Assessing the Marketing Environment - Module Overview

The Assessing the Marketing Environment module forms part of the Professional Certificate in Marketing. This module aims to provide students with an understanding of the nature and scope of the internal and external marketing environment with broad consideration of the impact of international and global marketing.

Students will be provided with an overview of the significance of the marketing environment within the confines of the PESTEL model, but with consideration of issues including environmental and economic sustainability. The assessing the marketing environment module addresses the key characteristics of the marketing environment and assesses the impact of market forces that are uncontrollable and how an organisation responds to them. Students will also understand how the factors within the micro and internal environment can be manipulated to the benefit of the organisation and its customers. Student that have completed the assessing the marketing environment should be able to demonstrate a detailed understanding of the internal, micro and macro environment with consideration of the key controllable and uncontrollable drivers of change, and the challenges posed to market oriented organisations in today's volatile and dynamic business and marketing environment.

After completing the assessing the marketing environment module you will be able to:

• Explain the nature and scope of the internal marketing environment, including the resource perspective
• Distinguish between the types of organisation within the public, private and voluntary sectors and understand the different influences and challenges they face and how their objectives differ as a result
• Identify and explain the different characteristics of the micro environment and recognise the sources of information required to gain a good understanding of it together with its drivers and challenges
• Assess the importance of and potential impact on a market oriented organisation of key trends in political, economic, social, technological and legal/ethical/regulatory environment
• Consider the implication for the organisations pursuing both economic and environmental sustainability as part of its agenda for Corporate Social Responsibility

The assessing the marketing environment module has four sections.

Section one explores the nature of the organisation and amounts to 15% of the assessing the marketing environment syllabus. Students will evaluate the different characteristics of the internal marketing environment and will consider the challenges facing the organisation in developing the customer value proposition. Students will also be able to explain the classification of public, private and voluntary sectors organisations in terms of legal forms, organisational characteristics, influences and challenges as well as the divorce of ownership and control.

Studying this part of the assessing the marketing environment module will enable students to explain how organisational objectives differ across a range of different sectors and consider the influences upon setting these objectives and the challenges they represent. Students will also assess the comparative strengths and weaknesses of small, medium, large and global organisations in the context of the marketing environment.

Section two covers the micro environment and amounts to 30% of the assessing the marketing environment syllabus. This section will guide students to evaluate the stakeholders that constitute the micro environment within which organisations operate and their importance to the marketing process. Students will also evaluate the micro environmental factors that have a bearing on an organisation's ability to meet customer expectations and generate customer satisfaction. The nature of the interactions between the organisation and its various stakeholders including shareholders, employees, customers, local communities, suppliers, channel members and competitors will be explained.

Students will evaluate the different types and sources of information required to gain an in-depth understanding of the micro-environment and examine the nature, scope and impact of competition policies on the organisation and its marketing environment. Finally students will be able to explain the process for undertaking a detailed competitor analysis and how the analysis influences the marketing decision making process.

The third section of the assessing the environment module constitutes the largest part of the syllabus (40%) and covers the macro environment. Students will be able to explain the importance of the macro environment to the marketing process and be able to identify key sources of information useful in analysing the macro environment.

The social, demographic and cultural environments and, in general terms, their influence on and implications for marketing will covered as well.

This section of the assessing the marketing environment will explain the economic environments within an international context and, in general terms, their influences on and implications for marketing. Students will be able to explain the natural environment and its influence on and implications for marketing.

This section will also assess the potential significance of environmental challenges to marketing in the future and will explain the evolution of the technical and information environments and consider its actual and potential impacts on organisations, employment, marketing and communications. Students will evaluate the impact of economic and environmental sustainability on an organisation's corporate social responsibility agenda including the impact it has on the organisation, its vision, mission and objectives. Further to this, students will evaluate different methods for undertaking analysis of environmental trends and review the emergence of social marketing as an increasing trend in establishing social values associated with corporate social responsibility.

The fourth and final section of the assessing the marketing environment looks at how to undertake a marketing audit and amounts to 15% of the syllabus. Students will learn the process of undertaking the internal and external market environment audit and will be able to describe the meaning and role of various analytical tools in the marketing audit process