nts of the marketing environment are competitive, political-legal, economic, technological, and social-cultural environments. The competitive environment is the interactive exchange in the marketplace as organizations vie with one another to satisfy customers. Marketers actually face three types of competition. Their most direct competition occurs among marketers of similar products. A second type involves products that users can substitute for one another. The final type of competition occurs among all other organizations that compete for consumers’ purchases. The political-legal environment is the laws and their interpretations that require firms to operate under certain competitive conditions and to protect consumer rights. Regulations enacted at the Federal, state and local levels affect marketing practices, as do the actions of independent regulatory agencies. At the federal level, the Federal Trade Commission wields the broadest powers of any agency to influence marketing activities. The economic environment consists of forces that influence consumer buying power and marketing strategies. They include the stages of the business cycle, inflation, unemployment, resource availability, and income. There is also the international economic environment. This is important because changes in foreign currency rates affect marketing decisions.
             4. The international marketplace differs from the domestic marketplace for many reasons. In the international marketplace marketers must pay close attention to economic, social-cultural, and political-legal influences when they venture abroad. A country’s infrastructure is a very important characteristic. It refers to a nations basic transportation network, communications systems, and energy facilitie
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