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Marketing terminology

This glossary is designed to complement the 60 marketing terms
covered in Steve Toms' EMBA marketing class.

Reference sources and contributors at the bottom.

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Accessory  |  (see Features)

Advertising  |  Paid form of a non-personal communication by industry, business firms, nonprofit organizations, or individuals delivered through the various media. Advertising is persuasive and informational and is designed to influence the purchasing behavior and thought patterns of the audience. Advertising may be used in combination with sales promotions, personal selling tactics, or publicity. (Also see Exposure)

Advertising metrics  |  Ways and means to evaluate, compare, and contrast the effectiveness and efficiency of Internet promotions: Click-through, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-action (CPA),  customer acquisition costs, hits, hybrid models, impressions, page view, pay per click (PPC), pay per lead (PPL), pay per sale (PPS), site stickiness, surround session, unique visitors, and website traffic. (Also see Cost per thousand, Reach, and Frequency)

Affiliate marketing  |  Using a network of partners to market a company—usually internet-based in which a company rewards or compensates an affiliate for each customer directed to it. Affiliates can include blogs, shopping sites, and comparison sites.

Aggregation  |  Form of segmentation that assumes most consumers are alike.
(Also see Segmentation and Homogeneous marketing and products)

Assorting  |  Putting together a variety of products to give a target market what it wants, as in selecting various or different item for a gift basket or first aid kit.

Attention | A momentary attractions to a stimulus, something someone senses via sight, sound, touch, smell, or taste. Attention is the starting point of the perceptual process in that attention of a stimulus will either cause someone to decide to make sense of it—or reject it.

Attitude  |  A person's point of view toward something (feelings, values, mores).


B2B  |  Business To Business – Business conducted between companies rather than between a company and individual consumers. Ex: A firm that makes parts that are sold directly to an automobile manufacturer (see Transformation and Transaction).

B2C  |  Business To Consumer – Business conducted between companies and individual consumers rather than between two companies. A retailer such as Walmart is an example of a B2C company (see Retailer).

Benefit  |  A desirable attribute of a good or service, which customers perceives that they will get from purchasing and consuming/using it. Whereas vendors sell features ("a high speed 1/2" drill bit with tungsten-carbide tip"), buyers seek the benefit (a 1/2" hole).

BEP  |  Break Even Point – Sales quantity at which the firm’s total cost will equal its total revenue.

Bias  |  Inserting opinions, or skewing data to mean other than what they say. To avoid bias, use percentages and avoid using biased words that are not qualified with data. To combat bias, ask: What is your statement based upon? (Also see Frequency words)

Brand  |  A unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product and differentates or positions it from competitors. Over time, this image becomes associated with a level of credibility, quality, and satisfaction in consumers' minds (also see differentiation and positioning).

Thus brands stand for certain benefits and value. Legal name for a brand is trademark and, when it identifies or represents a firm, it is called a brand name.

Brand equity  |  Value of brand's overall strength in the market as measured in loyalty (those who will not switch).

Branding  |  Use of the names, logos, symbols, trademarks, or product design to identify a product.

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Cannibalization  |  Occasions when a new product will take market share away from an older brand, as in the addition of a diet soda product to a previously existing brand line of sodas. The new diet soda will compete with and perhaps eat away at the profits of the previously existing products.

Cannibalization may also be said to occur when product sales fall at a particular sales outlet or set of retail outlets as the result of the opening of a new store, because sales at the new outlet are eating away at sales at the older ones.

Cause-related marketing  |  Joint funding and promotional strategy in which a percentage of a firm's sales are linked to a charity or other public cause. Unlike philanthropy, money spent in cause-related marketing is considered an expense and is often expected to show a return.

Characteristic  |  Distinguishing feature or attribute of an item, person, or phenomenon that usually falls into either a physical, functional, or operational category..

Channels  |  Any series of firms or individuals that participate in the movement/flow of goods and services from producer to final user.

CMSA  |  Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area - (adjacent to MSA/PMSA with 1 million population).

Co-branding  |  An agreement between two brands to work together in marketing a new product, such as Dreyer's Ice Cream flavored with Baby Ruth candy pieces (promoting both brands on the label).

Commercialization  |  Stage in product development process where the decision to order full-scale production and launch is made. The act of exchange, buying, selling of a commodity on a large scale for profit. This also describes the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer.

