Curious to know what makes companies like Apple and Starbucks so beloved? Among many factors, one stands out: their ability to define and predict the drives influencing customers’ behavior. The best way to achieve that is through a STEEPLE analysis.
Keep reading to learn what STEEPLE analysis is and how to conduct it, and find here examples of Apple’s and Starbucks’ analyses!
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🚀 STEEPLE Analysis Definition & Basics
Business owners have a difficult task of analyzing the market and projecting its future. In doing so, they may devote much effort to studying the organization’s internal capabilities. However, it’s also vital to assess external factors of change. One way to do that is by conducting a STEEPLE analysis.
What Is a STEEPLE Analysis?
A STEEPLE analysis is a method for evaluating a company’s external environment to better comprehend trends and phenomena and envision new opportunities. STEEPLE stands for Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal, and Ethical. It provides practical and profound insight into the abovementioned aspects that might impact a business.
What Is the Purpose of a STEEPLE Analysis?
Analyzing an organization’s environment can help you define future strategies and better understand the market. Furthermore, STEEPLE analysis assesses the legitimacy and soundness of company targets and strategies. Compared to PESTLE analysis, STEEPLE is more comprehensive because of an additional seventh factor.
🧐 How to Do a STEEPLE Analysis: Factors Explained
Now that it’s crystal clear what STEEPLE is used for and how it helps in business, it’s time to break it down further. Here are the factors to consider when doing a STEEPLE analysis.
Social Factors
This factor is concerned with cultural changes and market trends. It is critical in determining the trends and patterns for a particular country. Examining the social environment entails researching population growth, consumer attitudes, age distribution, or lifestyle changes. Ultimately, the analysis might point out flaws in a business strategy and help generate new ideas.
Technological Factors
The technological aspects of the STEEPLE study are technological advancements and trends, R&D activities, automation, technological incentives, and the rate of change in the newest technologies. Technological advancements naturally breed demand, opening up new markets and opportunities. To capitalize on changes more effectively, it’s important to keep up with recent technological developments.
Economic Factors
You can expect economic conditions to alter frequently over the company’s existence. Managers must consider current inflation, economic growth, unemployment, and foreign commerce. This results in a better strategy for the future. For example, a company operating in a country facing a recession may require changes to the capital investment plan.
Environmental Factors
All businesses directly affect the environment, and the impact is not limited to the agricultural sector or food industry. To prevent negative effects, it’s necessary to implement cleaning and waste processing while keeping pollution to a minimum. Other environmental factors included in the analysis are environmental laws, energy-efficient technologies, and local ecology.
Political Factors
Government policy changes can significantly influence businesses, and most of the time, it’s for the worse. For example, governments can change their tax policies, which almost always includes tax increases. That’s why a STEEPLE analysis should incorporate research on tax policies, employment rules, environmental regulations, trade limitations, the ruling party’s stability, and legal clarity.
Legal Factors
Businesses must always work within the legal framework of a country. To avoid complications, new legal policies must be reviewed and checked for compliance purposes. Every country or state has a different legal structure. The minority protection act, competition legislation, legal constraints and regulations, and employee health and safety rules are all examples of legal factors in the STEEPLE analysis.
Ethical Factors
Ethical considerations are a set of societal ideals that influence business behavior. These social values determine what is right or wrong in terms of buying habits. The common ethical aspects include people’s inclinations, the importance of people’s culture, morality, integrity, obligations, and employee conduct towards society.
🌟 STEEPLE Analysis Examples
To help you understand the topic even better, we’ve prepared STEEPLE analyses of two companies that enjoy worldwide success: Apple and Starbucks.
Apple STEEPLE Analysis Example
Starbucks STEEPLE Analysis Example
STEEPLE analysis is a highly effective tool to stimulate beneficial judgments for a company. It improves the capacity to think creatively and recognize opportunities. It’s all about stepping out of your environment and creating the one you want for your business. Use this knowledge in real life, and good luck!