Whether you're looking for an obscure phrase or your basic marketing definition, the AMA Dictionary has it all! Originating from the print version in 1995, we're always adding new terms to keep marketers up to date in the ever-evolving marketing profession.
| Term | Definition | See Also |
|---|
| B2B | Stands for "Business to Business." A business that markets its products or services to other businesses.
Source: SEMPO | |
| B2C | Stand for "Business to Consumer." A business that markets its services or products to consumers.
Source: SEMPO | |
| baby boom | The period from the end of World War II until the early 1960s when the number of births increased significantly, resulting in a population surge characterized as "the baby boom generation." | |
| back haul | 1. The rerouting of a freight shipment back over a route that it has completed. 2. The use of a firm's empty delivery equipment to haul back purchases of merchandise from suppliers who are located near customer destinations. | |
| back order | 1. (retailing definition) A part of an order that the vendor has not filled on time and that the vendor intends to ship as soon as the goods in question are received, manufactured, or procured. 2. (physical distribution definition) An order not filled or shipped at time originally requested and "kept on the books" to be shipped later. | |
| Backbone | A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a large pathway within a network. The term is relative to the size of network it is serving. A Backbone in a small network would probably be much smaller than many non-Backbone lines in a large network.
Source: Lazworld | |
| backdoor selling | 1. Sales to ultimate consumers by wholesalers who hold themselves out to be sellers only to retailers. 2. A salesperson's practice of avoiding a purchasing agent by visiting departments in plants to obtain orders without authorization from the purchasing agent. | |
| backgrounder sheet | A brief review of an organization's history, mission, financial support, or other information provided to the media with other publicity materials in order to supply basic information that may be used in a news story. It is also known as a fact sheet. | |
| back-haul provision | Current transportation regulation authorizes a freight allowance for customer pick up of specific commodities rather than delivered pricing. This provision often increases utilization of transportation capacity. | |
| Backlinks | Backlinks are incoming links to a webpage. Backlinks are important for search engine optimization (SEO) because some search engines, give more credit to websites that have a good number of quality backlinks. Sites with better backlink counts usually rank better in SERPs.
Source: Lazworld | |
| backward integration | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| backward vertical integration | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| bait advertising | An alluring but insincere offer to sell whereby the advertiser does not intend to sell the advertised product at the advertised price; the purpose is to increase customer traffic. It also is called bait and switch advertising. | |
| bait and switch | A deceptive sales practice whereby a low-priced product is advertised to lure customers to a store, where they are then induced to buy higher priced models by disparaging the less-expensive product. | |
| bait and switch advertising | The advertising of a product or service at an unusually low price with an intention to switch the customer to a higher priced item when the customer comes to the store to buy the advertised item. This practice is illegal if customers find it difficult or impossible to buy the advertised item. | |
| balance of payments | 1. (economic definition) The difference between monetary transactions of one country with the rest of the world in a given time period. 2. (global marketing definition) A record of all the economic transactions between a country and the rest of the world. For the world as a whole, theoretically, imports must equal exports. The balance of payments can be divided into the so-called current account and capital account. The current account is for goods and services, the capital account is for money and investments. | |
| balance of trade | The balance of merchandise imports and exports. | |
| balance sheet method | An approach used by salespeople to gain commitment from a buyer by asking the buyer to think of the pros and cons of various alternatives. It is often referred to as the Ben Franklin method. | |
| Balance Theory | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| balanced scorecard | A comprehensive, top-down view of organizational performance across the entire enterprise, with a strong focus on vision, strategy and return on investment. | |
| balanced stock | The composition of merchandise inventory in the colors, sizes, styles, and other assortment characteristics that will satisfy customer wants. | |
| balloon test | In marketing research, a projective interviewing technique in which respondents are presented with a cartoon strip in which there is a blank balloon above the heads of one or more of the characters; respondents are asked to write inside the balloons what they believe the characters are saying. Also referred to as a Cartoon Test. | |
| Ban | Also known as Delisting. Refers to a punitive action imposed by a search engine in response to being spammed. Can be an IP address of a specific URL.
Source: SEMPO | |
| Bandwidth | How much information (text, images, video, sound) can be sent through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second. A full page of text is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move approximately 15,000 bits in one second. Full-motion full-screen video requires about 10,000,000 bits-per-second, depending on compression.
