The micro marketing environment refers to the sum of various forces and factors that are closely connected with the enterprise and directly affect the marketing ability and efficiency of the enterprise, mainly including suppliers, marketing intermediaries, consumers, competitors, the public, and the internal environment of the enterprise. Compared with the macro environment, the micro environment can provide more useful information to the enterprise and is also easier to be identified by the enterprise.
Usually, we use the five forces model for micro analysis. The five forces model was proposed by Michael Porter in the 1980s. He believes that there are five forces in the industry that determine the scale and degree of competition. These five forces together affect the attractiveness of the industry and the competitive strategic decisions of existing enterprises. The five forces are the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of buyers, the competitive power of existing competitors in the same industry, the entry ability of potential competitors, and the substitution ability of substitutes.
Suppliers refer to the supply units that provide specific raw materials, auxiliary materials, equipment, energy, labor, funds and other resources required for the production of enterprises. Changes in these resources directly affect the output, quality and profit of enterprise products, and thus affect the completion of enterprise marketing plans and marketing goals. The ability of suppliers mainly affects the marketing effect in the following aspects:
(1) Timeliness and stability of supply;
(2) Price changes of supplied goods;
(3) Quality assurance of supply.
Generally speaking, for trading companies, the cost of goods accounts for a large proportion of the total cost, and the selection of suppliers is particularly important. For industrial and trade-integrated companies, the supplier’s means of production also accounts for the majority of the cost of goods. Large buyers will also pay attention to the supplier system of the manufacturing company. Relatively speaking, trading companies are more dependent on suppliers. There is a saying in the cross-border B2B industry: No reliable factory, no cross-border B2B. Therefore, the factory has great potential bargaining power for trading B2B companies. For example, during the COVID-19 epidemic, the price of meltblown fabrics soared in the short term and the supply was tight. Not to mention cross-border e-commerce, even the domestic market could not meet the demand. At this time, many merchants stopped because they had no goods to sell, and the supply chain became particularly important.