glossary

'C'

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Calendar Management - Scheduling appointments, telephone calls, or "to do" lists.

Call Reluctance - Not wanting to contact a prospect or customer.

Cannibalized Income (Buying Phase)– This is the reduced income on other company products resulting from adding this product to the line.

Canned Approach (Buying Phase)– One of the oldest sales presentations styles.  A memorized sales talk is used.  It is based on stimulus-response thinking; that is, the buyer is passive and can be moved to purchase by the use of the right stimulus words, pictures, terms, and actions.

Canvas - Another word for the activity of prospecting... typically used when referring to prospecting that involves prospecting that's done in person rather than over the phone.

Captive Product Pricing (Buying Phase) – Some products require the use of ancillary, or captive products.  Manufactures of razors and cameras often price them low and set high markups on razor blades and film, respectively.

Career Path - The upward sequence of job movements during a sales career.

Carpet Bombing (Buying Phase) - Direct mailers gather or buy as many names as possible and send out a mass mailing.  Usually the response rate is very low.

Carry-Over Effects - A further refinement of a companies market share is to take into account carry over effects of past marketing expenditures. 

Cash and Carry Wholesalers (Buying Phase) – One of the wholesalers that offer fewer services to suppliers and customers.  They have a limited line of fast-moving goods and sell to small retailers for cash.

Cash Discount - Discounts earned by buyers who pay bills within a stated period.

Cash Discounts and Price Adaptations (Buying Phase) – A price reduction to buyers who pay bills promptly.  A typical example is “2/10, net 30”, which means that payment is due within 30 days and that the buyer can deduct 2 percent by paying the bills within 10 days.

Cash Flow - The flow of cash through a business or household. In business terms, cash flow involves the flow of cash into a company in the form of revenues, and out of the company in the form of expenses. 

Cash Flow Broker - Professional whose primary purpose is to unite income stream sellers with funding sources. They may operate as referral sources or as the primary liaison for cash flow transactions. 

Cash Flow industry - The buying, selling, and brokering of privately held debt in the secondary marketplace; the marketplace where businesses and individuals get help managing their cash flow needs. 

Cash Flow Instrument - Future payment or series of payments. Also called a debt instrument or income stream. 

Cash Flow Specialist - A cash flow professional who brokers cash flow transactions or buys cash flow instruments. 

Cash Flow Transaction - Occurs whenever a funding source pays cash to an individual or business in exchange for an income stream.

Cashing Out Trend (buying phase) – The desire for a simpler, less hectic lifestyle: a nostalgic return to small-town values.

Cash Rebates and Price Adaptations – Auto companies and other consumer-goods companies offer cash rebates to encourage purchase of the manufacturers’ products within a specified time period. Rebates can help clear inventories without cutting the stated list price.

Cash Refund Offer (rebates) - Provide a price reduction after purchase rather than at the retail shop: consumer sends a specified “proof of purchase” to the manufacturer who “refunds” part of the purchase by mail.

Cause Related Marketing - Activity by which a company with an image, product, or service to market builds a relationship or partnership with a “cause,” or a number of “causes,” for mutual benefit.

Caution Signal - Signs that a buyer is neutral, or skeptical, toward what the salesperson says.

CCC GOMES - Acronym for the eight important stakeholders of an organization. They are: customers, community, creditors, government, owners, managers, employees and suppliers.

Celebrity Endorsement - Celebrity endorsements as a strategy focuses on the use of testimonials. A well-chosen celebrity can draw attention to a product or brand. The choice of the celebrity is critical. The celebrity should have high recognition, high positive affect, and high appropriateness to the product. Athletes are a particularly effective group for endorsing athletic products, beverages, and apparel. Using celebrities poses certain risks. The celebrity might hold out for a larger fee at contract renewal time or withdraw; or the celebrity might gain weight or become anorexic; or the celebrity might get caught in a scandal or embarrassing situation.

Census Data - The U.S. census provides an in-depth look at the population swings, demographic groups, regional migrations, and changing family structure of 281,421,906 people. In addition to its great social and political significance, the census is also an invaluable marketing planning tool.

Centralized Purchasing – In multidivisional companies, most purchasing is carried out by separate divisions because of their differing needs.  Some companies have started to centralize their purchasing.  Headquarters identifies materials purchased by several divisions and buys them centrally, thereby gaining more purchasing clout.

Centralized Training Programs - Centrally located instruction of salespeople that supplements the basic training conducted in the field.

Cents Off Deals (Price Packs)  - Offers to consumer of savings off the regular price of a product, flagged on the label or package. 

• A Reduced-Price Pack - is a single package sold at a reduced price (such as two for the price of one). 

• A Banded Pack - is two related products banded together (such as a toothbrush and toothpaste)

Chain – Ratio Method – A variation on figuring the total market potential. It involves multiplying a base number by several adjusting percentages.

