now let's now let's turn our eyes to now let's turn our eyes to the macro environment and in the macro environment we have uh six different elements let me get this oops there we go we have six different elements in the macro environment that will influence our relationship with our consumer uh culture demographics social trends technological advancements economic situation and then last but not least the political legal environment you will need to know these for the exam so here's a nice um way to remember CD step CD step culture demographics social trends technology economic situation and last but not least political and legal environment let's take a look then at these individually we'll start with culture and culture can be broken up into two different areas but when we talk about culture we're talking about a group that shares meaning beliefs morals values and customs and it's usually transmitted by words literature in the institutions obviously we have country culture so definitely when we have people come from outside the United States and come here they say definitely there's an American culture that we have uh so that can be certainly visible and and and translated um and oftentimes difficult to navigate uh for other others but then there can be Regional culture the United States is a very large country and I've I've lived in several different regions of the country I grew up in the Northeast much of my family is in the Southeast much of my education was done out in the southwest um and certainly each of those areas has their own different region actually Florida in its own right has different regions definitely the central Florida area is different than the Panhandle is different than South Florida it's interesting uh McDonald's and when you go to McDonald's in South Alabama where my family is from you can get grits up in Boston you can get a lobster roll out in Albuquerque you can get green chili so they have they differ their variations of their menu according to the cultur cultural area so certainly culture can influence how we as a company in our marketing efforts can interact and relate with consumers we have to be aware of that when we get to our Global Marketing chapter we'll talk more about that on a global on a country level but certainly even within a country we have our regional cultures demographics in when we get to our STP chapter our segmentation targeting positioning chapter we'll talk about different segments and how different segments perform differently in consumer behavior and in their consumer decisionmaking efforts usually and this is very important remember this usually when we talk about demographics there are four main categories of of demographics age gender education and income so when we talk about demographics it's usually those four main categories of data that we are referring to age gender education and income of course race and ethnicity as well will fall into that when we talk about income and particularly in relationship to Consumers we know that if we can determine a consumer's income level we then have a pretty good estimate of what the purchasing power is if we know their income we readily know if they are able to purchase our product um when a consumer when a segment when we are developing a product we need to know not only are they willing to purchase our product but are they capable of purchasing our product this one factor in demographics will tell us if they're capable of purchasing our product this income okay and so our marketing opportunities will change across income distribution so it tells us if a particular segment is one we should be marketing to we need to know are they capable of purchasing our product I am certainly willing to purchase a Jaguar I may not be capable so therefore I may not a segment that Jaguar would Market to so they have to be both willing and capable if they're going to be an actual segment that I would Market to we know that one of the main drivers here in the United States of income levels is education it has proven time and time again that the higher level of education for a consumer will lead to a higher level of incomes so if we're unable to determine a consumer's income level but we can figure out their determine their education level and particularly what category or what college what major their education level was then we can also predict their income level which then again can also tell us if they're capable of purchasing our product so once again if we're unable to know directly what their income level is if we're able to determine or discern their education level then we can predict their purchasing capability or their purchasing Behavior since Co and it was happening even before Co but even more so since co uh there really have been many shifts in gender roles uh in the household and that means then that also there have been shifts in who makes purchase decisions and which types of purchase decisions and that means that we're seeing more gender neutrality in those purchase decisions which means then marketing from the marketing standpoint we are also undertaking gender neutrality in marketing due to those shifts in gender roles uh more so that's occurred more so in the last 10 years it was already happening before Co but co co really pushed that along and so that's really been a a big change more so here in the United States than other countries um but definitely here in the United States also here in the United States I mentioned race and ethnicity as a category under demographics uh we've seen uh a a change in our diversity here in United States we've had uh Approximately 80% of our our population growth in the next 20 years is expected to come from what has traditionally been termed minority communities and so by 2030 the Hispanic population in the US is expected to reach more than 72 million and and continue to grow from there and so that means then that as far as race and ethnicity and the diversity the dispora in the United States has continued to uh become uh um much more diverse if you will another part of our macro environment influencing our relationship with consumers our interactions with consumers and how marketing has changed uh are social trends and social trends along these three categories and I'll talk about them in depth in one moment sustainability health and wellness and then efficient utilization and distribution of food let's first talk about sustainability U you know globally the United Nations sustainability development goals FOC focus on social issues in order to meet basic needs and um you know they develop the the fair trade mark uh in order to make certain that this can act as a certification to uh that is put on products that are determined to promote sustainable farming um and therefore then there is that that look at um the social and environmental standards for products uh particularly in our less developed countries so sustainability uh has definitely uh come to the Forefront which is good uh which means though that companies uh have undertaken that as an issue Proctor and Gamble the the world's largest consumer uh package goods company has truly been working on uh trying to figure out more sustainable ways to produce their packages um to the point of making reusable packages trying to test reusable packages so you'd have a a liquid Tide container that you would take to the store and refill um but they've really tried to step up and be a leader in sustainability and I think that's what it will take is it will take the leaders in the companies in the Fortune 500 companies in order to have a significant needle move in sustainability then we have health and wellness uh health concerns not just in in uh less developed countries but also in the more established comp countries are critical uh I think and and that's we're seeing more need for uh labeling to