Source: Lazworld | |
| bangtail | Detachable advertisements on the reply envelop commonly included with credit card or telephone bills. | |
| banner | A series of cross tabulations between a criterion or dependent variable, and several, sometimes many, explanatory variables in a single table. | |
| banner ad | A graphical Internet advertising tool. Users click on the graphic to be taken to another Web site. The term "banner ad" refers to a specific size image, measuring 468 pixels wide and 60 pixels tall (i.e. 468x60), but it is also used as a generic description of all graphical ad formats on the Internet. | |
| banner blindness | A term referring to the tendency of Internet users to ignore banner ads. | |
| banner exchange | An advertising network where participating sites display banner ads in exchange for credits which are converted (using a predetermined exchange rate) into ads to be displayed on other sites. | |
| bar code | An information technology application that uniquely identifies various aspects of product characteristics as well as additional information regarding delivery and handling instructions. The information is read by scanning devices and greatly increases the speed, accuracy, and productivity of the distribution process. | |
| barriers to competition | The economic, legal, technical, psychological, or other factors that reduce competitive rivalry below the level that would otherwise occur naturally. Barriers include branding, advertising, patents, entry restrictions, tariffs, and quotas. Product differentiation is a barrier to competition. | |
| barriers to entry | The economic, legal, psychological, technical, and other forces that limit access to markets, and hence reduce the threat of new competition. | |
| barter | 1. (advertising definition) The practice of trading time or space in advertising media for merchandise or other nonmonetary forms of compensation. Syndicated television or radio programs are often carried by television and radio stations on a barter basis with the local stations receiving the syndicated program including some commercials in return for being able to sell the remaining commercial positions to other advertisers. 2. (global marketing definition) A type of trade transaction in which there is a direct exchange of goods or services between two parties. Although no money is involved, both partners construct an approximate shadow price for products flowing in each direction, without the use of money; e. g., A West German company sells a $60 million steel making complex to Indonesia and is paid in 3,000,000 barrels of Indonesia oil. (The shadow price of the oil would thus be $20 per barrel.) | |
| Baseline Metrics | Time-lagged calculations (usually averages of one sort or another) which provide a basis for making comparisons of past performance to current performance. Baselines can also be forward-looking, such establishing a goal and seeking to determine whether the trends show the likelihood of meeting that goal. They become an essential piece of a Key Performance Indicator (KPI).
Source: SEMPO | |
| basement store | A formerly typical department store division (not necessarily located in a basement) that is organized separately from the main store departments. It handles merchandise in lower price lines, features frequent bargain sales, purchases and offers considerable distress or job lot merchandise, and usually offers a much more limited range of services and breadth of assortment than main store departments. | |
| basic low stock | The lowest level of inventory judged permissible for an item. It indicates a conception of the smallest number of units that could be on hand without losing sales at the lowest sales period of the year or season. | |
| basic stock list | An assortment plan for staple merchandise that is continuously maintained in stock, usually for a period of a year or more. | |
| basing-point pricing | A variation of delivered pricing. The delivered price is the product's list price plus transportation from a basing point to the buyer. The basing point is a city where the product is produced. But, in basing-point pricing, the product may be shipped from a city other than the basing point. | |
| basis of segmentation | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| batting average | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| Bayesian probability | A probability based on a person's subjective or personal judgments and experience. | |
| BCG | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| BDI | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| behavior | The overt acts or actions of consumers that can be directly observed. | |
| behavior modeling | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| behavior monitoring | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| behavioral analysis | A sales management evaluation and control method for monitoring sales force performance. A behavioral analysis involves evaluating the actual behavior of salespeople as well as their ultimate performance in terms of sales volume. Examples of behavioral analysis techniques include self-rating scales, supervisor ratings, and field observations. | |
| behavioral intention | A cognitive plan to perform a behavior or action ("I intend to go shopping later"), created through a choice/decision process that focuses on beliefs about the consequences of the action. | |
| behavioral self-management | A process by which a salesperson adopts certain procedures to control his or her behavior in order to achieve favorable results (such as improved performance). Examples of behavioral self management techniques include salespeople's monitoring their own behavior (e.g., recording the amount of time spent calling on customers), setting personal goals (e.g., determining the number of new accounts to open), and rehearsing the desired behavior (e.g., practicing a sales presentation). Use of behavioral self-management affords sales managers additional time to engage in particularly important managerial activities and provides sales personnel opportunity to practice successful time management. | |
| Behavioral Targeting | The practice of targeting and serving ads to groups of people who exhibit similarities not only in their location, gender or age, but also in how they act and react in their online environment. Behaviors tracked and targeted include web site topic areas they frequently visit or subscribe to; subjects or content or shopping categories for which they have registered, profiled themselves or requested automatic updates and information, etc.
