WGU D077: Concepts in Marketing, Sales, and Customer Contact

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering marketing fundamentals, strategic planning, marketing research, growth strategies, CRM, segmentation/targeting/positioning, consumer behavior, personal selling, and B2B negotiations for WGU D077.

Marketing

The business function and process of identifying, satisfying, and retaining customers through creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that deliver value.

Marketing Concept

A business philosophy stating that an organization's goals are best achieved by identifying and satisfying customer needs and wants through coordinated company-wide efforts while building long-term, profitable relationships legally and responsibly.

Marketing Mix (4 Ps)

The controllable tactical toolkit consisting of Product (what the customer receives), Price (what the customer gives up), Place (how the offering reaches the customer), and Promotion (how the firm communicates value).

Product Life Cycle (PLC)

The four developmental stages a product passes through over time: Introduction (low sales, little/no profit, limited competition), Growth (rapidly rising sales and profits, competitors enter), Maturity (peak sales, intense competition, declining profit margins), and Decline (falling sales and profits).

Product Mix

The complete assortment of individual products and product lines that a company offers for sale.

Product Depth

The number of distinct variations, versions, sizes, flavors, or models offered within a specific product line.

Price Skimming

A pricing strategy of intentionally setting a high initial price for a new, innovative product to recover development costs from early adopters before lowering the price over time as competition increases.

Penetration Pricing

A pricing strategy of deliberately setting a low initial price to attract a large number of buyers, encourage brand switching, and rapidly secure market share in price-sensitive markets.

Prestige Pricing

Setting a consistently high price to signal superior quality, status, exclusivity, and luxury, appealing to consumers who equate higher prices with higher value.

Leader Pricing

Pricing a well-known, high-demand item below normal market price (sometimes near or below cost as a 'loss leader') to generate store or website traffic with the expectation that shoppers will buy other profitable items.

Bundle Pricing

Grouping two or more complementary products or services together and selling them for a single combined price that is lower than purchasing them separately.

Competitive Pricing

Setting price points primarily based on rivals' prices—matching, undercutting, or setting premiums relative to competitors—rather than solely relying on cost or consumer demand.

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

A strategic approach that coordinates and integrates all brand communications, promotional channels, and messaging to deliver a unified, consistent, customer-centric message.

Content Marketing

Creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent educational or entertainment material to attract and engage a target audience without directly pitching a brand.

Guerrilla Marketing

An unconventional, low-cost, attention-grabbing promotional tactic designed to produce an engaging customer experience and widespread buzz through surprise.

Public Relations (PR)

Creating and maintaining goodwill, publicity, and mutual understanding between an organization and its key publics through non-paid media communication, events, and crisis management.

Sales Promotion

Short-term marketing incentives—such as coupons, free samples, rebates, contests, and displays—designed to stimulate immediate customer action and product trial.

Vertical Marketing System (VMS)

A distribution channel structure in which producers, wholesalers, and retailers work together as a unified system, categorized into Corporate (single ownership of all levels), Contractual (independent firms united by contracts/franchises), or Administered (coordinated through the economic power and size of one dominant member).

Omnichannel Retailing

Providing a seamless, uniform, and integrated shopping experience across all customer engagement touchpoints, including physical stores, mobile apps, and websites.

PEST / PESTLE Analysis

An environmental scanning framework evaluating external, uncontrollable macroenvironmental forces: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental.

Price Fixing (Collusion)

An illegal agreement between two or more competing firms to establish, manipulate, or maintain uniform prices for goods or services.

Predatory Pricing

The illegal practice of pricing a product extremely low with the specific intent of driving competitors out of the market or creating a barrier to entry.

Bait and Switch

A deceptive and fraudulent sales tactic where a company advertises an attractive, low-priced item that is unavailable or discouraged in order to pressure buyers into purchasing a more expensive product.

Marketing Plan

A formal, comprehensive written document informed by situational analysis that outlines marketing objectives, strategies, implementation actions, budgets, and control metrics over a defined period.

SMART Objectives

Marketing targets structured to be Specific (clear result), Measurable (quantifiable metric), Achievable (realistic with available resources), Relevant (aligned with broader business goals), and Time-bound (defined deadline).

SWOT Analysis

A strategic planning tool that assesses internal, controllable factors (Strengths and Weaknesses) alongside external, uncontrollable factors (Opportunities and Threats).

BCG Growth-Share Matrix

A portfolio planning tool that categorizes Strategic Business Units based on market growth rate and relative market share into Stars (high growth, high share), Cash Cows (low growth, high share), Question Marks (high growth, low share), and Dogs (low growth, low share).

Cash Cow

A business unit or product in the BCG matrix with high relative market share in a mature, low-growth industry that generates more cash than it consumes to fund growth elsewhere.

