CIM Revision Cards: Assessing the Marketing Environment

Diana Luck

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781136441967
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Designed specifically with revision in mind, the CIM Revision Cards provide concise, yet fundamental information to assist students in passing the CIM exams as easily as possible. A clear, carefully structured layout aids the learning process and ensures the key points are covered in a succinct and accessible manner. The compact, spiral bound format enables the cards to be carried around easily, the content therefore always being on hand, making them invaluable resources no matter where you are. Features such as diagrams and bulleted lists are used throughout to ensure the key points are displayed as clearly and concisely as possible. Each section begins with a list of learning outcomes and ends with hints and tips, thereby ensuring the content is broken down into manageable concepts and can be easily addressed and memorised.

Unit 1

The Importance of the Marketing Environment

Learning Outcomes

Appreciate the diversity of organisation types within public, private and voluntary sectors

Understand dimensions that influence organisations

Understand the nature of organisations and their environmental influences

CIM’s definition of marketing:

the management process which identifies, anticipates and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably.

Key dimensions:

• Competitors
• Customer requirements
• Internal organisational situation, i.e. employees and shareholders
• External marketing environment, i.e. opportunities and threats

Characteristics of organisations:

• Framework of written or tacit rules
• Decision-making hierarchy
• Record of proceedings
• Resources

Organisations can be diverse in the following ways:

• Ownership
• Legal form
• Control
• Sector
• Objectives
• Accountability
• Activity
• Size

An economy is made up of three parts:

1. The public sector
2. The private sector
3. The informal economy

	Public sector	Private sector
Common strengths	Provide essential non-profit-making services	Ownership can lead to better initiative
	Avoid wasteful duplication of expensive resources	Strong motivation to use resources well
	Funds easily raised through taxation	Funds are efficiently and effectively used and monitored
	Can overcome failings in market	Companies tend to respond quickly to market signals
	Employees motivated by public service	Employees are paid by results
	Prone to political interference	May mean ruthless exploitation
Common weaknesses	Monopolies don’t serve public	Competition may end in monopoly through mergers and acquisitions
	Over-accountability may limit entrepreneurship	Competitive over-investment may ultimately be wasteful
	Unions tend to be powerful and taxpayers may have less power	Ignore costs that damage society
	Public expectations of ‘free’ services	Everything has a price!

The public and private sectors constitute a country’s gross domestic product (GDP); three other sectors of the informal economy are:

1. Household economy
2. Voluntary economy
3. Hidden or shadow economy

Classification of businesses:

• Primary sector (i.e. agriculture and fisheries)
• Secondary sector (i.e. manufacturing and energy)
• Tertiary sector (business services)
• Quaternary sector (personal services, i.e. health and education)

Organisations operating within the private sector:

• Sole traders
• Partnerships
• Registered companies
• Cooperatives
• Franchised businesses

The public sector includes Organisations operating within the public sector:

• Public corporations
• Local authorities

	Sole traders
Merits	Drawbacks
Minimum formalities and privacy	Unlimited liability for any debts. No demarcation between owner and business.
Complete control	Raising capital can be difficult and could only be possible from personal sources and putting profits back into business
Favourable tax treatment	Specialised and risky to financial and other services. Could be difficult to get insurance.
Sole trader can be highly motivated and single-minded	Owner may have too narrow outlook for ultimate benefit of business.
Least costly type of business to create	Status of business depends on staying healthy. May lack continuity.
Simple organisation implies that owner can remain close to customers and employees	Owner and employees...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of contents
• Unit 1: The importance of the marketing environment
• Unit 2: The micro-environment
• Unit 3: Analysis of the competitive environment
• Unit 4: The natural environment, the challenges of change and information sources
• Unit 5: The demographic, social and cultural environment
• Unit 6: The economic and international environment
• Unit 7: The political and legislative environment
• Unit 8: The technical/information environments
• Unit 9: Coping with the challenges of the environment