Source: SEMPO | |
| belief | 1. (consumer behavior definition) A cognition or cognitive organization about some aspect of the individual's world. Unlike an attitude, a belief is always emotionally or motivationally neutral. Krench and Crutchfield define belief as a generic term that encompasses knowledge, opinion, and faith an enduring organization of perceptions and cognition about some aspect of the individual's world. It is the pattern of the meanings of a thing, the cognition about that thing. 2. (consumer behavior definition) The perceived association between two concepts. A belief is synonymous with knowledge or meaning in that all refer to consumers' interpretations of important concepts. | |
| belongingness | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| below-the-line cost | Any cost in the advertising production process that is not specifically itemized in the production budget. | |
| Ben Franklin method | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| benchmarking | A point of reference for measurement, often against other companies. | |
| benefit approach | A sales approach in which the salesperson states a benefit of the product or service that will satisfy a prospect's need. | |
| benefit segmentation | The process of grouping consumers into market segments on the basis of the desirable consequences sought from the product. For example, the toothpaste market may include one segment seeking cosmetic benefits such as white teeth and another seeking health benefits such as decay prevention. | |
| benefit summary method | A method used by salespeople to secure a prospect's commitment by reviewing the agreed-upon benefits of the salesperson's proposal. | |
| benefit, product | The value provided to a customer by a product feature. | |
| Bernoulli process | A probabilistic model in which the probability p that an event of interest occurs remains the same over repeated observations. That is, p stays the same over time, and does not depend on the outcome of past observations. This stationary, zero order model has been used to represent brand choice behavior or media viewing behavior by individuals (Greene 1982; Lilien and Kotler 1983). | |
| best seller list | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| best sellers | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| Beta binomial model | A probability mixture model commonly used to represent patterns of brand choice behavior or media exposure patterns. The model assumes that each individual's behavior follows a Bernoulli process. That is, an individual performs some behavior of interest (e.g., buying a brand of interest) with probability p on each possible opportunity (e.g., occasion on which a purchase is made from the product category of interest). The number of times that the behavior of interest is exhibited, out of a given number of opportunities, has the binomial distribution for any individual. The model further assumes that the probability values p vary across individuals according to a beta distribution (Greene 1982; Massy, Montgomery, and Morrison 1970). A generalization of this model to represent choice among more than two items is termed the Dirichlet multinomial model. These models are used to predict future brand choice or media exposure patterns based on individuals' past behavior. | |
| beta coefficient | A measure of the systematic risk (the risk that cannot be diversified away by holding a diversified portfolio) of an asset or security-where the variance of the return distribution is used as the risk surrogate. Beta is generally estimated as the slope coefficient of a linear regression of the asset or security's return on the market's return for some "representative" number of periods. | |
| beta distribution | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| beta error | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| better business bureaus | These are nonprofit organizations sponsored by local businesses. They currently number 150 and offer a variety of consumer education programs and materials, handle consumer inquiries, mediate and arbitrate complaints, and maintain records of consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction with individual companies. | |
| bid | A legal document in which a seller agrees to provide products and/or services to a potential buyer at a specific price under specified conditions. | |
| Bid Boosting | A form of automated bid management that allows you to increase your bids when ads are served to someone whose age or gender matches your target market. This level of demographic focus and the "bid boosting" tool are current Microsoft adCenter offerings.
Source: SEMPO | |
| Bid Management Software | Software that manages PPC campaigns automatically, called either rules-based (with triggering rules or conditions set by the advertiser) or intelligent software (enacting real-time adjustments based on tracked conversions and competitor actions). Both types of automatic bid management programs monitor and change bid prices, pause campaigns, manage budget maximums, adjust multiple keyword bids based on CTR, position ranking and more.
Source: SEMPO | |
| bidding | An invitation to potential suppliers to submit their offers and a price for a particular opportunity. A closed bid is formal, written, and sealed, and usually all closed bids are opened and reviewed at the same time, with the contract being awarded to the lowest bidder who meets the specifications. An open bid is usually more informal and is used when specific requirements are hard to rigidly define or when products vary substantially. | |
| bill of exchange | An unconditional order in writing addressed by one person (the drawer) to another (the drawee), signed by the person giving it, requiring the person to whom it is addressed to pay on demand, or at a fixed or determinable future time, a sum certain in money to, or to the order of, a specified person or to bearer. | |
| bill of lading | 1. (global marketing definition) A vital document in international trade that is required to establish legal ownership and facilitate financial transactions. The bill of lading serves the following purposes: (1) as a contract for shipment between the carrier and the shipper; (2) as a receipt from the carrier for shipment; and (3) as a certificate of ownership or title to the goods. 2. (physical distribution definition) The basic document in the purchase of transportation services. It describes commodities and quantities shipped as well as the terms and conditions of carrier liability. Current law allows the bill of lading to be electronically generated and transmitted. | |
| bill of materials (BOM) | An assessment of the combination of assemblies, subassemblies, parts, and materials needed to support planned production as detailed in the materials requirement plan. | |
| billed cost | The price appearing on a vendor's bill before deducting cash discounts, but after deducting any trade discounts and quantity discounts from the list price. | |
| billed cost of inventory | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| binomial distribution | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| biological drives | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| bird dog | An individual who, for a fee, provides sales leads to a salesperson. The individual also is called a spotter. | |
| Black Box Algorithms | Black box is technical jargon for when a system is viewed primarily in terms of input and output characteristics. A black box algorithm is one where the user cannot see the inner workings of the algorithm. All search engine algorithms are hidden.
Source: SEMPO | |
| black market | The availability of merchandise at higher than ordinary prices when difficult or impossible to purchase it under normal market circumstances. This commonly involves illegal transactions. | |
| Blacklists | A list of Web sites that are considered off limits or dangerous. A Web site can be placed on a blacklist because it is a fraudulent operation or because it exploits browser vulnerabilities to send spyware and other unwanted software to the user.
