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106

Business Administration / US team to visit Dhaka soon to follow up on GSP conditions

« on: September 05, 2015, 01:21:45 PM »

A high-powered team from the United States Trade Representative, the chief trade negotiation body of the American government, will visit Bangladesh soon to monitor workplace safety progress, especially in the garment sector, in an effort to restore GSP status to the country, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said yesterday.

The team will visit some garment factories, talk to exporters and government high-ups, and review the status of safety initiatives taken by the government and private sector entrepreneurs in the garment sector under the Bangladesh Action Plan.

The GSP scheme did not include apparel items, but the conditions set to regain it include improvements in the sector's workplace conditions.

Similarly, a high-powered delegation of three secretaries from Bangladesh will visit the USTR with the same agenda soon, Ahmed said after a meeting with James F Moriarty, executive director of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, in Dhaka.

The minister did not specify the dates of these delegations' travels.

The Alliance, a platform of 26 North American retailers and brands formed after the Rana Plaza building collapse in April 2013, has already inspected 661 factories to check fire, electrical and structural safety.

The minister also said there is no barrier to Bangladesh's regaining GSP to the US market, as the country has already fulfilled almost all the conditions. Currently, no countries receive GSP for apparel items in the US.
“The US is the single largest export destination for Bangladeshi garment items. Our export to the US market is still high even after suspension of the status. But the country's image to western customers was somewhat tarnished due to suspension of the trade privilege,” the minister said.

A few days ago ten diplomats of different countries including the US envoy in Bangladesh visited some garment factories to observe progress in safety and worker rights. “They have praised the safety progress and improved working environment at the factories,” Ahmed said.

Regarding the formation of trade unions in the factories housed inside the Export Processing Zones (EPZs), the minister said Workers' Welfare Associations already exist in those factories.

“The workers in the EPZ factories do not have any complaints on trade unions. So it's not necessary to form separate trade unions in the EPZ factories,” he said.

Allowing trade unions in the EPZ factories was one of the 16 conditions in action plan to regain GSP status

107

Business Administration / Banglalink eyes profit this year

« on: September 05, 2015, 12:06:53 PM »

Banglalink, the second largest mobile operator, aims to log profit this year -- for the first time in its history, its chief executive said.

“The company has managed to ensure healthy growth by reducing costs. If this situation continues, the company will become profitable this year,” Ziad Shatara said.

Banglalink is providing good quality services and thus retaining customers -- only around 20 percent customers leave the operator a year, which he termed a healthy trend.

The operator has more than 3.09 crore subscribers. Grameenphone remains the top operator with more than 5 crore subscribers.

Banglalink entered the market late, which is a reason why the company is yet to become a profitable entity. High investment and stiff competition in the market are the other reasons, its officials said.

Banglalink recently celebrated its 10th founding anniversary. The operator was named Banglalink when Egyptian company Orascom bought almost all shares of local company Sheba Telecom in 2005. In 2010, Amsterdam-based VimpelCom took over Orascom after a merger.

In order to provide better services, the operator recently modernised its 2G network by swapping equipment, Shatara said. The operator, which has 3G coverage in all 64 districts, invested Tk 17,220.6 crore till September 30, 2014.
Banglalink purchased 5 megahertz spectrum in the 2,100 frequency band in 2013 for 3G services, which is enough to provide quality services for at least one more year, he added.

The government is going to release additional 3G spectrum in the 2,100 MHz band and 2G spectrum in the 1,800 MHz band through an auction this year.

Shatara said the operator does not need additional 2G spectrum, but if the government allows operators to use 2G spectrum for 3G or 4G services, “the company will have a different approach.”

But before that, the government has to resolve all disputes, especially the ones involving SIM replacement tax, telecom policy, and amendment to the telecom law, he added.

"Investment is an issue of the shareholders and depends on the government's spectrum roadmap," he said, adding: “We need to know which band is going to be allocated to mobile operators and which to other operators, before taking any investment decision.

108

Business Administration / Airtel revives plan to sell Bangladesh unit

« on: September 05, 2015, 12:05:11 PM »

Bharti Airtel is now reviving its plan to sell its Bangladesh and Sri Lanka operations and has appointed two bankers to conduct the sale, Indian television channel CNBC-TV18 reported.

The largest telecom operator in India plans to separate the tower business from the company and sell it first and the whole operation later, as part of a strategy to shun unproductive operations, according to the CNBC report.

The operator started looking for buyers for its operations in the two countries in 2012-13, but it was too early to get any buyer then, according to the report televised on August 18.

Of the interested buyers, Etisalat and Orange have already sent their expressions of interest to buy the telecom business, CNBC-TV18 said.

PD Sarma, chief executive officer of Airtel Bangladesh, dismissed the report as speculative.

“I have talked with my group officials and these are all speculative,” he told The Daily Star by phone.

Officials of Airtel Bangladesh yesterday said they have seen this type of speculation in the last couple of years.
Currently, Airtel Bangladesh has 4,000 towers and set up a separate company for the tower business, which has not yet started operations, they said.

Bharti Airtel has 2,500 towers in Sri Lanka and has already sold its business in Africa, according to the report.

The company bought a 70 percent stake in Warid Telecom in Bangladesh for $100,000 in January 2010, prompting the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh to raise questions about the deal price.

In 2013, Airtel bought the rest of the shares at $85 million, according to the transaction documents.

On Friday, Bombay Stock Exchange sought a clarification from Bharti Airtel about the possible sale of the operations.

Hours after the query, the operator replied: “Bharti Airtel keeps evaluating various opportunities, on an ongoing basis in ordinary course of business.”

Airtel has 87.43 lakh active subscribers as of June with a 6.89 percent market share.

109

Science and Information / Self-Aware robot solves riddle

« on: August 30, 2015, 03:27:50 PM »

In a surprising and perhaps frightening new twist, a robot has demonstrated that it exhibits a degree of self-awareness for the very first time, reports Business Insider.

According to Business Insider, in an experiment conducted by Professor Selma Bringsjord of New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a robot proved that it was capable of responding to a logic puzzle based off the premise of the traditional “wise men” riddle.

Bacterial Brain Could Control Future Robots

The original riddle involves a king calling the three wisest men in the country and giving them all either a white or blue hat to wear atop their head. They can all see each other’s hat. Without communicating with each other, they are left to work out the color of the hat by what the others are wearing.

Up until now, only people—not robots—have been able to solve this riddle.

