Marketing Buzzwords We all hear these phrases over and over again but it might be worth a quick run through just to refresh ourselves on some of the terms before developing our marketing strategy.
Marketing - Since we called this section "marketing buzzwords", maybe we should start off with a definition for marketing. Here is a quote from Peter Drucker, a top management expert that probably sums it up nicely.
"The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim is to know and to understand your customer so well that the product or service fits him/her and sells itself"
Relationship Marketing - Focuses on developing long term ongoing relationships with customers by maintaining links between marketing, quality and customer service.
Marketing Orientation - Involves focusing on the customers and their needs to the point where customers drive product development.
Marketing Environment - The external forces that influence a company's ability to do business.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - Essentially, using technology assisted means to use relationship marketing principles.
Market Research - This involves defining the marketing problem, developing solutions, collecting data and interpreting the findings.
Forecasting - The prediction of future results based on historical data, expert opinions, trends or known future variables.
Market Segmentation - This involves marketing differently to separate market demographics.
Targeted Marketing - This simply means that the company prioritizes the segment of the market that will be focused on.
Positioning - The process of creating an image for a product in the minds of the targeted customers.
Branding - The creation of a clear and distinctive image for a brand (company or product)
Products - The actual service or product that the rest of the marketing is often built around.
Packaging - Development of the product container. This can often play an important part in branding.
Advertising - A paid form of non-personal marketing communications about an organization or it's products.
Public Relations (PR) - The planned effort to instill and maintain goodwill and understanding with the public.
Sponsorship - The support of an event, organization or promotion by an unaffiliated company. Done in exchange for prominent exposure.
Personal Selling - Selling through personal contact. May be in person or over the phone (telesales)
Sales Promotion - Inducing sales through added value or incentives.
Direct Marketing - A marketing channel that avoids dependence on marketing channels and focuses on direct customer contact.
