Economic Recovery? – Americans Wait… and Wait
Published June 7, 2011 | 
Waiting for Better Times
Way back in 1901, a cartoon was created that featured two excessively gracious and polite friends named Alphonse and Gaston. If you are familiar with the type of characters, each insisted with extremely conspicuous courtesy that the other should always go first. Imagine in your mind that along with the elaborate bowing, scraping, and “you-go-first-ing”, the two characters Alphonse and Gaston never, ever managed to make it through an open doorway.
Economists have a name for the routine made popular 110 years earlier, and that’s hobbling the U.S. economy, they call it “coordination failure.” So it goes like, companies won’t hire because customers won’t spend, and customers won’t spend because companies won’t hire. This market “stare-down” or proverbial dance between business and customer has been going on since way back in approximately December 2007 (almost four years), when the acknowledged worst slump since the Great Depression took hold of the market.
It goes without much saying that many Americans would like someone, 
anyone to make a move so they can get back to prosperity. Yet at the same time, they’ve lost complete confidence in the actions that were designed to build confidence and restore growth — including near-zero overnight interest rates, the controversial bailout of the financial system, a fast weakening dollar, and huge stimulus measures that added to the federal budget deficit and the ever-growing national debt that’s looming like a bogeyman in the night ready to pounce on the economy.
On top of everything else, housing prices in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas dropped again in March to their lowest level since 2003. Something I have been predicting for a couple of years now since the market will naturally reach its lowest point of average home value, and when that point is depends on what the government puts in place to keep it from happening (i.e. tax credits for purchasing homes etc.). The credits are gone so I wouldn’t be surprised to see prices continue to fall this year and maybe into next year, and if allowed it will reach the low point some time after that in 2013 to 2014. 
Consumer confidence continues its downward trajectory falling fast. (To 60 from more than 100 before the recession).
Finally, manufacturing growth is starting to slow and sputter as lower inventory levels are maintained due to consumer spending activity being directed towards both rising fuel and food costs. Further evidenced by the factory index of the Institute for Supply Management falling in May by the most points since 1984.
Meanwhile Americans continue to wait… and wait… and wait…
The Market Environment
Published March 20, 2009 | 
The marketing environment is made up of two environments, number one being the micro environment which is the immediate environment that effects the company’s ability to serve customers, and number two being the macro environment which consist of larger social forces that affect all players in the micro environment.
All groups in a company including Accounting, R&D, Manufacturing, and Top Management are part of a company’s microenvironment, and all of these departments will have an impact on the marketing decisions and actions of the company. For this reason, the marketing manager should try to work closely with these departments and others when establishing a marketing plan.
Distribution channels will also play a role in the microenvironment, with suppliers, middlemen, warehouses and transporters being just a few of the factors that will affect the business, so be aware of these factors and how they will affect you or market planning and decisions.
A question to answer is which customer market will the company operate in including consumer, industrial, reseller, government, and international and each of these markets characteristics should be analyzed on how they will affect the company.
The number of firms that supply a similar product will play a role in the competitive environment, and once you determine the number of competitors, you should then analyze competitive tools that will set you apart from the competition or give the competition an advantage over you, with the first competitive tool that most companies will use being price.
Be aware of the actions of your competitors, and also develop an understanding of the market you are participating in, and what the customers in this market want. A SEPTE analysis is a process that helps in analyzing the macro environment. SEPTE stands for Social environment, Economic environment, Political and Legal environment, Technological environment, and Environmental issues.
Social and environmental factors include demographics and cultural aspects, and these factors affect customer needs and the size of potential markets, and some social factors include population growth rates, population shifts, age structure (youths, young adults, retirees, etc.), and the changing and family structure.
Economic trends can affect the marketing environment in several ways, with fluctuations in real income determining how much consumers will have to spend on discretionary goods and services, and also take into account the income distribution and the average income of your target market. Other economic factors include income, cost of living, interest rates, and savings and borrowing patterns, and these factors can have a substantial impact on the marketplace.
Developments in the political and legal environment can have serious consequences on your marketing efforts, so be aware of legislation regulating business, the effects of government agencies such as the FDA, FCC, or EPA on your company, in addition to growth of public interest groups that positively or negatively affect your business.
Technological factors can lower barriers to entry and influence outsourcing decisions, with some examples of technological factors including R&D activity, automation and rate of technological change, and another factor that may affect the technological environment is if a company concentrates only on minor improvements or major innovations.
In our ever-changing world, marketers should pay close attention to certain environmental factors that could create tremendous impacts on the marketplace; with impending shortages on raw materials, increased cost of energy, increased levels of pollution, and government regulation and intervention all play a role in the environmental marketplace.
How to Master the Recession; Entrepreneurial Strategies for the Good and Bad Times
Published January 13, 2009 | 
Entrepreneurs who have owned their business for very long have learned to appreciate the impact the national economy can have on the business, even at a local level that seems to be in relatively good shape in comparison.
The track the economy will always take goes up and then comes down, and then back up, with the optimism of good times followed by the pessimism of more challenging times, and back up again, leaving the entrepreneur with greater challenges to successfully operate during economic downturns.
The first thing an entrepreneur needs to do is to grow emotional skin thick enough to not only keep from feeling sorry when the economy slows, but also not to get too excited when the economy is going great. A realization and understanding has to be reached that the economy is going to do what it is going to do, and of course there is very little that anyone can do to change the natural occurrence of economic cycles.
Once the entrepreneur gains control of emotions it becomes easier to focus on the process of operating the business in the most efficient way in both good and bad times. Also, when focus and clear thinking is developed, the easier it is to maintain focus and the more creative one becomes, especially when there is some level of discomfort.
The focused mind set of the entrepreneur always looks for ways they can use a poorly performing economy to their advantage, making “lemonade out of the lemons” they have been handed, through innovation which the true entrepreneur is best known for. Not only are customers, products and services thought of differently, but promotional strategies are viewed with an emphasis on adaptation and modification based on the economic changes, or “lemons” the world has thrown at the entrepreneur.
The thing to keep in mind is that when the economy improves, the fruits of the innovative thinking remain in the form of new ideas and concepts within the business, and the entrepreneur has put together a bigger bag of new strategies, systems and processes that can ultimately pay great dividends during both growing economies and recessions.
Entrepreneurs collectively with the other approximately 23 million small business owners in the United States are the economy’s backbone and ultimate solution to moving it in any economic turnaround, whether locally or nationally. Together, the collective entrepreneurial mind set of small business moves from pessimism to optimism, and as people become more optimistic they in turn spend money, and jobs are created.
The best advice to remember is to “think globally and act locally”, take the “lemons and make lemonade”, and always be part of the solution as the economy grows and recedes; economic struggles are fought, won and lost, and people go back and forth between optimism and pessimism. Unexpected events and tragedies will always have an effect on the economy, but how the entrepreneur looks at their business, reacts to challenges and develops innovations will determine ultimate survival and the level of success, which is why any of us make the choice to become entrepreneurs in the first place.