Marketing Concepts and Strategies - midterm 1 COMM2331

80-20 Rule (Pareto Principle)

The concept in behavioral segmentation stating that approximately 80% of a company's sales or profits are generated by 20% of its heavy user base.

Advertising

Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.

Advertising Strategy

The overarching plan determining what message will be communicated (creative strategy) and how/where it will reach the target audience (media strategy).

Age Category Examples

Segmenting markets by generational cohorts with shared cultural experiences, such as Gen Z, Millennials (Gen Y), Gen X, and Baby Boomers.

America's Racial Breakdown by State

Demographic segmentation analysis examining diversity trends across regions to tailor multicultural marketing strategies.

Behavioral Segmentation

Dividing markets based on consumer knowledge, usage rate, brand loyalty, or response to a product.

Benefit / Attribute Segmentation

Grouping consumers based on the specific benefits or attributes they seek from a product category.

BMW "The Ticker" / Short Film Series (The Hire)

A pioneer in digital experiential/branded content marketing where BMW produced high-budget short action films starring top directors and actors to showcase vehicle performance and build prestige without traditional TV commercials.

Brand

A name, term, sign, symbol, design, or combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller and differentiate them from competitors.

Brand Awareness

The extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers and correctly associated with a particular product or service.

Brand Concept

The core underlying idea, identity, and value proposition that a brand communicates to consumers.

Brand Equity

The intrinsic financial and intangible value that a brand adds to a product beyond its functional features, driven by consumer perception, loyalty, and awareness.

Brand Extension

Using an established, well-known brand name on a new product entry in an entirely different product category (e.g., Caterpillar launching boots).

Brand Loyalty

A customer's conscious or unconscious preference to repeatedly purchase a specific brand over competitors.

Brand Name

The spoken or written verbal part of a brand that can be vocalized (e.g., Nike, BMW, Coca-Cola).

Cognitive Dissonance

A state of psychological tension or regret experienced by a consumer after making a purchase decision, particularly when choosing between two attractive alternatives.

Consumer Behavior

The process and activities individuals engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services.

Demographic Segmentation

Dividing markets based on quantifiable population variables (age, gender, income, education, occupation, race).

Direct Marketing

Direct communication with targeted individual consumers to obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting relationships (e.g., direct mail, telemarketing, catalogs).

Economies of Scale

Cost savings generated when production or communication volume increases, reducing the average unit cost.

Evaluation of Alternatives

The decision-making stage where consumers evaluate a set of brands/products that can satisfy their identified need.

Event Planning

Strategic organization and execution of brand events, experiential pop-ups, or trade shows to engage target audiences directly.

Evoked Set (Consideration Set)

The subset of acceptable brands that a consumer actively considers when making a purchase decision.

Experiential Needs

Consumer desires driven by sensory pleasure, variety, cognitive stimulation, or emotional experiences rather than pure functionality.

Four Ps

The foundation of marketing planning, consisting of Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

Geographic Segmentation

Dividing markets by physical location (region, state, climate, urban vs. rural).

Inelasticity of Demand

An economic state where demand for a product remains relatively stable despite changes in price; strong brand loyalty increases price inelasticity.

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

A strategic business process used to plan, develop, execute, and evaluate coordinated, measurable brand communication programs over time with consumers, prospects, and other targeted audiences.

Line Extension

Introducing additional items in the same product category under the same brand name (e.g., new flavors, sizes, or package types).

Logo

A graphic symbol or emblem used by commercial enterprises, organizations, and individuals to promote instant public recognition.

Market Segmentation

The process of dividing a broad, heterogeneous market into distinct, smaller groups of buyers who have similar needs, characteristics, or behaviors.

Marketing

The activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Marketing Mix

The foundation of marketing planning, historically centered around the Four Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

Marketing Perspective

Viewing business operations and strategic decisions through the lens of customer needs, market demand, and long-term customer relationship value.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A psychological framework arranging human needs into five hierarchical levels: Physiological, Safety, Social/Belongingness, Esteem, and Self-Actualization.

