ZQMS-ARC-REC-002

ASSIGNMENT COVER

REGION: MATABELELAND SOUTH

PROGRAM: BACHELOR OF ARTS AND MEDIA STUDIES INTAKE: 14

FULL NAME OF STUDENT: NQOBILE MPOFU PIN: P1139827C

MAILING ADDRESS: 1253 DULIBAVHADZIMO, BEITBRIDGE

CONTACT TELEPHONE/CELL: 0774010725 ID. NO.: 02-050604R 02

COURSE NAME: MEDIA MARKETING COURSE CODE: BAMS 208

ASSIGNMENT NO. e.g. 1 or 2: 1 DUE DATE: 09/09/2018

ASSIGNMENT TITLE: Environmental analysis is the life blood of any successful media
marketing endeavour.

Discuss.

MARKER’S COMMENTS: ______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

OVERALL MARK: _____________ MARKER’S NAME: ________________________

MARKER’S SIGNATURE:_______________________________ DATE: ___________

In many years environmental analysis has been of concern and of utmost
importance especially on the political , social , and the business world .The
environment is a core feature of the media business .In order to get in and be able
to deliver in the media world one has to be dependant upon the attractive power of
the environment ,which are the primary resources of audiences ,competitors
,suppliers ,and also the regulators .This means that you will have to analyze your
business environment ,understand it and also have ultimate control over it. We then
can say that environmental analysis is the life bloodline of any successful media
marketing endeavour.

Environmental analysis can be defined as “the managerial process by which you

set out to understand the industry in which you operate” thus making sense of what
you will find and inplement the result of your findings .Duncan (1972), defines the
environment as “the relevant physical and social entities outside the boundary of
an organization that are taken into consideration during organizational decision
making”.The business dictionary defines environmental analysis as “evaluation of
the possible effects of external forces and conditions of survival and growth
strategies”. Churchman (1968),defines environment of an organization as “ those
factors which not only are outside the system’s control but which determine in part
how the system performs”.Another definition is by Dill( 1958 )who defines
environment as “the more specific forces which are relevant to decision making an
transformation processes of the individual organisation

”. Ansoff (1984),defines environmental analysis as “the process in which

environmental stimuli are selected and organized into patterns which are
meaningful to the organization in the light of its current and future needs and
interests “.

Environmental analysis is the life blood of any media marketing endeavour

because it is a useful strategic tool that makes one understand and identify the
elements which affect the media marketing organization’s performance both
external and internal .The exercise of environmental analysis makes it possible to
analyse the opportunities and threats present in order to help in the decision
making process thus also with targeting correct strategies within the organization.
Looking at today’s market , we see that it is facing many challenges. Many new
things are coming up and altering every decision made in a short space of time
.There are some factors that are controllable and some beyond our control but
because one would have made an analysis , this may help in the strategies to be
implemented thus being able to control a lot of things.

A media marketing company must have many tools the company can use to
analyse a challenging situation.First there are factors that may affect the normal
operations of a media marketing firm , also known as the media marketing
environment .In order to deal with media marketing factors which include both the
task and general environment .The task environment as defined by Thompson
(1967) as “closest to the organization and includes the product ,supply , labour and
capital markets ,wherein direct transactions are conducted with customers
,suppliers ,employees ,financiers and competitors”, makes market environmental
analysis show the negative and positive factors and how they can be managed
accordingly .Thompson (1967) also defines the general environment as
“..institutions and communities where broad cultural , social ,political and
technological movements are at work ,that can in time come and have a marked
influence on the values and lifestyles of ordinary people ,as the world business”.
An organization ’s environment has macro and micro environments .The macro
environment has elements that are close to the day to day operations of the
organization which Thompson laid out in the definition of task environment ,these
include suppliers ,distributors ,customers ,competitors ,and ale the public for
example ,Bulawayo Metro ,its micro environment would include advertisers
,readers ,competitors(the herald, Harare metro and The Daily news),newspaper
vendors ,staff ,the bank and newsprint suppliers .Looking at the second ,macro
environment which has elements such as legal ,technological ,economical ,cultural,
social and cultural forces .

In the organization ,should put into consideration designing marketing strategies

meaning that it should have a marketing department that takes into consideration
the other divisions of the organization for example the public relations department
,the advertising department ,the print department .All of these organizational
departments should be interrelated to form the internal environment .the
environmental analysis should be able to strategize and have a harmonious internal
environment, for example ,a departments must work together for the success of the
organization.

Environmental analysis makes you take note of suppliers that are available in the
market which means the different organizations and people who supply or provide
the organization with raw materials , supplies , parts and services to provide the
organization so as to supply to customers goods and media services to the customer
because if the supplier is not considered it may cause delays and dissatisfaction to
the customer thus causing media marketing problems

We can say that environmental analysis is the life blood because it helps in making
the organization take note of the intermediaries .Marketing intermediaries help the
media organization to promote , sell and distribute its products to the media
consumer , these include agents and distributors of media products.Intermediaries
and marketers of an organization should be partners not just simple channels for
the marketing intermediaries to optimize the importance of the total system, like
the suppliers ,the intermediaries form a vital component of the organizations value
system.According to Marson (1939),and Chandler (1962) , it is believed that the
market structures influenced the conduct of business organisations.

Environmental analysis enables the organization to take note of the competition

available in the market in order to ensure that the marketing concepts are always
successful and that they provide great customer value and satisfaction than its
competitors .The marketing department ought to always ensure to gain strategic
advantage by positioning their media products strongly against competition and
thus ensuring the choice of the media consumer to its products and services.

