planning process. Before analysing them we shall define the marketing plan. It is this a short-term (one-year) plan which concentrates on specific and quantifiable actions and is derived from a three-year strategic marketing plan (sometimes just called the "strategy") (source:McDonald, Malcolm H. B. (1989)). …