Question Mark (Problem Child)

A BCG quadrant characterized by low relative market share in a high-growth market, requiring substantial cash investment and close monitoring to determine if it can turn into a Star or will decline into a Dog.

Porter's Five Forces

An industry analysis framework that determines competitive intensity and profitability potential based on Competitive Rivalry, Threat of New Entrants, Threat of Substitutes, Bargaining Power of Buyers, and Bargaining Power of Suppliers.

Strategic Planning vs. Tactical Planning

Strategic planning establishes overarching, long-term direction, positioning, and target choices (Where and Why), whereas tactical planning specifies short-term, detailed operational action steps, campaigns, and resource allocations (How, When, and Who).

Marketing Research

The systematic process of designing, gathering, recording, analyzing, and reporting information about customers, competitors, and the marketplace to reduce decision uncertainty.

Reliability vs. Validity

Reliability is the degree to which a research technique produces stable and consistent results across repeated trials, whereas validity is the extent to which a method accurately measures what it was intended to measure.

Primary Data vs. Secondary Data

Primary data is original information gathered specifically for the research problem at hand, whereas secondary data is existing information previously collected for another internal or external purpose.

Ethnographic Research

An observational primary research method where researchers directly observe, interact with, and record participants in their natural environments rather than in a clinical or lab setting.

Groupthink

A phenomenon in focus groups or teams where participants suppress individual opinions or critical evaluation in pursuit of perceived group harmony or conformity.

Syndicated Marketing Research

Commercial, standardized marketing data collected regularly by an independent research firm and sold or licensed to multiple organizations.

Strategic Opportunity Matrix (Ansoff Matrix)

A growth framework that maps growth strategies along two dimensions—products (current vs. new) and markets (current vs. new)—into Market Penetration, Market Development, Product Development, and Diversification.

Market Penetration

A growth strategy focused on increasing market share by selling existing products to existing customer segments using price cuts, advertising, and increased distribution.

Market Development

A growth strategy that expands an organization by introducing its existing products into entirely new markets, demographic segments, channels, or geographic regions.

Product Development

A growth strategy that creates new, modified, or improved products to sell to the organization's existing customer base.

Diversification

The highest-risk growth strategy in which an organization introduces completely new products into completely new markets outside its core business.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

The integrated combination of business strategies, policies, processes, and technologies implemented to coordinate customer interactions, track information, and optimize long-term customer value.

Operational, Analytical, and Collaborative CRM

Operational CRM automates front-office tasks (sales, marketing, customer service); Analytical CRM evaluates customer data patterns to forecast churn and behavior; Collaborative CRM integrates customer information across disparate internal teams, partners, and vendors.

Customer Life Cycle

The complete relationship journey a consumer follows with a firm, comprising Reach (awareness), Acquisition, Conversion (purchase), Retention, and Loyalty/Advocacy.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

The total projected net profit or value generated by an individual customer over the entire duration of their relationship with the company, calculated fundamentally as $\text{CLV} = \text{Average Purchase Value} \times \text{Purchase Frequency} \times \text{Expected Customer Lifespan}$.

Customer Equity

The total combined lifetime values of all current and future customers across an enterprise, functioning as an overall measure of customer base valuation consisting of Value Equity, Brand Equity, and Retention Equity.

Fair Information Practice Principles

Four core data privacy guidelines in the digital marketplace: Notice (disclosing data practices), Choice (opt-in/opt-out consent), Access (permitting review of personal data), and Security (safeguarding data integrity).

CAN-SPAM Act

A federal law establishing rules for commercial email messages that mandates accurate header/subject details, clear identification of ads, a valid physical address, and a conspicuous opt-out mechanism honored within ten days.

Permission Marketing

A marketing concept where promotional communications are only directed to prospective customers who have knowingly and explicitly granted prior consent to receive them.

Market Segmentation

The process of dividing a broad, heterogeneous target market into smaller, homogenous sub-groups based on shared characteristics, needs, or behaviors.

Segmentation Bases

The primary criteria used to segment consumer markets: Geographic (location, climate, density), Demographic (age, income, gender, education, family size), Psychographic (lifestyle, personality, values), and Behavioral / Product-Related (benefits sought, usage rate, brand loyalty).

Targeting Strategies

The approaches used to select which market segment(s) to enter: Undifferentiated (Mass) targeting (one offering for the whole market), Differentiated targeting (tailored offerings for multiple distinct segments), Concentrated (Niche) targeting (dedicating resources to one or few segments), and Micromarketing (customizing for local areas or individual buyers).

Product Positioning

The deliberate effort to design a company's offering and image so that it occupies a distinct, desirable, and competitive place in the mind of the target consumer relative to competing options.