Again , the analysis of the organizations environment takes note of the publics ,the
groups that have a direct impact on the media marketing organization to achieve its
objectives.Churchman 1968 defines the environment of an organization as “ those
factors which not onlyare outside the system ‘s control but which determine in
part ,how the system perfoms”. From these are ,the general public which ensures
the image of the media marketing organization ,the media publics who make sure
and carry the views on news ,features and editorial opinion , the gorvenment which
must be considered at all times , ,the internal public which constitute of workers ,
volunteers ,managers and also the board of directors , the financial public which
ensures the organizations financial stability , the environmental and consumer
organizations which constitute the citizen-action publics .

A media marketing organisationshould consider its customers because “no

customers no business”.Customers are a very important and the most crucial
participants in the organizations micro environment .The environmental analysis
makes the organization to be concerned about the constantly changing
requirements of its customers thus keeping in touch with its diverse and changing
needs by designing and implementing an appropriate information gathering
sysem.The media marketing organization must always influence their decision by
offering media products and services that would delight and satisfy the customer
needs.

In the environmental analysis , the macro environment is of vital importance to as

it includes the major societal forces that doesn’t only affect the organization but
also its competitors and micro environment.This is an invironment that needs
diverse strategies as it is difficult to influence though it doesn’t mean that the
organization should be passive .The main forces of the macro environment are the
political environment , the economic environment , the social and cultural
environment , the technological environment , the ecological environment , the
ethical environment and lastly the legal environment.

The political environment is one of the most unpredictable forces of the

environment.Media marketers should always monitor the change in the political
atmosphere because the political diverse changes can affect the organisations
maketing .These constitute the laws , gorvenment agencies and also pressure
groups that affect and influence organizations and individuals in a society.The
political factors take the countrys current political situation not excluding the
global political environment .Some factors are the entry mode regulation ,
gorvenment policies , the gorvenments political stability and taxes , laws and
tariffs for example ,In Zimbabwe during the yesteryears ,the daily news owned by
the opposition party of the running gorvenment did not follow the political laws of
the country by publishing raw information which then was against the law thus
leading to its closure .
Environmental analysis also gives a lot of considerable information by looking at
the economic environment to ensure its success.This consists of its factors that
have influence on consumer purchasing power and the consumers spending
patterns and is about the level of demand in the economy .These are of importance
to the marketers because they influence product,service demand ,costs , prices and
also profits.The other aspects are income distribution , the level of inflation ,
economic boom and recession , investment policies , saving habits and interest
rates .Economic factors also include the economic growth rates , level of
employment and unemployment not forgetting the cost of raw materials for
example fuel , the foreign currency availability an exchange rates and also the
inflation rates though these may vary depending on the country.

One of the most challenging but vital elements of the environmental analysis is the
socio-cultural environment .It is the ever changing and diverse tastes in media
products and services , behavioral purchasing patterns and also the marketer and
consumers priority to be able to understand and prioritise these ever changing
trends .The socio-economic environment include the dermographic factors which
refer to the structure of the population in terms of age ,gender , size of families ,
wealth concentration and income distribution .these factors are the ones that
determine the strategies in the marketing mix .Some are the socio-cultural factors
which involve the attitude ,prevalent behavior and the shared beliefs in a society
.This also incorporates changes in taste and fashion.Another are the social
responsibility and ethis which form the culture ,ethical beliefs and how society
believe marketers should operateactually has an effect on how people pecieve on
the marketing initiatives.Also looking at the trend of health awareness these days
make the factor of changes in attitudes towards health a factor in social and
cultural environmental analysis a thing to consider because health and fitness have
become a cut across society.

The technological environment is maybe another most unpredictable factor that

creates new technologies thus creating new product and market opportunities .The
speed of technological change is becoming increasingly rapid and this marketers
need to understand how the development in technology might have an effect on
them for example , the rate of new inventions in information and mobile
technology , internet , e-commerce and mobile commerce.
For a successful environmental analysis on media marketing , the marketer should
ensure considering the ecological environment as one of its factors because it is
how its organization interacts with and affects the natural environment ,these
issues relate to resources depletion which is the impact of the use of raw materials
.Also pollution of the three types , noise , environment and eye pollution are of
great concern in a media marketing organization.

The environmental analysis also looks at the ethical environment , meaning it looks
at the moral principles that define right and wrong behavior in marketing .These
are the ethical issues formalized in laws and guiding regulations to enable the
media organization to conform to the standards of society .Media marketers are
expected to obey these laws ,for example , most ethical decisions would be on the
product , price , promotion and distribution issues.

The last of the macro environmental analysis factors is the legal environment.This
factor changes with the political environment and the existing laws that will be
enforced at that particular time .The legal environmental analysis information
enables the organization to set basic rules on how to run the day to day businessin
a particular society.Some examples of the laws can be companies act , laws
regarding to media freedom and advertising and consumer protection act.

It is of essence that the environment around us has many factors that have impact
on the company’s performance .Environmental analysis helps to determine the
roles certain factors play in the media marketing business .This is called the
PESTLE analysis and it focuses on the external factors of the business .The
environmental analysis helps analyse and helps come up with the exact strategies
to employ in the different challenges that come up in the life of an organization.
REFERENCES

1. Barker , M (1994) The marketing book . 3rd edition ,Avon .Butterworth –

Heinemann .The bath press.

2. Clark , N. and Riddel E .1992.The sky barons ,The man who control the global
media .London .Methuen.

3. Kotler ,P and Armstrong , G.2008,Principles of Marketing , Prentice Hall.

4 .Morden , R.A 1993 ,Elements of Marketing .London .The Guernsey Press.

5. Sylvester , G S 2014 ,Preliminary certificate in marketing ,study text.