ABSTRACT
Irrespective of the size and scale of their operations, business organizations operate within environments which either directly or indirectly influence how they plan, organize and execute their marketing activities. Similarly, regardless of whether they are small or mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) or large corporations, these environments contain certain factors and forces that combine to impinge on how they relate to their customers. Therefore, it is logical to state that having an in-depth understanding of the marketing environment is fundamental to the study of SME marketing. Now, let us first consider a working definition of ‘marketing environment’ that will guide our discussion in this chapter. We may simply define marketing environment as the totality of factors, actors and their impacts that presently influence or in the future might influence how marketers go about satisfying the needs and wants of their target market.