Challenger Strategy – One of four strategies that have good profit potential for launching a new product in a market dominated by one brand, such as Jell-O or FedEx. The product is positioned close to the dominant brand with heavy advertising and comparable or premium price to challenge the dominant brand as the category standard.

Changers - People vary in their attitudes toward society.  Changers who usually live more frugally, driving smaller cars and wearing simpler clothes, want to change society.

Channel - The means used by companies to make their products and services available to their target market... examples include direct channel (sold by the company's sales force), distributors, retail stores, manufacturer’s reps and value added resellers.

Channel Alternatives (for reaching the market)- The problem is to decide which of the alternatives would best satisfy the long-run objectives of the firm. Each alternative must be rated against:

• Economic - Of the three, this criteria is the most important, since the firm is not pursuing channel control or adaptability as such but is pursuing profits.

• Control - The evaluation must now be broadened by a consideration of the motivational, control, and conflict aspects of the two channel alternatives.

• Adaptive - That of the producer's freedom to adapt to changing conditions. Each channel alternative involves some duration of commitment and loss of flexibility.

Channel Captain - The dominant member of a particular channel - both organizes it and leads it. 

Channel Flow Types – The various institutions that make up a marketing channel are connected by several distinguishable types of flows.

• The Physical Flow - Describes the actual movement of physical products from raw materials to final customers.

• The Title Flow - Describes the actual passage of tile (of ownership) from one marketing institution to another.

• The Payment Flow - Show customers paying their bills through banks and other financial institutions to the dealers, the dealers remitting payment to the manufacturer (less commission), and the manufacturer making payments to the various suppliers.

• The Information Flow - Describes how information is exchanged among the institutions in the marketing channel. A two-way information exchange takes place between each successive stage in the channel, and there are several information flows between nonadjacent institutions.

• The Promotion Flow - Describes directed flows of influence (advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity) from on party to other parties in the system.

Channel Functions: Major Market Channel Functions –

1.      Research - the gathering of information necessary for planning and facilitating exchange.

2.      Promotion - the development and dissemination of persuasive communications about the offer.

3.      Contact - the searching out and communicating with prospective buyers.

4.      Matching - the shaping and fitting of the offer to the buyer's requirements. 

5.      Negotiation - the attempt to reach final agreement on price and other terms of the offer so that transfer of ownership or possession could be affected.

6.      Physical distribution - the transporting and storing of the goods.

7.      Financing - the acquisition and dispersal of funds to cover the costs of the channel work.

8.      Risk taking - the assumption of risks in connection with carrying out the channel work. 

Channel Integration – Characterized by the following features:

• The ability to order a product online & pick it up at a convenient retail location.
• The ability to return an online-ordered product to a nearby store of the retailer.
• The right to receive discounts based on total online and off-line purchases.

Forward flow is activity from the company to the customer.

Backward flow, constitutes ordering and payment from customers to the company.

Channel Level - Each institution that performs some work to bring the product and its title to the point of consumption constitutes this.

            Types of Channel Flow –

1.      Physical flow - describes the actual movement of physical products from raw materials to final customers.

2.   Title flow - describes the actual passage of title (of ownership) from one marketing institution to another.

3.   Payment flow - shows customers paying their bills through banks and other financial institutions to the dealers, the dealers remitting payment to the manufacturer (less the commission), and the manufacturer making payments to the various suppliers.

4.   Payment flow - describes how information is exchanged among institutions in the marketing channel.

5. Promotion flow - describes directed flows of influence (advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity) from one party to other parties in the system.

Channel Levels - There are three levels;

1. A zero level channel (also called a direct-marketing channel) consists of a manufacturer selling directly to the final customer.

2. A one level channel contains two intermediaries.  In consumer markets, these are typically a wholesaler and a retailer.

3. A three level channel contains three intermediaries.  In the meatpacking industry, wholesalers sell to jobbers, who sell to small retailers. 

Channel Member Selection - After a company has determined its basic channel design, individual middleman must be:

• Selected - Should determine what characteristics distinguish the better middleman from the poor ones.

• Motivated - Middleman must be motivated to do their best job. Motivate others is to see the situation from their viewpoint.

• Evaluated - Middleman's performance against certain standards but be evaluated. Take the average percentage of improvement (or decline) for the group can be used as a starting point.

Channel of Distribution - Shall be considered to comprise a set of institutions which    performs all of the activities utilized to move a product and its title from production to consumption. 

Channel Specialist – The firm specializes in serving only one channel of distribution.  For example, a soft-drink company decides to make a very large-sized soft drink available only at gas stations.

Channels of Communication –

1.      Personal – means of direct contact with target individuals or groups.

2.      Non-personal – media that carry influence without involving direct contact

Advertising can perform several useful functions:

1.      Awareness building

2.      Comprehension building

3.      Efficient reminding

4.      Lead generation

5.      Legitimation

6.      Reassurance

Chattel Mortgage - A mortgage on personal property, given to secure a debt. Typically used in the sale of a business. Also called a security agreement.

