 Welcome learners, this MBA program marketing management course unit 2 we are going to discuss and this unit 2 is all about marketing environment. What we are going to do? We shall discuss the contents which is given in the self-learning material. We shall divide the contents into 3 parts, part 1, part 2, part 3 and we shall make the division onto these 3 parts based on the learning objectives which are given at the beginning of your self-learning material on unit 2 of marketing management course. So this unit 2 is all about marketing management and in the part 1 video we shall complete the entire unit in 3 videos. In the part 1 of the video, we shall take up these 2 learning objectives. Explain the need for environmental scanning that is one objective of this discussion and the second objective of this discussion that after having this discussion, after having this presentation and reading your self-learning material, you should be able to know about the micro-environment of a given company or a given organization. What is micro-environment? What is it all about? Let us first discuss the need of environmental scanning. What is environmental scanning? You see, an organization is a part of the society. An organization exists in business environment. In your MBA curriculum, we discuss about business environment. It has got different components. Say, world trade organization, international trade, national environment. An organization exists in a surrounding environment. It is a part of the environment. So marketing environment consists of the factors and process which affect the organization's ability to develop and maintain successful transactions and relationship with the company's target customers. Not only target customers, it could be the other stakeholders also. Suppose the legal environment based on the industrial labor registrations, we shall have to discuss about the factories act, industrial dispute act and how these registrations affect the employees' welfare, the payment of their salaries, etc., is not it? The marketing environment consists of the factors and process which will influence the ability of an organization to meet the requirements of its target customers and these customers could be any stakeholders. Because environmental process, if the environment is congenial, if the environment is good, business environment is good, favorable, the organizations are expected to do better. If suppose in an economic recession is going on, say right now, the COVID-19 situation, the environment is not congenial. So many of the business organizations have faced the difficulty in sustaining their activities. So marketing environment basically talks about the factors and process which affect the performance of a business organization to meet the requirements of its target customers and these customers are broad based. An environmental scanning is what it is the process of gathering data about those factors and process which constitute the marketing environment. So there are different components of the marketing environment, say market economic environment, political environment, legal environment, social environment, ethical environment, there are different components of the environment. So environmental scanning is basically looking for the data, looking for the grand picture, what is going on, what kind of process are likely to affect us and what kind of process we can factor, we can capitalize so that we can move better, we can grow. So scanning depends on sources of data, we can think about secondary sources of data, we can think about having primary sources of data, we can have our personal observation, we can administer some research schedule, we can conduct some market service, by those also we can get the pulse of the customers or we can read the newspapers, we can subscribe to some web repositories about the kind of demand movement in various part of the world, in various part of the country, what is the overall economic position. We can see the Reserve Bank of India site, we can see the National Council for Applied Economic Research site, we can subscribe to some research journals and based on these primary and secondary sources, we can collect the data and that is how we go for environmental scanning. So it is basically the process of assessing and interpreting the data gathered through environmental scanning, that is environmental analysis, scanning we shall scan and based on that we shall analyze. So they are marketing manager, we are responsible for knowing the pulse of the environment, so the kind of information the data we shall collect from the environment has to be precise, has to be accurate, has to be reliable, has to be from some credible sources, it has to have a high degree of credibility, it has to be relevant as of now, we cannot collect or afford to collect lots of irrelevant details and it needs to be comprehensive, not just only just very one particular thing only, but we have not been able to get the entire picture, so that is not the thing. So the way we are going to collect the information, those information will have to have these characteristics, it has to be accurate, it has to be reliable, it has to be relevant, it has to be comprehensive. So these marketing environment can be divided into two categories, one is micro environment, the other one is macro environment. Macro environment encompasses the micro environment, the organization is there immediately around the organization, the micro environment and immediately around the micro environment, the macro environment. So macro environment influences the micro environment and micro environment directly influences the business organization. So as I have told you in this particular video short video we shall also discuss the components of micro environment. So what is this micro environment? Micro environment consists of the forces close to the business organization close to the company that affects its ability to serve its customers. The elements of the micro environment include say participants that perform crucial business activities. Suppose the retailer, retailer performs a crucial business activity. The distributor performs a crucial business activity if we cannot get the services of the distributors, retailers, dealers, wholesalers, etc., etc., we will not be able to function. So they are our micro environment. Likewise the suppliers who will supply the things to us say bankers or the advertising agencies or our competition they are the immediate influencers of our business that is micro environment who will be having immediate influences on the functioning of our organization who will have immediate influence on our ability to serve our customers. So micro environment comprises the factors and forces with respect to as I have told you the organization itself. Suppose ours is an organization who is highly reputed and we have got very skilled workforce compared to us. There is suppose our competitor who is not that reputed who does not have a skilled labor force means what? Our internal working environment is much much better than our counterpart, our competitor. So within us also immediately around us at the same time within us also within the company also that is also part of the micro environment. Within the organization means strategy, policies, employees then the other component of micro environment are the suppliers. Suppliers will supply the raw material they will supply the equipment, machineries they will provide the right kind of supplies at the right point of time. They will create the time utility they will give the place utility to the suppliers. If they do not provide the right kind of suppliers our vendors if they do not provide the right kind of things components suppose the Maruti car it depends upon the kind of tires it kinds depends upon the mirrors, the bearings, the nuts, the bolts. So it is all depend upon the suppliers the kind of the things that they are going to provide to the manufacturer. In addition to the suppliers the intermediaries the intermediaries include the CNF agent, the distributors, the wholesalers, the retailers, the dealers they are quite important they are the intermediary service providers. Then the customers the entire business for whom an organization exists an organization exists for the customers. So customers directly influence the functioning of an organization. Customers are an important part of the micro environment of a business. Our competitors their actions their reactions their strategies their policies will influence our ability to satisfy our customers. Then another component of micro environment is the general public. General public suppose we were working in say in Assam we are working in an industrial part so there will be some other units also in the industrial part so they will be part of our marketing environment. Suppose we may be having some adopted villages of our company we may think about going for some corporate social responsibilities to reach out to the general public these are all important aspects of the micro environment. So dear learners environmental forces imply micro environment, macro environment, micro environment these are the basic constituents. It comprises of company suppliers intermediaries customers competitors and the public. We shall discuss more about the other aspects of this marketing environment in the subsequent part of the presentation. Thank you.