become even better on food uh there's a push now to have the nutrition label move to the front of packaging uh instead of on the back of packaging and for it to become even more clear uh for consumers uh so that they can understand what is going on with the food that they're they're eating and healthy living and products or services that support Healthy Living is a thriving Market um I think that's why you see products like pelaton uh do so well in in the marketplace they now have subscription services and and you can rent the machine rather than buy the machine so I think that's why you see healthy living as a thriving Market Marketplace and then finally on this particular um issue on we have efficient utilization and and distribution of food right now we do have unequal distribution of food and this is yes here in the United States uh we have unequal distribution of food uh you know one of the challenging things we have still are food deserts where you have places where people do not have the cars or the right public transportation to get to grocery stores and so then you end up with what are known as food deserts and so trying to eliminate food deserts for individuals hopefully trying to reduce food waste the amount of food that goes to waste here in the United States particularly is just startling um then I travel to other countries I I I've told you before I love to travel and when you travel to other countries and you see the the difference in food waste from the United States other countries it's just shocking and then diet related food products and we're we're seeing we're seeing that uh increase in particularly in the amount of of prescription medications related to that uh which has become an entirely different Market in this past year uh as we can see Weight Watchers um even getting involved in that um moving ahead with a purchase of a company to assist them with that particular um move and then technological advances remember I talked about uh when we were we were talking about the progression of marketing and we talked about going from value-based marketing to technology augmented marketing and certainly technological advances have helped us become that much closer to consum consumers but I will argue also that technology may have also pushed us away from consumers because there's so much we can do on a computer or on a mobile device or with AI or with other types of things that it's almost as though sometimes we go oh I have to talk to a human recently I was traveling I was checking into a hotel and I was looking for the front desk agent but there was it looked like a big ATM machine but it actually was the screen and it said this was the the check-in and I stepped up and then this man appeared on the screen and and I ended up checking in completely with him and the keys came out of a little drawer on the bottom and I asked him where he was and turns out he was somewhere in Atlanta but I was in Savannah Georgia and so I did this whole remote process with him and he said oh no someone's on site in case you have any problems but the checkin and checkout was all remote I put my credit card in to the another slot and everything was completely remote and and I thought because I do my research in Services marketing I just don't know about the service quality of that or the human contact element of that uh so it was just interesting so yes we have our technological advances and uh we have our um artificial intelligence if you ever have a chance definitely travel to Japan um many restaurants in Japan now you will sit and a robot will come and serve you right at your table uh and and the vending machines the things you can get out of their vending their vending machines are out of this world and Technology there in Japan uh but certainly here in the United States we we certainly have what's known as Internet of Things and you have the Samsung refrigerator and the Samsung phone and everything's connected and so you don't have to remember what you have in your refrigerator your refrigerator will tell your phone what you have and don't have and uh it's all connected and so we certainly have techn technological advances but I don't know the services person in me is wondering are we completely eliminating that human touch which goes back to the customer relationship management that we spoke about uh earlier when we talked about the the growth and the pathway of marketing and what does that mean for privacy concerns and when this technology is uh hacked uh so there's my soap bux speech about that then we have economic situations certainly we we know of inflation we are living through inflation right now and the cost the higher cost of things and interest rates where all always waiting to see what the federal government will do with with interest rates even if you don't travel outside of the the United States foreign currency fluctuations affect you because so many businesses you interact with do Global business which means that the products they're buying on the open market they're buying at whatever the current foreign currency rate is so even if you're not never traveling outside of of the United States you still are being affected by foreign currency rates so please keep that in mind so the economic situation both here domestic and abroad influence our interactions with the customer at the center of that um uh immediate environment that we have talked about and and and our consumers are are hurting we are hurting all consumers as well uh with the way the economy is and continues to go up and down in the roller coaster fashion last but not least our our political and our legal environment um we we have uh many rules and regulations that uh in theory protect companies and consumers with Fair competition uh consumer protection and then also industry specific regulation particularly on the Food and Drug Administration side and hopefully that does do that hopefully it does protect us in in that uh and we know there are always going to be loopholes that some company some industry will find but for the most part particularly here in the United States I I think that our our legal system and and the laws that we have in place uh does do that and uh we we are protected in that way as far as the exam goes in your in your book you have many different laws listed there you don't have to memorize any of those you will not need to know any of those at all you do not need to know any laws you do not need to memorize any laws at all okay so last last but not least in our macro environment uh is the environment responding to the environment and we we know living here in Florida we have multiple environmental sources uh forces rather that we must respond to particularly let's say when we're in Hurricane Season that changes everything and and and how we we must respond quickly accurately sensitively to cons consumers and particularly when it disrupts our supply chain our distribution system trying to we have here in here in Florida price gouging laws hopefully keeping prices down for our consumers during that time period so definitely responding to the the actual environment hopefully protects our our consumers um and then also uh trying to positively work with the environment and I love when I get to travel up in Northern Florida in the Panhandle and you see all the solar Farms along I 10 uh that's a wonderful thing we are the Sunshine State so to be able to take advantage of the wonderful Sun we get 300 plus days a year and to be able to harness that solar energy here in Florida uh for the good that's a wonderful thing so it's it's good to not only react to the environment here but to harness that in a positive way that finishes up chapter five and uh that gets us ready for exam one make certain to watch the module two wrap up and take a look at the study guide okay let's get ready then for our exam