Environmental scanning:

Future is unpredictable, but the marketer can obtain appraisals of what is most probable. To monitor changes in the marketing environment effectively, marketers must engage in the scanning and analysis of the environment. Environment scanning is a process of collecting information about the forces in the marketing environment. Scanning involves observation, perusal of secondary sources of information such as business and the trade journals and magazines and government publications, reports and marketing research efforts. In other words, environmental scanning consists of the following and analyzing environmental influences individually and collectively to determine their potential effects on an organization and the consequent problems and opportunities. The process by which organizations monitor and their relevant environment to identify opportunities and threats affecting their business is known as environmental scanning. The importance of the environmental analysis lies in its usefulness for evaluating the present strategy, setting strategic objectives and formulating future strategies. The fortunes of the business enterprises are known to have been determined by changes in the social, economic, political, business and industrial conditions.