FBLA Marketing Terms

Adapted global marketing

An international marketing strategy for adjusting the marketing strategy and mix elements to each international target market, bearing more costs but hoping for a larger market share and return.

Administered VMS

A vertical marketing system that coordinates successive stages of production and distribution, not through common ownership or contractual ties, but through the size and power of one of the parties.

Adoption process

The mental process through which an individual passes from first hearing about an innovation to final adoption.

Advertising

Any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.

Advertising agency

A marketing services firm that assists companies in planning, preparing, implementing, and evaluating all or portions of their advertising programs.

Advertising budget

The dollars and other resources allocated to a product or company advertising program.

Advertising media

The vehicles through which advertising messages are delivered to their intended audiences.

Advertising objective

A specific communication task to be accomplished with a specific target audience during a specific period of time.

Advertising strategy

The strategy by which company accomplishes its advertising objectives. It consists of two major elements: creating advertising messages and selecting advertising media.

Affordable method

Setting the promotion budget at the level management thinks the company can afford.

Age and life-cycle segmentation

Dividing a market into different age and life-cycle groups.

Agent

A wholesaler who represents buyers or sellers on a relatively permanent basis, performs only a few functions, and does not take title to goods.

Allowance

Promotional money paid by manufacturers to retailers in return for an agreement to feature the manufacturer's products in some way.

Approach

The step in the selling process in which the salesperson meets the customer for the first time.

Attitude

A person's consistently favorable or unfavorable evaluations, feelings, and tendencies toward an object or idea.

Baby boomers

The 78 million people born during the baby boom following World War II and lasting until 1964.

Behavioral segmentation

Dividing a market into groups based on consumer knowledge, attitudes, uses, or responses to a product.

Belief

A descriptive thought that a person holds about something.

Benefit segmentation

Dividing the market into groups according to the different benefits that consumers seek from the product.

Brand

A name, term, sign, symbol, or design or a combination of these that identifies the products or services of one seller or group of sellers and differentiates them from those of competitors.

Brand equity

The positive differential effect that knowing the brand name has on customer response to the product or service.

Brand extension

Extending an existing brand name to new product categories.

Break-even pricing (target profit pricing)

Setting price to break even on the costs of marketing and marketing product; or setting price to make a target profit.

Broker

A wholesaler who does not take title to goods and whose function is to bring buyers and sellers together and assist in negotiation.

Business analysis

A review of the sales, costs, and profit projections for a new product to find out whether these factors satisfy the company's objectives.

Business buyer behavior

The buying behavior of the organizations that buy goods and services for use in the production of other products and services or for the purpose of reselling or renting them to others at a profit.

Business portfolio

The collection of businesses and products that make up the company.

Business promotions

Sales promotion tools used to generate business leads, stimulate purchases, reward customers, and motivate salespeople.

Business-to-business (B2B) online marketing

Using B2B Web sites, e-mail, online product catalogs, online trading networks, and other online resources to reach new business customers, serve current customers more effectively, and obtain buying efficiencies and better prices.

Business-to-consumer (B2C) online marketing

Selling goods and services online to final consumers.

Buying center

All the individuals and units that participate in the business buying-decision process.

By-product pricing

Setting a price for by-products in order to make the main product's price more competitive.

Captive-product pricing

Setting a price for products that must be used along with a main product, such as blades for a razor and film for a camera.

Catalog marketing

Direct marketing through print, video, or electronic catalogs that are miled to a select customers, made available in stores, or presented online.

Catalog killer

Giant specialty store that carries a very deep assortment of a particular line and is ataffed by knowledgeable employees.

Causal research

Marketing research to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships.

Chain stores

Two or more outlets that are commonly owned and controlled.

Channel conflict

Disagreement among marketing channel members on goals and roles-who should do what and for what rewards.

Channel level

A layer of intermediaries that performs some work in bringing the product and its ownership closer to the final buyer.

Click-and-mortar companies

Traditional brick-and-mortar companies that have added online marketing to their operations.

Click-only companies

The so-called dot-coms, which operate only online without any brick-and-mortar market presence.

Closing

The step in the selling process in which the salesperson asks the customer for an order.

Co-branding

The practice of using the established brand names of two different companies on the same product.

Cognitive dissonance

Buyer discomfort caused by post-purchase conflict.

Commercialization

Introducing a new product into the market.

Commercial online databases

Computerized collections of information available from online commercial sources or via the Internet.

Communication adaptation

A global communication strategy of fully adapting advertising messages to local markets.

Competitive advantage

An advantage over competitors gained by offering greater customer value, either through lower prices or by providing more benefits that justify higher prices.

Competitive-parity method

Setting the promotion budget to match competitors' outlays.

Concentrated (niche) marketing

A market-coverage strategy in which a firm goes after a large share of one or a few segments or niches.

Concept testing

Testing new-product concepts with a group of target consumers to find out if the concepts have strong consumer appeal.

Consumer buyer behavior

The buying behavior of final consumers-individuals and households who buy goods and services for personal consumption.

