The marketing process starts by understanding the marketplace and customer needs and wants. However, marketing operates in a complex and changing environment. Other factors in this environment - suppliers, intermediaries, customers, competitors, the public, and others - may work with or against the company. Major environmental forces- demographic, economic, natural, technological, political, and cultural - shape marketing opportunities, pose threats and affect the company's ability to build customer relationships. To develop effective marketing strategies, a company must first understand the environment in which marketing operates. The marketing environment includes the actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management's ability to build and maintain successful relationships with customers. The marketers must be environmental trend trackers and opportunity seekers. Every manager in an organization should watch the outside environment through disciplined methods using marketing research and marketing intelligence - for collecting information about the marketing environment. The marketing team spends more time in customer and competitor environments and carefully studies the actors and forces that affect the building and maintaining successful relationships with customers. By carefully studying the environment, marketers can adapt their strategies to meet new marketplace challenges and opportunities. 

Questions:

1. Identify the factors belonging to Micro environment and Macro environment. 2. What types of collaboration between the departments is required for designing an efficient marketing plan?