Glossary

We have included some definitions for some commonly utilised terms within the field of marketing.

Medium
A medium is the type of promotional element that you use to present your advertising message. Some examples of mediums are radio, television or print.

Consumers
These are people who want to buy products or services. In effect everyone in the world is a consumer.

Customers
These are consumers who demand and purchase the products or services that you have to sell.

Target Market
This is the group or groups of individuals that are distinct from the rest of the market and share common characteristics that make them more likely to want to purchase your businesses products or services. Marketing, promotion and advertising activities should be directed at this group of people.

Segmentation
This is the process of separating the market into groups of individuals who share common traits. Generally segmentation is based upon psychographic, demographic, geographic and behavioral traits. Segmentation is used to determine the most potentially profitable target market for a business to focus it’s marketing efforts on. Marketing segments need to be accessible, actionable, defendable and sustainable in order to be effective.

Cognitive Dissonance
This is described as a feeling of post purchase regret. This occurs when you purchase something and it does not meet or exceed your expectations of value.

Satisfaction
Contrary to popular belief, that satisfaction is when consumer expectations are met, current marketing theory indicates that satisfaction is only achieved when consumer’s expectations are exceeded.

Value
Unlike quality value relates to personal situations which each individual is facing. A BMW will generally be considered by most people to be a good quality car, but only those people who earn a more proportional income to the price tag of the vehicle will consider it to be of good value.

Quality
This is the evaluation of how well a product or service delivers upon it’s promises.

The Marketing Mix
Traditionally the marketing mix was made up of 4 P’s:
• Product
• Place
• Price
• Promotion

New research in the academic field of marketing has indicated that the new marketing mix should include 3 additional elements which are:
• People
• Processes
• Physical Evidence

The 3 extra factors help in ensuring consistency and effectiveness of marketing activities for businesses with a high level of service dominant products.

Products
These are what your business sells to its customers. A product is made up of both services and goods.

Goods Dominant Products
These are products which are tangibly based such as a stapler; they are easily recognizable and can be viewed and touched before being purchased. The level of variation within these types of products is generally low. 

Goods dominant products still have service components associated with them; however the majority of the product is tangibly based. These types of products are easier to market because they make it easier for the consumers to evaluate them prior to making a purchase decision.

Service Dominant Products
These are products which are intangibly based. Potential customers must rely upon quality cues to evaluate the potential results from purchase. These products are perishable, heterogeneous, intangible and inseparable. They are much more difficult to market than goods dominant products and rely heavily upon customer testimonials and word of mouth.

Integrated Branding and Marketing
These are plan that recognize that a coordinated approach is better method of achieving a consistent message across the organizational spectrum. Marketing is not the sole responsibility of one individual department, it’s effectiveness is the result of dedicated and marketing focused activities by everyone within the business.

An Integrated branding and marketing plan ensures that all marketing and branding activities work together harmoniously in order to increase the organizations chances of achieving it’s objectives.

Market Research
This is the process of collecting information on the environment within which your organization operates. It can be used to identify the most profitable market segments as well as the wants and needs of these competitors. Research can also be used to evaluate your businesses position within the market place in relation to competitors and the overall market perception of your business as well as it’s products and services.

Quantitative Research
This is statistically based research, which usually involves the usage of a questionnaire or similar piece of documentation to gather statistical data on areas of interest. The collected information is then analysed to produce statistical results which help to establish trends within the sample population.

Qualitative Research
This is research which uses personal interaction to generate emotive responses from participants in relation to a particular issue, product, business or service. Qualitative research will usually involve the use of either in-depth interviews or focus groups.

Both focus groups and in-depth interviews are great at generating an insight into the minds of the community and your targeted market segments. The downside of these techniques includes group think and the halo effect, both of which inevitably result in bias results.

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA)
This is when your business does something that is meaningfully different from what your competitors do and it is done in such a way that it generates value for your customers and it is sustainable.

Product Life Cycle Model
This is a marketing model which shows the general inverted bell curve stages of a products life from introduction to growth to maturity and to decline. This is useful in determining when to use a particular marketing strategy.

Ansoff Growth Matrix
This is a matrix which helps to develop an understanding of which growth strategy is the most suited to the particular situation that a particular business is facing at a particular point of time.

Shared field of Experience
This is an important factor that to a large extent determines the effectiveness of marketing communications. In order for a message to be communicated effectively it is important that the sender and the receiver have a level of shared field of experience. This means that they have experienced similar things within their lives and can therefore relate and be related to by each of the parties.

Noise
This is anything which could influence or interfere with the effectiveness of an advertising message adversely.

Clutter
This is where a large number of advertising messages are presented within one medium or during one time period. The greater the level of clutter, the less likely an advertising message is to be successful at communicating its message.

Analysis
This is the process of examining a situation and all of the surrounding impacting elements and developing a deep understanding of all of these factors.

Brainstorming
This is the process of using a group of individuals to think of ideas to create a solution to a particular problem or issue.

Market Orientation
This is the degree to which a firm is in touch and orientated towards changes in needs and demands from the market that they operate in.

Consumer Behavior
This is the study of how consumers behave when purchasing products within the marketplace.

Economics
This is the study of how firms and the economy will react to changes in the surrounding environment including fluctuations in supply and demand.

Competitors
These are rival businesses which offer the same, similar or substitute products to the same market segment that your business is targeting.

Sales
This usually involves the process of personal selling, sales refers directly to the amount of money generated and the statistical representation of the number of products that have been sold to customers.

Sales are normally high pressure focused and if it isn’t regulated in an effective manner, it is likely to result in greater harm than benefit for your business.

Market Share
This is the statistical representation of the proportion of customers within the market segment who purchase from your organization as opposed to your competitors organization.

Market share is a good determinant of your businesses position within the market place, it is a good indicator as to whether your business is a market leader or a market follower. Remember the position of market leader is not always the most attractive.

Subliminal Advertising
This technique has in actuality been shown to have little or no effect on influencing consumers towards a purchase of a product or service. The idea is to place hidden advertising messages within print, television or radio advertisements in order to sub consciously influence consumers. The practice is ineffective, un-ethical and in some countries illegal and should not be used in any circumstance.

Product Placement
This is the process of using movies, TV shows or print mediums to position a product in such a way that a credible source is effectively providing an endorsement of the product without saying anything. Examples of product placement include movie stars drink soft drinks during a movie.

Cigarette and alcohol companies have often been accused of utilizing product placement to by pass advertising regulations and create a perception of coolness around their potentially lethal products.

Word of Mouth (WOM)
This is by far the most effective form of advertising, as it comes with a good solid dosage of instant credibility. The benefit of word of mouth is that the person who is providing the information about the product or service of concern, is usually associated with the person that they are communicating to.

The relationship that exists is normally based upon a friendship or family acquaintance which means that there is an inherent level of trust that is intrinsically affiliated with all communications between the two respective parties in question.

Strategies
These are well thought ideas to achieve specific objectives within a specified period of time. A strategy should incorporate all of the factors that may impact upon the ability of an organization to achieve it’s objectives. Strategies are developed after a deep understanding of the underlying issues have been established


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