Topics
marketing environment, internal marketing, corporate culture
Teaching Notes
In this exercise, students look at the role of the internal marketing environment when developing a marketing strategy. This activity is best completed in small groups, with a report back to the main class. You should allow around 15 minutes for discussion.
Review the activity below or download the PDF student worksheet
- Student Worksheet: The Internal Marketing Environment
- Instructor Solutions (Members Only): The Internal Marketing Environment = Solutions
Student Discussion Activity
About the INTERNAL Marketing Environment
The internal marketing environment refers to INSIDE the organization itself, in order to help design an appropriate marketing strategy based upon the position and resources of the firm.
When analyzing the internal marketing environment we would consider:
- resources,
- capabilities,
- corporate culture,
- management style and leadership,
- track record of success,
- current strategy, and so on.
However, it is often common that firms neglect an internal marketing environmental analysis and instead focus on its micro environment almost exclusively.
The micro environment consists of the players that make up the industry in which the firm competes, including:
- consumers,
- competitors,
- suppliers,
- retails and distributors,
- various strategic partners, and
- various publics (government, financial, media, society)
In most cases, firms concentrate their marketing strategy development around consumer needs and competitors – but is this the right approach???
Student Discussion Questions
- In your opinion, to what extent does the firm’s marketing strategy need to be based upon the firm’s internal environment?
- Why do you think firms tend to focus more heavily on the micro environment in order to structure and design their marketing strategy?
- If firms rely solely upon the micro environment for their marketing strategy development, with this mean that all firms would end up very similar marketing strategies?
- Think about the components of a SWOT analysis. Where would the internal environment most likely be represented in the SWOT?