Module 1: Introduction

Marketing agility

ability to rapidly adapt marketing activities and strategies in response to changing customer needs and market conditions.

Internet-of-Things

IoT refers to a world in which products are connected to the internet and continuously exchange data with users, organizations, and other connected devices.

Segmentation

one of the foundations of marketing; considering the different groups that can be identified in the market.

Hyper-segmentation

highly refined division of target audiences based on a vast amount of detailed data, allowing companies to deliver personalized and relevant marketing messages.

Targeting

selecting one or several groups identified through segmentation.

Positioning

creating a distinctive and meaningful position in the minds of target customers.

Personalization-privacy paradox

the paradox wherein personalization efforts, aimed at enhancing user engagement, simultaneously create consumer privacy concerns.

Marketing

the process by which companies or institutions create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return.

Functional versus Strategic view on marketing

the functional view considers marketing as a department responsible for tasks such as advertising and price promotions, whereas the strategic view considers marketing as a mindset that emphasizes satisfying the needs and wants of customers and other stakeholders.

Marketing as a mindset

an approach in which marketing is not the responsibility of one department, but a shared responsibility throughout the organization, with all aspects of the organization aligned around the customer.

Customer centricity

an organizational approach that places the customer at the center of the organization, ensuring that products and interactions are designed around customers and their needs.

Strategy versus Execution

strategy determines what an organization does and why, while execution determines how this is implemented; both are mutually dependent and necessary for marketing to contribute effectively to organizational success.

Value (creation)

developing products that are valuable to the customer, thereby providing added value; value creation is the fundamental reason for the existence of marketing.

Value

a trade-off between the benefits and costs perceived by the beneficiary; value is always determined by the beneficiary itself.

Customer value

the trade-off between the benefits and costs as perceived by the customer.

Product

any physical or digital good and/or service that a customer can acquire, use and/or consume to satisfy their wants and needs.

Pre-purchase

Purchase

Customer journey

the different stages and experiences through which a customer goes, including pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase.

Foundational characteristics of customer value

customer value involves an interaction between a subject and an object; involves a trade-off between benefits and costs; is not inherent in an object but in the customer’s experiences derived from it; is personal and subjectively determined by the customer; is situation-specific; and is multidimensional, consisting of multiple value types.

Holbrook’s value typology

a customer value typology based on three dimensions: extrinsic versus intrinsic value, active versus reactive value, and self-oriented versus other-oriented value, resulting in eight value types: efficiency, excellence, status, esteem, play, aesthetics, ethics, and spirituality.

Leroi-Werelds’ value typology

an updated customer value typology consisting of 14 positive value types (benefits) and 10 negative value types (costs); not all value types are relevant in every context because customer value is situation-specific.

Customer

a person or organization that purchases and uses a product. The course also adopts a broader view of customers as key beneficiaries who directly or indirectly engage with an organization’s offerings and play a role in value creation.

Relevance of marketing

marketing is essential to attract new customers, keep existing customers happy and build long-lasting relationships, and is the primary source of revenues.

Value in return

the value an organization receives from customers in return for creating customer value, including purchases, loyalty, feedback, and positive word-of-mouth.

Customer Engagement Value (CEV)

the value customers create for an organization through four dimensions: customer lifetime value, customer referral value, customer influencer value, and customer knowledge value.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

the total value a customer brings to a company over the entire period they remain a customer.

Customer Referral Value (CRV)

the value created when customers help acquire new customers through firm-initiated and incentivized formal referral programs.

Customer Influencer Value (CIV)

the value created through customers’ influence on other customers and prospects, such as word-of-mouth activity that persuades and converts prospects or influences existing customers.

Customer Knowledge Value (CKV)

the value created through customer feedback that provides ideas for innovations and improvements and contributes to knowledge development.

Production concept or orientation

the concept that consumers prefer products that are available and affordable; therefore, the company should focus on more efficient production and distribution.

Product concept or orientation

the concept that consumers prefer products offering the highest quality, performance, and functionality; therefore, the organization should focus on continuously improving its products.

Sales/selling concept or orientation

the concept that consumers will not buy enough of the firm’s products unless the company invests heavily in sales and promotion.

Product centricity

an internally focused approach based on selling products, short-term transactions, focusing on the organization and what it can do, marketing as a function, and profit based on selling large volumes.

Marketing myopia

the mistake of focusing too heavily on the organization’s products rather than on customers’ needs and desires.

Better mousetrap fallacy

the mistaken belief that if an organization develops a technically superior product compared to competitors, customers will automatically prefer it.

Marketing concept or orientation

the concept that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions better than competitors; it focuses on creating customer value.

From product to customer centricity: barriers

organizational culture, organizational structure, processes and systems, and financial metrics that can prevent organizations from becoming customer-centric.

Marketing 1.0

product-centric marketing focused on mass production and distribution, with organizations aiming to sell standardized products efficiently to a broad market.

Marketing 2.0

customer-centric marketing that shifted attention from the product to the customer and focused on understanding and satisfying customers’ needs and wants.

Marketing 3.0

human-centric marketing that recognizes customers as whole human beings with mind, heart, and spirit and engages with values, purpose, and broader societal concerns.

Marketing 4.0

social and digital marketing reflecting the rise of social media and the connected customer, with increasing focus on interaction, engagement, and advocacy in digital networks.

Marketing 5.0

artificial intelligence-driven and personal marketing that uses AI and data to personalize marketing at scale, enabling highly tailored offerings and more agile decision-making.

Marketing 6.0

immersive and experiential marketing that combines physical and digital environments through technologies such as IoT, augmented reality, and virtual reality to create immersive and memorable customer experiences.

Marketing 7.0

cognitive and mind-centric marketing that integrates the social, personal, and experiential dimensions and places the human mind at the center, emphasizing how social influence, personalized relevance, and immersive experiences shape customer thinking, decision-making, and memory.

Business-to-consumer (BtoC) marketing

marketing directed from businesses to individual consumers.

Business-to-business (BtoB) marketing / industrial marketing

marketing between businesses or organizations.

Business-to-government (BtoG) marketing

marketing in which businesses market their offerings to government organizations.

Non-profit marketing

marketing used by non-profit organizations to create value and attract membership, funds, and support.

Social marketing

marketing used to encourage behaviors related to social objectives, such as energy conservation, environmental concern, or discouraging smoking and illegal drug use.

Marketing process

the process through which organizations create value for customers and ultimately receive value in return; it consists of analysis, strategy, implementation, and evaluation.

Marketing cycle

a multi-step journey consisting of analysis, strategy, implementation, and evaluation through which organizations create value for customers and receive value in return.

(Marketing) analysis

gathering relevant insights by building an understanding of customers’ needs and wants and the context in which they are embedded.

(Marketing) strategy

planning actions and activities to build a sustainable differential advantage by creating a distinctive and meaningful position in the minds of target customers.

(Marketing) implementation

translating the marketing strategy into a marketing mix, consisting of marketing instruments that work together to attract customers, satisfy their needs and wants, and build relationships with them.

(Marketing) evaluation

measuring and evaluating marketing performance in terms of reaching specific objectives related to the marketing strategy and marketing implementation.