Internet Marketing Intelligence
Chapter 4
Environmental Intelligence
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-1
Objectives
• Define environmental intelligence.
• Explain the phenomenon of environmental
scanning and why it is an essential
analysis that should be carried out by
every organisation.
• Demonstrate the utility of the Internet as a
means for gathering environmental
intelligence for marketing management.
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-2
Environmental Intelligence
• The collection of information about
changing macro-environmental variables,
which is then incorporated into an
organisation’s marketing plan.
• These variables include:
•
•
•
•
•
Political and legal
Economic
Social and cultural
Technological
physical (natural environment)
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-3
Environmental Intelligence:
Information Resources
• Traditional media: journals, reports, books,
magazines, newsletters, newspapers, TV,
radio.
• New Media: web sites, Newsgroups, CDs.
• Professional: meetings, industrial
conferences, board meetings.
• Personal: colleagues, friends and
employees.
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-4
Environmental Scanning
• Looking at information (viewing)
• Looking for information (searching)
• Can vary greatly in scope and style
•
•
•
•
undirected viewing
conditioned viewing
informal search
formal search
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-5
Undirected Viewing
• Browsing through information with little
purpose other than exploration
• Sources are many and varied
• Information comes in and is lost quickly
• surfing the Internet
• changing channels on TV
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-6
Conditioned Viewing (CV)
• Directed exposure, not involving active
search, to a clearly identified area or type of
information
• Researcher is sensitive to particular kinds
of data, and is ready to assess significance
as encountered
• web sites that regularly report on topics
• browsing sections of newspaper
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-7
Informal Search
• Relatively limited and unstructured effort to
obtain specific information for a specific
purpose
• Differs from CV in that information is
actively sought
• Searching Internet by category or using
general keywords
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-8
Formal Search
• Deliberate effort (usually following a plan) to
secure specific information
• Much of the activity performed in a typical
research and development department
• Searching the Internet with exact key words
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-9
Macro-Environmental Web Sites
• Integrated/global information resource web
sites
• globalEDGE™ (Michigan State
University)
http://globaledge.msu.edu/ibird/ibird.asp/
• a web portal for international business
professionals, connecting users to global
information and resources regarding
business activities
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-10
Macro-Environmental Web Sites
• The Politico-Legal environment
• World Wide Web Virtual law Library
http://conbio.net/vl/database/
• comprehensive set of search tools to
retrieve local documents from around
the world
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-11
Macro-Environmental Web Sites
• The Economic environment
• the Australian Bureau of Statistics
http://www.abs.gov.au/
• provides an extensive range of reports and
analytical papers, which examine Australia's
key economic and social indicators
including the latest consumer price index,
gross domestic product, unemployment
rate, retail trade, average weekly earnings,
estimated resident population, and
company profits
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-12
Macro-Environmental Web Sites
• The Socio-Cultural environment
• resources monitoring consumers’
opinions:
– Gallup
http://www.gallup.com/
– Roper Starch Worldwide
http://www.roper.com/
– Yankelovich http://www.yankelovich.com/
– Roy Morgan Research
http://www.roymorgan.com.au/
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-13
Macro-Environmental Web Sites
• The Technological environment
• US Patent and Trademark Office
http://www.uspto.gov/
• for the researcher who wants/needs to
keep track of the latest developments in
any domain of technology, the patent
information available through the US
Patent and Trademark Office is a good
source of intelligence
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-14
Macro-Environmental Web Sites
• The physical environment
• Global Environment Business
http://www.tomorrow-web.com/
• their electronic newspaper (Tomorrow) has
links to news and trends, sector
surveillance, relevant upcoming
conferences, and a directory of related
sources
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-15
Situational Analysis
1. Environmental scan
2. Market analysis
• How do the trends/developments revealed by
the environmental scan impact the market?
• What is the industry structure?
• What is happening vis-a-vis market size,
market dynamics etc.?
3. Competitor analysis
• Who are the key competitors?
• Profile key competitors and their key strengths
and weaknesses.
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-16
Situational Analysis (cont.)
4. SWOT Analysis
• What are key threats to the business have
been identified from the environmental
scan?
• What are the key opportunities? What are
the key strategic threats from that external
environment in the short, medium and long
term?
• In light of those threats and opportunities
and the rest of the above market/competitor
analyses, what are the organisation’s key
strategic strengths and weaknesses?
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-17
Situational Analysis (cont.)
• Perform a situational analysis with an
environmental scan of the aforementioned
information resources
• scan the resources and identify and extract
relevant information
• assess the organisational implications of the
extracted trends and issues
• analyse and prioritise implications as to their
strategic importance
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-18
Summary
• Environmental scanning is the process
whereby information on key macroenvironmental variables is gathered,
evaluated and incorporated into everyday
decision making and long-term strategic
planning.
Copyright  2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Internet Marketing Intelligence by Edward Forrest
4-19