Question

Analyse the global marketing environment and explain the impact it has and what challenges there are based on the STEEPLE model

Lee, K. & Carter, S., (2012), Global Marketing Management, 3rd edition, Oxford University Press

Answer 1

The STEEPLE model requires analysis through - Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal and Ethical.

In terms of Social aspect, when we look at Global marketing environment, marketing should look at the social aspects to ensure the marketeers target all social groups. There should not be any marketing campaign which might discriminate based on social parameters like - race, color, class, gender, etc. as each of these segments are huge markets and any company which campaigns and discriminates a particular segment, will be losing out a huge market segment.

Technological - Companies will need to ensure they are able to use the latest technology in different geographies to take become a market leader. Leveraging technology in the form of digital marketing is a key essential in the modern day to success as a B2C company in the current business landscape.

Economic - Companies need to be aware of macro economic settings in different geographies to target the appropriate geography. Without understanding macro economic variables, it will be very difficult to estimate future growth of certain markets and companies might miss out on suitable markets if they do not follow the basic economic variables.

Environmental - With the Climate Summit and the growing awareness of global warming and more informed citizens world wide, companies need to market their product while keeping in mind the environmental consequences. A company which produces a product with negative environmental consequences, might end up damaging the success of all their product lines.

Political - Its very important for companies to understand the political situations in different geographical landscape. Understanding political environment helps a company to gauge the risks it has in particular geographies and based on that decide the ideal marketing investment for a given geography.

Legal - With big companies getting involved in legal conflicts globally, its a moral responsibility for companies to be aware of local laws and operate within the ambit. Like automobile companies needs to operate under the ambit of Euro-IV norms, similarly companies in different sectors needs to have a good understanding of the legal issues and thus work according to legal requirements. The companies need to market their product based on the legal set-up to avoid getting into any major legal battle with a given country.

Ethical - This is an implicit understanding that companies will be operating ethically. Companies which are publicly known to run through un-ethical practices receive severe flak and it impacts the brand image and thus the revenues of the company too. Companies like Tata in India has been successful also due to the positive ethical values it has been able to propogate, apart from the core competencies of the company.