Circulation - The number of physical units carrying the advertising.

Civic Positioning - To enter or operate in a new market, a company must be on its best behavior. For example, a company can build housing for employees, support local arts and charities, and hire and train indigenous managers.

Clanning - The need to join groups in order to confront a more chaotic world:  Harley-Davidson’s Harley Owners Group (HOG). A company can learn about individuals who visit its site by following how they click-stream through the Web site and move to other sites.  By analyzing the click-streams of different visitors, the company can make inferences about consumer behavior.

Classes of Competitors - After the company has conducted its customer value analysis, it can focus its attack on one of the following classes of competitors: strong versus weak, close versus distant, and “good” versus “bad”.

• Strong Versus Weak - Most companies aim their shots at weak competitors, because this requires fewer resources per share point gained. Yet, in attacking weak competitors, the firm will achieve little in the way of improved capabilities. The firm should also compete with strong competitors to keep up with the best. Even strong competitors have some weaknesses.

• Close Versus Distant - Most companies compete with competitors who resemble them the most. Chevrolet competes with Ford, not with Jaguar. Yet companies should also recognize distant competitors. At the same time, the company should avoid trying to destroy the closest competitor.

• Good Versus Bad - Every industry contains “good” and “bad” competitors.  A company should support its good competitors and attack its bad competitors.  Good competitors play by the industry’s rules; they make realistic assumptions about the industry’s growth potential’ they set prices in reasonable relation to costs’; they favor a healthy industry; they limit themselves to a portion or segment of the industry; they motivate others to lower costs or improve differentiation; and they accept the general level of their share and profits.  Ban competitors try to by share rather than earn it; they take large risks; they invest in overcapacity; and they upset industrial equilibrium.

Cliques - Social subsystems whose members interact with each other relatively more frequently than with other members of the social system.

Cloner - The cloner emulates the leader’s products, name and packaging, with slight variations.  For example, Ralcorp Holding Inc. sells imitations of name-brand cereals in look-alike boxes.  Its Tasteeos, Fruit Rings and Corn Flakes sell for nearly a $1.00 a box less than the leading name brands.  In the computer business, clones are a fact of life.

Close – Is a part of the sales process.

as a noun... the point at which the prospect makes a commitment to purchase a particular product or service.

as a verb... the point at which the salesperson asks or encourages the prospect to make a commitment to purchase a particular product or service.

Closing - The process of helping people make a decision that will benefit them.

Clubs - Another tool for attracting attention to their brand, clubs and consumer communities can form the center of a customer community, such as Harley-Davidson motorcycle owners or Bradford plate collectors.

Cluster - Areas in the networks where people are more densely connected to each other.

Cluster Analysis - A statistical technique for separating objects into a specified number of mutually exclusive groups such that the groups are relatively homogeneous.  Example:  A marketing researcher might want to classify a set of cities into four distinct groups.

Clustered Preferences - Reveals a market where all the consumers' preferences are grouped together in small groups in which have commonalities.

Coaching - Intensive on-the-job training through instruction, demonstration and practice.

Code of Ethics - A formal statement of the company’s values concerning ethics and social issues.

Co-Branding - Combining two or more well-known brand names.  Each brand sponsor expects that the other brand name will strengthen preference or purchase intention.  In the case of co-packaged products, each brand hopes it might be reaching a new audience by associating with the other brand.

Cocooning - The impulse to stay inside when outside gets too tough and scary:  redecorating, watching TV and rental movies, and ordering from catalogs.

Cognitive Dissonance - In the context of consumer behavior, a discomfort experienced by the buyer as a result of some post-purchase conflict. For example, hearing about a low rating of a product may cause cognitive dissonance among recent buyers.

Cold Call - A sales call where the salesperson doesn't personally know the company and/ or contact s/he is calling on and/ or a sales call where no known need, by the prospect or salesperson, exists.

Cold Canvas Prospecting Method - A method whereby the salesperson contacts as many leads as possible with no knowledge of the business or individual called upon.

Collaboration - Risk in this type of entry is shared, and therefore reduced, for each participating company.  Each company also brings specific skills or resources. 

Collateral - Something of value (land, a home, a car, etc.) that is pledged as security to ensure the payment of a debt. Collateral is promised to a lender until a loan is repaid. If the borrower defaults, the lender has the right, by law, to seize the collateral. 

Collateral-Based Income Streams - Cash flow instruments that are secured by collateral. 

Collectibility - Refers to the funding source's ability to collect future income stream payments once they are purchased. 

Collect Information - The process by which buyers visit retail stores, contact potential suppliers, or talk with salespeople about a product’s price, size, advantage, and warranty before making a decision regarding buying.

Colors – A marketing tool and tactic to build the brand identity, as is name, logo, tagline, and symbol.

Combination Stores - Are a combination of food and drug stores that average 55,000 feet of selling space.

Comfort Zone Challenge - An activity in which one engages in order to push one’s envelope where one has relatively little experience and/ or comfort.

