Last week for your Assignment, you focused on the entire macro environment for your selected company. This week the focus is the task environment, which includes the various constituency groups involved with the sponsoring, creating, and/or distributing of the product or services. These groups may include distributors, suppliers, marketing agencies, or other companies that are helpful in the selling of the products or services.
This week, you will conduct a task environment audit, which is an orderly examination of a company’s macro and microeconomic environments, marketing objectives and strategies, and marketing activities. It should cover all major marketing activities of your chosen company’s business, not just a few trouble spots. In other words, it should paint a complete picture of marketing efforts at the company.
To prepare for this Assignment, you will need to collect additional information on your chosen company or conduct outside research using online resources to assemble the data, as outlined in the Assignment submission instructions that follow. You should cover each particular topic in a way that is most meaningful for the organization that you have selected.
By Day 7
Submit a 2- to 3-page task environment audit for your chosen company, using each of the following numbered items as headings for your analysis. You should include the scholarly, peer-reviewed sources from your annotated bibliography (Week 1 Assignment) to support your assertions as to the significance of the task environment audit, as well as other scholarly literature to help you gain insights into any of the major issues you identify for your selected company.
Each of the following main areas should be part of this audit, but the questions listed are only guidelines as to the type of information that you are gathering. It is important to cover each particular topic in a way that is most meaningful for the organization that you have selected.
- Markets
- What is happening to market size, growth, and profits?
- Customers
- Who are the customer segments?
- How do customers rate the company and its competitors on reputation, product quality, and price?
- How do different customer segments make their buying decisions?
- Competitors
- Who are the major competitors?
- What are their objectives, strategies, strengths, weaknesses, and sizes?
- Distribution and Dealers
- What are the main trade channels for bringing products to customers?
- What are the efficiency levels and growth potentials of the different trade channels?
- Suppliers
- What is the outlook for the availability of key resources used in production?
- What trends are occurring among suppliers?
- Facilitators and Marketing Firms
- What is the cost and availability outlook for transportation services, warehousing facilities, and financial resources?
- How effective are the company’s advertising agencies and marketing research firms?