Competitive cost advantage  |  An advantage that a firm has over competitors, allowing it to generate greater sales margins and/or retain more customers.  It supports the firm's cost structure, product offerings, distribution network and customer support.

Concentrated marketing  |  A growth strategy in which a firm's resources are focused on a well-defined market niche or population segment. (Also see differentiated marketing)

Consumer  |  A purchaser of a good or service at retail, or an end user not necessarily a purchaser, in the distribution chain of a good or service (gift recipient).

Corporate image  | The mental image held by others at the mention of a firm's name. It's a composite psychological impression that's dynamic based on circumstances, media coverage, performance, pronouncements, etc. Similar to a firm's reputation or goodwill, it is the public perception of the firm rather than a reflection of its actual state or position. Large firms use various corporate advertising techniques to enhance their image to improve their desirability as a supplier, employer, customer, borrower, etc

CPM | Cost Per Thousand – Used by marketers and advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their media expenditures. Derived by dividing the cost of media purchase divided by the number of consumers reached (in thousands).

CPM  | Critical Path Method – Method to break down complex projects into simpler tasks, thus identifying more efficient, easiest, and fastest path to completion.

Cross-channel marketing  |  Use of a single marketing channel (such as direct mail or internet) to support or promote another channel (such as retailing).

CRM  |  Customer Relationship Management – Broad term that covers concepts used by companies to manage their relationships with customers, including the capture, storage, and analysis of customer, vendor, partner, and internal process information.

Customer profile  |  Description of a customer group or type of customer based on various geographic, demographic, and psychographic characteristics; also called shopper profile (may include income, occupation, level of education, age, gender, hobbies, or area of residence, etc.). Profiles provide knowledge needed to select the best prospect lists and to enable advertisers to select the best media.

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Data  |  Facts/figures pertinent to a marketing problem.

Demographics  |  Consumer statistics regarding socioeconomic factors, including gender, age, race, religion, nationality, education, income, occupation and family size. Each demographic category is broken down according to its characteristics by the various research companies.

Differentiated marketing  |  Sales growth strategy in which several market niches or population segments are targeted with different products for each niche or segment. (Also see concentrated marketing).

Differentiation/Product  |  Differentiation seeks to make a product more attractive by contrasting its unique qualities with competing products. This creates a competitive advantage for the seller when customers view these products as unique or superior.

Direct Marketing  |  Selling via direct contact with the prospective customer. Direct marketing differs from general marketing in that the result of a promotion is measurable in terms of response. Primary direct marketers include magazine publishers, catalog houses, political campaign organizations, and financial institutions.

Distribution  |   Movement of goods and services  through the distribution channel, to the final customer, consumer, or end user, with the movement of payment (transactions)  in the opposite direction back to the original producer or supplier.

Distribution channel  |   Path through which goods and services flow from producer to consumer. This can be direct from the vendor to the consumer or may include several intermediaries such as wholesalers, distributors, agents, and retailers. Each intermediary receives the item at one pricing point and moves it to the next higher pricing point until it reaches the final buyer.

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E-marketing  |  Activity of promoting a product in electronic media format, such as internet ads, pop up links, e-commerce cell text, or email messages.

Electronic media  |  Includes television, radio, internet, DVD (anything not film- or paper-based).

Exclusive distribution  |  Contracting with single channel members to move the product through the commercialization schedule. (Not to be confused with Exclusive exposure: Selling a product only through a single outlet in a particular region or market. Exclusive retail outlets are expected to perform many, if not most of the marketing functions to promote and support sales.)

Exposure  |  Presentation of a sales promotion piece or advertisement to an individual, such as a person viewing a television commercial or a reader opening a magazine to an advertisement page. The number of exposures achieved is an important measure of the effectiveness of an advertisement as measured in conjunction with the quality of the exposures achieved. (Also see Frequency). For example, if a golf club advertisement is exposed to 1000 golfers; it has greater value than if it is exposed to 1 million non-golfers.


Facings  |  Generally a retail term used to describe the number of products displayed vertically on the same shelf. Marketers often provide incentive or pay to gain this exposure.

Feature/Accessory  |  Characteristics that are offered to the potential consumer that are sought out or desired as an attribute of form, time, place, and possession utility. An accessory is not essential in and of itself, but adds beauty, convenience, or effectiveness to what it is attached.

