The foundation of a well-developed marketing plan is a thorough analysis of the marketing environment.  Environmental factors can be characterized as economic, demographic, political, regulatory, social and technological.  The challenge for marketing students is to identify the most important factors to concentrate on and determine how to integrate them with a marketing plan.

A series of workshops were conducted to instruct students on the analysis of the marketing environment in real time as it unfolds, rather than exclusively relying on historical data.  Students were exposed to a developing environmental issue and shown how to analyze it from multiple perspectives.  The techniques students learned then were applied to their own projects which required creation of a marketing plan.

The conference presentation will discuss development of the workshops and illustrate their implementation in a Marketing Strategy class.  Student reactions to the workshops also will be discussed.