Source: SEMPO | |
| blanket order | A general order placed with a manufacturer without specifying detailed instructions, such as sizes, styles, and shipping dates, all of which are to be furnished later, often in several orders for specific shipments. | |
| bleed advertisement | The print ads or brochures for which the color, graphics, and/or artwork extends to the edge of the page. Such pages have no unprinted margins or borders and are usually sold at a premium price. | |
| block plan | A store layout plan that delineates the actual sizes, shapes, and locations of all store components. | |
| blocked currency | A currency regulated by its government in a manner that precludes it being taken out of the country or converted to other currencies. | |
| blog | A hybrid form of Internet communication that combines a column, diary and directory. The term, short for "Web log" refers to a frequently updated collection of short articles on various subjects with links to further resources. Â | |
| blueline | A print of an ad, brochure, or other advertising materials produced on photosensitive paper (hence the blue color). It is used to confirm the location of all artwork, headlines, graphics, and text components before printing. | |
| blunder | An error that arises when editing, coding, key punching, or tabulating the data. | |
| body copy | The text of a piece of print advertising that provides more detailed information than provided by headlines and subheads. | |
| body language | The nonverbal signals communicated in sales interactions through facial expressions, arms, legs, and hands. | |
| BOM | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| bonus | 1. (sales definition) A special compensation option that is a payment made at the discretion of management for achieving or surpassing some set level of performance. Whereas commissions are typically paid for each sale that is made, a bonus is generally not paid until the salesperson surpasses some level of total sales or other aspect of performance. The size of the bonus, however, might be determined by the extent to which the salesperson exceeds the minimum level of performance required to earn the bonus. Thus, bonuses are usually additional incentives to motivate salespeople to reach high levels of performance rather than a part of the basic compensation plan. 2. (sales definition) An element in a salesperson's compensation that is paid infrequently in a lump sum, often based on subjective judgments of performance. | |
| bonus pack | A special container, package, carton, or other holder in which the consumer is given more of the product for the same or perhaps even lower price per ounce or unit than in the regular container. | |
| book | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| book inventory | An inventory that is compiled by adding units and/or the cost or retail value of incoming goods to previous inventory figures and deducing them from the units and/or cost or retail value of outgoing goods. Or, the units and/or cost or retail value of goods on hand at any time per the perpetual inventory system records. | |
| booking | The act of order-taking, especially for delivery at a later date. Frequently the amount of production is based on the booking of advance orders. | |
| bookmark | A special link stored in a Web browser to a Web site. Internet Explorer uses the term "Favorites" instead of bookmark. | |
| boomerang method | A method used by salespeople to respond to customer objections by turning the objection into a reason for acting immediately. | |
| Boston Consulting Group | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| Bot | Abbreviation for robot (also called a spider). It refers to software programs that scan the web. Bots vary in purpose from indexing web pages for search engines to harvesting e-mail addresses for spammers.
Source: Lazworld | |
| bounce back coupon | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| bounce back offer | A coupon or other selling device included in a customer ordered product, premium, refund, or other package that attempts to sell more o? the same or another product to the recipient. | |
| boundary spanning | A concept describing job tasks or responsibilities beyond the traditional managerial area. Boundary spanning can be internal to the firm (extending beyond traditional organizational departments) or external to the firm (crossing between channel members). | |
| boutique | Actually, in French the word means "little shop," but in American retailing, the term has come to mean a carefully selected group of merchandise with unusual displays and fixtures, informal and attractive decor, and an atmosphere of individualized attention in the personalized manner of the image created in the operation. | |
| boutique store layout | A form of retail store layout pattern that brings together complete offerings from one vendor or for one use in one section as opposed to having the items in separate departments. For example, a tennis boutique in a department store will feature rackets, balls, shoes, and tennis outfits. | |
| Box-Jenkins method | A method for forecasting sales that relies on procedures for identifying models that best fit a set of time series data and statistical tests to examine the adequacy of the fitted models, where the models consist of a combination of autoregressive and moving average terms. | |
| boycott | A refusal to deal with, or cooperate with, a firm or nation to signal extreme disapproval of its policies and actions. Boycotts induce change, as, for example, when consumers boycott a retail chain to gain redress for perceived inequities. | |
| BPI | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| bracket creep | The movement of consumers to higher and higher income tax brackets during periods of inflation regardless of the lack of any real increase in income. This phenomenon is less serious since the 1986 tax reform, which greatly reduced the number of tax brackets. | |
| brainstorming | A group method of problem solving, used in product concept generation. It is sometimes thought to be an open, free-wheeling idea session, but more correctly is a specific procedure developed by Alex Osborn, with precise rules of session conduct. Now it has many modifications in format of use, each variation with its own name. | |
| branch house | An establishment maintained by a manufacturer, separate from the headquarters establishment and used primarily for the purpose of stocking, selling, delivering, and servicing the manufacturer's product. | |
| branch house wholesaler | A national, regional, or sectional wholesaler who operates a number of variously located establishments to provide better customer service in all parts of the territory covered. It differs from a chain wholesaler in that each branch is closely supervised as an extension of the main wholesale house. | |
| branch sales manager | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| branching question | A technique used to direct respondents to different places in a questionnaire based on their response to the question at hand. | |
| brand | A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name. | |
| Brand and Branding | "A brand is a customer experience represented by a collection of images and ideas; often, it refers to a symbol such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary." (Added definition) "A brand often includes an explicit logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, sound which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality."
