Fashion Retailing: Marketing, Merchandising, and Management

Vocabulary flashcards covering core fashion industry marketing principles, merchandising strategies, operational management, and store planning based on Chapters 8, 9, and 10 of The Fashion Industry and Its Careers.

Price and placement

Which of the two marketing mix variables are primarily represented in the following scenario? Marc Jacobs designs a mid-priced line of apparel, handbags, and footwear for sale at Target

Consumers identified as potential customers or product users.

Target Market

Process (Marketing Mix)

How a product is made and delivered to the consumer while providing maximum efficiency, reliability, and sustainability.

Marketing Plan

The implementation of the marketing mix that helps define and quantify user benefits, establishes market size, and addresses competition.

A model showing acceptance measured in sales volume over time across the Introductory Stage, Maturity Stage (Growth and Peak), and Decline Stage (Rejection), used to determine if and when to introduce new items.

Fashion Product Life Cycle

Marketing Director

An executive who develops, implements, and facilitates the marketing plan, working under the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) in large companies.

Marketing Manager

A professional supervised by the marketing director who holds similar qualifications and strives to create merchandise and promotions unique to the company.

Product Marketing Manager

A role that anticipates when to enter or exit a fashion style, color, or theme, analyzes product placement and distribution, and examines cost-effective channels of distribution.

Channel of Distribution

The methods selected for moving goods from producer to consumer.

Brand Marketing Manager

A manager who strategically develops and executes multichannel brand marketing and promotional programs to drive brand awareness, support brand character, and generate increased revenue.

Branding

The sum of all associations, feelings, beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions customers have with a company and/or its products.

Digital Marketing Manager

A professional who develops and manages a company's digital presence, oversees digital strategy to drive online traffic, and assists with website marketing as a retail store, communication tool, and promotional tool.

Wholesale Selling

Selling merchandise from a manufacturer to a retailer for resale to the consumer.

Diffusion Labels

Secondary lines sold at lower prices exclusively to mass merchandisers in order to increase market share.

Creative Director

An executive who oversees art directors and other in-house art staff.

Art Director

A hands-on design professional who oversees the production of artwork.

Copywriter

A professional responsible for writing captions, slogans, and audio scripts that accompany promotional visuals online and in print to generate demand.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

The ability to analyze significant amounts of data to understand consumer demographics, key market segments, and best practices for recruiting and retaining customers.

Merchandising

All activities involved in the buying and selling of the retailer's products—the inventory.

Inventory

The selection of products available for sale in a fashion operation, also referred to as the merchandise assortment.

General Merchandising Manager (GMM)

The executive who leads and manages the buyers of all divisions in a retail operation and sets the overall merchandising strategy and direction.

Divisional Merchandising Manager (DMM)

A manager working under the GMM who provides leadership for the buying staff of a specific division or related categories of merchandise.

Buyer

A fashion merchandiser responsible for all product purchases for a company or particular department within an established budget.

Buying Plan

A plan that takes into account past and projected sales, inventory, markups, and markdowns.

Gross Margin

The profit earned on merchandise sales.

Open-to-Buy

The amount of money allocated for new merchandise purchases each month.

Key Vendors

Manufacturers' lines that are featured as the greatest proportion of a retailer's inventory.

Secondary Vendors

Manufacturers' merchandise lines that are carried in smaller quantities by a retailer.

Assistant Buyer

An entry-level role reporting directly to the buyer that assists with order follow-up with vendors, merchandise selection, advertising, and merchandising math calculations.

Merchandise Planner

A professional who collaborates with a buyer to develop sales forecasts, inventory plans, and spending budgets to minimize markdowns and achieve sales and profit objectives.

Planning Module

A spreadsheet that uses sales and stock ratios to project how many units of an item (by style, color, and size) must be purchased for a given season.

Planning Manager

A leader who provides direction and support at the merchandise-driven level to plan, distribute, and monitor inventory appropriately.

Distribution Manager

An allocator responsible for managing vendor merchandise deliveries ordered by buyers and assigning them to be delivered to retail locations.

Merchandising Trainee

A member of an executive training program designed for new hires, former interns, or recruits that provides training in visual merchandising, product selection, promotion, and calculations.

Management

The organizing and controlling of the affairs of a business or a particular sector of a business.

Regional Store Manager

A manager responsible for directing the retail stores of a company located within a particular geographic area of a country.

International Store Manager

A manager who supervises store sales and staff performance in a foreign country or group of countries outside the company's residence.

Operations Manager

A manager who collaborates on marketing strategies and funding plans, supervises stock replenishment, equipment and supplies, inventory control, and monitors security.

Security

The safekeeping of merchandise in a store, as well as the safety of employees and customers.

Security Manager

A retail manager who oversees the safekeeping of merchandise and the minimization of theft.

Physical Inventory

The actual merchandise physically located within the retail operation.

Internal Theft

Merchandise or money stolen by employees from within the company.

Shrinkage

Merchandise losses resulting from theft.

Dwell Time

The amount of natural browsing time a shopper spends in a store, maximized using strategic customer paths such as loops or racetracks.

Speed Bumps

Physical standalone merchandise displays or presentation tables positioned to interrupt customer walking speed and force active engagement.

Decompression Zone

An entrance area in a physical retail store that allows shoppers to orient and transition without feeling immediate promotional bombardment.

Grid Floor Plan

A retail store layout that prioritizes speed, logical familiarity, and maximum task efficiency for target-seeking customers.

Free-Flow / Boutique Layout

A floor layout designed to encourage unstructured exploration, emotional brand storytelling, and high impulse discovery.

Power Walls

Prominent physical retail wall displays paired with window displays that instantly communicate brand identity and capture shopper attention.

Butt-Brush Effect

A retail phenomenon where shoppers abandon aisles and merchandise selections due to uncomfortably narrow shopping spaces.

Retail Store Manager

The manager who oversees daily activities of a store operation, including sales transactions, advertising, special events, employees, and customers.

Manager-in-Training (MIT)

An employee undergoing structured instruction and preparation to advance into a store management position.

Associate Store Manager

A retail management position hierarchically ranked between the assistant store manager and the store manager.

Floor Sets

The physical arrangement of fixtures and merchandise on a department sales floor changed to present a fresh appearance and highlight new or undersold goods.

Customer Service Manager

A manager who handles customer complaints and enforces company policies regarding returns, exchanges, backorders, and warranties.

Sole Proprietorship

A retail business entity owned and operated by a single individual.

Partnership

A retail business entity owned by two or more individuals.

Corporation

A retail business entity owned by stockholders and managed by an appointed individual or group.