External Marketing Environment Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, economic indicators, generational cohorts, and regulatory laws from the External Marketing Environment lecture notes.

Environmental Scanning

The process of monitoring developments outside a firm's control to detect and respond to threats and opportunities that might affect the firm.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a given period.

GDP per Capita

An indicator of a country's standard of living, calculated by dividing a country's overall GDP by its population.

Recession

An economic condition that occurs when overall GDP declines for two or more consecutive quarters.

Inflation

An increase in the general level of prices of products in an economy over a period of time, reflecting an erosion in the purchasing power of money.

Purchasing Power

The amount of goods and services that can be purchased for a specific amount of money.

Consumer Confidence

A measure of how optimistic consumers are about the overall state of the economy and their own personal finances.

Demographics

The characteristics of human populations—such as age, gender, ethnicity, and education level—that can be used to identify consumer markets.

Disposable Income

The amount of spending money available to households after paying taxes.

Baby Boomers

The generational cohort of children born between 1946 and 1964.

Millennials

The generational cohort of children born between 1981 and the late twentieth century, also known as Generation Y.

Generation Z

The generational cohort of children born between 1997 and 2012.

Sociocultural Factors

The combination of social and cultural factors that affect individual development, shaping consumer beliefs, values, norms, tastes, and purchasing habits.

Political Action Committees (PACs)

Organizations that raise money to help elect individuals who regard their organization positively or to promote a particular issue related to their industry.

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

Federal legislation that combats anticompetitive practices, reduces market domination by individual corporations, and preserves unfettered competition as the rule of trade.

Robinson-Patman Act (1936)

Federal legislation that prohibits firms from selling the same product at different prices in interstate commerce unless based on a cost difference or if the goods are not of similar quality.

Wheeler-Lea Amendment (1938)

Federal legislation (also called the Advertising Act) that authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to restrict unfair or deceptive acts and protect consumers from false advertising practices.

Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (1966)

Federal legislation requiring consumer product labels to state the identity of the product, the name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor, and the net quantity of contents.

Telephone Consumer Protection Act (1991)

Federal legislation that limits commercial solicitation calls to between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. and requires telemarketers to maintain a do-not-call list and honor requests not to be called again.

Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (2009)

Federal legislation that protects consumer rights, abolishes deceptive lending practices, bans unfair rate increases, and mandates plain-English disclosures.