Areas to Improve - Economic Factors, Market Segments, Stakeholder Groups and Opportunity Costs

Economic Factors:  Inflation, unemployment, GDP, tax, exchange rates, government spending, competition, interest rates.

Market Segments:  A Market Segment is an identifiable group with similar needs and wants within a market.


Examples of how to define a market segment include:

• Age
• Gender
• Socio-economic Grouping
• Income 
• Usage Rate
• Purchase Occasions
• Demographics

Stakeholder Groups:

A stakeholder is an individual or group which is affected by the actions of a business.

examples of stakeholders include:  employees, local community, local shops, suppliers, retailers.

Opportunity Costs:

values a product in terms of what has been given up to obtain it.  e.g. an accountant might value the extension of a factory at £250 000 based on necessary resources to build,  but an economist might say that the opportunity cost was a training program for employees, as the management team decided on an extension rather than a training program for employees.