Analyzing the Marketing Environment

"We have repeatedly emphasized that excellent companies take an outside-inside view of their business".

Kotler goes on to say that these companies have an excellent system for monitoring and evaluating the environment that the company competes within and then makes decisions based on this knowledge that gives the company the best opportunity to survive and grow - adapting to a changing environment.

How many times have we comes across organizations that do something just because they have always done it that way ! In some cases, it is very difficult to change the product offering etc and in others, e.g. service companies, it is very quick and easy to change.

Kotler covers both the micro-environment and the macro-environment and provides examples of what should be included in both. He also provides some examples where companies have systems for monitoring the marketing environment and the impact it is likely to have on the organization.

This is clearly another area that is as important to successful companies today as it was back in 1988 and most likely was before and will be for the future.