Basic Glossary

GLOSSARY of TERMS: A QUICK GUIDE of the BASICS

Brand: A set of mental associations, held by a consumer, which add to the perceived value of a product or service

Brand assets: Assets a brand can attain based on market leadership, awareness, brand relevance, reputation of quality, and brand loyalty

Brand awareness: The extent to which a brand is recognized by consumers

Brand Elements: The visual elements that distinguish the brand from competitors’ ones

Brand Equity: The extra value that the brand adds to the product when a customer knows the brand

Brand Familiarity: The easy recognition of a well-known brand

Brand Image: The judgment that consumers have towards the brand

Cannibalization: A decrease in sales or market shares of one product as a result of the launch of a new product by the same company

Channel System: A particular combination of distribution and sales channels

Competitive Advantage: Something about an organization and its product that is perceived as being better than rival offerings, it is sustainable overtime and can be translated into a benefit that is important to target customers

Competitor: A company in the same  or similar industry which offers a similar product or service

Connoisseur:  A person with expert knowledge or training about a specific product

Consumer Behaviour: The totality of consumers’ decisions with respect to the acquisition, consumption, and disposition of goods, services, time, and ideas by human decision-making units (overtime)

Consumer: A person that actually consumes the product, consumer and customer may or may not coincide

Customer Experience: A combination of emotional, sensorial, and cognitive experiences that encompasses all the phases connected to a new product and/or service purchase

Customer Value: Composed by the set of benefits that the organization’s offering can provide and the set of sacrifices that a customer has to make in order to enjoy the benefits provided by the organization’s offering

Customer: A person who buys the product, consumer and customer may or may not coincide

Distribution: The processes involved in moving goods from the supplier to the customer or user

Evoked Set: The shortlist of products that a purchaser will make the final choice from

Goods: Tangible products

Innovators: The very first few percentages of customers that adopt a new product or technology

Laggards: The last small part of customers to adopt a new product or technology

Market Lifecycle: Relates to different stages in the life of a market based on a time unit (weeks, months, or more often years) and the supply-demand dynamic (i.e. sales), the latter can be expressed with product units or values

Market Potential: The maximum market demand that should occur when all potential customers have entered a market

Market Share: The percentage of current market demand obtained by a business

Market: Consists of a set of actors who interact to exchange goods, services, reputation, and information; the activities that form the basis for this interaction, and additional actors who exert their influence

Marketing Mix: The combination of the 4 Ps: usually product, promotion, place, and price designed for a specific target market

Means-End Theory: A technique that can help explain how values link to attributes in products and services

Multichannel Distribution: The use of different types of channels to reach the same target market

Niche market: A market segment that can be treated as a target market; a small well defined market, often part of a larger market

Portfolio: All of a company or strategic business unit’s products

Positioning: Where your product stands in respect to others offering similar products in the mind of consumers

Price Signal: A message sent to customers in the form of a price

Product Category: A product category is all the products offering the same general functionality

Segment Positioning: The product-price position and value proposition developed specifically for customers in a given market segment

Target Market: A group of buyers and/or consumers who share common needs and/or wants or characteristics and who the organization focuses on