glossary

'I'

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Ideal Business - Is one which is high in major opportunities and low or devoid of major threats.

Ideal Self - The person one would like to be.

Ideas - Every market offering includes a basic idea. Products & services are platforms for delivering some idea or benefit.

Image - The set of beliefs that a person or group holds of an object.

Imitator Strategy - The imitator copies some things from the leader but maintains differentiation in terms of packaging, advertising, pricing, or location. The leader does not mind the imitator as long as the imitator does not attack the leader aggressively.

Impact (media selection) - The qualitative value of an exposure through a given medium (thus a food ad in a Good Housekeeping would have a higher impact than in a Police Gazette)

Importance Ratings – Customers are asked to rate the importance of different attributes.  They are also asked to rate the supplier firms with respect to their performance on these attributes.  The company can then estimate the relative value of each competitors offer.

Impression Management - Salesperson may manipulate impressions of self in order to achieve a move favorable response.

Impulse Goods - Are purchased without any planning or search effort.

Inbound Inquiry - An inquiry about your product or service that's initiated (usually by phone, email or in person) by a prospect or customer... no prospecting needed... a gift from the sales angels.

Inbound Telemarketing - Receiving calls from customers.

Incentive Pay - Will give a larger reward to the more productive employees.

Incentive Program Decision - In deciding to use a particular incentive, marketers have several factors to consider. 

1. Size of the incentive - A certain is minimum is necessary if the promotion is to succeed. 

2. Establish conditions for participation - Incentives might be offered to everyone or to select groups. 

3. Decide on the duration of promotion - According to one researcher, the optimal frequency is about three weeks per quarter, and optimal duration is the length of the average purchase cycle. 

4. Marketer must choose a distribution vehicle - A fifteen-cents-off coupon can be distributed in the package, in stores, by mail, or in advertising. 

5. Establish the timing of promotion.

6. Determine the total sales-promotion budget - The cost of a particular promotion consists of the administrative cost (printing, mailing, and promoting the deal) and the incentive cost (cost of premium or cents-off, including redemption costs), multiplied by the expected number of units that will be sold on the deal. 

Income - Income segmentation is a long-standing practice in such product & service categories as automobiles, boats, clothing, cosmetics, and travel. However, income does not always predict the best customers for a given product.

Income Stream - A future payment or series of payments, or a debt that one party owes to another party. Also known as a debt instrument or cash flow instrument.

Independent Off Price Retailers - Are owned & run by entrepreneurs or by divisions of larger retail corporations.

Indirect Denial - An apparent agreement with the prospect used by the salesperson to deny the fundamental issue of the objection.

Indirect Question Approach - A variation of the direct question that asks a question not related to the product.

Indirect Suggestion - A statement by the salesperson recommending that the prospect undertakes some action while making it seem that the idea to do so is the prospect’s.

Inducement Close - A close wherein a salesperson encourages the customer to buy by offering something extra or free.

Industry Buzz - Buzz within industry circles. Different from buzz among customers because it is typically more intense and spreads more rapidly.

Industrial Advertising - Advertising aimed at individuals and organizations who purchase products for manufacturing other products.

Industrial Marketing Channels - An industrial-goods manufacturer can use its sales force to sell directly to industrial customers; or it can sell to industrial distributors, who sell to the industrial customers; or it can sell through manufacturer’s representatives or its own sales branches directly to industrial customers, or indirectly to industrial customers through industrial distributors. Zero-, one-, and two- level marketing channels are quite common in industrial marketing channels.

Industrial Products - Products sold primarily for use in producing other products. 

Inelastic Demand - The total demand for many business goods and services is inelastic—that is, not much affected by price changes. Demand is especially inelastic in the short run because producers cannot make quick changes in production methods. Demand is also inelastic for business goods that represent a small percentage of the item’s total cost.

Influencers - People who influence the decision to buy a product.

Influential Americans - A term used by Roper Starch to describe a group the company has been monitoring since 1940s. An influential is defined as a person who is involved in certain public, political, or social activities, such as writing a letter to the editor, making a speech, serving on a committee, and so on.

Infomercial - Are TV commercials that appear to be 30-minute TV shows but are advertisements for products.

Informal Search - A relatively limited and unstructured effort to obtain specific info or info for a specific purpose.

Informational Evaluation - A process that determines what will be purchased as the buyer matches this information with needs, attitudes, and beliefs in making a decision.

Information Gathering - Conducts market research and intelligence work, and is responsible for supplying regular reports on call activity.

Informational Highway Channels - The invention of the telegraph made it possible to communicate over long distances by encrypting messages in dots and dashes. The telephone made it possible to communicate by voice using copper wires. Radio and television send voice and video signals through he wireless electromagnetic spectrum. Cable sends video content over coaxial cables. Satellite introduced the capability of beaming data, voice, text, and videos from satellites orbiting the earth.

Ingratiation - Salesperson may attempt to provide personal favors (eg. free lunch) to the customer to strengthen affiliation and reciprocity feelings.

Initiator - The person proposing to buy or replace a product.

Innovation Route's Two basic forms -

1. Internal Innovation - By setting up and operating its own research and development department.

2. Contract Innovation - Involves hiring independent researchers or new-product-development agencies to attempt to develop specified products for the firm.

