The outcome of a marketing plan is affected by certain uncontrollable elements. These elements include competition, culture, legal, and government controls over the business.

These elements cannot be controlled by the marketers, so they must adapt to them and also learn to manage them. The only way to manage the uncontrollable elements is to design an efficient framework to mold the controllable elements – price, product, promotion and place (distribution).

The basic marketing concepts are the same for both the domestic and the international markets. The marketing environment is extremely important, as the environment changes from country to country.