Ch. 4 - The Marketing Environment

How CAT INC. operated in the past is different than how they operate now because the external environment was different. Back in 1925 when CAT INC. was first founded, their initiative was to make it big as a tractor type company but as time passed their initiative changed accordingly to fit the time period's demands. Because CAT INC.'s target market is fixed on big businesses and corporations wishing to build new firms, buildings, and so on; their view is more broad than say a toy company who's target market is children. How CAT INC. operates depends on how well the economy is, the generation they are in, whether  or not there are resources available, and whether or not their practices are in accordance to the law(s).

A example of how CAT INC. changed their practices to fit the marketing environment would be when they shut down some of their factories. Like I've discussed in a previous blog post, CAT INC. saw where the economy was going and decided that temporarily shutting down some factories would be beneficial to them in the long run. If the economy had not took a fatal blow during that time period CAT INC. would have done the opposite and would have built more factories or keep all their factories up and running.

A good example of whether or not CAT INC.'s practices were in accordance of the law would be Caterpillar, Inc. v. Lewis (1996).  James David Lewis who was injured while operating a CAT INC. bulldozer filed a lawsuit against CAT INC. claiming product liability which included failure to warn and breach of warranty.