Positioning Statement

A concise internal articulation that identifies the target audience, brand name, category/frame of reference, key point of difference, and reason to believe/proof points.

Perceptual Map (Positioning Map)

A visual, two-dimensional grid plotting consumer perceptions of competitive brands against two critical buying dimensions (such as price and quality) to reveal market whitespace and competitive positioning.

Consumer Decision-Making Process

The six-step sequence a consumer completes when acquiring an item: (1) Need / Problem Recognition, (2) Information Search, (3) Evaluation of Alternatives, (4) Purchase Decision, (5) Act/Buy, and (6) Post-Purchase Evaluation.

Selective Perception

The cognitive filtering mechanism through which consumers actively screen, distort, and retain information consistent with pre-existing beliefs while ignoring conflicting inputs (encompassing selective attention, selective distortion, and selective retention).

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A psychological motivation theory establishing that human needs advance sequentially from lower physiological needs (food, water) through safety/security, love/belonging, and esteem, culminating in self-actualization (reaching full potential).

Experiential vs. Nonexperiential Learning

Experiential learning occurs through direct personal trial, usage, or physical engagement with a product, whereas nonexperiential learning occurs indirectly through secondary inputs like observation, instruction, or reading ads.

Syncratic Decision-Making

A joint purchase decision-making dynamic within a household or family where both partners participate equally in the final decision.

Reference Group vs. Aspirational Group

A reference group is any social group an individual uses as a comparative benchmark to evaluate their own attitudes or behaviors; an aspirational group is a specific reference group to which an individual currently does not belong but aspires to join.

Consumer Involvement and Problem-Solving Types

Consumer decision effort ranges from Routine Response Behavior (habitual, low involvement, fast choices like groceries) to Limited Problem Solving (moderate involvement and search), to Extended Problem Solving (high-involvement, high financial or personal risk purchases requiring thorough evaluation like homes or vehicles).

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

A management philosophy ensuring an organization conducts its business in a manner that accounts for its legal, economic, ethical, social, and environmental effects on society and stakeholders.

Personal Selling

Direct, two-way interpersonal communication between a sales representative and a prospective buyer designed to identify needs, present tailored solutions, overcome concerns, and secure commitment.

Consultative Selling vs. Solution Selling

Consultative selling positions the seller as a trusted expert advisor diagnosing broad business needs to recommend options, whereas solution selling specifically diagnoses a defined customer problem and configures a tailored bundle of products and services to resolve it.

Adaptive Selling

The practice of actively altering a sales style, presentation format, and communication approach in real time based on the prospect's personality, behavioral style, and immediate feedback.

Social Styles Grid

A four-quadrant behavioral classification tool plotting buyers along assertiveness and responsiveness: Analyticals (low assertiveness, low responsiveness; focus on 'How'), Drivers (high assertiveness, low responsiveness; focus on 'What'), Amiables (low assertiveness, high responsiveness; focus on 'Why'), and Expressives (high assertiveness, high responsiveness; focus on 'Who').

The Personal Sales Process

A structured sequence of personal selling stages: (1) Prospecting and Qualifying, (2) Preapproach, (3) Approach / Discovery, (4) Presentation and Demonstration, (5) Handling Objections, (6) Closing the Sale, and (7) Following Up.

Trial Close

An interim questioning technique used by a salesperson during a sales presentation to assess the customer's readiness, attitude, and remaining objections without forcing a final purchase commitment.

Derived Demand

The organizational buying phenomenon where the commercial demand for business-to-business products or industrial raw materials is directly derived from the end-consumer demand for final products.

B2B Buying Situations

The three classifications of organizational purchases: Straight Rebuy (routine reorder with no changes), Modified Rebuy (reordering with adjustments to specs, terms, price, or vendor), and New Task (a first-time, complex purchase requiring extensive research and buying-center involvement).

Organizational Buying Center

The informal cross-functional group participating in an organizational purchase: Initiators (start the process), Users (actually use the product), Influencers (set technical criteria), Deciders (have formal selection power), Buyers (manage contracts and orders), and Gatekeepers (control information flow).

Distributive vs. Integrative Negotiation

Distributive negotiation adopts a fixed-pie, competitive win-lose posture aimed at claiming maximum value, while integrative negotiation uses a collaborative win-win approach to expand value by trading across differing priorities.

Dual Concern Model

A conflict resolution matrix mapping styles along Concern for Self (Assertiveness) and Concern for Others (Cooperativeness): Competing (high self, low others), Collaborating (high self, high others), Compromising (moderate both), Avoiding (low self, low others), and Accommodating (low self, high others).

BATNA

An acronym for Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement, representing the most advantageous course of action a party can take if prospective negotiations fail to reach an agreement.