The core marketing system of a business, including vendors, the business, marketing intermediaries, and target customers. The success of the company is also affected by the presence of the competition and other segments of the public. Management has to monitor and plan for all of these factors to serve and satisfy the specific set of needs of a chosen target market.

• Selection of suppliers:

A company has to choose suppliers that offer the best combination of quality, delivery time, guarantee and low cost. Let’s say that a company dedicated to the manufacture of sweets has to buy sugar; cocoa, caramel, milk powder, etc. Labor, equipment, fuel, electricity and other factors of production will also be obtained. If the company’s product has a good market, it can opt for continuous production. If you are a growing company, you cannot go for bulky production but only supply goods against confirmed orders. In either case, the choice of providers is determined by an important factor called “cost.” Of course, you can never compromise on quality and therefore the company has to decide whether to buy the supplies or make its own.

A company’s relationship with suppliers must be long-term, as any sudden change in the supplier’s environment will have a substantial impact on the company’s marketing operations. Sudden supply shortages, labor strikes, and other events can interfere with delivering on delivery promises to customers. This will result in a decrease in sales in the short term and a loss of goodwill in the long term. Backorders cause you to lose customers and, over time, your trust. Business enterprises should plan for an alternative source of supply to avoid the risk of over-reliance on any one supplier source.

• Company

The marketing department must work in conjunction with the other departments of the company, namely finance, production, personnel, and research and development, as it designs and implements its marketing plans.

Finance department: inquire about funds available to carry out marketing plans.

Production department: to measure market demand and decide on the supply of products based on demand.

R&D – development of new products.

• Marketing intermediaries:

Channel members are the link between the company and customers. Agents and intermediaries find customers who are wholesalers or retailers to acquire the title and sell the merchandise. There are also physical distribution companies that help in the storage and transfer of goods from the warehouse to the destinations. Marketing executives should deal with these intermediaries wisely to improve the operational efficiency of the marketing function. Logistics companies, carriers, and passenger planes help move goods from one place to another.

• Competitors:

All trading companies in a particular market segment compete for the same resources and customers. An automobile manufacturing company in the automobile industry has to compete with other automobile manufacturers as well as with two-wheelers. This implies that the competition can present itself in different forms and each company has to identify the potential threat of the competitors, study their activities and capture their movements to win the competition.

• Public

A company has to keep an eye on people’s preferences to satisfy their needs and companies are also expected to give something back to society in the form of social welfare measures. People belonging to different cultural groups with different attitudes, lifestyles and tastes have a great impact on the ability of a company to achieve its objectives.

Markets, whether homogeneous or heterogeneous, must serve to satisfy customers by providing more than what is asked for. This discussion is relevant to the factors that govern the microenvironment of a marketing plan and there are greater forces in the external environment that are looming large, for example, social, political, legal, environmental and the like, that have to be managed tactically by the management to overcome challenges and seize the opportunity.