Creation of Market Opportunities and Threats

The marketing environment creates opportunities or threats in two basic ways.
First, changes in the marketing environment can directly affect specific markets. A
market is a group of people or organizations with common needs to satisfy or
problems to solve, with the money to spend to satisfy needs or solve problems, and
with the authority to make expenditure decisions. Specific markets can be defined
at many different levels. For example, Chrysler’s overall car market includes the
new car, the sports car, the luxury car, and the minivan markets. Customers in
each of these markets desire a specific type of car and have the money to spend to
satisfy that need and the authority to make the purchase decision.
Changes in the marketing environment can make markets larger or smaller or
sometimes create new markets. Market opportunities typically arise when markets
increase in size or new markets are created. For example, population growth,
increases in income, and lower interest rates should present market opportunities
for Chrysler by expanding the pool of people who need some type of car and have
the money to purchase one.