Marketing's Value to Consumers, Firms, and Society

Vocabulary flashcards generated from Chapter 1 notes covering key terms, market separations, functions, economic systems, historical eras, and ethical concepts.

Micro-Marketing

The performance of activities that seek to accomplish an organization's objectives by anticipating customer or client needs and directing a flow of need-satisfying goods and services from producer to customer or client.

Macro-Marketing

A social process that directs an economy's flow of goods and services from producers to consumers in a way that effectively matches supply and demand and accomplishes the objectives of society.

Spatial Separation

A barrier between producers and consumers where producers locate where it is economical to produce, while consumers are scattered in many places.

Separation in Time

A barrier where consumers may not want to consume goods at the precise time they are produced.

Separation of Information

A barrier where producers do not know who needs what, and consumers do not know what is available from whom and at what price.

Separation in Values

A barrier where producers value goods in terms of costs and competitive prices, while consumers value them in terms of satisfying needs and ability to pay.

Separation of Ownership

A barrier where producers hold title to goods they do not want to consume, and consumers want goods they do not own.

Discrepancy of Quantity

The difference where producers prefer to produce and sell in large quantities, while consumers prefer to buy and consume in small quantities.

Discrepancy of Assortment

The difference where producers specialize in a narrow assortment, while consumers need a broad assortment.

Universal Functions of Marketing

Activities required to overcome separations and discrepancies between producers and consumers, including buying, selling, transporting, storing, standardization and grading, financing, risk taking, and market information.

Buying Function

Looking for and evaluating goods and services.

Selling Function

Promoting the product through advertising, personal selling, and other methods; it is the most visible marketing function.

Transporting Function

Moving goods from one place to another.

Storing Function

Holding goods until customers need them.

Standardization and Grading

Sorting products according to size and quality, reducing the need for inspection.

Financing

Providing necessary cash and credit to produce, transport, store, promote, and buy products.

Risk Taking

Bearing the uncertainties that are part of the marketing process, such as goods being damaged or stolen.

Market Information Function

Collecting, analyzing, and distributing all information needed to plan and control marketing activities.

Intermediaries

Specialists in trade rather than production, such as retailers and wholesalers, who make the macro-marketing system more efficient and effective.

Collaborators

Firms that facilitate one or more marketing functions other than buying or selling, such as advertising agencies, market research firms, public warehouses, and transport companies.

E-commerce

Exchanges between individuals or organizations—and activities that facilitate these exchanges—based on applications of information technology.

Command Economy

An economic system in which government officials decide what and how much is to be produced and distributed by whom, when, to whom, and why.

Market-Directed Economy

An economic system in which the individual decisions of many producers and consumers make the macro-level decisions for the whole economy.

Simple Trade Era

A historical stage in marketing when families traded or sold their surplus output to local distributors.

Production Era

A stage in marketing evolution lasting until the 1920s where a company focuses on the production of a few specific products based on the view that 'if we can make it, it will sell.'

Sales Era

A stage in marketing evolution from the 1930s to 1950s when a company emphasizes selling because of increased competition.

Marketing Department Era

A stage in marketing evolution from the 1950s to 1960s when all marketing activities are brought under the control of one department to improve short-run policy planning.

Marketing Company Era

A stage in marketing evolution from the 1960s to the present when marketing people develop long-range plans and the whole company effort is guided by the marketing concept.

The Marketing Concept

The idea that an organization aims all its efforts at satisfying its customers—at a profit.

Customer Satisfaction

The extent to which a firm fulfills a customer's needs, desires, and expectations.

Production Orientation

A business approach where managers focus on the firm's output, making whatever products are easy to produce and then trying to sell them, rather than serving existing customer needs.

Marketing Orientation

A business approach where managers carry out the marketing concept by offering customers what they need rather than trying to sell whatever the firm produced.

Customer Value

The difference between the benefits a customer sees from a market offering and the costs of obtaining those benefits.

Micro-Macro Dilemma

A situation that occurs when what is good for some firms and consumers may not be good for society as a whole.

Social Responsibility

A firm's obligation to improve its positive effects on society and reduce its negative effects.

Triple Bottom Line

A framework used by some firms to measure economic, social, and environmental outcomes.

Marketing Ethics

The moral standards that guide marketing decisions and actions.