Command Headlines - Example, “Don’t Buy Until You Try All Three”.

Comment - In this glossary, the word is used to describe the basic building block of buzz. An opinion about a product or service that is transferred from one customer to the other. As in, "The Graduate is a great movie."

Commercializing Timing - In commercializing a new product, market-entry timing is critical. If a company has almost completed the development work on its new product & learns that a competitor is nearing the end of its development the company faces three choices:

1. First Entry: The first firm entering a market usually enjoys the “first mover advantages” of locking up key distributors & customers and gaining reputational leadership. But, if the product is rushed to market before it is thoroughly debugged, the first entry can backfire.

2. Parallel entry: The firm might time its entry to coincide with the competitor’s entry. The market may pay more attention when two companies are advertising the new product.

3. Late Entry: The firm might delay its launch until after the competitor has entered. The competitor will have borne the cost of educating the market. Its product may reveal faults the late entrant can avoid. The late entrant can also learn the size of the market.

Commission - Fee paid to a salesperson or agent for services performed, usually a percentage of the sale amount.

Commission Merchants - Take physical possession of products and negotiate sales.

Common Carrier - A common carrier provides services between predetermined points on a scheduled basis and is available to all shippers at standard rates.

Communicating - Communicating information to existing and potential buyers about the company's products and services. 

Communication Process –

1.      Sender. The party sending the message to another party (also called the source or communicator).

2.      Encoding. The process of putting thought into symbolic form.

3.      Message. The set of symbols that the sender transmit.

4.      Media. The paths thought which the message moves from sender to receiver.

5.      Decoding. The process by which the receiver assigns meaning to the symbols transmitted by the sender.

6.      Receiver. The party receiving the message send by another party (also called the audience or destination).

7.      Response. The set of reactions that the receiver has after being exposed to the message.

8.      Feedback. The part of the receiver’s response that the receiver communicates back to the sender. 

Communication Budget - Should be set at the level necessary to accomplish the communications objectives. It can be established by using "objectives-and-tasks" thinking; that is deciding on the tasks that have to be performed to accomplish the communication objectives and then estimating their costs.

Company Demand - Company demand is the company’s estimated share of market demand at alternative levels of company marketing effort in a given time period.  The company’s share of market demand depends on how its products, services, prices, communications, and so on are perceived relative to the competitors’.  If other things are equal, the company’s market share would depend on the size and effectiveness of its market expenditures relative to competitors.

Company Marketing Opportunity - An attractive arena of relevant marketing action in which a particular company is likely to enjoy a differential advantage. 

Company Opportunity Set - The set of marketing opportunities available to a company at a particular time.   

Company Pricing Policy - The price must be consistent with company pricing policies.  At the same time, companies are not averse to establishing pricing penalties under certain circumstances.  Many companies set up a pricing department to develop policies and establish or approve decisions.  The aim is to ensure that the salespeople quote prices that are reasonable to customers and profitable to the company.

Company Sales Force - Sales personnel serve as the company’s personal link to the customers.  The sales representative is the company to many of its customers.  It is the sales rep who brings back much-needed information about the customer.  Therefore, the company needs to carefully consider issues in sales force design—namely, the development of sales force objective, strategy, structure, size, and compensation.

Company Sales Forecast - The expected level of company sales based on a chosen marketing plan and assumed marketing environment. 

Company Sales Potential - The limit approached by company demand as company marketing effort increases relative to competitors. 

Compensation Method - The method of offsetting negative product aspects with better benefit aspects.

Competition - Four levels of competition:

• Brand competition. A company sees its competitors as other companies offering similar products and services to the same customers at similar prices.

• Industry competition. A company sees its competitors as all companies making the same product or class of products.

• Form competition. A company sees its competitors as al companies manufacturing products that supply the same service.

• Generic competition. A company sees its competitors as all companies that compete for the same consumer dollars.

Competitive Advantage - Competitive advantage is a company’s ability to perform in one or more ways that competitors cannot or will not match.  Companies are urged to build a sustainable competitive advantage.  But few competitive advantages are sustainable.  In general, a company that hopes to endure must be in the business of continuously inventing new advantages.

Competitive Intelligence System - Four main steps;

1. Setting up the system - The first step calls for identifying vital types of competitive information, identifying the best sources of this information, and assigning a person who will manage the system and its services.  In smaller companies that cannot afford to set up a formal competitive intelligence office, specific executives should be assigned to watch competitors.  A manager who used to work for a competitor would closely follow that competitor and serve as the in-house expert on that competitor.  Any manger who needs to know about a specific competitor would contact the corresponding in-house expert.

2. Collecting the data - The data are collected on a continuous basis from the field (sales force, channels, suppliers, market research firms, trade associations), from people who do business with competitors, from observing competitors, and from published data.  In addition, a vast store of data on both domestic and overseas companies is available via CD-ROM and online services. 