Source: SEMPO and Wikipedia | |
| brand choice | The selection of one brand from a set of alternative brands. | |
| brand choice models | These stochastic models of individual brand choice focus on the brand that will be purchased on a particular purchase occasion, given that a purchase event will occur. This type of model includes Bernoulli processes and Markov models. Models in this category vary in their treatment of population heterogeneity, purchase event feedback, and exogenous market factors (Lilien and Kotler 1983). | |
| brand contacts | Any information bearing experience that a customer or prospect has with the brand, the product category, or the sponsoring organization that relates to the marketer's product or service. | |
| brand decision | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| brand decision model | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| brand development index (BDI) | A measure of the extent to which the sales of products in a market category have captured the total potential in a geographical area, based on the population of that area and the average consumption per user nationally. The brand development index is usually calculated for separate metropolitan areas, and is used to determine high-potential (underdeveloped) areas for new product entries or for primary demand promotions. | |
| brand equity | The value of a brand. From a consumer perspective, brand equity is based on consumer attitudes about positive brand attributes and favorable consequences of brand use. | |
| brand extension | A product line extension marketed under the same general brand as a previous item or items. To distinguish the brand extension from the other item(s) under the primary brand, one can either add a secondary brand identification or add a generic. Thus an Epson FX-85 printer is an extension of Epson that used the secondary brand of FX-85, while Jello Instant Pudding is an extension of the Jello brand that uses a generic term. A brand extension is usually aimed at another segment of the general market for the overall brand. | |
| brand generic | This is the second half of a product's identifying title. Brand is the first half, and identifies one seller's version, while the generic is the second half and identifies the general class of item. [Example: Jello (brand) gelatin dessert (generic)]. This is not to be confused with generic brand (such as on some low-price items in supermarkets), for which there is no individual brand. | |
| brand image | The perception of a brand in the minds of persons. The brand image is a mirror reflection (though perhaps inaccurate) of the brand personality or product being. It is what people believe about a brand-their thoughts, feelings, expectations. | |
| brand indifference | A purchasing pattern characterized by a low degree of brand loyalty. | |
| brand label | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| Brand Lift | A measurable increase in consumer recall for a specific, branded company, product or service. For example, brand lift might show an increase in respondents who think of Dell for computers, or WalMart for "every household thing."
Source: SEMPO | |
| brand loyalty | 1. (sales promotion definition) The situation in which a consumer generally buys the same manufacturer-originated product or service repeatedly over time rather than buying from multiple suppliers within the category. 2. (consumer behavior definition) The degree to which a consumer consistently purchases the same brand within a product class. | |
| brand management organization | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| brand manager | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| brand mapping | Often used to describe a set of techniques designed to represent brands and their similarities in a visual "brand space".
Useful for providing highly intuitive representations in order to position brands on dimensions critical to consumer perceptions in that brand space, a variety of simple to complex statitsical methodologies can be used to create them. Some of the latter include multi-dimensional scaling, factor or cluster analytical methods, and conjoint analysis. Usually these techniques result in brands being mapped on 2 to 3 dimensions. Two dimensional maps are the most popular as they are most easily understood and interpreted by clients. There is also substantive agreement that consumers use only a limited number of separate (though sometimes complex and integrative) concepts to assess brands
| |
| Brand Mapping | Brand mapping is a research technique to identify and visualize the core positioning of a brand compared to competing brands on various dimensions. | |
| brand mark | The brand mark is that part of a brand name that cannot be spoken. It most commonly is a symbol, picture, design, distinctive lettering, color, or a combination of these. | |
| Brand Messaging | Creative messaging that presents and maintains a consistent corporate image across all media channels, including search.
Source: SEMPO | |
| brand name (1) | The brand name is that part of a brand that can be spoken. It includes letters, numbers, or words. The term trademark covers all forms of brand (brand name, brand mark, etc.), but brand name is the form most often meant when trademark is used. | |
| brand name (2) | Name used to distinguish one product from its competitors. It can apply to a single product, an entire product line, or even a company.
Source: IEG | |
| brand personality | This is the psychological nature of a particular brand as intended by its sellers, though persons in the marketplace may see the brand otherwise (called brand image). These two perspectives compare to the personalities of individual humans: what we intend or desire, and what others see or believe. | |
| brand positioning | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| Brand Reputation | The position a company brand occupies.
Source: SEMPO | |
| brand switching | A purchasing pattern characterized by a change from one brand to another. | |
| Brand Tribe | A brand tribe is a formal or informal group of consumers whom share the same awareness, passion and loyalty for a brand or a portfolio of brands. Brand tribes can be identified as strong drivers of brand strengths for many international brands like LEGO, Bang & Olufsen, Nike, Giorgio Armani, Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts, Singapore Airlines, Timberland and many other unique brands. The consumer decision process involves brand attributes and brand associations, which are largely image driven, intangible and symbolic. The group as a social institution serves as an important part of these consumer decisions as the importance and strengths of intangible brand attributes and brand values are related to how these factors are perceived and ranked in a group or clusters of groups of which the consumer is part of. | |
| BRANDAID | A decision support system for determining the marketing mix for a particular brand. The model has submodels dealing with advertising spending level, price, and salesperson effort (i.e., dollars per customer per year). Its parameters can be calibrated by combining historical data (e.g., on sales, market share, advertising spending, etc.) with structured subjective judgments (Little 1975). | |
| branded merchandise | Goods that are identified by brands. This contrasts with generic brands, which are identified only by commodity type. | |
| Branding Strategy | The attempt to develop a strong brand reputation on the web to increase brand recognition and create a significant volume of impressions.
