After reading this chapter you should be able to:

1. Explain how environmental scanning provides information about social, economic, technological, competitive, and regulatory forces.
2. Describe how social forces such as demographics and culture and economic forces such as macroeconomic conditions and consumer income affect marketing.
3. Describe how technological changes can affect marketing.
4. Discuss the forms of competition that exist in a market, key components of competition, and the impact of competition on corporate structures.
5. Explain the major legislation that ensures competition and regulates the elements of the marketing mix.