(1) State which marketing environment affected Xerox's operation. (1mks) (b) From your answer above, discuss which specific area from that particular enviroment affected how Xerox conducted business. (5mks)

Answer a:

Clearly, Xerox had one major issue concerning its marketing environment.

Due to technological changes, i's primary market was shifting and changing. Xerox didn't see it. Perhaps they did and decided it (the changes that is) not

Explanation:

One keyword or practice or culture or capability that was missing in Xerox was adaptability. Had they envisaged the future and created some internal structure to gradually cater to the changing requirements of their client base, they'd probably still be in business today.

So in a way, it wasn't really the change in the market that affected Xerox. It was Xerox' inability to respond to such changes that did it in. At some point, it became apparent to investors that Xerox was incapable to move with the next tide. They withdrew their funds, sold their shares and the rest is history.

Answer b:

The major area that affected how Xerox conducted business is the technology enviriomment.

Explanation

Due to the availability of technology which made it possible, peoples mindset were beginning to shift from keeping hard copies and or duplicating them to keeping electronic copies.

Two things made this idea very attractive:

1. It reduced cost greatly. In every era, cost reduction has always been an attractive business proposition for companies in any sector or subsector. As firms discovered they could cut down by keeping electronic copies of their documents, the idea quickly caught on. And so did the profits made by the renowned copier decline.

2. Another factor strenghtened the decline in making and keeping hard copies of documents is the ideology that the more papers we made, the more we were damaging our environment.

Companies that quickly adjusted even used their paper reduction efforts as a unique selling marketing proposition.

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