Comprehensive Marketing and CSR Concepts for Business Students

Term

Definition and example

Marketing

Creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings of value. Example: a hotel researches guest needs before designing a new check-in service.

Exchange

Each party gives something and expects value in return. Example: a guest pays for a room; the hotel provides lodging.

Sales orientation

Focuses on persuading people to buy what the firm already made. Example: a gym pushes memberships despite complaints about service.

Production orientation

Prioritizes making goods efficiently at scale. Example: a factory standardizes output and assumes customers will buy it.

Market orientation

Starts with customer needs and uses insights to deliver value profitably. Example: a restaurant surveys guests before changing its menu.

Societal marketing orientation

Balances customer needs, firm profit, and society's long-term welfare. Example: a brand serves demand profitably while reducing packaging waste. Cue: customer + company + community.

Marketing concept

Philosophy of identifying and satisfying customer needs profitably. Example: a hotel redesigns check-in after guest feedback.

Customer value

Benefits perceived relative to costs such as price, time, and effort. Example: paying more for guaranteed early check-in can save valuable time.

Customer satisfaction

How well the actual experience meets or exceeds expectations. Example: a room ready when promised meets the guest's check-in expectation.

Functional value

Practical benefit from performance or usefulness. Example: delivery arrives reliably by the promised time.

Emotional/social value

Benefit from feelings, identity, or belonging. Example: a luxury label appeals to a buyer's sense of status.

Product

The good or service offered; one of the 4 Ps. Example: the menu items at a restaurant.

Price

What the customer pays or gives up; one of the 4 Ps. Example: a hotel sets its nightly room rate.

Place

Where and how customers access the offering; one of the 4 Ps. Example: selling skincare in stores and online.

Promotion

Communications about the offering; one of the 4 Ps. Example: a restaurant's social media ad.

Target market

Specific customer group a firm chooses to serve. Example: a gym designs classes for working parents.

Relationship marketing

Building ongoing loyalty and retention. Example: a coffee shop rewards returning guests.

CRM (customer relationship management)

Strategy and systems that use customer interaction data to improve relationships. Example: a hotel remembers repeat guests' preferences. Cue: CRM = Customer Relationships Managed; it is unrelated to FDI.

Co-creation

Customers help shape a product or experience. Example: buyers vote on a new drink flavor.

Strategic planning

Aligns long-term goals and resources with changing market opportunities. Example: a chain decides to enter a new region over several years.

SBU (strategic business unit)

Distinct business within a larger firm with its own market and competitors. Example: Disney streaming and Disney theme parks need different strategies.

Mission statement

The organization's purpose, not a numerical deadline. Example: "Make travel more accessible."

Marketing objective

Specific, measurable result with a time frame. Example: "Increase repeat bookings 12% by year-end."

SWOT strength

Internal positive capability. Example: excellent employee training.

SWOT weakness

Internal limitation. Example: frequent staff turnover.

SWOT opportunity

External favorable development. Example: growing demand in a new city.

SWOT threat

External unfavorable development. Example: a new competitor or privacy regulation. Cue: source outside the company.

Competitive advantage

Customer-valued capability competitors struggle to copy. Example: a service ecosystem that makes the brand especially useful.

Strategic window

Limited period when a firm's strengths fit a market opportunity. Example: a ready-to-use remote service expands when remote demand surges.

Market penetration

Existing product in existing market; increase share or frequency. Example: a coffee app gets current customers to visit more often. Cue: go deeper.

Market development

Existing product in a new market or customer segment. Example: the same streaming service targets older adults. Cue: go wider.

Product development

New product for existing market. Example: a restaurant offers a new meal to its regular customers.

Diversification

New product in new market; generally the riskiest Ansoff option. Example: a clothing brand launches financial services to a new audience.

BCG star

High market growth and high relative market share. Example: a category leader in a rapidly expanding market; often invest.

BCG cash cow

Low market growth and high relative share. Example: an established leading product that funds newer businesses.

BCG problem child/question mark

High growth and low relative share. Example: a small entrant in a fast-growing market; invest selectively or exit.

BCG dog

Low growth and low relative share. Example: a weak legacy product in a stagnant category; may harvest or divest.

Build/hold/harvest/divest

Portfolio choices: invest to gain share; maintain position; take cash while reducing investment; sell or close. Example: harvest a declining product to fund a star.

Marketing plan

Written actions to carry out a strategy, including analysis, objectives, implementation, and evaluation. Example: a launch plan lists target customers, channels, budget, and metrics.