Frequency  |  Number of times an advertising message is presented within a given time period. In general, number of times something occurs within a specified period of time. Frequency may refer to the issues of a periodical, the purchases made by a customer over time, or the number of times a commercial or an advertisement is aired or printed or reaches its audience. (Also see Exposure)

Frequency words  |  Terms use in marketing plans or proposals that contain bias—unless followed by data (numbers, percentages, indices, etc.). The following require data: usually, constantly, mostly, frequently, typically, generally, continually, sometimes, occasionally, sporadically, intermittently, rarely, seldom, hardly ever. The two exceptions: always (100%) and never (0%).

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Growth strategy  |  Strategy aimed at winning larger market share, even at the expense of short-term earnings, such as diversification, product development, market penetration, and market development (from the Marketing Opportunity Grid).


Heterogeneous markets or products  |  Geographic markets or products the marketer or customer sees as different. This term also applies to markets, in that a heterogeneous market is unique or different from others. As regards the need for winter snow blower equipment, Minneapolis and Houston would be heterogeneous (dissimilar winter weather).

Hierarchy of effects  |  Series of 7 steps that prospective customers move through, from initial product awareness to trial. These steps are divided into cognitive (knowledge about), affective (feelings about), and conative (action tendencies towards purchase) dimensions.

Homogeneous markets or products  |  Geographic markets or products the customer sees is basically the same (sharing similar attributes, or easily substitutable products). Homogeneous markets share similar traits or conditions. As regards the need for winter snow blower equipment, Minneapolis and Cleveland would be homogeneous (same winter weather conditions).


Integrated marketing  |  Strategy aimed at unifying different marketing mix elements/tactics, such as mass marketing, one-to-one marketing, and direct marketing. It complements and reinforces the market impact of each method in product development, pricing, distribution, promotional programs, and customer service.

Intensive distribution  |  Selling a product through all responsible and suitable wholesalers or retailers who will stock or sell the product.

Intermediate good  |  Physical resources applied to or used in the creation of a final product. For example, sugar may be consumed directly or used in the manufacturing of ice cream. (Changing the shape or form of a resource in the creation of another product is call a transformation. (Also see transformation and transvection)


Jingle  |  A short song used in a promotional announcement, usually mentioning a brand name
or product benefit.


Knowledge  |  A customer's understanding or relationship with an notion or idea. This applies to facts or ideas acquired by study, investigation, observation, or experience, not assumptions or opinions. (Also see Attitude)


Labeling  |  (Also see Positioning) – Description, instructions, and warnings printed on products and packaging as required by law or as an aide to the consumer.

Leave-behind  |  A premium left with prospective customers by a sales person to remind them of the product or service being sold.

Logistics  |  Process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient and effective flow and storage of goods, services, and related information from point of origin to point of consumption for the purpose of conforming to customer requirements.internal, and external movements, and return of materials for environmental purposes.

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Market  |  Economic system bringing together the forces of supply and demand for a particular good or service. A market consists of customers, suppliers, and channels of distribution, and mechanisms for establishing prices and effecting transactions where exchanges take place.

Often, marketers will define primary, secondary, and even tertiary markets to help it allocate its limited resources in the most effective and efficient manner.

Marketing Channels  |  Connected system of exchange relationships of wholesalers and retailers, developed to build lasting bridges between buyers and sellers. (Also see Commercialization) based on their ability to perform marketing activities more effectively and efficiently than the producer.

Marketing Concept  |  Goal-oriented risk-reducing integrated philosophy practiced by producers of goods and services that focuses efforts on satisfying the needs of consumers.

The marketing concept holds that the desires and needs of the target market must be determined and satisfied to successfully achieve the goals of the producer. For example, a successful marketing concept in the perfume industry is about selling dreams, sex, and romance -- the benefits derived from perfume, not the perfume itself (its ingredients and packaging).

Market development  |   Addition of new geographic markets in which to offer the existing mix of products and services—those NOT currently served by a firm.

Marketing Mix  |  Combination of marketing elements used in the sale of a particular product, sometimes called the 4 Ps: product, price, place, and promotion.

Marketing Plan  |  Set of specific goals (measurable), timelines (when goals are to achieved), and actions required (assignment of responsibility) to successfully implement a marketing strategy.

