Important Marketing Terms

Acquisition costs:
The incremental costs involved in obtaining a new customer.

Brand:
A name, term, sign, symbol, design, or a combination of all used to uniquely identify a producer’s goods and
services and differentiate them from competitors.

Deep brand:
A name, term, trademark, logo, symbol, or design that successfully communicates a broad range of meaning about a product and its attributes.
Brand equity:
The added value a brand name identity brings to a product or service beyond the functional benefits provided.

Brand identity:
Positions customer’s relative perceptions of one brand to other competitive alternatives.

Business mission:
A brief description of an organization’s purpose with reference to its customers, products or services, markets, philosophy, and technology.

Cannibalization:
The undesirable trade-off where sales of a new product or service decrease sales from existing products or services and detract from the increased potential revenue contribution of the organization.

Co-branding:
The pairing of two manufacturer’s brand names on a single product or service.

Competitive advantage:
The strategic development where customers will choose a firm’s product or service over its competitors based on significantly more favorable perceptions or offerings.

Competitive analysis:
Analyzing and assessing the comparative strengths and weaknesses of competitors; may include their current and potential product and service development and marketing strategies.

Cross elasticity of demand:
The change in the quantity demanded of one product or service impacting the change in demand for another product or service.
 
Differentiated target marketing:

A process that occurs when an organization simultaneously pursues several different market segments, usually with a different strategy for each.

Differentiation:
An approach to create a competitive advantage based on obtaining a significant value difference that customers will appreciate and be willing to pay for, and which, ideally, will increase their loyalty as a result.

Distinctive competency:
An organization’s strengths or qualities including skills, technologies, or resources that distinguish it from competitors to provide superior and unique customer value and, hopefully, is difficult to imitate.

Innovators:
A type of adopter in Everett Rogers’ diffusion of innovations framework describing the first group to purchase a new product or service.

Early adopters:
A type of adopter in Everett Rogers’ diffusion of innovations framework that describes buyers that follow “innovators” rather than be the first to purchase.

Early majority:
A type of adopter in Everett Rogers’ diffusion of innovations framework that describes those interested in new technology who wait to purchase until these innovations are proven to perform to the expected standard.

Experience curve:
A visual representation, often based on a function of time, from the initial exposure to a process that offers greater information and results in enhanced efficiency and/or operations advantage.


Fighting brand strategy:
Adding a new brand to confront competitive brands in an established product category.

Experience curve:
A visual representation, often based on a function of time, from the initial exposure to a process that offers greater information and results in enhanced efficiency and/or operations advantage.

Frequency marketing:
Activities which encourage repeat purchasing through a formal program enrollment process to develop loyalty and commitment. Frequency marketing is also referred to as loyalty programs.

Integrated marketing communications:
The practice of blending different elements of the communication mix in mutually reinforcing ways.

Innovators:
Innovators are the first individuals to adopt an innovation. Innovators are willing to take risks, youngest in age, have the highest social class, have great financial lucidity, very social and have closest contact to scientific sources and interaction with other innovators.

Early Adopters:
This is second fastest category of individuals who adopt an innovation. These individuals have the highest degree of opinion leadership among the other adopter categories. Early adopters are typically younger in age, have a higher social status, have more financial lucidity, advanced education, and are more socially forward than late adopters (Rogers 1962, p. 185).
Early Majority

Individuals in this category adopt an innovation after a varying degree of time. This time of adoption is significantly longer than the innovators and early adopters. Early Majority tend to be slower in the adoption process, have above average social status, contact with early adopters, and show some opinion leadership
Late Majority:
Individuals in this category will adopt an innovation after the average member of the society. These individuals approach an innovation with a high degree of skepticism and after the majority of society has adopted the innovation. Late Majority are typically skeptical about an innovation, have below average social status, very little financial lucidity, in contact with others in late majority and early majority, very little opinion leadership.
Laggards:
Individuals in this category are the last to adopt an innovation. Unlike some of the previous categories, individuals in this category show little to no opinion leadership. These individuals typically have an aversion to change-agents and tend to be advanced in age. Laggards typically tend to be focused on “traditions”, have lowest social status, lowest financial fluidity, oldest of all other adopters, in contact with only family and close friends, very little to no opinion leadership.

Loyalty programs:
 Activities designed to encourage repeat purchasing through a formal program enrollment process and the distribution of benefits. Loyalty programs may also be referred to as frequency marketing.

Market evolution:
Incremental changes in primary demand for a product class and changes in technology.

Market segmentation:
The categorization of potential buyers into groups based on common characteristics such as age, gender, income, and geography or other attributes relating to purchase or consumption behavior.

Opportunity cost:
Resource-use options that are forfeited as a result of pursuing one activity among several possibilities. This can also be described as the potential benefits foregone as a result of choosing another course of action.

Positioning Orchestrating: an organization’s offering and image to occupy a unique and valued place in the customer’s mind relative to competitive offerings. A product or service can be positioned on the basis of an attribute or benefit, use or application, user, class, price or level of quality.

Price elasticity of demand:
The change in demand relative to a change in price for a product or service.

Product life cycle (PLC):
The phases of the sales projections or history of a product or service category over time used to assist with marketing mix decisions and strategic options available. The four stages of the product life cycle include introduction, growth, maturity, and decline, and typically follow a predictable pattern based on sales volume over time.

Repositioning:
The process of strategically changing consumer perceptions surrounding a product or service.

Situation analysis:
The assessment of operations to determine the reasons for the gap between what was or is expected, and what has happened or what will happen.

Slotting allowances:
Payments to retail stores for acquiring and maintaining shelf space.

Tactics:
A collection of tools, activities and business decisions required to implement a strategy.

Value:
The ratio of perceived benefits compared to price for a product or service.