Source: SEMPO | |
| branding, family | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| branding, generic | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| branding, individual | Using separate brands for each product, without a family brand to tie them to other brands of that firm. Individual brands are used when the products are different physically, are of different quality levels, are targeted for different users or uses, or vary in some other way that might cause confusion or loss of sales if brought together under a family brand umbrella. | |
| branding, line family | Using a family brand to cover only some of a firm's products. It contrasts with those cases where the term family brand is used only to designate the firm's entire product line. | |
| brand-switching matrix | A two-way table that indicates which brands a sample of people purchased in one period and which brands they purchased in a subsequent period, thus highlighting the switches occurring among and between brands as well as the number of persons who purchased the same brand in both periods. | |
| break-bulk | The process of dividing larger quantities into smaller quantities in the transportation-warehousing system as goods get closer to the final market. | |
| break-even analysis | A method of examining the relationships between fixed costs, variable costs, volume, and price. The objective of the analysis is to determine the break-even point at alternative prices and a given cost structure. | |
| break-even point | The sales volume at which total revenues are equal to total costs. | |
| breaking bulk | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| breaking sizes | Running out of stock on particular sizes. | |
| Bretton Woods Agreement | An agreed statement of aims for postwar monetary policy which resulted from an international monetary and financial conference held at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in July 1944. Its aims were: (1) to make all currencies freely convertible and thereby encourage multilateral trade; (2) to keep exchange rates stable; (3) to provide some means of assisting a country with temporary difficulties with its balance of payments; and (4) to encourage economic growth and development. | |
| bribe | A payment made to buyers to influence their purchase decisions. | |
| Bridge Page | Often used to describe the web pages that linked together many doorway pages on a web site.
Source: SEMPO | |
| broad class | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| broadcast quality | The media industries' standard for material that can be aired. Technical format and content are both aspects of broadcast quality. For example, 3/4-inch tape is broadcast quality, VHS tape is not. Publicity submissions that are not broadcast quality generally will not be used. | |
| broadcast television | A method of distributing television signals by means of stations that broadcast signals over channels assigned to specific geographic areas. | |
| brochure | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| broken case lot selling | Breaking of cases to sell smaller quantities, done by many wholesalers to accommodate retailers who cannot afford to buy in full shipping case lots. | |
| broken lot | An amount less than some understood standard unit of sale. | |
| broker | A middleman who serves as a go-between for the buyer or seller. The broker assumes no title risks, does not usually have physical custody of products, and is not looked upon as a permanent representative of either the buyer or seller. | |
| B-roll | Videotaped footage that is not included in the final edited version of a company's video news release (VNR). B-roll is given to television stations along with the VNR to give the stations the option of putting together their own version of the story, giving more time to aspects the station feels will be of particular interest to their viewers. | |
| brown goods | Merchandise in the consumer electronic audiovisual field, such as televisions, radios, stereo sets, etc. The name came from the brown (furniture color) cases in which such merchandise is frequently manufactured. At one time the term also included all furniture. | |
| browser | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| Browser Caching | To speed surfing, browsers store recently used pages on a user's disk. If a site is revisited, browsers display pages from the disk instead of requesting them from the server. As a result, servers under-count the number of times a page is viewed.
Source: Lazworld | |
| Browsing | A term that refers to exploring an online area, usually on the World Wide Web.
Source: Lazworld | |
| Brussels Nomenclature | A tariff classification system developed by an international committee of experts under the sponsorship of the Customs Cooperation Council. The rules were used by most GATT members up until January 1989, when the Harmonized Tariff System went into effect. | |
| BTN | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| bubble plan | A store layout plan that shows the rough placement and adjacency of key elements of a proposed store. | |
| Bucket | An associative grouping for related concepts, keywords, behaviors and audience characteristics associated with your company's product or service. A "virtual container" of similar concepts used to develop PPC keywords, focus ad campaigns and target messages.
Source: SEMPO | |
| budget | The detailed financial component of the strategic plan that guides the allocation of resources and provides a mechanism for identifying deviations of actual from desired performance so corrective action can be taken. A budget assigns a dollar figure to each revenue and expense related activity. A budget is usually prepared for a period of one year by each component of an organization. Like the action program, a budget provides both a guide for action and a means of assessing performance. | |
| build market position | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| build strategy | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| bulk marking | The practice of placing the price only on the original shipping containers or at least bulk packages; individual units are not marked until the merchandise is transferred from reserve to forward stock. It is also referred to as deferred marking. | |
| bundle | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| bundling | Offering several complementary products together or offering additional services in a single "package deal." The price of the bundle is typically lower than the sum of the prices of the individual products or services included in it. Groups of services or products may be bundled in different combinations appealing differently to different segments in order to price discriminate among these segments and to avoid cherry picking. | |
| bureaucratic organization | This term is associated with government, where official decision making is circumscribed by laws, rules, and regulations which often result in inflexibility, "red tape", and slowness to act. The term is sometimes applied to the hierarchical business structure, which is thought to lead to slow decision making and slow response to change. It should be noted, however, that business-unlike government operates in a competitive environment that does not reward slow decision making if it results in poor sales or customer service. Comment: To combat any tendency towards bureaucracy, particularly in large corporations, companies have speeded up decision making by measures such as decentralized and flatter organization structures along with computerized information and communication systems that alert management quickly to problems requiring resolution. | |
| bushelman | A formerly common term referring to a repairer of garments, especially in the alteration room for men's clothing. | |