Personal Selling

Person-to-person communication in which a seller attempts to assist and/or persuade prospective buyers to purchase the company's product/service.

Personal vs. Nonpersonal Channels

Personal channels involve direct face-to-face or person-to-person interaction, while nonpersonal channels carry messages without personal contact through mass media.

Point-of-Purchase (POP)

Promotional materials or displays located directly where the buying decision/transaction occurs (e.g., endcap displays, register displays).

Positioning

Designing an offering and brand image so that it occupies a distinct, valued place in the mind of the target consumer relative to competitors.

Post-Purchase Evaluation

The final stage in consumer decision-making where the buyer compares product performance with initial expectations to determine satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

PRIZM

A geodemographic segmentation system that classifies US households into distinct neighborhood clusters based on demographic, geographic, and consumer behavioral data.

Primacy vs. Recency Effect

Primacy Effect is the tendency for first-presented information to have the strongest impact, whereas Recency Effect is the tendency for last-presented information to be remembered best.

Product Differentiation

Creating real or perceived differences between a product and its competitors to set it apart.

Promotional Mix

The specific combination of promotional tools—including advertising, direct marketing, digital/social media, sales promotion, publicity/PR, and personal selling—used by a company to achieve its communication objectives.

Promotions

The various activities undertaken by a company to communicate the merits of its product/service and persuade target customers to buy it.

Psychographic Segmentation

Dividing markets based on personality traits, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles.

Public Relations (PR)

A management function that evaluates public attitudes, identifies individual/organizational policies with public interest, and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.

Publicity

Non-personal communications regarding an organization, product, service, or idea not directly paid for or run under identified sponsorship (e.g., news releases, editorial feature stories).

Purchase Decision / Intention

A consumer's predisposition or plan to buy a specific brand, formed after evaluating alternatives but prior to the actual physical purchase.

Q-Scores

An industry metric measuring celebrity popularity, familiarity, and appeal, calculated by dividing the percentage of people who cite a celebrity as a "favorite" by the percentage of people familiar with them.

Sales Promotions

Marketing activities that provide extra value or incentives to the sales force, distributors, or ultimate consumers to stimulate immediate sales (e.g., coupons, samples, contests).

Samsung Strategy for Marketing

A strategy balancing high-volume product range with premium technology innovation, aggressive global sponsorship, and fast-follower/pioneer product positioning against Apple.

Secret Behind Coca-Cola Marketing Strategy

Long-term brand equity building using universal emotional branding (happiness, togetherness) paired with dense global distribution and iconic visual identity (the contour bottle and dynamic ribbon).

Selective Perception

The psychological process where individuals filter inputs through four stages: Selective Exposure, Selective Attention, Selective Comprehension, and Selective Retention.

Sleeper Effect

A psychological phenomenon where the persuasive impact of a message increases over time because the receiver remembers the message content but forgets the uncredible or discounted source.

Source Attractiveness

A source characteristic encompassing similarity, familiarity, and likability, leading to persuasion through identification.

Source Credibility

The extent to which a receiver sees a communication source as having relevant knowledge, skill, or experience and trusts them to give unbiased information (comprising Expertise and Trustworthiness).

Stages in the Consumer Decision-Making Process

The five sequential steps: Problem Recognition, Information Search, Alternative Evaluation, Purchase Decision, and Post-Purchase Evaluation.

Stuffing vs. Dressing Example

A classic regional geographic/demographic marketing distinction showing how regional dialects and culinary culture dictate product naming and promotion (e.g., "stuffing" in the North vs. "dressing" in the South).

Swoosh: Inside Nike

Nike's brand strategy centered on athlete endorsement, emotional storytelling ("Just Do It"), cultural alignment, and transforming sportswear into lifestyle fashion.

Targeting / Target Marketing

Evaluating each market segment's attractiveness and selecting one or more segments to enter with a dedicated marketing mix.