Market Saturation  |  The point at which a market is no longer generating new demand for a firm's products, due to competition, decreased need,  obsolescence, or other uncontrollable variables.

Market Segmentation  |  Targeted market or audience for a given product is divided into categories (segments) based on geographic, demographic, or psychographic variables, such as demographic segmentation, geographic segmentation, and psychographic (behavioral) segmentation.

Market share  |  Percentage of sales volume captured by a brand, product, or firm in a given market.

Marketing Strategy  |  Plan allowing the organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. It is comprised of a target market and marketing mix.

Mark-up  |  Dollar amount added to the cost of products to get the selling price (can include incentives such as discounts and allowances), expressed as a percentage of the new selling price. Applies to each channel member.

Mark-up chain  |  Sequence of mark-ups used at different stages in a channel to help determine the price structure among all channel members. This is helpful to marketers when analyzing the profitability of a new product or service.

Mass marketing  |  Broad unfocussed attempts to appeal to an entire geographic market with one basic marketing strategy utilizing mass distribution and mass media. Also called undifferentiated marketing. (Also see Differentiated marketing)

Micromarketing  |  Practice of tailoring products and marketing programs to the needs and wants of specific individuals and local customer groups.

Motivation  |  Implies an emotion or desire that causes the customer to think and act. It's a driving force arising from personal temperament or constitution that can be stimulated through incentives applied to an external influence (as an expected reward) inciting action. In marketing, it's the energy/fuel that drives the thought process, designed to result in a specific action by the consumer (purchase).

MSA  |  Metropolitan Statistical Area – City > 50k population, or urban center with 100k population.

Multichannel distribution  |  Occurs when a producer uses several competing channels to reach the same target market, perhaps using several middlemen to sell directly (sometimes called dual distribution).

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NAICS (North American Industrial Classification System)   |  Standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy. A complete and valid NAICS code contains six digits and applies to businesses in the United States, Canada, and Mexico each to have country-specific detail.

The first two digits designate the economic sector, the third digit designates the subsector, the fourth digit designates the industry group, the fifth digit designates the NAICS industry, and the sixth digit designates the national industry.

Needs  |  Basic forces that motivate a person to think about and do something/take action. In marketing, they help explain the benefit or satisfaction derived from a product or service, generally falling into the physical (air > water > food > sleep > sex > safety/security) or psychological (belonging > esteem > self-actualization > synergy) subsets of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

A mouthwash or toothpaste might be used to rid the mouth of germs (safety/security), or combat bad breath and yellow teeth (esteem).

New product  |  "New" means substantially changed or altered in form. Technically, "new" has a shelf life of 6 months before it has to be removed (or the product altered again). Simply changing the packaging does not constitute the word "new" being placed on the product, other than to say "New Packaging."

Niche  |  Particular specialty in which a firm has garnered a large market share. Often, the market will be small enough so that the firm will not attract much competition. For example, a company that makes a line of specialty chemicals for exclusive use by the petroleum industry is said to have a niche in the chemical industry.

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Packaging  |   Promoting the product on the shelf and protecting the product during shipment. Designing a package also includes consideration or size and weight to make transportation and storage more effective and efficient (as in sizing containers to fit neatly onto pallets).

Penetration  |  Process by which the marketers attempts to increase sales of an existing product in existing markets, thus minimizing risk.

It’s also a pricing strategy designed to price a product or service at the lowest potential price to break into a market. Often, it’s slightly below that of the lowest-price competitor’s product, or at a level that’s perceived as low.

Perception (Perceptual Process) | A process by which consumers make sense of stimuli they get from not only marketer's promotional messages, but also unmet needs (such as a growling stomach to remind them to eat). There are 3 steps in the process: sensing (getting the attention of the customer), selecting (deciding to figure out what it means), and interpreting (assignment meaning and whether to take action).

Physical Distribution (PD)  |  Transporting and storing of goods as a part of the commercialization schedule. This is not to be confused with Exposure, which is where the customer wants/expects the product to be available for possession utility

Place mix  |  Those activities involving distribution (moving the product from producer to consumer through channel members called wholesalers and retailers) and exposure (researching and delivering the product where the customers wants or expects it to be available). Marketers enroll channel members based on their ability to perform marketing activities more effectively and efficiently than they can.