Consumer market

All the individuals and households who buy or acquire goods and services for personal consumption.

Consumer product

Product bought by final consumer for personal consumption.

Consumer-generated marketing

Marketing messages, ads, and other brand exchanges created by consumers themselves-both invited and uninvited.

Consumer promotions

Sales promotion tools used to boost short-term customer buying and involvement or to enhance long-term customer relationships.

Consumerism

An organized movement of citizens and government agencies to improve the rights and power of buyers in relation to sellers.

Consumer-oriented marketing

The philosophy of enlightened marketing that holds that the company should view and organize its marketing activities from the consumer's point of view.

Consumer-to-business (C2B) online marketing

Online exchanges in which consumers search out sellers, learn about their offers, and initiate purchases, sometimes even driving transaction terms.

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online marketing

Online exchanges of goods and information between final consumers.

Contract manufacturing

A joint venture in which a company contracts with manufacturers in a foreign market to produce the product or provide its service.

Contractual VMS

A vertical marketing system in which independent firms at different levels of production and distribution join together through contracts to obtain more economies or sales impact than they could achieve alone.

Convenience product

Consumer product that customers usually buy frequently, immediately, and with a minimum of comparison and buying effort.

Convenience store

A small store, located near a residential area, that is open long hours seven days a week and carries a limited line of high-turnover convenience goods.

Conventional distribution channel

A channel consisting of one or more independent producers, wholesalers, and retailers, each a separate business seeking to maximize its own profits even at the expense of profits for the system as a whole.

Corporate VMS

A vertical marketing system that combines successive stages of production and distribution under single ownership-channel leadership is established through common ownership.

Corporate (or brand) Web site

A Web site designed to build customer goodwill, collect customer feedback, and supplement other sales channels, rather than to sell the company's products directly.

Cost-based pricing

Setting prices based on the costs for producing, distributing, and selling the product plus a fair rate of return for its effort and risk.

Cost-plus pricing

Adding a standard markup to the cost of the product.

Countertrade

International trade involving the the direct or indirect exchange of goods for other goods instead of cash.

Creative concept

The compelling "big idea" that will bring the advertising message strategy to life in a distinctive and memorable way.

Cultural environment

Institutions and other forces that affect society's basic values, perceptions, preferences, and behaviors.

Culture

The set of basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors learned by a member of society from family and other important institutions.

Customer database

An organized collection of comprehensive data about individual customers or prospects, including geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data.

Customer equity

The total combined customer lifetime values of all of the company's customers.

Customer insights

Fresh understandings of customers and the marketplace derived from marketing information that become the basis for creating customer value and relationships.

Customer lifetime value

The value of the entire stream of purchases that the customer would make over a lifetime of patronage.

Customer relationship management (CRM)

Managing detailed information about individual customers and carefully managing customer "touch points" in order to maximize customer loyalty; The overall process of building and maintaining profitable customer relationships by delivering superior customer value and satisfaction.

Customer sales force structure

A sales force organization under which salespeople specialize in selling only to certain customers or industries.

Customer satisfaction

The extent to which a product's perceived performance matches a buyer's expectations.

Customer-centered new-product development

New-product development that focuses on finding new ways to solve customer problems and create more customer-satisfying experiences.

Customer-perceived value

The customer's evaluation of the difference between all the benefits and all the costs of a marketing offer relative to those of competing offers.

Customer-value marketing

A principle of enlightened marketing that holds that a company should put most of its resources into customer value-building marketing investments.

Decline stage

The product life-cycle stage in which a product's sales decline.

Deficient products

Products that have neither immediate appeal nor long-run benefits.

Demand curve

A curve that shows the number of units the market will buy in a given time period, at different prices that might be charged.

Demands

Human wants that are backed by buying power.

Demographic segmentation

Dividing the market into groups based on variables such as age, gender, family size, family life cycle, income, occupation, education, religion, race, generation, and nationality.

Demography

The study of human populations in terms of size, density, location, age, gender, race, occupation, and other statistics.

Department store

A retail organization that carries a wide variety of product lines-each line is operated as a separate department managed by specialist buyers or merchandisers.

Derived demand

Business demand that ultimately comes from (derives from) the demand for consumer goods.

Descriptive research

Marketing research to better describe marketing

Desirable products

Products that give both high immediate satisfaction and high long-run benefits.

Differentiated (segmented) marketing

A market-coverage strategy in which a firm decides to target several market segments and designs separate offers for each.

Differentiation

Actually differentiating the market offering to create superior customer value.

Direct investment

Entering a foreign market by developing foreign-based assembly or manufacturing facilities.

Direct-mail marketing

Direct marketing by sending an offer, announcement, reminder, or other item to a person at a particular address.

Direct marketing

Direct connections with carefully targeted individual consumers to both obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships.

Direct marketing channel

A marketing channel that has no intermediary levels.

Direct-response television marketing

Direct marketing via television, including direct-response television advertising (or infomercials) and home shopping channels.