Ethics

Principles about right and wrong that can exceed legal minimums. Example: clearly explain data use even if fine print is legally sufficient.

Ethical decision process

Identify issue, gather facts, evaluate options, decide, assess consequences. Example: investigate a misleading claim before choosing a correction.

CSR (corporate social responsibility)

Maximizing positive and minimizing negative effects on society. Example: a firm considers its employees, customers, and community.

Economic CSR

Operate as a viable profitable business. Example: a grocery store earns enough to pay staff and suppliers and stay open.

Legal CSR

Obey applicable laws. Example: follow advertising regulations.

Ethical CSR

Do what is right beyond minimum compliance. Example: make data practices understandable to customers.

Philanthropic CSR

Give back voluntarily. Example: donate to a neighborhood food bank with no purchase required.

Sustainability

Meet present needs without undermining future generations' ability to meet theirs. Example: reduce waste through reusable packaging.

Greenwashing

Exaggerated, vague, or false environmental claims. Example: "planet friendly" on a bottle without supporting evidence.

Cause-related marketing

Tie product sales to a cause. Example: donate $1 per purchase to a named charity. Cue: purchase triggers support.

Marketing environment

External forces affecting how the firm serves customers. Example: inflation prompts a retailer to reconsider prices.

Environmental scanning

Monitoring external trends for opportunities and threats. Example: track privacy rules and customer attitudes before a launch.

Microenvironment

Actors close to the firm, including suppliers, intermediaries, customers, competitors, and publics. Example: a supplier misses a shipment.

Macroenvironment

Broad demographic, economic, technological, political/legal, and social/cultural forces. Example: inflation affects many firms.

Demographic force

Population characteristics and shifts. Example: an aging population changes service demand.

Economic force

Conditions affecting incomes and purchasing power. Example: inflation makes discretionary purchases less affordable.

Technological force

Innovation that changes offerings or behavior. Example: mobile ordering changes restaurant access.

Political/legal force

Government action, laws, and regulation. Example: a new privacy law changes data collection practices.

Social/cultural force

Changes in values, beliefs, attitudes, and lifestyles. Example: shoppers increasingly value refillable packaging.

Purchasing power

Amount of goods/services income can buy. Example: it falls when prices rise faster than wages.

Global marketing

Coordinated marketing across national borders while accounting for local conditions. Example: a chain keeps its brand but adapts menus by country.

Standardization

Use uniform product or approach across markets for consistency and scale. Example: retain one logo globally.

Adaptation

Change an element for local preferences or conditions. Example: vary a fast-food menu by country.

Multidomestic strategy

Give local units substantial freedom to tailor products and marketing. Example: country teams choose different product formulas and ads.

Exporting

Produce domestically and sell abroad; lowest-risk entry mode in the lecture. Example: a California winery ships bottles to Japan.

Licensing

Grant a foreign firm rights to use a brand, patent, or process. Example: a manufacturer abroad makes a product using licensed technology.

Franchising

License a brand along with an operating format and standards. Example: a local operator runs a restaurant under a global chain's system.

Contract manufacturing

Pay a foreign firm to produce goods to specifications, without owning its factory. Example: a brand designs a phone and hires an overseas assembler.

Joint venture

Share ownership and risk with a foreign partner. Example: a chain and local firm co-own a new restaurant company.

FDI (foreign direct investment)

Own or invest directly in foreign operations or assets. Example: a carmaker builds its own factory abroad. Cue: FDI = Foreign Dollars Invested; unlike CRM, it is about international ownership.

Global entry ladder

Lecture order from less to more risk: exporting, licensing/franchising, contract manufacturing, joint venture, FDI. Cue: ship, rights, hired factory, shared company, owned investment.

Tariff

Tax on goods entering a country. Example: a tax raises the cost of imported shoes.

Quota

Limit on quantity that can be imported. Example: only a set number of cars may enter a market.

Protectionism

Government barriers that shield domestic industries from foreign competition. Example: tariffs or quotas on imports.

Absolute advantage

Ability to produce a good more efficiently in absolute terms. Example: one country needs fewer resources to produce a given good.

Comparative advantage

Lower relative opportunity cost in producing a good. Example: a country specializes in what it sacrifices least to make, even if another is more efficient at everything.

Exchange rate

Price of one currency in another. Example: dollar changes affect how expensive U.S. exports appear abroad.

Countertrade

Payment partly or wholly in goods/services rather than cash. Example: a firm exchanges products for another product.

Dumping

Selling an export for less than its home-market price, as defined in the lecture. Example: an exporter offers goods overseas below its domestic selling price.