Effects of the macroeconomic environment on marketing: Stagflation in the Philippines

The purpose of this study is to examine the linkage between macroeconomic factors in the environment and firms' marketing practice. It also explores the question of whether marketing strategies/tactics designed in the developed world like the U.S. are applicable in other environments experiencing similar economic difficulties. This study focuses on the economic phenomenon of stagflation. Large Philippine firms were surveyed regarding changes made to their marketing strategies in response to stagflation. These are then compared to responses of firms in the U.S. in 1978 when stagflation was present in the U.S. economy.;This study shows that although the same strategies/tactics used in the U.S. were found to be applicable in countries like the Philippines, the effects of stagflation on the marketing mix was unequal. Philippine firms tend to deemphasize pricing and instead concentrate on changes in the product strategy, while U.S. firms report more changes to their pricing strategy.