3. Evaluating and analyzing the data - The data are checked for validity and reliability, interpreted, and organized.

4. Disseminating information and responding - Key information is sent to relevant decision makers, and managers’ inquiries are answered.  With a will-designed system, company managers receive timely information about competitors via e-mail, phone calls, bulletins, newsletters, and reports.  Managers can also contact the market intelligence department or colleagues on the company’s intranet when they need help interpreting a competitor’s sudden move, when they need to know a competitor’s weaknesses and strengths, or when they want to discuss a likely response to a contemplated company move.   

Competitive Market Structure:

1.      Market leader - the firm with the largest market share.

2.      Market challenger - a runner-up firm that is actively trying to expand its share using highly aggressive tactics.

3.      Market follower - a runner up firm that seeks to maintain its market share and not rock the boat.

4.      Market nichers - serve small market segments that they hope will not attract the interest of the larger firms. 

Competitive Parity Method - Some companies set their promotion budget to achieve share-of-voice parity with competitors.  This thinking is illustrated by the executive who asked a trade source, “Do you have any figures which other companies in the builders’ specialties field have used which would indicate what proportion or gross sales should be given over to advertising?”  This executive believes that by matching competitors, he will maintain his market share. Two arguments are made in support of the competitive-parity method;

1. Competitors’ expenditures represent the collective wisdom of the industry.

2. Maintaining competitive parity prevents promotion wars. 

Neither argument is valid.  There are no grounds for believing that competitors know better.  Company reputations, resources, opportunities, and objectives differ so much that promotion budgets are hardly a guide.  Furthermore, there is no evidence that budgets based on competitive parity discourage promotional wars.

Compensation Plans:

1. Straight salary - sales representative receives a fixed salary in total payment for services.

2.  Straight commission - pays the sales representative some fixed or sliding rate related to his or her sales or profit volume.

3. Combo of salary & commission - appropriate where sales volume depends on sales representative's motivation and yet where management wants some control over the amount of non-selling duties performed by the sales representatives.

4.  Bonus - non-contractual payments for extra effort or merit or for results beyond normal expectations. 

Competitive Positioning - Requires firm to develop a general idea of what kind of offer to make to the target market in relation to competitors' offers.  

Complementors - Neither are nor seek to be part of the dominant channel. 

Compliment Close - A close wherein the salesperson ends with a compliment to the prospect.

Complimentary Approach - An approach that opens with a compliment that is sincere and therefore effective.

Computer-Based Presentation - Using the computer to present information to prospects and customers.

Computerized Media Selection - An increasing number of agencies are using a computer program to develop their initial advertising media plan. At lease three different basic types of models are in use:

1. Linear Programming - This method can be used to discover the media mix that will maximize the number of effective exposures subject to a set of constraints. Limitations - Assumes that repeat exposure have a constant marginal effect, it assumes constant media costs, it cannot handle the problem of audience duplication and it fails to say anything about when the advertisement should be scheduled.

2. Heuristic Programming - An alternative technique proceeds with a sequential rather than a simultaneous selection of media. The basic idea is to start with the media available in the first week of the year and select the single best buy. Advantages - it develops a schedule simultaneously with the selection of media; it handles the audience-duplication problem, it handles the media-discount problem and it incorporates theoretically important variables such as brand-switching rates and multiple exposure coefficients.

3. Simulation Model - This model doesn't profess to find the "best" media plan but rather to estimate the exposure value of any given media plan. This model complements rather than competes with the previous models. Limitations - Simulation normally does not include an overall effectiveness function, it lacks a procedure for finding better schedules and the representativeness of the hypothetical population is always suspect.

Concentrated Marketing - When a firm decides to go after a narrow market segment and develop the ideal offer and marketing mix. 

Concentration Advertising - calls for spending all the advertising dollars in a single period. This makes sense for products with one selling season or holiday.

Conceptual Skills - The ability to see the selling process as a whole and the relationship among its parts.

Conclusion Drawing - Raises the question of whether the communicator should draw a definite conclusion for the audience or leave it to them.

• Arguments:

  • One Sided Argument - one-sided messages tend to work best with audiences that are initially favorably predisposed to the communicator's position.

  • Two-sided arguments tend to work best with audiences who are opposed.

• Messages:

  • Two-Sided Messages tend to be more effective with better educated audiences.

  • Two-Sided Messages tend to be more effective with audiences who are likely to be exposed to counterpropaganda.

Condition of the Sale - A situation wherein an objection becomes a condition of sale, such that if the condition is met the prospect will buy.

Conditioned Viewing - Directed exposure, not involving active search, to a more or less clearly identified area or type of information. 

Conduit Companies – Marketers need to understand that information channels require the inputs of four types of companies to function effectively, one of them being conduit companies like AT & T, WorldCom, Verizon).

Conflict – All marketing channels have the potential for conflict and competition resulting from such sources as goal incompatibility, poorly defined roles and rights, perceptual differences, and interdependent relationships.  Companies can manage conflict by striving for superordinate goals, exchanging people among two or more channel levels, co-opting the support of leaders in different parts of the channel, and encouraging joint membership in and between trade associations.

