There are two types of environmental factors that affect marketing: internal and external. Internal factors are forces within the firm like management changes, employee morale, and financial issues. External factors are forces outside of the firm that are unpredictable, like the microenvironment of suppliers, competitors, and customers, as well as larger macroenvironmental forces in society like demographics, the economy, technology, politics, and culture. Understanding both internal and external environmental factors is important for marketing management to build relationships with customers.