Marketing+Environments

** So this is basically the entire section...just working on fixing the citations **
While analyzing the marketing strategies of any product, it is essential to consider the six marketing environments. These environments consist of the economic/ financial environment, the competitive environment, the technological environment, sociocultural environment, the political/legal environment and geographical environment. Economic/ Financial environment- While launching or marketing a product it is important to pay attention to the financial health of the economy, for example whether the economy is in a recession or not. The gross domestic product, the rates of inflation or deflation are other important factors that need to be considered while promoting a product. Moreover, the political/legal environment also influences the economic environment of a country because the government, which is responsible for the political/legal environment is responsible for establishing and maintaining rules and regulations, which have an affect on how businesses are taxed and how they make money. (cite prof). Since, the economies of United States and Canada are still in the process of emerging from the recession (cite articles), it is critical to ensure that //Beats// are priced accordingly so that an average music lover can afford to purchase the headphones and enjoy the ultimate experience that //Beats// headphones have to provide. Political/ Legal environment- The views and ideas of a political party in power has a very big influence on businesses; for instance, taxation rules and regulations, and rules regarding advertising of products and services. An example of this is the code of advertising a product or service, regulations regarding limiting the operations of foreign companies and restricting imports etc. In Canada, especially in Ontario, consumers pay two types of taxes, the G.S.T and P.S.T on the products and services that they are purchasing. This has an impact on the price that they are going to pay for the product, for example, $200 headphones would approximately become $230 after taxes are included (cite bestbuy for price). This will affect the purchasing decision of consumers when they have other competitors like Sony selling similar products for a much cheaper price. In this scenario, //Beats// has to consider a strategy where they could adjust the price of their product so that it attracts the consumer towards their product, while at the same time providing the consumer with an experience that helps them become loyal to //Beats// when they hear and see the difference that the //Beats// quality has to offer its customers. Sociocultural environment- When promoting or launching any product or service it is crucial to consider the changing sociocultural environment of any region. An example of this is multiculturalism in Canada. Learning about the sociocultural environment of a particular place will help a company establish important regulations about language in their publications and broadcasts. The sociocultural environment also influences how a company uses gender, race, music and slang expressions to target its demographic. All these considerations are important in creating a promotional strategy that is appealing to the target market. The current promotional strategy of //Beats// involves targeting its cliental through popular music industry artists such as Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, Eminem, and Diddy, to name a few. Moreover, other marketing strategies involve promoting the headphones at the Ellen Show, thus targeting a wider audience, not just limited to fans of the above mentioned music artists. (cite []). Technological environment- The technological environment is an important component of how businesses communicate with their customers. If you are a technology firm than it is important to consider whether or not the technology is accessible by the target market. For instance, whether you are going to target your audience through the internet; if a company decides to do this then they have to consider whether their target demographic has access to internet or not. In the case of //Beats// their target market is audience that have access to the Internet and music. Furthermore, the other sector of its target audience consists of music producers and artists and they also have access to all the required technology needed and they can easily afford the best that is available in the market. (cite beats site) Physical/ Geographical environment- The geographical environment is an important part of e-commerce because the way a company conducts business can be influenced through a country’s geographical environment. If a company main source of communication with customers and retailers is through the Internet, then a situation like a hurricane, tsunami and an earthquake can have an affect on the communication and can ultimately have an affect on the business. In this scenario, //Beats// needs to ensure that their retailers, such as Best Buy and Future Shop, and manufactures have enough material available on hand just in case they run into problems such as a hurricane in one part of country which does not let shipment reach its required destination on time. The competitive environment- The fast paced changing technological and business environment affects the competitiveness of any firm. In an intense competitive environment firms experience a pressure from other companies who are trying to copy their product, sell a similar product below their price, and make use of the same themes and strategies for advertising the product. In order to gain competitive advantage over other firms a firm needs to utilize every resource present in the technological environment, consider the growing and changing trends of the economic environment, monitor the political/legal environment and come up contingency plans to gain a competitive advantage over other company’s in the same industry. //Beats// has been trying to gain a competitive edge by personalizing the headphones according to the artists and also providing the regular customer with the opportunity to do the same by choosing the style and colours that they would like their headphones to have. (beats cite)