Marketing Foundations and Consumer Insights

Vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental marketing concepts, consumer behavior, and consumer research methods.

Principle

In a general basis of decisions, a rule or baseline formed after research, trial, and error that works most of the time.

Concept

A specific name or term with clear meaning, such as 'market share,' used to make communication faster and clearer.

Theory

An explanation of why something happens and its underlying mechanism, providing a logical basis for understanding.

Model

A step-by-step representation or framework illustrating how a process works.

Marketing (Philip Kotler Definition)

The science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs and wants of a target market at a profit.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A 5-level psychological framework of human needs moving from Physiological Needs to Safety, Love and Belonging, Esteem, and Self-Actualization.

Marketing Management

A discipline focused on practical decision-making and execution, addressing the 'how' of marketing.

Customer Value

The evaluation made by a consumer on whether what they receive is worth what they give up, expressed as $\text{Customer Value} = \text{Perceived Benefits} - \text{Perceived Costs}$.

Perceived Benefits

The advantages or benefits that a customer believes they will receive from a product or service, including performance, convenience, enjoyment, or status.

Perceived Costs

Everything that a customer believes they must give up to acquire, use, or obtain a product or service.

Customer Satisfaction

The psychological outcome when a customer mentally compares their actual post-purchase experience with their pre-purchase expectations.

Consumer Insight

A deep understanding of the underlying motivations, emotions, beliefs, or unmet needs that explain why consumers behave the way they do.

Consumer

An individual who uses or consumes a product or service.

Customer

An individual or entity that purchases a product or service.

Consumer Behavior

The study of how consumers select, purchase, use, and dispose of goods and services to satisfy their needs and wants.

Cognitive Dissonance

The mental discomfort felt when a person's actions do not match their beliefs, or when holding two contradictory thoughts simultaneously.

Need

A universal and finite basic human requirement essential for living or operating.

Want

The specific, culturally shaped, and infinite form that a basic human need takes depending on preference and context.

Demand

A specific consumer want backed by both the willingness and economic ability to pay.

Mental Loading

The amount of cognitive effort a customer needs to process a brand's message, navigate an interface, or make a purchasing decision.

Task Bundling

A strategy that groups similar tasks into dedicated time blocks or pairs less desirable duties with enjoyable activities to improve productivity.

Product Development

The process of designing, improving, or introducing products and services that satisfy identified customer needs and create value.

Pricing Decisions

The decisions involved in determining how much customers will pay for an offering while considering customer value, costs, competition, and business objectives.

Distribution Decisions

The decisions about how, where, and when a product or service will be made available to customers across selection and management of channels.

Communication Decisions

The decisions regarding what value proposition to communicate, to whom, through which channels, and how to inform or persuade consumers.

Customer Journey

The non-linear sequence of experiences consumers go through across stages including Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Experience, and Advocacy.

Consumer Research Methods

Systematic techniques used by businesses to gather, analyze, and interpret qualitative and quantitative data about buyer behavior and needs.

Observation

A research method focused on watching what consumers actually do in real-life settings to record genuine, unprompted behavior.

Surveys

A quantitative research method of asking many consumers structured questions to measure preferences, attitudes, and behaviors.

Interviews

A qualitative research technique involving one-on-one exploration to understand the underlying motivations, beliefs, and feelings behind consumer actions.

Laddering Interviews

An interview technique that repeatedly probes with 'why' questions to reveal a means-end chain from specific product attributes to core personal values.

Focus Groups

Guided group discussions with 6 to 10 participants where group interaction generates deeper insights and builds on individual responses.

Social Listening

The process of monitoring online consumer conversations across social channels to track brand sentiment and emerging trends in real time.

Review Mining

The practice of analyzing customer reviews to uncover recurring complaints, popular features, and user sentiment.

Customer Journey Mapping

The process of visually mapping out the consumer's experience step-by-step across all touchpoints to spot pain points and emotional shifts.