In the updated version of a puzzle used by Professor Bringsjord, the robots were programmed to believe that two of them were given a “dumbing pill” that would cause them to lose the ability to speak, reports Business Insider.

Business Insider reports, the robot with the placebo button rose to the challenge. When a researcher asked all three robots which pill they had received, the one that was not muted responded, “I don’t know.” The robot then stood up and waved its hand. It added, “I know now. I was able to prove that I was not given a dumbing pill.”

The robot demonstrated the ability to understand the contest’s rules, recognize the sound of its own voice and display a level of self-awareness to distinguish itself from the other two robots. It also opened the door to the possibility that self-aware robots could make their way into the future

110

Science and Information / Apple posts record third-quarter as iPhone sales surge

« on: August 30, 2015, 03:27:16 PM »

The technology giant sold 47.5 million iPhones in the quarter to 27 June, up 35% on a year ago, with Mac computer sales up 9% to 4.8 million.

The performance resulted in what chief executive Tim Cook called "an amazing quarter".

Profits rose by 38% to $10.7bn (£6.87bn), while revenue was up 33% to $49.6bn.

The third quarter is typically the slowest for iPhone sales because many customers put off buying new phones, on the expectation of a new model.

Despite the strong results, shares fell 6.7%, or $8.85, to $121.89 in after-market trading in New York.

Analysts blamed the fall on disappointment about the company's revenue forecasts for the fourth quarter, which were slightly lower than expected, as well as the firm's profits being too heavily dependent on the iPhone.

'Great start' for Watch

Demand for its iPad tablets remained weak, with Apple selling 10.9 million, down 18% from a year earlier.

But Mr Cook also said the Apple Watch had had a "great start", in the first indication of how well the company's first piece of wearable technology was selling.

The Apple boss said last autumn that he did not want to reveal detailed figures for the watch, which went on sale on 24 April, to avoid giving competitors inside information.

But Apple said that revenue from "other products", which includes the watch as well as products such as the iPod and its Beats headphones, came to $2.6bn - about $952m higher than the previous quarter.

Chief financial officer Luca Maestri said that revenue from the watch amounted to "well over'" that $952m increase.

Sales of the watch in the first nine weeks had exceeded those of both the iPhone and iPad after they were first launched, he added.

And Apple said its gross margin - the difference between the amount it spends on making the products versus how much consumers pay - was 39.7%, up slightly on a year ago.

Apple also continued to do well in the China market - defined by Apple as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Sales doubled year-on-year and accounted for more than a quarter of the company's total third-quarter sales.

iPhone 'dependence'

The jump should help to reassure investors that demand in China remains robust despite fears the market is close to saturation point.

But Colin Gillis, an analyst for BGC Partners, told the BBC that the firm's "complete dependence" on iPhone sales and growth in China was still a concern.

"Look at the PC market. People ask if that could ever happen to smartphones. Of course it could. And there are risks associated with its dependence on China," he said.

However, Mr Gillis said that investors should put the results into perspective.

"Overall the results are stunning - it's made $10bn in profit. But Apple is an outlier in many metrics, so you need to look at the performance relative to expectations," he said.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which smashed iPhone sales records when they were launched last year, are now 10 months old

111

Business Administration / Bridging education and employment gap

« on: August 30, 2015, 03:26:03 PM »

Bangladesh has officially become a lower middle income country. And that of course is great news. However in order to flourish even further, one of the things the country needs is a huge skilled workforce. And for that to happen education must be harmonised with employability.
With the ever increasing population there can hardly be an argument regarding the purpose of education in Bangladesh. There is no doubt that good citizenship, personal growth and developing value systems are vitally important. Yet it is clear that for the most part, education will be about employability here. Of course philosophers and thinkers are important for any society, but they too need to be employed like the wage labourers and the talented and the less able.
There exist two contrasting views on the employment scenario in this country. The employers cry hoarse about non-availability of talents in the market and we hear about a huge number of youth who are unable to find a well-paid job several years after completing their degrees.
There is a whole generation enrolled in schools waiting for teachers to show up in classrooms and do the job they were hired to do.
Researchers are wondering how they are going to make their meagre grants deliver global impact, while students in higher education are wondering whether their degrees earned in Bangladeshi universities are worth much after all. Especially after the damning research by the TIB exposed how corruption is all pervasive in the realm of higher education in the private sector.
There are shortages everywhere—teachers, researchers, laboratories. However, while the investment in classrooms and schools is great, it is time to release learning from the classrooms only. Learning should go to the student and must extend way beyond the walls of a classroom. There should be efforts towards building open libraries, letting village school buildings become community learning centres after school time with open access to solar-powered connected computers.
Creativity and research attitudes must be encouraged from the very beginning. Unfortunately our education sector is bound by regulations all the way from nursery to higher education. Capacity is restricted because of the binding constraints of impractical and often contrary regulations. Universities cannot hire faculty from abroad despite shortages.
It seems there is lack of proper planning, appropriate guidelines, and corrective measures while sanctioning new institutions and disciplines. Thus a large number of institutions are being established taking only profit into consideration and with little emphasis on quality of education. Many government institutions have become battlegrounds for political rivalry resulting in poor governance leading to poor quality of education.
Most of the technical education institutions including the better known ones are understaffed and lack in qualified, competent and suitable faculty members. The institutions mostly follow the traditional method of teaching giving little thought to the fact that information nowadays is readily available on the net and thus students would not get interested unless they get something extra by attending classes.
It is more of content delivery than knowledge delivery. The assignments given quite often are routine and do not involve any research or innovation. It is a great challenge to motivate and attract students to serious learning. Moreover, the evaluation system has not been made robust enough to find out the knowledge level of the students. The philosophy of the semester system and the continuous evaluation process are not being understood by the students and also by the faculty members. Thus they are applied in a routine manner and the students concentrate only on grades and not on learning.

