Marketing managers in every industry need to understand and recognize the environmental factors that can have an impact on a product. Such factors play a significant role when it comes to planning a marketing strategy. After all, the success of the company depends not only on the internal elements but rather on a mix of external and internal causes. The purpose of this paper is to identify marketing environmental factors that influence products in the weight loss and nutrition industry.
First of all, it is important to determine why the external planning is vital for industries. According to researchers, it “attempts to understand how all of the elements of the marketplace relate to each other” (Burnett, 2014, p. 109). In other words, it helps to understand the marketing environment and to develop a strategy that will bring the most benefit to a company. Burnett (2014) identifies a number of environmental concerns that are important for marketing managers, which include technology, customer, competitor, ethical/legal, and economic, political, demographic, and social trends (p. 109). Regarding the weight loss and nutrition industry, three of the most essential factors are customers, demographic and social trends. There are several reasons why these elements are crucial. First and foremost, the experts note that once an organization has decided to become more customer-focused, the first thing it has to do is to start segmenting its customers (Vlerick Business School, 2013). Moreover, researchers acknowledge that “marketers identify specific segments of the population and position their products to appeal specifically to that segment” (AtlantisUniversity, 2014). The weight loss products target a specific audience, which has a particular goal. After all, the obesity rates in America became high in the 21st century.
Regarding the demographics, marketing managers mostly focus on appealing to young women, as the majority of their products are consumed by them (Piernas et al., 2016, p. 8). Therefore, most of the advertisements feature skinny and fit women who are shown as the ideal of a female body. Companies position their products as tools that can help to achieve that ideal, which appeals to the needs of their customers. In general, people want to buy delicious, affordable, and healthy food, which can help to reduce weight quickly and safely. There are countless exercise and diet programs, supplements, beverages, sweeteners, meals, and other products that claim to help with weight loss. Such diversity helps to satisfy the requirements of every consumer. It does not only prove the importance of understanding the demographic of customers but also makes weight loss a million-dollar industry.
Furthermore, when it comes to following social trends, companies also can employ these factors into their marketing strategy. For example, Bogueva et al. (2017) note that “concerns about food quality, including organic and green, are attracting significant research attention in the marketing” (p. 1). Moreover, the origins of the food also become important as more people are interested in buying natural or vegetarian products. Weight loss industry successfully uses this trend for organic food to advertise their products as more commercials can be seen that promote low-calorie, GMO-free, or vegan options. For this reason, it can be concluded that three environmental factors that were described above definitely affect business strategies, adverts, and products in this industry. Marketing managers seem to understand the consumers’ main demographic, customer needs, and social trends that they value.
References
AtlantisUniversity. (2014) McDonald’s Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. [Video]. Web.
Bogueva, D., Marinova, D., & Raphaely, T. (2017). Reducing meat consumption: the case for social marketing. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 29(3), 1-24
Burnett, J. (2014). Introducing Marketing. Global Text Project.
Piernas, C., Aveyard, P., & Jebb, S. A. (2016). Recent trends in weight loss attempts: repeated cross-sectional analyses from the health survey for England. International Journal of Obesity, 40(11), 1754-1759.
Vlerick Business School. (2013) Prof. Deva Rangarajan: Customer Value Proposition. YouTube. [Video]. Web.