Strategic Marketing Management

Marketing is the process of identifying the changing requirements of customers and providing them the right products and services in a way better than the company's competitors. Knowledge of the environment in which it operates helps a company to forecast the changing needs and preferences of its customers. The marketing environment includes all the forces that influence the marketing activities of a company. The marketing environment can be broadly divided into micro, macro and internal environments. Environmental scanning is the monitoring and communication of external information within the company. The process of environmental scanning includes five steps which are interdependent.

They are: the identification of the information needs of the organization, collection of information, analysis of information, communication of results, and decision making. Information for environmental scanning can be obtained from both internal and external sources like annual reports, journals, magazines, etc. Information can also be collected through marketing intelligence and marketing research.