Conformance Quality - Buyers expect products to have a high conformance quality, which is the degree to which all the produced units are identical and meet the promised specifications. The problem with low conformance quality is that the product will disappoint some buyers.

Confused Positioning - Buyers might have a confused image of the brand resulting from the company’s making too many claims or changing the brand’s positioning too frequently.

Connectors - Sometimes called "bridges." These are people who connect different clusters and cliques.

Conscious Need Level - A state of mind in which buyers are fully aware of their needs.

Consistency of Product Mix - Refers to how closely related the various product lines are in end use, production requirements, distribution channels, or in some other way. 

Consultative Selling - The process of helping the customer achieve strategic short and long-term goals through the use of the seller’s goods or services.

Consumer Affluences - Rising consumer affluence means consumers are willing to pay a little more for the convenience, appearance, dependability, and prestige of better packages.

Consumer Behavior - The aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy target customers’ needs and wants. The field of consumer behavior studies how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires. Understanding consumer behavior and “knowing customers” is never simple. Customers may say one thing but do another. They may not be in touch with their deeper motivations. They may respond to influences that change their minds at the last minute. Small companies, such as a corner grocery store, and huge corporations, stand to profit from understanding how and why their customers buy.

Consumer to Business (C2B) Commerce - Consumers are also finding it easier to communicate with companies. Companies often encourage communication by inviting prospects and customers to send in questions, suggestions, and even complaints via e-mail.

Consumer-Based Income Streams - Cash flows in which the party that owes payments is a consumer, a private individual.

Consumer Communities - Another tool for attracting attention to their brand, clubs and consumer communities can form the center of a customer community, such as Harley-Davidson motorcycle owners or Bradford plate collectors.

Consumer Cooperative - a retail firm owned by its customers. In consumer co-ops residents contribute money to open their own store, vote on its policies, elect a group to manage it, and receive patronage dividends.

Consumer to Consumer (C2C) Commerce – There is considerable consumer-to-consumer communication on the Web on a whole range of subjects. C2C means that online visitors increasingly create product information, not just consume it. They join Internet interest groups to share information, so that “word of web” is joining “word of mouth” as an important buying influence. Words about good companies travel fast; and words about bad companies travel even faster.

Consumer Discount - One-time price reductions passed on from the manufacturer, via channel members, directly to the customer.

Consumer Goods Classification - The vast array of goods consumers buy can be classified on the basis of shopping habits. We can distinguish among convenience, shopping, specialty, and unsought goods.

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

Consumer Products - Products produced for, and purchased by, households or end customers.

Consumer Sales Promotion - A promotion that includes free samples, coupons, contests, and demonstrations to consumers.

Consumer Tests - To insure favorable consumer response. 

Consumer Testing – Can take a variety of forms, from bringing consumers into a lab to test and rate the product versions to giving them samples to use in their normal settings. 

Contact Manager - A method or system for managing contact information, priorities and checklists... typically used to describe a software solution that partially automates contact management functions.

Contagion Process - The interpersonal influence process that operates via both direct ties and comparison of status.

Contagion Products - Products with some intrinsic attributes that make them spread faster. For example, products that become more useful as more people use them can become contagious.

Contingency-Based Income Streams - Cash flows in which the recipient is not necessarily legally entitled to receive payments, or in which the amount of the payment is uncertain or contingent upon outside factors.

Continuity - Is achieved by scheduling exposures evenly within a given time period.

Continuous 'Yes' Close - A kind of close whereby the salesperson develops a series of benefit questions that the prospect must answer with a yes.

Contract Carrier - Is a independent organization selling transportation service to others on a contract basis.

Contract Manufacturing - When a firm hires local manufacturers to produce the product.

Contractual Sales Force - Such as manufacturers reps, sales agents, or brokers, who are paid a commission on the sales they generate for a company. 

Controlled Test Marketing - In this method, a research firm manages a panel of stores that will carry new products for a fee.

Convenience Goods - Those consumers' goods that the customer usually purchases frequently, immediately, and with the minimum of effort in comparison and buying. 

Convenience Items - Peripheral items that sell in high volume bur receive less promotion.

Convenience Store - Relatively small store located near residential area, open long hours, seven days a week, and carrying a limited line of high-turnover convenience products at slightly higher prices, plus takeout sandwiches, coffee, soft drinks.

Conventional Marketing Channels – Highly fragmented networks in which loosely aligned manufactures, wholesalers, and retailers have bargained with each other at arm’s length, negotiated aggressively over terms of sales, and otherwise behaved autonomously.

Conversion - The process of converting a qualified prospect into an active client.

Cooperative Organizations - Carry on exporting activities on behalf of several producers and are partly under their administrative control. They are often used by producers of primary products such as fruits or nuts.

