The marketing environment consists of the task environment and the broad environment.

The task environment includes the immediate actors involved in producing, distributing and promoting the offering. The main actors are the company, suppliers, distributors, dealers and target customers. Includes in the supplier group are – material suppliers and service suppliers such as marketing research agencies, advertising agencies, banking and insurance companies, transportation and telecommunication companies. Included with distributors and dealers are agents, brokers and others who facilitate finding and selling to customers.

The broad environment consists of six components: demographic environment, economic environment, natural environment, technological environment, political-legal environment and social-cultural environment. these environments contain forces that can have major impact on the actors in the task environment.

The major responsibility for identifying significant market place changes falls to the company’s marketers. More than any other group in the company, they must be the trend trackers and opportunity sectors.

Marketers are keenly interested in the size and growth rate of population in cities, regions and nations; age distribution etc. Exposure population growth has major implications for business. A growing population does not mean growing markets unless these markets have sufficient power nonetheless the companies that carefully analyse their markets and find major opportunities.

National populations vary in their age mix. At one extreme is Mexico a country with a very young population and rapid population growth. At the other extreme is Japan, a country with one of the world’s oldest populations. Milk diapers, school supplies and toys would be important products in Mexico. Japan’s population would consume many more adult products. A population can be sub divided into six age groups – pre-school, school-age children, teens, young, adults age 25 to 40, middle-aged adults aged 40 to 65 and older adults aged 65 and up. For marketers, the most populous age groups shape up the marketing environment.

Marketing require purchasing power as well as people. The available purchasing power in an economic depends on current income, prices, saving, debt and credit availability. Marketers must pay close attention to major trends in income and consumer-spending patterns because they can have a strong impact on business especially for companies whose products are geared to high income price-sensitive consumers.

The deterioration of the natural environment is a major global concern. Steel companies and public utilities have hard to invest billions of dollars in pollution-control equipment and more environmentally friendly fuels marketers need to be aware of the threats and opportunities associated with four trends in the natural environment, the storage of raw materials especially the water, the increased cost of energy, increased pollution levels and the changing rate of the governments.