POS  |  Point of Sale or POP (point of purchase) – Business or market where products and services are transacted. Also used to convey temporary displays used by marketers to showcase products. Soda companies use POP/POS in advance of sporting or holiday events to feature their products in other parts of the store or warehouse. Another example is gas station pump toppers that advertise daily food or drink specials inside the store.

Positioning  |  How potential buyers see the product, relative to the position of competitors. It happens in the minds of the target market. It is the aggregate perception the market has of a particular company, product, or service in relation to their perceptions of the competitors. Repositioning involves changing the identity of a product, relative to the identity of competing products, in the collective minds of the target market.

It's also physical product placement/location in stores. (Also see Facings, Slotting, Differentiation, and Repositioning)

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Price bundling  |  Selling 2 or more goods or services as a single package, as in Taco Bell offers 2 hard tacos, a burrito, and a drink in a package for 1 price (usually a saving if you add up the prices of each individual item).

Price mix  |  Those objectives and strategies marketers apply to setting and managing profits for itself and each channel member. Pricing polices vary among organizations based on internal goals, ROI (return on investment), cost of goods, etc.

Primary Data  |  Facts and figures newly-collected for a project or to solve the current problem.

Primary Market | Group of consumers targeted to receive the major share of a marketer's attention, resources, and media expenditures.

Product adoption curve |  Explains that product and services are first purchased and evaluated by innovators and early adopters, after which by early and late majority, and finally laggards.

Product development  |  Creation of products with new or different characteristics than those already offered. This may involve modification of an existing product or formulation of an entirely new product that satisfies a newly-defined set of customer wants or desires.

Product life cycle | A concept that explains how products move through distinct stages, from introduction, growth, maturity, decline, and abandonment.

Product Mix  |  All of the products or product lines offered by a firm. Some companies have a wide product mix geared toward a diverse consumer group.

For example, Procter & Gamble has a product mix that includes detergents, toothpaste, Procter bar soap, deodorants, disposable diapers, coffee, household paper goods, and food products. Some companies have a narrow product mix geared toward a particular market segment, such as the Williams Sonoma catalog that sells gourmet cooking accessories.

A product mix is also one of the 4 Ps or the marketing strategy. It includes the product idea (features, accessories, installation, warranty, and product lines), packaging, and labeling.

Profit  |  What remains after all costs (direct & indirect) have been covered from the initial selling price.

Promotional Mix  |  Combination of one or more promotional elements that a firm uses to communicate with customers: often a mix of personal selling, mass selling (advertising, public relations, and publicity), sales promotion, and direct marketing.

Psychographics  |  Criteria for segmenting consumers by lifestyle, attitudes, beliefs, values, personality, buying motives, and/or extent of product usage—in essence: activities, interests, and opinions.

For example, the market for shampoo may consist of various psychographic segments described by their primary purchase motives (beauty, health, grooming), usage styles (daily, weekly, salon-only), or lifestyle (frequent travelers, parents with young children, empty-nesters). Research studies might focus on what magazines they read, which TV shows they view, and their opinions on the importance of "good grooming."

Public Relations (PR)  |  Form of communication that is primarily directed toward gaining understanding and acceptance by vested groups of what the marketer is doing. It often tends to deal with issues rather than specifically with products or services.  PR also cannot be controlled by the organization because it is not purchasing the time or space in the media, but it offers legitimacy that advertising cannot claim.

The practice of PR is used to build rapport with the various (vested) publics a company, individual, or organization may have (employees, customers, stockholders, voters, competitors, or the general population). Publicity releases, employee-training seminars, and company-produced newsletters, (house organs) are examples of instruments used in public relations.

Publicity  |  Involves supplying information that is factual, interesting, and newsworthy to media not controlled by the organization (radio, television, magazines, newspapers, and trade journals). It is an uncontrolled method of placing messages in the media because the source does not pay the media for placement.

Publicity typically generated from an organization's public relations department and its goal is to gain media coverage. Examples of news-worthy events that may receive media coverage, or publicity, include ground-breaking ceremonies, press conferences, organized protests, or ceremonial appointments or awards.

PR/publicity is "doing good -- and getting caught."

Push/Pull strategies  |  Customers "pull" products towards themselves (creating channels that until now did not exist), while a producer "pushes" a product toward customers by promoting (advertising, sales promotion and discounts/allowances) through an existing channel, one channel member at a time.