Corrective Power - A manufacturer threatens to withdraw a resource or terminate a relationship if intermediaries fail to cooperate.  This power can be effective, but its exercise produces resentment and cal lead the intermediaries to organize countervailing power.

Core Service with Adjunct Goods or Services - Offering consists of a core service along with some additional services and/or supporting goods.

Corporate Communications - This activity covers internal and external communications to give attention and understanding to the institution. 

Corporation - A legal entity, chartered by a U.S. state or the federal government, and separate and distinct from the persons who own it. It is regarded by the courts as an artificial person; it may own property, incur debts, sue or be sued.

Copy Strategy Statement - In preparing an ad campaign, the advertiser usually prepares a copy strategy statement describing the objective, content support, and tone of the desired ad.

Copy Testing - Communication-effect research seeks to determine whether an ad is communicating effectively. Called copy testing, it can be done before an ad is put into media and after it is printed or broadcast.

Core Beliefs - People living in a particular society hold many core beliefs and values that tend to persist. Most Americans still believe in work, in getting married, in giving to charity, and in being honest. Core beliefs are passed on from parents to children & reinforced by major social institutions—schools, churches, business, & governments.

Core Business Process -

• The market sensing process: All the activities involved in gathering market intelligence, disseminating it within the organization, and acting on the information.

• The new offering realization process: All the activities involved in researching, developing & launching new high-quality offerings quickly & within the budget.

• The customer relationship management process: All the activities involved in building deeper understanding, relationships, and offerings to individual customers.

• The fulfillment management process: All the activities involved in receiving and approving orders, shipping the goods on time, and collecting payment

Core Competency - Core competency has three characteristics:

1. It is a source of competitive advantage in that is makes a significant contribution to perceived customer benefits

2. It has a breadth of applications to a wide variety of markets

3. It is difficult to imitate.

Corporate Chain Store - Two or more outlets commonly owned & controlled, employing central buying & merchandising, & selling similar lines of merchandise. Their size allows them to buy in large quantities at lower prices, & they can afford to hire corporate specialist to deal with pricing, promotion, merchandising, inventory control, & sales forecasting.

Corporate Communication - Promoting understanding of organization through internal and external communications.

Corporate Culture - Most businesspeople define corporate culture a “the shared experiences, stories, beliefs, and norms that characterize an organization.”

Corporate Retailing - Corporate retail organizations achieve economies of scale, grater purchasing power, wider brand recognition, and better-trained employees.

Cosmopolite - In the context of the diffusion of innovations, a person who is oriented to the world outside the local system.

Cost Inflation - A major circumstance provoking price increases is Cost Inflation. Rising costs unmatched by productivity gains squeeze profit margins and lead companies to regular round of price increases.

Counseling - The provision of general advice to the company about what is happening in the society and what the company might do in the way of changing its ways or improving its communications. 

Counterfeiting - The counterfeiter duplicates the leader’s product & package & sells it on the black market or through disreputable dealers.

Counter-Marketing - An attempt to designate the product as intrinsically unwholesome.

Counteroffence Defense - When attacked, most market leaders will respond with a counterattack. In a counteroffensive, the leader can meet the attacker frontally or hit its flank or launch a pincer movement. An effective counterattack is to invade the attacker’s main territory so that it will have to pull back some troops to defend the territory. Also, the leader may try to crush a competitor by subsidizing lower prices for the vulnerable product with revenue from its more profitable products; or may prematurely announce that a product upgrade will be available, to prevent customers from buying the competitors product.

Counter Suggestion - A suggestion that evokes an opposite response from the prospect.

Counter Trade - Many buyers want to offer other items in payment, a practice known a counter trade. Counter trade takes several forms: Barter, Compensation Deals, Buyback Agreements, and Offset.

Country of Origin (impact on consumer brand) - The impact of country or origin varies with the type of product-

• The impact of country of origin varies with the type or product. Consumers want to know where a car was made but not the lubricating oil.

• Certain countries enjoy a reputation for certain goods.

• Sometimes country-of-origin perception can encompass an entire country’s products.

• The more favorable a country’s image, the more prominently the “Made in …. label should be displayed.

• Attitudes toward country of origin can change over time. Before World War 11, Japan had a poor quality image.

Coupons - Certificates entitling the bearer to a stated saving on the purchase of a specific product: mailed, enclosed in other products or attached to them, or inserted in magazine and newspaper ads.

Craze - A stampede. Very high demand for a particular product. Typically associated with shortages.

Creative Marketer - Discovers and produces solutions customers did not ask for but to which they enthusiastically respond.

Creative Problem Solver - A person with the ability to develop and combine non-traditional alternatives in order to meet specific needs of the customer.

Credit Availability - Credit is very available in the US but at fairly high interest rates, especially to lower-income borrowers.

Creditor - One who is owed payments on a debt by a debtor.

Credibility - A salesperson’s believability established through empathy, willingness to listen to specific needs, and continual enthusiasm toward his or her work and the customer’s business.

