Introduction
A situation analysis is the art of examining the internal strengths and weakness of a company, its external opportunities and the threats. Such an analysis is also referred to as the SWOT analysis. This is a fundamental element that is normally used in improving the market strategies and activities of particular organization and companies. A situational analysis was carried out on the Flamingo cafe, this is a business that deals with preparation of food mostly for breakfast and other light meals. The organization prepares its special product called the flavored cookie. These cookies usually come in many flavors namely orange flavor, mango, pineapple, strawberry and apples. These are all natural flavors that are put into the cookies to enhance good taste of cookies and also to distinguish the products of the flamingo cafe from other products from other organizations. At the same time the cookies are prepared with very low sugar content this will enable the organization to attract customers who are aging, the different flavors serve to attract the customers who are young and in their youthful stages (Berry 2002).
The organization is located at the oxford street, adjacent to the Pepsi distributors in New York. Flamingo cafe can also pass for a restaurant because many other soft drinks are available on request. It
usually serves a number of customers during the different times of the day. The products of the flamingo cafe are usually of a remarkable quality and that is what is helping the organization to have many endless customers.
The main purpose of this particular assignment is to make an analysis of the possible macro-environment for the trends having a heavy impact upon the manufacture and the development of the flamingo cafe. Also the purpose of this analysis is to make identification of the possible opportunities and the threats of the flamingo cafe that are currently outside the organization’s control. The role of marketing is marching the resources and capabilities of the flamingo’s cafe with the opportunities for marketing that are external to the organization. And the understanding of the needs for the customers is vital in achieving of this aim in the flamingo cafe.
The organization is also aware of those factors that are capable of evolving the needs for their customers (Christopher 2003). Whenever the need of its customers change there is always an impact on the ability of the organization to serving its customers. The macro environment comprises of a larger social forces that can affect the community within which the organization operates. These macro environmental forces are usually very powerful and in most cases the organization can do very little to put the forces under control.
The macro-environment elements having heavy impacts on the manufacture of the flavored cookies include the following; economic, political and legal, demographic, natural, technological and cultural. These six forces are very important in the part of information of products and services of a particular organization. These forces have been well discussed in the following paragraphs.
Technological environment.
The biggest change in the environment that affects the flamingo cafe, the manufacturers of the flavored cookies is that of the technological environment. The changes that do take place in the technological environment have the impact of enabling the storage, analysis and even the transfer of information in the fastest way possible (Bateson 2000). The use of this information technology by many of the flamingo cafe customers has anticipated the need for the manufacture to even go to the information centers and libraries to find more information on how the organization can further improve the quality of their product.
The familiarity and knowledge of information technology of the flamingo cafe has enabled the organization to produce best of its products serving its customers with good quality products (Coote 2005). However this development in the information technology has to be closely tracked and made use of by the flamingo cafe so that the organization may continue to offer best products and services. As a result of this, most of the customers of the flamingo cafe will be satisfied by the quality of the products and services, to the flamingo cafe this will enable them to fight their competitors in an effective way. As this helps the flamingo cafe in bettering its products and services, it should be noted that this does not usually come for free, a lot money has to be invested in the embracing of the new technology. It is costly to do this since a lot of money is needed in setting up technological facilities within the organization.
Political environment.
The main elements in political environment that have heavy impacts on the flamingo cafe include the following: the restrictions on importing the electronic data transfer equipment that will enable the organization in many aspects of its operation (Jain 2001). This restriction however has lead company to slowing down its pace of development and manufacturing its products like the flavored cookies. Another element affecting the manufacturing of the flavored cookies is the import duties that are imposed on the equipment that the organization uses to prepare the products. Also the duties on information technology equipments that the organization imports to use in the pursuit of quality product and service delivery. And the other element is the policies of the government that relates to the ownership of research and information centers.
This has really impacted on the flamingo cafe since these information centers are a source of good information that the organization uses in its day to day operations. The political development at the regional level and also globally has to be well monitored so that their impacts may be assessed on the development and manufacturing organizations such as the flamingo cafe. Such impacts usually do slow down the general growth of any organization in all its aspects of operations.
