Comprehensive Marketing and Product Management Terms for Business Students

Good

A tangible physical entity

Service

An intangible result of the application of human and mechanical efforts to people or objects

Idea

A concept, a philosophy, an image, or an issue

Consumer Products

Products purchased to satisfy personal and family needs

Business Products

Products bought to use in an organization's operations, to resell, or to make other products

Convenience Products

Relatively inexpensive products that are purchased frequently and that require a minimum amount of effort on the part of the consumer to select and purchase

Shopping Products

Items customers don't buy often and that they need to think carefully about before purchasing

Speciality Products

Items with unique characteristics that buyers are willing to expend considerable effort to obtain

Unsought Products

Products that consumers are either unaware of or are not interested in actively considering before purchase

Installations

Facilities and nonportable major equipment

Accessory Equipment

Equipment that does not become part of the final physical product but is used in production or office activities

Raw Materials

Basic natural materials that become part of a physical product

Component Parts

Items that become part of the physical product and are either finished items ready for assembly or products that need little processing before assembly

Process Materials

Materials that are used directly in the production of other products but are not readily identifiable

MRO Supplies

Maintenance, repair, and operating items that facilitate production and operations but do not become part of the finished product

Business Services

The intangible products that many organizations use in their operations

Product item

A specific version of a product that can be designated as a distinct offering among a firm's products

Product Line

A group of closely related product items viewed as a unit because of marketing, technical, or end-use considerations

Product Mix

The total group of products that an organization makes available to customers

Width of Product Mix

The number of product lines a company offers

Depth of product mix

The average number of different product items offered in each product line

Product life cycle

The progression of a product through four stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline

Introduction stage

First stage of the product life cycle, in which the product is initially released into the market and when sales start at zero and profits are negative

Growth stage

The stage of a product's life cycle when sales rise rapidly and profits reach a peak and then start to decline

Maturity stage

The stage of a product's life cycle when the sales curve peaks and starts to decline as profits continue to fall

Decline stage

The stage of a product's life cycle when sales fall rapidly due to the reduction in the original needs and wants or because of the introduction of another product innovation

Product adoption process

The stages buyers go through in accepting a product

Innovators

First adopters of new products

Early adopters

Careful choosers of new products

Early majority

Those adopting new products just before the average person

Late majority

Skeptics who adopt new products when they feel it is necessary

Laggards

The last adopters, who distrust new products

Brand

A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one marketer's product as distinct from those of other marketers

Brand name

The part of a brand that can be spoken

Brand Mark

The part of a brand not made up of words

Trademark

A legal designation of exclusive use of a brand

Trade name

The full legal name of an organization

Brand equity

The value of a brand, as determined by the consumer's perception of its quality and appeal

Brand Loyalty

A customer's favorable attitude toward a specific brand

Brand recognition

A customer's awareness that the brand exists and is an alternative purchase

Brand preference

A customer's awareness that the brand exists and is an alternative purchase

Brand insistence

The degree of brand loyalty in which a customer strongly prefers a specific brand and will accept no substitute

Manufacturer brands

Brands owned by the manufacturer rather than the reseller

Private distributor brands

Brands owned by a reseller

Generic brand

Brands indicating only the product category

Individual branding

A marketing approach in which every product or service provided by a company is promoted and sold using its own distinct brand name and identity

Family branding

A strategy where a company markets and promotes its wide range of products or services with a single, unified brand name and identity

Brand extension

Using an existing brand to brand a new product in a different product category

Co-branding

A strategy that involves two or more brands collaborating to create a joint product, service, or marketing campaign that leverages the strengths and equity of each brand

Brand licensing

An agreement whereby a company permits another organization to use its brand on other products for a licensing fee

Family packaging

Using similar packaging for all of a firm's products or packaging that has one common design element

Labeling

Providing identifying, promotional, or other information on package labels

Line extension

A marketing strategy that uses an existing brand to introduce a new item into the same product line

Product modification

Change in one or more characteristics of a product

Quality modifications

Changes relating to a product's dependability and durability

Function modification

Changes affecting a product's versatility, effectiveness, convenience, or safety

Asethetic modifications

Changes to the sensory appeal of a product

Disruptive innovation

Identifies old technologies that can be exploited in new ways or develops new business models to give customers more than they've come to expect from current products in a specific market

New product development process

A seven-phase process for introducing products

Idea generation

The methodical search for new product ideas

Screening

The process of evaluating new product ideas to identify those with the greatest potential for success

Concept testing

Testing new product ideas by asking a target group of customers to provide feedback to determine potential consumer appeal

Business analysis

Evaluating the potential contribution of a product idea to the firm's sales, costs, and profits

Breakeven analysis

Calculating how many units a company would have to sell to begin making a profit

Payback analysis

Computing the time period required to recover the funds that would be invested in developing the new product

Product development

The phase in which the organization creates a prototype—or a working model—to determine the feasibility of developing the product as a viable market offering

Test marketing

A limited introduction of a product in geographic areas that represent the desired market

Commercialization

Fully introducing the product into the market

Product differentiation

Creating and designing products so that customers perceive them as distinct from competing products

Quality

The ability of a product to satisfy a customer's needs as anticipated

Level of quality

The amount of quality a product possesses

Consistency of quality

The degree to which a product has the same level of quality over time

Product design

How a product is conceived, planned, and produced

Styling

The physical appearance of a product

Product features

Specific design characteristics that allow a product to perform certain tasks

Customer services

Human or mechanical efforts or activities that add value to a product

Product positioning

The place that a brand occupies in the minds of customers relative to the competition

Product deletion

Eliminating a product from the product mix

Intangibility

A service is not physical and therefore cannot be touched

Inseparability

The inability to differentiate between the production and consumption of the service

Perishability

Refers to the fact that services cannot be resold or stored for future sale

Heterogeneity

Variation in quality

Client based relationships

Interactions that result in satisfied customers who use a service repeatedly over time

Customer contact

The level of interaction between provider and customer needed to deliver the service

Off peak pricing

The practice of reducing prices of services used during slow periods in order to boost demand

Product manager

The person within an organization responsible for a product, a product line, or several distinct products that make up a group

Brand manager

The person responsible for a single brand

Venture team

A cross-functional group that creates entirely new products that may be aimed at new markets

Price competition

Emphasizing price as an issue and matching or beating competitors' prices

Nonprice competition

Emphasizing factors other than price to distinguish a product from competing brands

Pricing objectives

Goals that describe what a firm wants to achieve through pricing

Demand curve

A graph of the quantity of products a firm expects to sell at various prices if other factors remain constant

Price elasticity of demand

A measure of the sensitivity of demand to changes in price

Fixed costs

Costs that do not vary with changes in the number of units produced or sold

Average fixed cost

The fixed cost per unit produced

Variable costs

Costs that vary in proportion to the number of units produced or sold

Average variable cost

The variable cost per unit produced

Total cost

The sum of average fixed and average variable costs, times the quantity produced

Average total cost

The sum of the average fixed cost and the average variable cost

Marginal cost (MC)

The extra cost incurred by producing one more unit of a product