Marketing Concepts and Strategies

A comprehensive set of flashcards covering key marketing concepts and terminology.

Direct competition

Involves offering the same product to the same customers.

Indirect competition

Involves different products that meet the same need.

Substitute product

An alternative option that can be chosen to satisfy the same need.

External forces affecting marketing decisions

Competitive, economic, technological, sociocultural, and political or legal influences.

Economic forces in marketing

Factors like income levels, inflation, and unemployment that influence spending ability.

GDP

The total value of goods and services produced within a country, gauges economic health.

Purchasing power

The amount of goods and services consumers can afford based on their income.

Consumer confidence

A measure of optimism about the economy, impacting willingness to spend.

Demographics

Population characteristics like age and income, important for identifying consumer groups.

B2B marketing

Marketing focused on selling to other businesses.

B2C marketing

Marketing focused on targeting individual consumers.

Decision-making processes in B2B vs B2C

B2B purchases are more rational and longer; B2C purchases are quicker and more emotional.

System 1 thinking

Fast, automatic decision-making based on intuition.

System 2 thinking

Slower, deliberate decision-making based on reasoning.

Usage of System 1 versus System 2 thinking

System 1 is used for quick choices; System 2 for complex or high-risk decisions.

Consumer decision-making process

A sequence of steps followed when choosing whether to buy something.

Five steps of the consumer decision-making process

Problem recognition, information search, evaluation of options, purchase decision, post-purchase evaluation.

Internal information search

Relying on memory or past experiences to guide a decision.

External information search

Gathering input from outside sources like reviews and recommendations.

Opinion leader

Someone who influences others' choices due to credibility or expertise.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

A framework organizing human needs from basic survival to personal fulfillment.

Maslow’s hierarchy and consumer behavior

Lower-level needs are addressed before higher-level ones, shaping purchasing decisions.

Marketing research

The process of collecting and analyzing information to improve decision-making.

Steps in the marketing research process

Defining the problem, planning research, collecting data, analyzing results, reporting findings.

Exploratory research

Used to gain initial insights and clarify a problem.

Descriptive research

Used to describe characteristics or behaviors of a group.

Causal research

Used to identify cause-and-effect relationships.

Primary data

Data collected firsthand for a specific purpose.

Secondary data

Data that already exists from previous sources.

Advantages of primary data

Highly specific and accurate, but costly and time-consuming to obtain.

Disadvantages of primary data

Costly and time-consuming to collect firsthand.

Advantages of secondary data

Quick and inexpensive to access.

Disadvantages of secondary data

May be outdated or less precise.

Probability sampling

Gives every member of a population an equal chance of selection.

Nonprobability sampling

Does not give every member of a population an equal chance of selection.

Simple random sampling

Every individual has an equal chance of being selected.

Convenience sampling

Selecting participants based on ease of access.

Reliability in research

Consistency of results when a study is repeated.

Validity in research

The degree to which a study measures what it intends to measure.

Product

Anything offered to meet a need or want.

Product life cycle

A pattern showing how a product moves from introduction to decline.

Four stages of the product life cycle

Introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.

Sales and profits across the product life cycle

Begin low, increase during growth, peak in maturity, and fall in decline.

Competition across the product life cycle

Rises as the product grows, peaks, then decreases as the product declines.

Pricing strategies across the product life cycle

Initial prices may vary, become competitive in growth, often decrease later.

Promotion strategies across the product life cycle

Early efforts focus on awareness, shift to persuasion, then reminders.

Stages of new product development

Idea generation, screening, analysis, development, testing, commercialization, and evaluation.

Product adoption

The process by which consumers begin using a new offering.

Diffusion

The spread of a product through a population over time.

Consumers categorized by adoption speed

Innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards.

Market segmentation

Dividing a market into smaller groups with similar characteristics.

Target market

The specific group a company chooses to focus on.

Positioning

How a brand is perceived in consumers' minds relative to competitors.

Main types of segmentation

Demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral approaches.

Demographic segmentation

Grouping consumers based on measurable characteristics like age or income.

Effective market segment

Must be measurable, reachable, large enough, clearly different, and actionable.