Economic environment
The economic environment influences the power of purchasing of the customers of the flamingo cafe. Therefore this is a fundamental force that will determine the demand of the flavored cookies from the flamingo cafe who are the sole manufacturers of the product. The demand for this product is also influenced by the changes in the customer’s income and also the changes of the customers requirement for the different flavors of the cookies from time to time under economic conditions. In addition, the development of the various sectors of economy has also given rise to the demand of the different flavors of the cookies (Kotler 2006).
This environmental element has big influence on the duties of the imported products and in the some way it has also a great impact on the prices of information technology equipment and products that the organization imports in order to use them. Therefore suggestions have been put forth that the major indication of economic environment such as the national income, prices of index, per capita income, the income from different industries which are related to the flamingo cafe and the exchange rate and many other indicators be continuously monitored and their impacts on the food and beverage industry be assessed are different periods of the financial year.
The socio-cultural environment.
As it is well known, culture has got numerous dimensions. Those ones that are important to the flamingo cafe point of view are the concern for time, educational level, concern for convenience, literacy on information technology use and the concern for accuracy. These can always be on check and many other socio-cultural environmental aspects that has influence on the marketing of the flamingo cafe products and services (Donaldson 2007). The demand for the flamingo cafe’s product is impacted by the changes occurring in the social trends and also how individuals are available and how willing they are to work. And since the organization is manufacturing products with low sugar content, many of the aging people have the option of getting the products supplied to them.
This aging population has highly impacted on the demand for the organization’s products since they are high in population leading to the increased sales. Flamingo cafe has responded to the people’s attitude towards their health by manufacturing products with low sugar content coupled with natural flavors. The changes in the attitudes for example towards those women who are working has had an impact on the demand for those foods that are convenient. This has greatly lead to the preference of many people to start eating from one stop cafe like the flamingo cafe to have their meals. In addition, those changes in the moral attitudes that have involved the shift from individualism of the society that was permissive to current emphasis on the health and the economic security, they are all factors that contribute to the ever changing environment in socio-culture that has been put into consideration by the flamingo cafe in planning for their future.
Demographics
The flamingo cafe is paying a very close attention to the needs of the aging people that is that population of people who are over 65 years of age. This is because the baby boomers are aging at a very high rate and at the same time these people want to be in control of their aging process. Therefore flamingo cafe’s sales has been on the increase because the organization is manufacturing products that have low sugar content that mostly suits the aging population (Hillary 2007). These enables the aging population to continue living longer since their health is well taken care of.
Generally demographic environment is affected by those changes that occur in mix of the age groups in a particular population. And as the larger population grows older the demand for the flamingo’s products increases this is because the products are also highly consumed by the aging people. But because the products have been prepared will low sugar content, it might lower the demand of the same by the youth because most of the youth prefer sweet things. Development of markets such as the ethnic markets can be relevant to some extent in some of the countries which experiences ethnic mix of clients. This usually changes due to immigration factors and many other factors. This has had impacts on the changing demand of the flamingo’s products by different ethnic groups.
Natural environment
The natural environment of the flamingo cafe has also impacted on the organization hugely. The general atmosphere of the place where the organization has been located has influenced the demand for the products of the organization. For example, the natural existence of other competitors in the food and beverage industry has made the organization to be on toes with the kind of the product they deliver to the market. Such a natural force has pushed the flamingo cafe to be the best cafe offering a variety of products that many of its clients desire to have. At the same this is like a disadvantage to the organization because much effort has to be put in ensuring that the quality of their products is good. With the market forces of demand and supply, the organization has been fighting so hard to ensure that the two forces are balanced. And this is the point where company determines the prices of its goods.
Conclusion
The micro environment of the flamingo cafe has been evaluated in the terms of its unsteadiness over which relevant control is realized to the marketing mix (Simonson 2007). This lead to the describing of marketing and the numerous sub-divisions that includes the information found from the place of market of the product in marketing research terms and the forecasting of the particular organization. The macro environment of the organization was examined through the political environment, demographics, economic environment, technological and the socio-cultural environments. It can therefore be said that the six macro-environment do have greater influence not only on the flamingo cafe organization but also in many other organizations.
References
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Christopher, H., (2003). Marketing & Planning, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
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Jain, A., (2001). Marketing Information of Products, New York: St. Martins P.
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Donaldson, E., (2007). Demographics in Organizations, Cambridge: Harvard Univ. P.
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