112

Business & Entrepreneurship / Cabinet body approves new export policy

« on: August 30, 2015, 03:24:02 PM »

The Cabinet Economic Affairs Committee yesterday gave its go-ahead to the ‘Export Policy 2015-18’ placed by the commerce ministry, reports UNB. After the Cabinet body’s approval, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said the core theme of the new 3-year term policy is the implementation of the government’s ‘Vision 2021’.
The ‘Vision 2021’ was prepared to make Bangladesh a middle-income country as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, he said. “To increase our export to $60 billion has been targeted by 2021 of which 50 billion will come from readymade garment (RMG) while the rest will come from ICT and other sectors,” he told reporters while briefing on the new export policy at his ministry. At present, the country’s annual export stands at $31.20 billion.
Chaired by Finance Minister AMA Muhith, the Cabinet body meeting was attended by senior ministers, including Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu and Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury.
Tofail said the list of export items has been restructured and some new non-conventional export exports, including IT, tea, papers, shipbuilding, handicrafts, have been put on top of it. Some new items will get incentives.
He said the main strategy of the new export policy is to diversify both the products and market without depending on any particular country. The attention was specially given to export increase to the Latin American market.
The minister said many nations, except the USA, offered Bangladesh the GSP facilities and tax-free market access.
He said the IT and tea sectors have earned the top priority as there are potentials that Bangladesh can earn over $10 billion from the IT sector where the value addition is 100 percent.
Similarly, tea has been a new area to raise its export to 100 million from the current volume of 66 million a year.
Now, tea is being cultivated in the country’s some northern districts which are not traditionally growing this export items. So, the improvement of these new areas has been given emphasis in the export policy while campaign has been planned to popularise these tea as Bangladeshi brand like Sylhet Tea, Srimongal Tea like those of India’s Sylon tea.

113

Faculty Sections / 7 ex-Oriental Bank officials jailed for life

« on: August 30, 2015, 03:22:37 PM »

A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced seven former officials of erstwhile Oriental Bank, later renamed as ICB Islamic Bank Limited, to life-term imprisonment for embezzling Tk 1.7 crore. Judge Akhtaruzzaman of the Special Judge’s Court-5 passed the order and fined the convicts Tk 1.07crore. All the seven are currently absconding. The court ordered that the verdict be executed once the convicts are arrested. The court, in its order, also said that the fine be realised evenly from each of the convicts within 60 days. Otherwise, the court said, the fine should be realised from the convicts by auctioning their assets as per the rule 386-1 (B) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Those sentenced are Oriental Bank’s former deputy general manager Imamul Haque, former senior vice president Shah Mohammad Harun, senior assistant vice president Abul Kashem Mahmudullah, assistant vice-president Fazlur Rahman, executive officer and vice-president Tariqul Alam, senior executive vice-president Mahmud Hossain, and executive vice president Qamrul Islam. According to the case documents, the convicts allowed one Qamrul Ahmed, who introduced himself as the owner of M/s Tanveer Agency, to open an account at the bank’s headquarters on July 27, 2005.

On that very day, he applied for Tk one crore loan and got it approved. Later, investigations found that Ahmed’s company did not exist. Anti Corruption Commission Deputy Director Jahangir Alam filed a case against the seven officials, in this connection, on December 29, 2006, with Motijheel Police Station. The investigation officer of the case, Shekh Fayaiz Alam, submitted the chargesheet in the case on December 31, 2012. The court framed charge in the case on June 29 last year.
Earlier, on March 20, 2015, the ACC had approved a chargesheet in a case filed against another five people, including four former bank officials, for allegedly swindling out over Tk 7.5 crore from Oriental Bank.

The accused are Oriental Bank’s former senior assistant vice president M Manzurul Alim, former assistant vice president Tariqul Alam, former senior assistant vice president Mushtaque Ahmad, former assistant executive officer Saiful Aziz Pavel, and Khairul Anam, a resident of Comilla.
In April 2014, the ACC filed a case against the five. According to the ACC investigation, the accused bank officials disbursed loans against fake documents of a private company, M/S Orbit International, during 2005-2006 and the bank officials in collusion with Khairul Anam embezzled more than Tk 7.5 crore.

114

Business Administration / Important modern marketing terms (Part-2)

« on: August 30, 2015, 12:25:44 PM »

life-cycle costs
    - The costs of a durable good over its entire operating life. Comment: Life-cycle costs are often introduced to show that products with higher initial costs (e.g., because they are built better) really have lower costs over their effective lives. (e.g., because they need fewer repairs).
logistical cost
    - The costs associated with providing purchasing, manufacturing support, and physical distribution services.
logistics
    - A single logic to guide the process of planning, allocating, and controlling financial and human resources committed to physical distribution, manufacturing support, and purchasing operations. The Council of Logistics Management (formerly NCPDM) offers the following definition: "Logistics management is the term describing the integration of two or more activities for the purpose of planning, implementing and controlling the efficient flow of raw materials, in-process inventory and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption. These activities may include, but are not limited to, customer service, demand forecasting, distribution communications, inventory control, materials handling, order processing, parts and service support, plant and warehouse site selection, procurement, packaging, return goods handling, salvage and scrap disposal, traffic and transportation and warehousing and storage. "
loss leader pricing
    - The featuring of items priced below cost or at relatively low prices to attract customers to the seller's place of business.
low involvement consumer behavior
    - Consumer decision making in which very little cognitive activity is involved. It includes those situations in which the consumer simply does not care and is not concerned about brands or choices and makes the decision in the most cognitively miserly manner possible. Most likely, low involvement is situation-based and the degree of importance and involvement may vary with the individual and with the situation.
Maslow's need hierarchy
    - A popular theory of human motivation developed by Abraham Maslow that suggests humans satisfy their needs in a sequential order beginning with physiological needs (food, water, sex), and ranging through safety needs (protection from harm), belongingness and love needs (companionship), esteem needs (prestige, respect of others), and finally, self actualization needs (self-fulfillment).
macro/micro segmentation
    - A multistep, nested approach to industrial market segmentation, in which one moves from general macro criteria at the level of the organization, such as SIC code and size of the buying firm, through criteria at the level of the order or application, such as order size and urgency, to specific micro criteria at the level of the buying center, such as risk perception and attitude toward the vendor.
macromarketing
    - The study of marketing processes, activities, institutions, and results from a broad perspective such as a nation, in which cultural, political, and social, as well as economic interaction are investigated. It is marketing in a larger context than any one firm.
See also: micromarketing

mall intercept
    - A method of data collection in which interviewers in a shopping mall stop or intercept a sample of those passing by to ask them if they would be willing to participate in a research study; those who agree are typically taken to an interviewing facility that has been set up in the mall where the interview is conducted.
mall-type shopping center
    - A grouping of stores near the center of a shopping center plot with parking area surrounding the store concentration on all sides. All or most of the stores face a mall or pedestrian shopping area.
See also: arcade shopping center, community shopping center, factory outlet center, neighborhood shopping center, off-price shopping center, regional shopping center, strip-type shopping center, super regional shopping center,

