Environmental factors are external factors over which you have no influence. It is part of the macro environment in a marketing plan. The factors of the DESTEP analysis consist of:

  • Demographic factors
  • Ecological factors
  • Socio-cultural factors
  • Technological factors
  • Economic factors
  • Political-legal factors

Demographic factors

When demographic factors with regard to the characteristics of the population:

  • the age structure
  • population structure
  • geographical features
  • population growth and size
  • the size of households
  • the degree of urbanization (the development that more and more people are going to settle in a city).

Ecological factors

When  environmental factors it comes to describing the characteristics of the economy:

  • the climatic conditions
  • natural resources
  • energy, waste
  • the weather recently
  • environmental technologies in that country
  • care for the landscape (maintenance of the land)

Socio-cultural factors

The sociocultural factors  are about characteristics of the culture and lifestyle:

  • lifestyle, for example; exercising and eating healthy
  • leisure activity
  • communication
  • norms and values
  • social trends
  • educational attainment
  • number of two-income households

Technological factors

With  technological factors regards the characteristics of the development:

  • trends of the country
  • information provision (internet possibilities)
  • new products or innovation in that country
  • lifestyle changes by technology
  • the degree of adoption of the technologies

Economic factors

When economic factors regards the characteristics of the physical environment:

  • business cycle, growth prospects (GNP)
  • purchasing power (average salary)
  • power relations
  • market characteristics
  • financial details
  • import / export
  • unemployment

In political-legal factors  regards the characteristics of government decisions:

  • legislation
  • degree of intervention in the economy
  • influence of government on business
  • political influences
  • licenses
  • subsidy schemes

Below you will find a list of models for your environmental factors. Click on a term to read the explanation.