| business analysis | This is a term of many meanings, and in marketing it is usually associated in some way with the evaluation of new product proposals. In format, it may consist of a five-year, discounted cash flow, net present value-type of financial analysis, or it may be a more comprehensive analysis of the entire situation surrounding the proposed product. Chronologically, it may come early in the development process (when it is used to decide whether expensive research and development should be undertaken), and/or late in the product development cycle when the commercialization decision is being made. | |
| Business Conditions Digest | The U.S. Department of Commerce's monthly publication of economic time series covering such data as business and consumer expectations, cyclical indicators, national income, foreign trade, and price movements. | |
| business cycle | A rhythmic wave-like pattern of changes in business conditions over a period of time. | |
| business defamation | Statements made that are unfair or untrue about a competitor, its products, or its salespeople. | |
| business definition | Specifies the present and/or prospective scope of a strategic business unit's activities in terms of the boundaries of the arena in which the business elects to compete. The definition also serves to direct attention to the true function of the business-that is, the way that the business meets the needs of its target customers. A complete definition requires choices about the business position a long four dimensions: (1) customer functions-addressing the benefits being provided; (2) customer segments-specifying the customer groups seeking similar benefits and sharing characteristics that are strategically relevant; (3) technology--specifying the alternative ways in which a particular function can be performed; and (4) vertical business system--specifying where the business chooses to participate in the sequence of stages in the vertical business system (or value-added system). | |
| business goals | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| business intelligence | The actionable information that comes out of data analytics techniques. Business intelligence incorporates the entire process of reporting, warehousing, data management, analysis of future trends and presentation of transactional information, as well as extraction and loading tools, to help users make better decisions. | |
| business manager | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| business market | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| business market segmentation | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| business marketing | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| business planning process | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| business portfolio matrices | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| business portfolio models | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| business reply card | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| business reply envelope | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| business service | The intangible product (service), such as banking and maintenance, that is purchased by organizations that produce other products. It is a type of industrial product. | |
| business start-up | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| business strengths | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| business system | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| business-to-business advertising | An area of advertising for products, services, resources, materials, and supplies purchased and used by businesses. This area includes: (1) industrial advertising, which involves goods, services, resources, and supplies used in the production of other goods and services; (2) trade advertising, which is directed to wholesalers and retailers who buy the advertised product for resale to consumers; (3) professional advertising, which is directed to members of various professions who might use or recommend the advertised product; and, (4) agricultural advertising, which is directed to farmers as business customers of various products and services. | |
| Business-to-Business Sponsorship | Programs intended to influence corporate purchase/awareness, as opposed to individual consumers.
Source: IEG | |
| button ad | A graphical advertising unit smaller than a banner ad. Also called a tile ad. | |
| buy | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| buy one-get one free | A sales promotion offer made to either the retailer or the consumer in which purchase of one unit of the product is encouraged or re-warded by providing a second unit of the same product free of charge. | |
| buy-back allowance | A form of trade sales promotion in which channel members are offered an incentive to restock their store or warehouse with the product to the level in place prior to a count and recount promotion offer. | |
| buyclasses | Buying situations that are distinguished on four characteristics: newness to decision makers, number of alternatives to be considered, uncertainty inherent in the buying situation, and the amount of information needed for making a buying decision. There are three buy classes: new task purchase, modified rebuy, and straight rebuy. A new task purchase is a problem or requirement that has not arisen before such that the buying center does not have any relevant experience with the product or service. A modified rebuy is a situation such that the buying center has some relevant experience to draw upon. The alternatives considered, however, are different, or changed from the ones considered the last time a similar problem arose. A straight rebuy is the purchase of standard parts; maintenance, repair, and operating items and supplies; or any recurring need that is handled on a routine basis. | |
| buyer | The organizational member that carries out the purchase procedures of a product. A buyer may or may not make the buying decision. The buyer will manage the buying process, e.g., place the order and process the paperwork. | |
| buyer behavior | This term is often used as an alternative to consumer behavior, but also is used when the purchaser is not the ultimate consumer but rather an industrial buyer, a buying center, or other middleman between the seller and the ultimate user. It is defined by some as the more general term, with consumer behavior and organizational buyer behavior as subsets. | |
| buyer intention | A measure of a buyer's intention to buy a product or service. It can be measured as the subjective probability that a buyer's beliefs and attitudes will be acted upon in a purchasing framework. | |
| buyer readiness stage | The buyer's stage regarding readiness to buy a certain product or service. At any time, people are in different stages: unaware, aware, informed, interested, predisposed to buying, and intending to buy. | |
| buyers' costs | The costs that buyers incur when acquiring and using products and services. Such costs include the price of the item being acquired, cost of information search, shipping costs, transportation costs, installation costs, and postpurchase costs that may affect buyers' perceptions of value of the item being acquired. | |
| buyers intention survey | A survey of buyers to measure their purchase intentions. The best results are obtained if the buyers have clearly formulated intentions. | |
| buyers' intentions method | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| buyers market | Economic conditions that favor the position of the retail buyer (or merchandiser) rather than the vendor. In other words, economic conditions are such that the retailer can demand and usually get concessions from suppliers in terms of price, delivery, and other market advantages. It is the opposite of a sellers market. | |