margin
    - The difference between the selling price and total unit costs for an item.
marginal analysis
    - A technique of explanation that focuses on the impact of producing, marketing, or consuming one more unit.
marginal cost (MC)
    - The net change in total cost that results from producing and marketing one additional unit.
marginal revenue (MR)
    - The net change in total revenue that results from producing and marketing one additional unit.
See also: average revenue

marginal utility
    - The change in total utility due to purchasing or consuming one additional unit of a product.
See also: diminishing marginal utility and law of diminishing marginal utility

market concentration
    - The degree to which relatively few firms account for a large proportion of the market such as in an oligopolistic situation. It is also known as the concentration ratio.
market demand
    - The total volume of a given product or service bought by a specific group of customers in a specified market area, during a specific time period.
market evolution
    - The market (or industry) life cycles describe the evolution of the market. These cycles have a similar shape to the product life cycle and similarly, have a number of distinct stages: (1) embryonic-the product class and industry definitions are virtually synonymous, diffusion rates are gradual, and there is considerable uncertainty about the product; (2) growth-the industry structure develops, the introduction of new product classes becomes easier as consumers become more knowledgeable, and the channels facilitate the marketing of new product classes established; and (3) maturity an established infrastructure facilitates rapid introduction and diffusion of new product variants or product classes, competitors jockey for position, and older products have to make adjustments to protect their declining position.
market penetration
    - A growth strategy designed to enhance competitive advantage by developing low-risk improvement or revisions to the present product range. These are either proactive moves designed to identify and target changing customer requirements, or reactive moves for market defense triggered by competitive actions.
market positioning
    - Positioning refers to the customer's perceptions of the place a product or brand occupies in a market segment. In some markets, a position is achieved by associating the benefits of a brand with the needs or life style of the segments. More often, positioning involves the differentiation of the company's offering from the competition by making or implying a comparison in terms of specific attributes.
market research
    - The systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data with respect to a particular market, where market refers to a specific customer group in a specific geographic area.
market segmentation
    - The process of subdividing a market into distinct subsets of customers that behave in the same way or have similar needs. Each subset may conceivably be chosen as a market target to be reached with a distinct marketing strategy. The process begins with a basis of segmentation-a product-specific factor that reflects differences in customers' requirements or responsiveness to marketing variables (possibilities are purchase behavior, usage, benefits sought, intentions, preference, or loyalty). Segment descriptors are then chosen, based on their ability to identify segments, to account for variance in the segmentation basis, and to suggest competitive strategy implications (examples of descriptors are demographics, geography, psychographics, customer size, and industry). To be of strategic value, the resulting segments must be measurable, accessible, sufficiently different to justify a meaningful variation in strategy, substantial, and durable.
market share
    - 1. (geography definition) A proportion of total sales in a market obtained by a given facility or chain. 2. (strategic marketing definition) The proportion of the total quantity or dollar sales in a market that is held by each of the competitors. The market can be defined as broadly as the industry, or all substitutes, or as narrowly as a specific market segment. The choice of market depends on which level gives the best insight into competitive position.
market structure
    - The pattern formed by the number, size, and distribution of buyers and sellers in a market.
marketing
    - Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.
marketing channel
    - A set of institutions necessary to transfer the title to goods and to move goods from the point of production to the point of consumption and, as such, which consists of all the institutions and all the marketing activities in the marketing process.
marketing ethics
    - 1. (legislation definition) Standards of marketing decision making based on "what is right" and "what is wrong," and emanating from our religious heritage and our traditions of social, political, and economic freedom. 2. (environments definition) The use of moral codes, values, and standards to determine whether marketing actions are good or evil, right or wrong. Often standards are based on professional or association codes of ethics.
marketing geography
    - The field of study that analyzes the spatial characteristics of marketing activities: the consumers and the distribution network.
marketing intelligence system
    - The development of a system to gather, process, assess, and make available marketing data and information in a format that permits marketing managers and executives to function more effectively. Marketing data, when analyzed, may yield information that can then be processed and put into a format that gives intelligence for planning, policy making, and decision purposes.
marketing management
    - The process of setting marketing goals for an organization (considering internal resources and market opportunities), the planning and execution of activities to meet these goals, and measuring progress toward their achievement. Comment: The process is ongoing and repetitive (as within a planning cycle) so that the organization may continuously adapt to internal and external changes that create new problems and opportunities.
marketing manager
    - The generic title for the line executive responsible for designated marketing functions (such as marketing research, product planning and market planning, pricing, distribution, the promotion mix, and customer services) and for coordinating with other departments that perform marketing related activities (such as packaging, warehousing, order filling, shipping, design of new and improved products, credit, billing, collections, accounting, legal, transportation, purchasing, product repair, warranty fulfillment, and technical assistance to customers). The marketing manager may have an officer title (such as vice president of marketing) and usually reports to the chief executive officer in a functionally organized company or to the division manager (president) in a divisionalized company. Comment: The above definition describes the marketing manager with full responsibility for marketing. However, the title is sometimes used for jobs of lesser scope; for example, in a multi-product division a manager may be in charge of a line of products or a business segment and report to the division marketing manager. Also, it is not uncommon for the sales and marketing functions to report separately to a common supervisor such as the division manager. In such a case the marketing manager may be in charge of marketing functions other than personal selling. This dichotomy most often occurs in industrial or consumer durable goods businesses in which personal selling is the key aspect of promotion.
See also: category manager, divisional organization, functional organization, group product manager, marketing of services, new product manager, non-business marketing organization, product manager, product planning manager, promotion mix,

marketing mix
    - The mix of controllable marketing variables that the firm uses to pursue the desired level of sales in the target market. The most common classification of these factors is the four-factor classification called the "Four Ps"-price, product, promotion, and place (or distribution). Optimization of the marketing mix is achieved by assigning the amount of the marketing budget to be spent on each element of the marketing mix so as to maximize the total contribution to the firm. Contribution may be measured in terms of sales or profits or in terms of any other organizational goals.
marketing plan
    - A document composed of an analysis of the current marketing situation, opportunities and threats analysis, marketing objectives, marketing strategy, action programs, and projected or pro-forma income (and other financial) statements. This plan may be the only statement of the strategic direction of a business, but it is more likely to apply only to a specific brand or product. In the latter situation, the marketing plan is an implementation device that is integrated within an overall strategic business plan.
See also: marketing planning

115

Business Administration / Important modern marketing terms (Part-1)