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Rating  |  Broadcast size of an actual listening or viewing audience for a particular program or commercial as compared to the size of the potential audience (all households in a geographic area that have broadcast receivers—whether or not these broadcast receivers are turned on). One rating point represents 1% of the households making up the potential audience. (Also see Share)

Outdoor advertising estimates the number of persons exposed to an outdoor sign. Each outdoor structure is rated in terms of the number of persons who pass by on a daily basis as compared to the entire population in the area where the structure is located.

Reach  |  Size of the audience who listen to, read, view or otherwise are exposed to a particular ad message over a defined time period. Reach may be stated either as an absolute number, or as a fraction of a given population (for instance TV households, men, or those aged 25-34).

Relationship Marketing  |  Emphasizing customer retention and satisfaction rather than a point-of-sale transactions by recognizing the long term value f keeping customers.

Reliability  |  Research study can be replicated and get some basic results (free of errors).

Repositioning | Changing a brand's status in comparison to competing brands, usually through changing the marketing mix in response to changes in the marketplace, or due to a failure to reach the brand's marketing objectives. (Also see Positioning and Differentiation)

Resource  |  Economic or productive factors required to accomplish an activity, such as materials, components, land, and capital. Others include energy, entrepreneurship, information, human skills/management expertise..

Retail  |  Channel members in a distribution network or commercialization schedule that sell directly to the end user. In the U.S., that’s where sales tax is collected. If a producer sells direct to consumers, it is a retailer (it charges and collects sales tax.) It's where possession utility takes place.

Revenue  |  Amounts generated from sale of goods or services, or any other use of capital or assets before any costs or expenses are deducted. Also called sales.

Risk  |  Uncertainty of falling short of goals in a marketing plan. It's also all the unknowns that are uncontrollable by the marketer. That's why researching the needs of the target market is imperative towards reducing risk.

ROI (return on investment)  |  Often used in portfolio management of various products, a firm will set a specific profit return based on funds allocated to produce and market a given product or product line, often expressed as a percentage.

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SCA  |  Sustainable Competitive Advantage – A position that a firm occupies in its competitive landscape. A firm possesses an SCA when it has value-creating processes and positions that cannot be duplicated or imitated by other firms over a long term. It takes time and sustained promotional expenditure to establish an SCA. Without both of these criteria, it's probably a USP (unique selling proposition).

Secondary Data  |  Facts and figures already recorded prior to a project. There may be a higher degree of risk due to the length of time that has passed when the data were collected.

Segmentation  |  Clusters of people with similar needs that share other demographic and psychographic characteristics (veterans, senior citizens, teens).

Selective distribution  |  Contracting with several, but not all available channel members to move the product through the commercialization schedule. Attention is given to those channel members willing to give special attention to the product or service, such as employing a sales force to help sell/move the product to the next channel. (Not to be confused with Selective exposure: Providing several different choices where the customer can obtain possession utility. Often marketers select selective channel members based on their ability to push the product to the next channel member through its own sales force.)

Selling Orientation  |  A company-centered approach designed to motivate potential customers to buy products and services through various promotional offers, such as quantity discounts, free trial, money-back guarantees, and rebates. This orientation tends to ignore what the customer really needs. (All those extra rolls of toilet paper in your bathroom linen closet probably got there through a selling-oriented coupon or quantity price discount.)

Share  |  Percentage of a media audience reached with an advertisement among those watching at the time. This is often a misleading term. For example, a 50 share (half of all viewers) means only that half of those watching at that time had the potential to see the ad. But if only half of 2 million TV households in a given market had their TV sets tuned to that program, that would equate to 500,000 households (only half of 1 million TV households).

SIC  |  Standard Industrial Codes for the United States (up to four digits) used from 1930 to 1997. Replaced by the NAICS (National American Industrial Code) in 1997 for North America, 6-digit code.

Skimming  |  Pricing strategy often used in the introductory and growth stages of the product life cycle to target innovators and early adopters that are willing to pay a relatively high price for the product. Over time, the price may be reduced to take advantage of production economies of scale achieved by selling higher volumes.

A skimming strategy can attract competitors to the market if the product or technology can be easily duplicated. Luxury perfumes use a skimming strategy that takes advantage of the high perceived value, enabling them to sell perfume at hundreds of dollars per ounce.