| buyer's remorse | The insecurity that a buyer feels about the appropriateness of the purchase decision after the decision has been made. It also is called post purchase dissonance. | |
| buyer's utility | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| buyer's welfare models | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| buyflow | The communication network between all individuals involved in a buying decision and the actions that take place during the course of making the purchase decision. | |
| buygrid framework | A conceptual model that describes the organizational buying process. It consists of two dimensions: buyclasses and buyphases. The buyclasses are new task purchase, modified rebuy, and straight rebuy. The buyphases are need recognition, need definition, need description, seller identification, proposal solicitation, proposal evaluation and selection, ordering procedures, and performance review. | |
| buying allowance | A form of trade sales promotion in which the retailer is offered a discount on the purchase of the product at a particular point in time. The discount is often tied to the purchase of a particular number of units. | |
| buying calendar | A plan of a store buyer's market activities, generally covering a six-month merchandising season based on a selling calendar that indicates planned promotional events. | |
| buying center | The group of individuals that consists of all organizational members who are involved in any way, to any extent, in any phase of a specific buying decision. | |
| buying committee | 1. (industrial definition) An officially appointed group that is responsible for purchasing goods and services. 2. (retailing definition) A committee that has the authority for final judgment and decision on such matters as adding or eliminating new products. It is especially common in supermarket companies and department store resident buying offices. | |
| buying criteria | The factors considered by buyers in their evaluation of alternative suppliers, such as dependability, product quality, cost, vendor production capacity, after-sale service, vendor reliability and integrity, reciprocity, and emotional factors. They can be categorized as product-related, e.g., technical specifications; company-related, e.g., reputation, and salesperson-related, e.g., expertise and trustworthiness. | |
| buying decisions | The different buying situations a buyer would face in the course of purchasing a product or service to satisfy a need. Three buying decisions can be distinguished: (1) product decision, deciding on which product(s) will be purchased with available resources; (2) brand decision, deciding on which brand(s) will be purchased among competing brands of the same product; and (3) supplier decision, deciding on which supplier(s) will be patronized among competing suppliers. | |
| buying functional expense | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| Buying Funnel | Also called the Buying Cycle, Buyer Decision Cycle and Sales Cycle. Buying Funnel refers to a multi-step process of a consumer's path to purchase a product- from awareness to education to preferences and intent to final purchase.
Source: SEMPO | |
| buying habits | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| buying influence | The buying center members or their sources of information who have influence upon the other buying center members such that these other individuals can change in their behavior and/or attitudes in the process of making a specific buying decision. | |
| buying motives | The forces that have been activated into a state of tension causing the buyer to seek satisfaction of a specific need. Organizational buyers are influenced by both rational appeals (e.g., economic factors such as cost, quality, and service) and emotional appeals (e.g., status, security, and fear). | |
| buying period | The sum of the reorder period and the delivery period, under periodic stock counting methods of unit control. | |
| buying plan | A breakdown of the dollar open-to-buy figure of a department or merchandise classification to indicate the number or value of units to purchase in different classifications and subclassifications. | |
| buying policy index | A leading indicator of business activity, published monthly by National Bureau of Economic Research, based on the proportion of purchasing agents reporting their buying commitments for the months ahead. | |
| buying power (consumer behavior definition) | A term found in economic psychology implying the income available for discretionary spending among segments in the population. It is a measure of the ability and willingness to buy goods or services. 2. (industrial definition) Refers to the relative influence an individual or a job function (engineering, purchasing, production) has in a purchase decision. Power may be based on reward abilities (granting monetary or perceptual benefits), coercion (imposing punishment), legitimacy (formal authority), personality (based on individual characteristics or status), or expertise (special knowledge or expertise). | |
| buying power index (BPI) | 1. (retailing definition) An index indicating the percentage of total U.S. retail sales occurring in a specific geographic area. It is used to forecast demand for new stores and to evaluate the performance of existing stores. 2. (industrial definition) A weighted index that converts three basic elements-population, effective buying income, and retail sales-into a measurement of a market's ability to buy. The index is expressed as a percentage of total U.S. potential and is published annually by Sales and Marketing Management magazine. | |
| buying roles | The activities that one or more person(s) might perform in a buying decision. Six buying roles can be distinguished: (1) initiator, the person who first suggests or thinks of the idea of buying the particular product or service; (2) influencer, a person whose views influence other members of the buying center in making the final decision; (3) decider, the person who ultimately determines any part of or the entire buying decision-whether to buy, what to buy, how to buy, or where to buy; (4) buyer, the person who handles the paper work of the actual purchase; (5) user, the person(s) who consumes or uses the product or service; and (6) gatekeeper, the person(s) who controls information or access, or both, to decision makers and influencers. | |
| buying signal | A verbal or visual cue that indicates a potential customer is interested in purchasing a product or service. Comment: A buying signal indicates that a salesperson should begin to close the sale. | |
| buying style | The way a customer buys a given product or service. Buying styles range from deliberate buying to impulsive buying. | |
| buyphases | Refer to "See Also" column to the right. | |
| Buzz Monitoring Services | Services that will email a client regarding their status in an industry. Most buzz or publicity monitoring services will email anytime a company's name, executives, products, services or other keyword-based information on them are mentioned on the web. Some services charge a fee; others, such as Yahoo! and Google Alerts, are free.
Source: SEMPO | |
| Buzz Opportunities | Topics popular in the media and with specific audiences that receive news coverage or pass along recommendations that help increase exposure for a brand. Ways to uncover potential buzz opportunities include reviewing incoming traffic to a web site from organic links and developing new keywords to reach those visitors, or scanning special interest blogs and social media sites to learn what new topics attract rising interest, also to develop new keywords and messages.
Source: SEMPO | |