« on: August 30, 2015, 12:25:22 PM »

generic advertising
    - An approach to preparing advertising messages that concentrates on the customer benefits that apply to all brands in a product category, as opposed to benefits that are unique to specific brands.
See also: primary advertising

generic brand
    - A product that is named only by its generic class (e.g., drip-grind coffee, barber shop). Other products have both an individual brand and a generic classification (Maxwell House drip-grind coffee, Maurice's barber shop). Generic brand products are often thought to be unbranded, but their producer or reseller name is usually associated with the product, too. This approach is usually associated with food and other packaged goods, but many other consumer and industrial products and services are marked as generics.
See also: brand, brand generic, branded merchandise,

geocentric orientation
    - A management orientation based upon the assumption that there are similarities and differences in the world that can be understood and recognized in an integrated world strategy. The geocentric orientation or world orientation is a synthesis of the ethnocentric orientation (home country) and polycentric orientation (host country).
See also: regiocentrism orientation

geodemography
    - An availability of demographic consumer behavior and life style data by arbitrary geographic boundaries that are typically quite small.
georeference classification
    - For analysis purposes, the data covering such things as sales, customers, product, and demographics are often classified on a geographical basis. Distribution of such data by individual markets provides the geographical structure of demand that must be serviced. The most useful geographical classification structures for logistical modeling are customer point locations, county, standard metropolitan statistical area, economic trading area, ZIP code, and grid structure.
global brand
    - A brand that is marketed according to the same strategic principles in every part of the world.
See also: local brand

global marketing
    - 1. (global marketing definition) A marketing strategy that consciously addresses global customers, markets, and competition in formulating a business strategy. 2. (consumer behavior definition) An approach to international strategy that argues for marketing a product in essentially the same way everywhere in the world.
global strategy
    - A strategy that seeks competitive advantage with strategic moves that are highly interdependent across countries. These moves include most or all of the following: a standardized core product that exploits or creates homogenous tastes or performance requirements, significant participation in all major country markets to build volume, a concentration of value-creating activities such as R&D and manufacturing in a few countries, and a coherent competitive strategy that pits the worldwide capabilities of the business against the competition.
See also: multidomestic strategy

good(s)
    - A product that has tangible form, in contrast to services that are intangible.
See also: product hierarchy

gravity model
    - A theory about the structure of market areas. The model states that the volume of purchases by consumers and the frequency of trips to the outlets are a function of the size of the store and the distance between the store and the origin of the shopping trip.
See also: central place theory, concentric zone theory, dialectic process, natural selection theory, retail accordion theory, retail life cycle, wheel of retailing theory,

gray market good
    - Merchandise that possesses a valid U.S. registered trademark and is made by a foreign manufacturer, but is imported into the United States without permission of the U.S. trademark owner.
green marketing
    - 1. (retailing definition) The marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. 2. (social marketing definition) The development and marketing of products designed to minimize negative effects on the physical environment or to improve its quality. 3. (environments definition) The efforts by organizations to produce, promote, package, and reclaim products in a manner that is sensitive or responsive to ecological concerns.
gross leasable area (GLA)
    - The area of a shopping plaza that is assigned to stores, excluding exits, corridors, and open space.
gross margin of profit
    - The difference between net sales and total cost of goods sold.
See also: gross cost of merchandise sold

gross national product (GNP)
    - 1. The money value of a nation's entire output of final commodities and services in a given period. 2. Personal consumption expenditures plus gross private domestic investment plus net exports of goods plus government purchases of goods and services. The U.S. Department of Commerce has published continuously the national income statistical series since 1947. In former years gross national product was emphasized by politicians, the press, etc.; in more recent years gross domestic product has been emphasized.
See also: net national product




gross rating point (GRP)
    - A measure of the total amount of the advertising exposures produced by a specific media vehicle or a media schedule during a specific period of time. It is expressed in terms of the rating of a specific media vehicle (if only one is being used) or the sum of all the ratings of the vehicles included in a media schedule. It includes any audience duplication and is equal to the reach of a media schedule multiplied by the average frequency of the schedule.
growth strategy
    - Market share expansion is the prime objective under this strategy, even at the expense of short-term earnings. The firm may seek to expand market share through a number of alternative routes. First, the firm may seek new users who may previously have been loyal to other brands, or tended to switch, or were not users of the category at all. The second way in which the firm can expand its market share is to expand usage by current users: for instance, by identifying and promoting new uses.
See also: growth objectives and market penetration

guerilla marketing
    - Unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources.
habitual decision making
    - The choices or decisions made out of "habit" without much deliberation or product comparison.
See also: extensive problem solving

hard goods
    - As compared with soft goods, which have a textiles base, these goods mainly comprise hardware, home furnishings, and furniture and appliances. These goods are usually also durable goods.
harvesting strategy
    - The maximization of short-run cash flow from a business in expectation of a deterioration of market share and eventual withdrawal from the market. The cash flow raised is directed toward other areas of business where it is needed.
See also: divest strategy, investment strategy, portfolio analysis,

hedonistic consumption
    - A focus on the sensory pleasures or hedonic benefits provided by interaction with products or services.
See also: conspicuous consumption

heuristic
    - 1. (consumer behavior definition) A proposition that connects an event with an action. Heuristics usually simplify decision making. For example, "buy the cheapest brand" is a choice heuristic that would simplify purchase. 2. (consumer behavior definition) The simplified "rules of thumb" by which decisions are made.
hierarchy of effects model
    - 1. A concept related to the manner in which advertising supposedly works; it is based on the premise that advertising moves individuals systematically through a series of psychological stages such as awareness, interest, desire, conviction, and action. 2. An early model that depicted consumer purchasing as a series of stages including awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase.
See also: low involvement hierarchy, AIDA,

hierarchy of needs
    - A theory proposed by Maslow (1943) concerning the specific order of the development of needs. He proposed that needs develop in an individual in a sequential order from lower to higher needs, ranging from physiological needs to safety needs (security, order) to belongingness and love needs. Then esteem needs (prestige, respect) and self-actualization (self- fulfillment) follow. Higher order needs emerge as lower order ones are more or less satisfied.
horizontal integration
    - 1. (environments definition) The expansion of a business by acquiring or developing businesses engaged in the same stage of marketing or distribution. The most common approach is to buy out competitors. It is also known as horizontal expansion. 2. (channels of distribution definition) The combination of two or more separate enterprises at the same stage in the channel through ownership, including mergers or acquisitions.
See also: integration

