A marketing plan floats in a sea of uncontrollable variables as shown in figure 4 below. These include the current economic environment includes elements such as consumer confidence, unemployment, new technologies that threaten to displace your own, competitors that suddenly appear on the horizon, and government regulations brought up by your favorite controlling or anti-business political party, and changing consumer preferences. Environment also includes things like famine, flood or natural disasters. You just can't control these and they can play havoc with your marketing and promotional plans.

Controllable and uncontrollable forces in marketing