MKTG 361 Exam 1 Vocab

Chapters 1-8

Marketing

The process of creating, distributing, promoting, and pricing, goods, services, and ideas to facilitate satisfying exchange relationships with customers and to develop and maintain favorable relationships with stakeholders in a dynamic environment

Customers

The purchasers of organizations’ products; the focal point of all marketing activities

Target Market

A specific group of customers on whom an organization focuses its marketing efforts

Marketing Mix

Four marketing activities - products, distribution, promotion, and pricing- that a firm can control to meet the needs of customers within its target market

Product

A good, service, or an idea

Value

A customer’s subjective assessment of benefits relative to costs in determining the worth of a product

Exchanges

The provision or transfer of goods, services, or ideas in return for something of value

Stakeholders

Constituents who have a ‘stake’, or claim, in some aspect of a company’s products, operations, markets, industry, and outcomes

Marketing Environment

The competitive, economic, political, legal and regulatory, technological, and sociocultural forces that surround the customer and affect the marketing mix

Marketing concept

A managerial philosophy that an organization should try to satisfy customers’ needs through a coordinated set of activities that also allows the organization to achieve its goals

Marketing Orientation

An organization-wide commitment to researching and responding to customer needs

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Using information about customers to create marketing strategies that develop and sustain desirable customer relationships

Relationship Marketing

Establishing long-term, mutually satisfying buyer-seller relationships

Customer Lifetime value (CLV)

A key measurement that forecasts a customer’s lifetime economic contribution based on continued relationship marketing efforts

Green Marketing

A strategic process involving stakeholder assessment to create meaningful long-term relationships with customers while maintaining, supporting, and enhancing the natural environment

Strategic Marketing Management

The process of planning, implementing, and evaluating the performance of marketing activities and strategies, both effectively and efficiently

Strategic Planning

The process of establishing an organizational mission and formulating goals, a corporate strategy, marketing objectives, and a marketing strategy

Mission Statement

A long-term view, or vision, of what the organization wants to become

Corporate strategy

A strategy that determines the means for utilizing resources in the various functional areas to reach the organization’s goals

Strategic Business Unit (SBU)

A division, product line, or other profit center within the parent company

Market

A group of individuals and/or organizations that have needs for products in a product class and have the ability, willingness, and authority to purchase those products

Market share

The percentage of a market that actually buys a specific product from a particular company

Market growth/ market share matrix

A helpful business tool, based on the philosphy that a product’s market growth rate and its market share are important considerations in determining its marketing strategy

Core compentencies

Things a company does extremely well, which sometimes give it an advantage over its competition

Market Opportunity

A combination of circumstances and timing that permits an organization to take action to reach a particular target market

Strategic Windows

Temporary periods of optimal fit between the key requirements of a market and the particular capabilities of a company competing in the market

Competititve advantage

The result of a company matching a core competency to opportunities it has discovered in the marketplace

SWOT analysis

Assessment of an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

first-mover advantage

The ability of an innovative company to achieve long-term competitive advantages by being the first to offer a certain product in the marketplace

Late Mover Advantage

The ability of later market entrants to achieve long-term competitive advantages by not being the first to offer a certain product in a marketplace

Marketing objective

A statement of what is to be accomplished through marketing activities

Marketing Strategy

A plan of action for identifying and analyzing a target market and developing a marketing mix to meet the needs of that market

Sustainable Competitive Advantage

An advantage that the competition cannot copy

Marketing implementation

The process of putting marketing strategies into action

Centralized organization

A structure in which top-level managers delegate little authority to lower levels

Decentralized organization

A structure in which decision-making authority is delegated as far down the chain of command as possible

Strategic Performance Evaluation

Establishing performance standards, measuring actual performance, comparing actual performance with established standards, and modifying the marketing strategy, if needed

Performance Standard

An expected level of performance against which actual performance can be compared

Sales Analysis

Analysis of sales figures to evaluate a firm’s performance

Marketing cost analysis

Analysis of costs to determine which are associated with specific marketing efforts

Marketing Plan

A written document that specifies the activities to be performed to implement and evaluate the organization’s marketing strategy

Environmental Scanning

The process of collecting information about forces in the marketing environment

Environmental analysis

The process of assessing and interpreting the information gathered through environmental scanning

Competition

Other organizations that market products that are similar to or can be substituted for a marketer’s products in the same geographic area

Brand Competitors

Firms that market products with similar features and benefits to the same customers at similar prices

Product Competitors

Firms that compete in the same product class but market products with different features, benefits, and prices

Generic Competitors

Firms that provide very different products that solve the same problem or satisfy the same basic customer need

Total budget competitors

Firms that compete for the limited financial resources of the same customers

Monopoly

A competitive structure in which an organization offers a product that has no close substitutes, making that organization the sole source of supply

Oligopoly

A competitive structure in which a few sellers control the supply of a large proportion of a product

Monopolistic competition

A competitive structure in which a firm has many potential competitors and tries to develop a marketing strategy to differentiate its product

Pure competition

A market structure characterized by an extremely large number of sellers, none strong enough to significantly influence price or supply