human ecology
    - The application of the concepts of plant and animal ecology to human collective life to seek knowledge about the structure of social systems and the way in which structures develop, paying attention to spatial configurations. It is the human population's adaptation to the natural environment.
hypermarket
    - An unusually large, limited service combination discount store, supermarket, and warehouse under a single roof. Typically it sells both food and nonfood items at 10 to 15 percent below normal retail prices and stacks much reserve stock merchandise in the sales area. The hypermarket is an innovation of European origin.
impulse buying
    - A purchase behavior that is assumed to be made without prior planning or thought. Often, it is claimed, impulse buying involves an emotional reaction to the stimulus object (product, packaging, point-of-purchase display, or whatever) in addition to the simple acquisition act.
See also: planned buying vs. unplanned buying

impulse product
    - A convenience product (good or service) that is bought on the spur of the moment, without advance planning or serious consideration at the time, and often by the stimulus of point-of-sale promotion or observation.
See also: consumer product, emergency product, shopping product, specialty product, staple good,

impulse purchase
    - 1. (consumer behavior definition) A purchase typically made in-store with little or no decision making effort. 2. (retailing definition) An unplanned purchase by a customer.
in-store marketing
    - The marketing dollars spent inside the store in the form of store design, merchandising, visual displays, or in-store promotions.
income effect
    - 1. (economic definition) The change in patterns of consumption for a product given consumers have an increase in real income. 2. (environment definition) The increase or decrease in a consumer's real income as a result of the change in the price of a good or service.
individual brand
    - The brand identity given to an individual product, as separate from other products in the market and from other items in the product's own line. A trademark.
See also: brand extension, branding, individual, family brand, generic brand, product life cycle,

industrial market
    - The industrial market (also called the producer market or business market) is the set of all individuals and organizations that acquire goods and services that enter into the production of other products or services that are sold, rented, or supplied to others. The major types of industries making up the industrial market (business market) are agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; mining; manufacturing; construction and transportation; communication and public utilities; banking, finance, and insurance; and services.
See also: organizational market

industrial market segmentation
    - The process of separating an industrial market (business market) into groups of customers or prospects such that the members of each resulting group are more like the other members of that group than they are like members of other segments.
infant industry
    - An industry that justifies a national policy of protection from global competition on the grounds that it needs time to get established. Infant industry protection is always temporary.
information search
    - 1. (industrial definition) The process by which a buyer seeks to identify the most appropriate supplier(s) once a need has been recognized. The information search process may vary based upon variables such as organizational size and buying situation. 2. (consumer behavior definition ) Intentional exposure to information. Before buying a camera, for example, the consumer might be attracted to and seek out advertisements for cameras, read articles in photography magazines, and turn to Consumers' Reports. Seeking the advice of an expert, knowledgeable acquaintance, or salesperson can be involved.
See also: buyclasses and buying center

innovation
    - In the marketing literature, innovation implies the introduction of a new product, idea, or service into the market place. According to Robertson, it involves a new product that is very different from the established products or at least perceived to be different by consumers in the relevant market segment. New products can be referred to as continuous innovations such as Crest spearmint toothpaste or Michelob light beer. Or they can be discontinuous innovations, a completely new product such as the electric light bulb or perhaps the computer.

integrated marketing communications
    - A planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.
intermodal transportation
    - The movement of goods that combines two or more modes of transportation such as truck and rail to maximize the benefits of both modes while minimizing their drawbacks. For example, the combination of rail and motor carriage utilizes the flexibility of motor carriers and the low line-haul cost of rail.
See also: container-on-flatcar, piggyback, trailer-on-flatcar,

internal marketing
    - Marketing to employees of an organization to ensure that they are effectively carrying out desired programs and policies.
international product cycle
    - A model developed by Professor Raymond Vernon that shows the relationship of production, consumption, and trade over the life cycle of a product. Based on empirical data for the pre-1967 era, the model showed how the location of production shifted from the United States to other advanced countries and then to less developed countries.
See also: international trade product life cycle and product trade life cycle

international trade product life cycle
    - A trade cycle model that suggests that many products go through a cycle in which high income, mass consumption countries are initially exporters, then lose their export markets, and finally become importers of the product.
See also: international product cycle and product trade life cycle

inventory control
    - The procedures used to ensure that desired inventory levels are maintained. Most procedures are based on either perpetual or periodic review.

inventory turnover
    - 1. (physical distribution definition) The number of times average inventory is sold during a specified time period (usually one year). 2. (retailing definition) The number of times per year the retailer sells its average inventory.
See also: stock turnover

involvement
    - The degree of personal relevance a consumer perceives a product, brand, object, or behavior to have. High involvement products are seen as having important personal consequences or as useful for achieving important personal goals. Low involvement products are not linked to important consequences or goals.
item merchandising
    - The special planning and control effort employed to discover and take advantage of the sales opportunities afforded by items that are in greater consumer demand.
just-in-time (JIT)
    - An inventory management system based upon the philosophy that well-run manufacturing plants do not require the stockpiling of parts and components. Instead, they rely upon receiving necessary inventory in the exact quantity and at a specified time to support manufacturing schedules.
keiretsu
    - A Japanese interbusiness alliance or enterprise group.
knowledge
    - Consumers' meanings or beliefs about products, brands, stores, etc., that are stored in memory.
See also: adoption process, AIDA, hierarchy of effects model, opinion,


knowledge function of attitudes
    - A function of attitudes that serves the individual in understanding the environment. The knowledge function aids the individual in organizing information into an understandable or cohesive whole. It is one of the functions of attitudes proposed by the functional theory of attitudes.
See also: ego-defensive function of attitudes, instrumental function of attitudes, value-expressive function of attitudes,

Luce's Choice Axiom
    - A statement that the relative odds of an individual's choosing one particular item (e.g., brand A) over another (e.g., brand B) are unaffected by the presence or absence of other items (e.g., brand C, brand D, etc.) as potential choices. The property is also known as independence from irrelevant alternatives or IIA (Luce 1977; Yellott 1977). The logit model possesses this property (which is sometimes seen as a liability), while the probit model and other brand choice models can avoid it.
See also: brand choice models and Elimination-By-Aspects model

law of demand
    - 1. (popular definition) The law that, other things being equal, consumers will buy more of a product at a low price than at a high price. 2. (economic definition) The law that, under the same conditions of demand, the amount of product taken by a market varies inversely with its price.
law of diminishing marginal utility
    - A situation in which consumption of an additional unit of a good adds less to total satisfaction than the preceding unit.
See also: diminishing marginal utility, diminishing utility, marginal utility,

law of diminishing return
    - After a certain point has been reached, each successive application of a factor of production will add less to total output than before
learning curve
    - Typically, this is a graph of the amount of material learned, plotted against time or number of trials. Many learning situations lead to an S-shaped curve.
life style
    - 1. (consumer behavior definition) In general, this is the manner in which the individual copes and deals with his/her psychological and physical environment on a day-to-day basis. More specifically, it is used by some theorists as a phrase describing the values, attitudes, opinions, and behavior patterns of the consumer. 2. (consumer behavior definition) The manner in which people conduct their lives, including their activities, interests, and opinions.
See also: AIO, psychographic analysis, psychographic segmentation,

