Environmental Factors

Environmental Factors

Environmental factors can be political, social, ecological, cultural, technological and ethical in nature. Any organization that develops a product or service that they want to market domestically or globally must consider what the impact each of these factors may have for them. Not considering these factors can result in the failed attempt to market a product, which may be successful domestically, in other countries where there is a significant market potential.

PepsiCo is a large company which conducts both domestic and global marketing and is very well known. One of the main products and one that I use everyday is Pepsi. PepsiCo also produces Quaker Oats, Lays chips, Gatorade, and Tropicana orange juice.

With the world so focused on ecological factors in today’s environment it is only wise for PepsiCo to align itself with the majority. 2005 has seen PepsiCo immersed in ecological environmental factors. Domestically PepsiCo has pledged themselves to the Greenhouse Gas Cuts, hoping to reduce gas emissions enough to equal the use of 5 million automobiles (PepsiCo.com). In June 2005 PepsiCo opened a new state-of-the-art Frito-Lay plant in Texas which is environmentally friendly and will serve as a model of resource conservation through innovations in renewable energy, alternative lighting, energy efficiency standards and environmentally intelligent choices (PepsiCo.com). Internationally PepsiCo’s beverage and snack has implemented a number of water projects such as the one used in Europe, India and Latin America where rainwater is harvested to help replenish aquifer supplies (PepsiCo.com).

Without complete market research a company can encounter humorous and often embarrassing disappointments when it comes to cultural environmental factors. In 1960, Pepsi’s marketing managers learned a tough lesson about the language differences and how a successful English based product slogan can become lost in translation. The Taiwanese consumers were reported to be taken aback by the Pepsi slogan “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation”, which translated into Taiwanese reads “Pepsi will bring back your ancestors from the dead” (Feingold, 2000). This marketing mistake caused obvious embarrassment among Pepsi’s top marketing managers, though this would not be the last time that they were too hasty in their pursuit of the international marketplace.

Technology can influence domestic and global marketing decisions and marketing and public relations common sense, especially when it opens any number of doors to being able to tap into a vast global marketplace. Information technology is increasingly becoming important as an enabler to being able to operate efficiently, interfacing with consumers and maintaining financial accuracy and effectively managing resources. PepsiCo has embarked on a multiyear business process transformation initiative that includes the delivery of a SAP (a computer system that will link all of PepsiCo’s systems and processes) enterprise resource planning application (PepsiCo.com). This application will help to divert the possibility of PepsiCo not being able to process transactions accurately and effectively or remain in