Chapter Reference
Chapter 4: Marketing Environment and Strategy

Overview
This activity will introduce you to the importance of examining the external environment to identify marketing trends and their impact. For example, here we give an example of changes in demand and contribution of services to the economy.

Activity Description
Over the past 10 years, how has the contribution of service industries to the UK’s national economy changed? Has it increased or decreased? Has the contribution changed after the financial crisis? Visit information about the UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on the Office of National Statistics (ONS) website and calculate any changes in contribution of service industries.

Website
UK's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on the ONS Website.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) (UK) is a great source of statistics reporting national trends in the UK.
NB: Select the appropriate data sets using a time scale of ten years to see what has happened to the contribution that service industries make to total GDP. Can you express this as a percentage? (Hint - take the difference in the two figures, divide this by the starting point or first figure and multiply by 100).