116

BBA Discussion Forum / Marketing Definitions & Glossary (Part-6)

« on: August 30, 2015, 12:21:37 PM »

family brand
    - A brand that is used on two or more individual products. The product group may or may not be all of that firm's product line. The individual members of the family also carry individual brands to differentiate them from other family members. In rare cases there are family brands that have as members other family brands, each of which has individual brands. Automobiles fit the latter situation, as with Oldsmobile (family) Cutlass (family) Ciera (individual).
See also: brand, brand extension, branding, individual, branding, line family, multibrand strategy,

family decision making
    - The processes, interactions, and roles of family members involved in making decisions as a group.
family life cycle
    - 1. (consumer behavior definition) A sociological concept that describes changes in families across time. Emphasis is placed on the effects of marriage, divorce, births, and deaths on families and the changes in income and consumption through various family stages. 2. (consumer behavior definition) Families account for a very large percentage of all consumer expenditures. Much of this spending is systematic and stems from natural needs that change as a family unit goes through its natural stages of life. These range from the young single and the newly married stages to the full nest as the children are born and grow, to the empty nest and the final solitary survivor stage. Each transition prompts changes in values and behavior.
fashion product
    - A subcategory of a shopping product. This subcategory contains items that are wanted by consumers for their fashion aspects.
fast food outlet
    - A food retailing institution featuring a very limited menu, precooked or quickly prepared food, and take-out operations.
fighting brand
    - A line extension of a main brand that is marketed by one producer to compete directly with the lower-priced products of other producers in a given market. The fighting brand usually has a separate brand identity and a low price. Its quality is usually lower than that of the main brand; it may only be temporarily on the market; and its purpose is to hold customers without having to lower the price of the main brand.
first-mover advantage
    - The ability of pioneering firms to gain long-term competitive advantages due to early entry. Mechanisms that lead to first-mover advantage include preemption of competition, development of a leadership reputation, increased brand loyalty due to customer switching costs, proprietary experience curve effects, and a sustainable lead in technology due to patents and trade secrets.
See also: follower advantage, invisible assets,

flagging
    - The use of special graphic techniques on the product package or store shelf to call attention to a particular offer such as a reduced price, bonus pack, etc.
flanker brand
    - A line extension. Sometimes the term is meant to cover only those line extensions that are not premium-priced or low-priced.
See also: brand

flanking
    - An indirect strategy aimed at capturing market segments whose needs are not being served by competitors. Flanking can be executed by targeting either a geographical segment or a consumer segment (group) that is not being well served by competitors, when the competitor is unwilling or unable to retaliate.
focus group
    - 1. (consumer behavior definition) A method of gathering qualitative data on the preferences and beliefs of consumers through group interaction and discussion usually focused on a specific topic or product. Also, it is a group of respondents brought together for this purpose 2. (marketing research definition) A personal interview conducted among a small number of individuals simultaneously; the interview relies more on group discussion than on a series of directed questions to generate data. It is also called group in-depth interview.
forecasting models
    - In forecasting sales, share, or other marketing objectives, a variety of models have been used, including time series models (e. g., moving averages, exponential smoothing, decompositional), econometric models (e.g., regression, input-output), and judgmental models (e.g., Delphi technique). Most common of the econometric models are those including marketing mix variables of the firm and its competitors, thus offering diagnostic insights. A brief review of the various forecasting models is offered in Lilien and Kotler (1983, Chapter 10).
See also: simulated test market

foreign marketing
    - The phenomenon of marketing in an environment different from that of the home or base environment.
franchise
    - The privilege, often exclusive, granted to a distributor or dealer by a franchisor to sell the franchisor's products within a specified territory. A franchise is an example of a contractual vertical marketing system.
See also: affiliated store, authorized dealer, distributorship,

fulfillment
    - The gathering of orders or offers from a sales promotion event and the process of completing the event by distributing items integral to the event such as premiums, rebates, bounce back offer, or ordered merchandise.
See also: clearinghouse, refund,

funnel approach
    - An approach to question sequencing that gets its name from its shape, starting with broad questions and progressively narrowing down the scope.
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
    - An institutional framework that provides a set of rules and principles committed to the liberalization of trade between countries.
See also: Brussels Nomenclature and Uruguay Round

Green River ordinance
    - A municipal ordinance regulating or forbidding house-to-house selling, canvassing, or soliciting of business. It was first enacted in Green River, Wyoming.
garbology
    - The study of consumer behavior and preferences for foods and products by examining disposed goods and other items found in the trash and garbage.
gatekeeper
    - Usually, the individual who controls the flow of information from the mass media to the group or individual. It also is used to indicate the individual who controls decision making by controlling the purchase process. In a traditional family, the mother often functions as the gatekeeper between the child and his/her exposure to the mass media and the purchase of toys or products. In an organization, the purchasing agent is often the gatekeeper between the end user and the vendor of products or services.

