A company has to deal with the marketing environment in order to cope up. The marketing environment can be categorized into three: micro-environment, macro-environment and the internal environment. The micro-environment deals with factors that affect the business directly like suppliers and local stakeholders. The macro-environment pertains to factors that are outside the control of the company like technological changes and globalization. The internal environment is what is found in the company itself. The ability of the business to adapt to changes will determine the success of the company. If the company remains stagnant in a changing world, then it will be left behind to die.

With the advent of the internet, the progress of the hardware technology is rapid. It seems it does not allow marketers to catch their breath to develop new strategies. Hardware technology is the development that is occurring to computer systems and the like. Hardware is defined as the internal and external physical components of a computer and related devices. Internal hardware includes the motherboards, hard drives and RAM. External hardware is what we see such as the monitors, keyboards and the like. The computer itself is constantly changing. The internet gave it a mega push to change. Bulky computer sets became compact. Many accessories are removed through the development of touch technology. Phones and computers merge. Computers can be carried anywhere as tablets and netbooks. The change will not stop there. However, these changes might offer convenience to consumers but it poses difficult challenges to marketers.

The evolution of hardware technology entails costs to marketers.  Constantly changing the medium or the channel in which promotions are communicated is costly. Marketers have to customize what they have to communicate in a way that the channel can handle. If the hardware technology rapidly changes, what the marketers are creating and releasing might not be compatible to the media. It results in poor delivery of the business’ message and causes misunderstanding with the consumer.

Inability to create time-appropriate marketing techniques makes the company lose clients.  In a competitive market, timing is essential. The marketers must be able to read the mood of the consumers in order to craft perfect deals. The changes in technology make the consumers harder to read. The bandwagon tendencies of consumers to recent advances in hardware technology make it difficult to understand the buying behaviour of their consumers. The market research that they have conducted can only be used within a specific time period. Beyond the period, all efforts are wasted. Thus marketers must be vigilant to changes in the environment to be able to match their pace to the demand and needs of the market.

The marketing environment is harder to forecasts.  Marketing forecasts allow the company to prepare for future contingencies. However, rapid hardware technology progress made forecasts inaccurate and unreliable. Forecasts aid the company to have a long term plan. The unstable marketing environment forces marketers to plan for the short run only. To address this problem, the business maintains a company website or uses a flash website for promotions, to have a feel of the business environment.  

Read more:

http://www.techterms.com/definition/hardware

http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/marketing_introduction.html