Business Cycle

A pattern of economic fluctuations that has four stages: prosperity, recession, depression, and recovery

Prosperity

A stage of the business cycle characterized by low unemployment and relatively high total income, which together ensure high buying power (provided the inflation rate stays the same)

Recession

A stage of the business cycle during which unemployment rises and total buying power declines, stifling both consumer and business spending

Depression

A stage of the business cycle during which unemployment is extremely high, wages are very low, total disposable income is at a minimum, and consumers lack confidence in the economy

Recovery

A stage of the business cycle during which the economy moves from recession or depression toward prosperity

Buying power

The types of resources, such as money, goods, and services that can be traded in an exchange, that enable the individual to make purchases

Income

For an individual, the amount of money recieved through wages, rents, investments, pensions, and subsidy payments for a given period

Disposable income

After-tax income

Discretionary income

Disposable income available for spending and saving after an individual has purchased the basic necessities of food, clothing, and shelter

Wealth

The accumulation of past income, natural resources, and financial resources

Willingness to spend

An inclination to buy because of expected satisfaction from a product, influenced by the ability to buy and numerous psychological and social forces

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

An agency that regulates a variety of business practices and curbs false advertising, misleading pricing, and deceptive packaging and labeling

Better Business Bureau (BBB)

A system of nongovernmental, independent, local regulatory agencies supported by local businesses that helps settle problems between customers and specific business firms

National Advertising Review Board (NARB)

A self-regulatory unit that considers challenges to issues rasied by the National Advertising Division (an arm of the Council of Better Business Bureaus) about an advertisement

Technology

The application of knowledge and tools to solve problems and perform tasks more efficiently

Sociocultural forces

The influence in a society and its culture(s) that change people’s attitudes, beliefs, norms, customs, and lifestyles

Consumerism

Organizes efforts by individuals, groups, and organizations to protect consumers’ rights

Social Responsibility

An organization’s obligation to maximize its positive impact and minimize its negative impact on society

Marketing Citizenship

The adoption of a strategic focus for fulfilling the economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic social responsibilities expected by stakeholders

Marketing Ethics

Principles and standards that define acceptable marketing conduct as determines by various stakeholders

Cause-related marketing

The practice of linking products to a particular social cause on an ongoing or short-term basis

Strategic Philanthropy

The synergistic use of organizational core competencies and resources to address key stakeholders’ interests and achieve both organizational and social benefits

Sustainability

The potential for the long-term well-being of the natural environment, including all biological entities, as well as the interaction among nature and individuals, organizations, and business strategies

Ethical issue

An identifiable problem, situation, or opportunity requiring a choice among several actions that must be evaluated as right or wrong, ethical or unethical

Organizational (corporate) Culture

A set of values, beliefs, goals, norms, and rituals that members of an organization share

Codes of conduct

Formalized rules and standards that describe what the company expects of its employees

Marketing Research

The systematic design, collection, interpretation, and reporting of information to help marketers solve specific marketing problems or take advantage of marketing opportunities

Exploratory research

Research conducted to gather more info about a problem or to make a tentative hypothesis more specific

Customer Advisory Board

Small groups of actual customers who serve as sounding boards for new product ideas and offer insights into their feelings and attitudes toward a firm’s products and other elements of its marketing strategy

Focus Group

A small group of 8-12 people who are brought together to participate in an interview that is often conducted informally, without a structured questionnarie, to observe interaction when members are exposed to an idea or a concept

Conclusive Research

Research designed to verify insights through objective procedures and to help marketers in making decisions

Descriptive research

Research conducted to clarify the characteristics of certain phenomena to solve a particular problem

Experimental Research

Research that allow marketers to make causal inferences about relationships between variables

Research design

An overall plan for obtaining the information needed to address a research problem or issue

Hypothesis

An informed guess or assumption about a certain problem or a set of circumstances

Reliability

A condition that exists when a research technique produces almost identical results in repeated trials

Validity

A condition that exists when a research method measures what it is supposed to measure

Primary Data

Data observed and recorded or collected directly from respondents

Secondary Data

Data compiled both inside and outside the organization for some purpose other than the current investigation

Population

All the elements, units, or individuals of interest to researchers for a specific study

Sample

A limited number of units chosen to represent the characteristics of a total population

Sampling

A type of sampling in which every element in the population being studied has a known chance of being selected for study

Probability Sampling

A type of sampling in which every element in the population being studied has a known chance of being selected for study

Random Sampling

A form of probability sampling in which all units in a population have an equal chance of appearing in the sample, and the various events that can occur have an equal or known chance of taking place

Stratified Sampling

A type of probability sampling in which the population is divided into groups with a common attribute, and a random sample is chosen within each group

Nonprobability Sampling

A sampling technique in which there is no way to calculate the likelihood that a specific element of the population being studied will be chosen

Quota Sampling

A nonprobability sampling technique in which researchers divide the population into groups and then arbitrarily choose participants from each group

Mail survey

A research method in which respondents answer a questionnaire sent through the mail