Innovators - Real challengers and disrupters of the dominant channels.

Inside Sales Personnel - Conduct business from their offices, using the telephone and receiving visits from prospective buyers.

Insiders - Members of the dominant channel who enjoy continuous access to preferred sources of supply and high respect in the industry.

Institutional Lenders - Savings and loan associations, local and regional banks, mortgage companies, finance companies, and commercial lenders. 

Insurance-Based Income Streams - Cash flows stemming from insurance companies and paid to individuals or businesses. 

Intangible Personal Property - Something that has value but is not a tangible asset, for example, a trademark, copyright, patent, or trade secret.

Integrated Marketing - When all the company’s departments work together to serve the customer’s interest, the result is integrated marketing. The strategy is the customer is always right.

Integrated Marketing Communications - From heavy reliance on one communication tool such as advertising or sales force to blending several tools to deliver a consistent brand image to customers at every brand contact.

Integrative Growth - Makes sense for a company if the basic industry has a strong growth future and/or the company can increase it profitability, efficiency, or control by moving backward, forward, or horizontally within the industry.  Types:

A)    Backward integration - consists of a company's seeking ownership or increased control of its supply systems.

B)     Forward integration - consists of a company's seeking ownership or increased control of its distribution systems.

C)    Horizontal integration - consists of a company's seeking ownership or increased control of some of its competitors. 

Intellectual Property - Is the ownership of the patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, etc. demonstrates ownership rights to invention, products, services, or technologies.

Intelligent Shopping Agent - A Web site www.mySimon.com for consumers looking for the best buys in several categories.

Intelligent Questions - Questions relating to a prospect’s business that show the salesperson’s concern for the prospect’s needs.

Intensive Distribution - The stocking of their product in as many outlets as possible.

Intensive Growth - Makes sense for a company if it has not fully exploited the opportunities latent in its current products and markets.

A.    Market Penetration - consists of the company's seeking increased sales for its current products in its current markets through more aggressive marketing effort.

B.     Market Development - consists of the company's seeking increased sales by taking its current products into new markets.

C.    Product Development - consists of the company's seeking increased sales by developing new or improved products for its current markets.

Intercept Interviews - Involve stopping people at a shopping mall or busy street corner & requesting an interview. Intercept interviews have the drawback of being non-probability samples, and the interviews must not require too much time.

Internal Branding - A process to train employees to understand and deliver on the brand promise.

Internal Development - One way that companies can achieve growth; done thru innovation.

International Marketing Decision - Determines whether the foreign opportunities and the firms resources are attractive enough to justify a general interest in marketing abroad .

Internet - A global network of computers.

Internet Generation - Baby boomers witnessed the technological revolution, but the Internet generation having grown up with computers, treating them like any other household appliance. This is an audience that cares about what the technology will do, not the technology itself.

Interpreneurial Marketing - Many large companies get stuck in formulated marketing, poring over the latest Nielsen numbers, scanning market research reports, trying to fine-tune dealer relations and advertising messages. These companies lack the creativity and passion of the guerrilla marketers in the entrepreneurial stage. Their brand and product managers need to get out of the office, start living with their customers, and visualize new ways to add value to their customers’ lives.

Interstitials - Interstitials are advertisements that pop-up between changes on a Web site. At the website www.msnbc.com, advertising can be seen if viewers go to the sports page.

Intimate Space - A spatial zone up to two feet, about an arm’s length from a person’s body that is reserved for close friends and loved ones.

Introductory Approach - The most common but least powerful approach; it does little to capture the prospect’s attention.

Introductory Marketing Strategy - A company must develop an action plan for introducing a new product into the rollout markets.

Introduction Stage's Four Strategies - From the product life cycle. With working with price and promotion, management can choose one of the four strategies;

1. Rapid-Skimming Strategy - Consists of launching the new product with a high price and high promotion level.

2. Slow-Skimming Strategy - Consists of launching the new product with a high price and low promotion.

3. Rapid-Penetration Strategy - Consists of launching the product with a low price and heavy promotion.

4. Slow-Penetration Strategy - Consists of launching the new product with a low price and low level of promotion.

Inventor - Is the first person to develop patents in a new-product category.

Inventory-Control Managers - Seek to minimize inventory costs. They prefer small inventories because inventory-carrying costs tend to be more tangible than stockout costs.

Investment Banker - An individual or institution which acts as an underwriter or agent for corporations and municipalities issuing securities. Most also maintain broker/dealer operations, maintain markets for previously issued securities, and offer advisory services to investors. Investment banks also have a large role in facilitating mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity placements and corporate restructuring. Unlike traditional banks, investment banks do not accept deposits from and provide loans to individuals.

Investment-to-Value Ratio - A measure of how secure a creditor's position is and how likely the creditor is to recoup all of his or her money in the event of a foreclosure.

Invisible Networks - The term used in this book to describe social networks. The interpersonal information networks that connect customers to each other.

Irregular Demand - A state in which the current timing pattern of demand is marked by seasonal or volatile fluctuations that depart from the timing pattern of supply. 

ISO – A sales acronym... independent sales organization... term used to describe field sales forces that are not employees of the companies which provide the products or services they sell.

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