Critical Life Events or Transitions - A company can consider occasions of critical life events or transitions—marriage, childbirth, illness, relocation, divorce, career change—as giving rise to new needs. These should alert service providers—banks, lawyers, employment, and bereavement counselors—to ways they can help.

Critical Mass - The minimum percentage of participants necessary to sustain an activity.

CRM – Is an acronym... Customer Relationship Management... term generally used to describe a comprehensive software solution that helps companies manage their relationships with their prospects and customers.

Cross Functional Roles - Most purchasing professional describe their job as less clerical, more strategic, team-oriented, and involving more responsibility than ever before. More are involved in new-product design and development than ever before and more than half of the buyers participate in cross-functional teams, with suppliers well represented.

Cross Promotions - Using one brand to advertise another non-competing brand.

Cross Sell - To sell a prospect/ customer a product or service that complements or adds value to another purchase... can also be used to refer to selling an existing customer another product or service (regardless of its connection with another purchase).

Cues - Cues are minor stimuli that determine when, where, and how a person responds.

Culture - Is the most fundamental determinant of a person's wants and behavior.

Cultural Characteristics - The broadest influence on the buyer, particularly the buyer's culture, subcultures, and social class identifications.

Cumulative Quantity Discount - Discounts received for buying a certain amount of product over a stated period.

Curiosity Approach - An approach whereby the salesperson asks a question or does something to make the prospect curious about the product or service.

Current Revenue Pricing - A company may wish to set the price to maximize current sales revenue. This is a matter of finding the price/quantity combination that yields the largest sales revenue.

Customer Benefit Approach - An approach whereby the salesperson asks a question that implies that the product will benefit the prospect.

Customer Benefit Plan - A plan that contains the nucleus of information used in the sales presentation.

Customer Bonds -

• Get cross-departmental participation in planning & managing the customer satisfaction & retention process.

• Integrate the Voice of the Customer in all business decisions.

• Create superior products, services, and experiences for the target market,

• Organize & make accessible a database of information on individual customer needs, preferences, contacts, purchase frequency, and satisfaction.

• Make it easy for customers to reach appropriate company personnel and express their needs, perceptions, and complaints.

• Run award programs recognizing outstanding employees.

Customer Call Norms - Companies often specify how much time reps should spend prospecting for new accounts. Companies have set up prospecting standards so reps will not spend most of their time with current customers & spend some quality time prospecting for new sales.

Customer Cloning - Many companies use mapping software to show the geographic locations of their customers. Thus a retailer may realize that most of his customers are within only a 10 mile radius & further concentrated with certain zip areas, enabling him to target his communication more effectively.

Customer Complaints - Only about 25% of customers are dissatisfied with their purchases. The other 95% either fell complaining is not worth the effort, or they do not know how or whom to complain. Averages show that a satisfied customer will tell 3 people about a good product experience, but the dissatisfied customer will gripe to 11 people.

Customer Lifetime Value - From making a profit on each sale to making profits by managing life-time sales. Some companies offer to deliver a constantly needed product on a regular basis at a lower price per unit because they will capture the customer’s business for a longer period.

Customer Loyalty - Is the purchases from the company by its customers expressed as a percentage of their total purchases from all suppliers of the same products.

Customer Penetration - The percentage of all customers who by from the company.

Customer Profile - An outline that gives relevant information regarding the firm, the buyer, and individuals who influence the buying decision.

Customer Reaction to Pricing - Customers often question the motivation behind price changes. A price cut can be interpreted in different ways: The item is about to be replaced by a new model; the item is faulty and is not selling well; the firm is in financial trouble; the price will come down even further; the quality has been reduced. A price increase, which would normally deter sales, may carry some positive meanings to customers: The item is “hot” and represents an unusually good value.

Customer Retention - Unfortunately, most marketing theory and practice centers on the art of attracting new customers rather than on retaining and cultivating existing ones. The emphasis traditionally has been on making sales rather than building relationships; on pre-selling and selling rather than caring for the customer afterward. A company would be wise to measure customer satisfaction regularly, because the key to customer retention is customer satisfaction.

Customer Satisfaction - Feelings towards the purchase.

Customer Segment Pricing - Different customer groups are charges different prices for the same product or service. For example, museums often charge a lower admission fee to students and senior citizens.

Customer Selectivity - The size of the average customer purchase from the company expressed as a percentage of the size of the average customer purchase from an average company.

Customer Service - Activities and programs provided by the seller to make the relationship a satisfying one for the customer.

Customer Service Decision - Four categories of offer can be distinguished:

1. A Pure Good - Here the offer consists primarily of a tangible good such as soap, toothpaste, or salt. No explicit service accompany the product.

2. A Core Good With Associated Services - Here the offer consists of a core good along with one or more adjunct services that enhance its utility.

3. A Core Service With Adjunct Goods or Service - Here the offer consists of a core service along with some additional services and/or supporting goods.  (example-air travel with car rental).

4. A Pure Service - Here the offer consists of a core service and possibly some adjunct services.

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