The term is derived from the concept of "skimming the cream" off unprocessed milk. In this case, the marketer is skimming the cream, or those consumers willing to pay the most, off the market.

Slotting fees  |  Fees charged by retailers to obtain exposure (shelf space) for a product. This may take the form of  promotional, advertising and stocking fees. Supermarkets often earn more profit from agreeing to carry a marketer’s  product than from actually selling the product to customers.

Sustainable competitive advantage | See SCA above.

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Target market  |  Group of persons for which a firm creates and maintains a product mix that specifically fits the needs and preferences of that group. For example, the furniture market can be divided into segments described as Early American, contemporary, or traditional.

Target Audience  |  TA – Group of persons to which the firm generates advertising or other e-marketing efforts towards gaining exposure of their product.

Terminal Anchor  |  TA or (Primary Optical Area / POA) – We learn to read by first scanning the page top left to bottom right. Primary Optical (POA) point is the top left corner, with the Terminal Anchor Point being the last thing we scan at the bottom right (TA).

Transactions  |  An exchange. What one gives up for something else without any change in form to the object, as in buying a pack of gum at the drugstore vs. having a roll of film developed. The latter involves both a transformation (developing the film and printing photo) and a transaction (paying for processing and printing).

Transformations  |  Change in form, function, condition or outward appearance of a good or service. For example, a plastics company buys polymer pellets (transaction) which are then melted and poured into molds to make a child's toy (transformation).

Transvection  |  Series of transformations and transactions that take place throughout the commercialization schedule (from producer to consumer). The transvection is a measure of efficiency in turning raw materials into finished goods. Used by marketers to evaluate and optimize efficiency of their channels.

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Universal product code (UPC)  |  Assigned 12-digit number used to identify a product. Translated into barcodes consisting of a series of vertical parallel bars, it can be used for scan entry, by an electronic cash register, or information for product sales and inventory tracking. The first set of digits are the same for all of the manufacturer's products and represent the name of the manufacturer. The next set refers to the product itself and are assigned by the manufacturer to the product of his choice.

USP  |  Unique Selling Proposition – Differentiates and positions it in the mind of the consumer. Unlike an SCA (sustainable competitive advantage), a USP can be adapted, modified, and even changed depending on fluctuations in the market.

Utility  |  Ability of the product to satisfy customers needs and wants. The 4 major marketing utilities include form utility, time utility, place utility, and possession utility. More recent studies include psychological utility.


Validity  |  In research studies, it means the data collected reflects what it was designed to measure. Often, invalid data also contains bias.

Vendor  |  Manufacturer, producer, or seller (can also include wholesalers and retailers and their affiliated sales agents).

Viral Marketing  |  Any on-line advertising that relies primarily on word of mouth to gain brand name recognition. Viral Marketing can create the kind of product or service explosion many companies need to grow. It's also highly unpredictable.


Wants  |  To feel the need for, craving, desire, or wish to have or possess. It is often said that "wants are manifestations of unmet needs."

Wholesale  |  Channel members in a distribution network (commercialization schedule) that sell to other wholesalers and retailers. Generally, it involves sales to other organizations that are not the intended end user (customer) for the product.

Marketers enroll channel members to perform functions which they cannot perform as effectively or efficiently, such as transporting, grading, sorting, assorting, financing, or researching other channel members/customers.

In the U.S., no sales taxes are collected at the wholesale level. Thus, a Sam’s Club or Costco can operate as both wholesaler and retailer. For example, a Little League organization may have a tax I.D. number (to avoid paying sales tax) when purchasing hot dogs, buns, mustard, and ketchup at Sam’s Club, because it will then transform these items into finished hot dogs for sale at the ballpark—where tax will be collected from the fan.

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Contributors and sources:

Contributing currentologists: Steve Thomas, Timothy LeCuyer, Veronica Cowley-Keating, Anita Darjean, Huriya Suhir, Juanita Syon, Adriana Garcia, Mark Ross, Lisa Moers, Nakietha Richard, Timmie Shingleton, Mark Ross, Faye Jones, Jamila Glover, Moniki Specks. Tashika Charles

http://www.businessdictionary.com/

http://www.investopedia.com/

http://www.fcc.gov/aboutus.html

 

 

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Copyright 2009 | Steve Toms
All postings on this page are for educational purposes for those enrolled in this course