Analyzing the Macroenvironment

Needs and Trends
Enterprising individuals and companies manage to create new solutions to unmet needs. Dockers
was created to meet the needs of baby boomers who could no longer fit into their jeans and wanted
a physically and psychologically comfortable pair of pants. Let’s distinguish among fads, trends,
and megatrends.
• A fad is “unpredictable, short-lived, and without social, economic, and political significance.”
A company can cash in on a fad such as Crocs clogs, Elmo TMX dolls, and Pokémon gifts and
toys, but getting it right requires luck and good timing.21
• A direction or sequence of events with momentum and durability, a trend is more predictable
and durable than a fad; trends reveal the shape of the future and can provide strategic direction.
A trend toward health and nutrition awareness has brought increased government regulation
and negative publicity for firms seen as peddling unhealthy food.Macaroni Grill revamped its
menu to include more low-calorie and low-fat offerings after a wave of bad press: The Today
Show called its chicken and artichoke sandwich “the calorie equivalent of 16 Fudgesicles,” and in
its annual list of unhealthy restaurant dishes, Men’s Health declared its 1,630 calorie dessert
ravioli the “worst dessert in America.”22
• A megatrend is a “large social, economic, political, and technological change [that] is slow to
form, and once in place, influences us for some time—between seven and ten years, or longer.”23
• To help marketers spot cultural shifts that might bring new opportunities or threats, several
firms offer social-cultural forecasts. The Yankelovich Monitor interviews 2,500 people
nationally each year and has tracked 35 social value and lifestyle trends since 1971, such as
“anti-bigness,” “mysticism,” “living for today,” “away from possessions,” and “sensuousness.”
A new market opportunity doesn’t guarantee success, of course, even if the new product is technically
feasible.Market research is necessary to determine an opportunity’s profit potential.
Identifying the Major Forces
The end of the first decade of the new century brought a series of new challenges: the steep
decline of the stock market, which affected savings, investment, and retirement funds; increasing
unemployment; corporate scandals; stronger indications of global warming and other signs of
deterioration in the national environment; and of course, the rise of terrorism. These dramatic
events were accompanied by the continuation of many existing trends that have already profoundly
influenced the global landscape.24
Firms must monitor six major forces in the broad environment: demographic, economic, socialcultural,
natural, technological, and political-legal. We’ll describe them separately, but remember
that their interactions will lead to new opportunities and threats. For example, explosive population
growth (demographic) leads to more resource depletion and pollution (natural), which leads
consumers to call for more laws (political-legal), which stimulate new technological solutions and
products (technological) that, if they are affordable (economic), may actually change attitudes and
behavior (social-cultural).