117

BBA Discussion Forum / Marketing Definitions & Glossary (Part-5)

« on: August 30, 2015, 12:21:17 PM »

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
    - A model of attitude formation and change that proposes that the process by which attitudes change depends upon the message recipient's level of motivation. According to Petty and Cacioppo, the authors of the ELM, when motivation is high, the message recipient will pay attention and respond to the quality of message arguments. When motivation is low, the message recipient will be more responsive to peripheral elements of the message (e.g., music, spokesperson attractiveness, etc.).
Engel's Law
    - The observation that the proportion of income spent on food declines as income rises with given tastes or preferences. This law or tendency was formulated by Ernst Engel (1821-1896) in a paper published by him in 1857.
e-business
    - A term referring to a wide variety of Internet-based business models. Typically, an e-commerce strategy incorporates various elements of the marketing mix to drive users to a Web site for the purpose of purchasing a product or service.
See also: e-commerce, online marketing,

e-commerce
    - A term referring to a wide variety of Internet-based business models. Typically, an e-commerce strategy incorporates various elements of the marketing mix to drive users to a Web site for the purpose of purchasing a product or service.
See also: e-business, online marketing,

economic goods
    - The goods that are so scarce relative to human wants that human effort is required to obtain them.


economic man
    - A model of human behavior assumed by economists in analyzing market behavior. The economic person is a rational person who attempts to maximize the utility received from his/her monetary outflows and sacrifices.
See also: social man

economic order quantity
    - The order quantity that minimizes the total costs of processing orders and holding inventory.
eighty-twenty principle
    - The situation in which a disproportionately small number (e.g., 20 percent) of salespeople, territories, products, or customers generate a disproportionately large amount (e.g., 80 percent) of a firm's sales or profits. This phenomenon can be identified and addressed by conducting a sales analysis and cost analysis.
elaboration
    - The degree of elaboration determines the number of meanings or beliefs formed during comprehension.
end user
    - A person or organization that consumes a good or service that may consist of the input of numerous firms. For example, an insurance company may be the end user for a keyboard for a personal computer, originally produced for and sold to the personal computer manufacturer.
environment
    - The complex set of physical and social stimuli in the external world of consumers.
environmental analysis
    - The gathering and analyzing of data about a company's or nation's external environment to identify trends and their impact upon an organization or country. Included among the environmental forces considered are the political, cultural, social, demographic, economic, legal, international, and ecological factors.
equilibrium price
    - A price that equates supply and demand, i.e., the price at which the market clears.
ethics
    - This relates to moral action, conduct, motive, and character. It also means professionally right or befitting, conforming to professional standards of conduct.
ethnocentric orientation
    - A home country orientation or an unconscious bias or belief that the home country approach to business is superior.
See also: geocentric orientation, polycentric orientation, regiocentrism orientation,

evoked set
    - 1. (consumer behavior definition) The set of alternatives that are activated directly from memory. 2. (consumer behavior definition) The set of possible products or brands that the consumer may be considering in the decision process. It is the set of choices that has been evoked and is salient as compared with the larger number of available possible choices. For example, from the many brands of breakfast cereals on super-market shelves, it is the half a dozen brands (or so) that the buyer may re-member and be considering for purchase.
See also: competitive brands

exchange
    - All activities associated with receiving something from someone by giving something voluntarily in return.
exclusive dealing
    - A restriction that is imposed by a supplier on a customer forbidding the customer from purchasing some type of product from any other supplier. This restriction is subject to an examination of whether it substantially lessens competition or restrains trade. Exclusive dealing should not be con-fused with exclusive distributorships, a term applied to arrangements in which a supplier promises not to appoint more than one dealer in each territory.
exclusive distribution (channels of distribution)
    - A form of market coverage in which a product is distributed through one particular wholesaler or retailer in a given market area.
See also: intensive distribution and selective distribution

exclusive distribution (retailing definition)
    - The practice whereby the vendor agrees to sell the goods or services within a certain territory only through a single retailer or a limited number of retailers. It may also apply to wholesalers.
experience curve effect
    - A systematic decline in the cost per unit that is achieved as the cumulative volume (and therefore experience) increases. There are three sources of the experience curve effect: (1) learning-the increasing efficiency of labor that arises chiefly from practice; (2) technological improvements including process innovations, resource mix changes, and product standardization; and (3) economies of scale-the increased efficiency due to size.
See also: experience curve analysis

experience-curve pricing
    - 1. (pricing definition) A method of pricing in which the seller sets the price sufficiently low to encourage a large sales volume in anticipation that the large sales volume would lead to a reduction in average unit costs. Generally this method of pricing is used over time by periodically reducing the price to induce additional sales volumes that lead to lower per unit costs. 2. (economic definition) A price-setting method using a markup on the average total cost as forecast by cost trends over time as sales volume accumulates.
external validity
    - One criterion by which an experiment is evaluated; the criterion refers to the extent, to what populations and settings, to which the observed experimental effect can be generalized.
See also: construct validation, content validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, internal validity, pragmatic validity, validity,

Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (1966)
    - This act requires that labels on consumer commodities identify the type of product being sold, the name and address of the supplier, and where applicable, the quality and contents of each serving. The act also authorizes the FTC and FDA to issue regulations concerning specific products covering items such as ingredient statements, package size standards, "slack-fill" packaging, and sales price representations.
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) (1977)
    - 1. (legislation definition) This act made it illegal for members of any United States business firm to pay money or give gifts, or promise to do so, to any foreign official, foreign political party, or candidates for foreign political office in order to obtain or retain business. 2. (global marketing definition) The U.S. law that makes it a crime for U.S. corporations to bribe an official of a foreign government or political party to obtain or retain business in a foreign country.
fair trade laws
    - Federal and state statutes permitting suppliers of branded goods to impose resale price maintenance contracts fixing minimum retail prices. The Consumer Goods Pricing Act of 1975 outlawed such practices.
See also: resale price maintenance laws

118

BBA Discussion Forum / Marketing Definitions & Glossary (Part-4)

« on: August 30, 2015, 12:19:14 PM »

Consumer Market Insight
    - An in-depth understanding of customer behavior that is more qualitative than quantitative. Specifically, it describes the role played by the product/brand in question in the life of its consumers -- and their general stance towards it including the way they acquire information about the category or brand, the importance attached to generic and specific values, attitudes, expectations, as well as the choice-making process. It refers to a holistic appreciation, which used to be traditionally split by market researchers and brand managers as qualitative and quantitative research.
See also: qualitative, quantitative, brand, generic).,

cannibalization
    - The loss of sales in established products experienced by a firm resulting from its own introduction of new products that are partial or complete substitutes. That is, the new product "steals" some of the sales of the established product
captive market
    - The potential clientele of retail or service businesses located in hotels, airports, railroad stations, etc., where consumers do not have reasonable alternative sources of supply.
carriage trade
    - An old expression that refers to a wealthy class of patrons accorded special services.
category killer
    - A type of destination store that is usually large and that concentrates on one category, thus making it possible to carry both a broad assortment and deep selection of merchandise, coupled with low price and moderate service.
central place theory
    - 1. (retailing definition) A model that ranks communities according to the assortment of goods available in each. At the bottom of the hierarchy are communities that represent the smallest central places (centers of commerce). They provide the basic necessities of life. Further up the hierarchy are the larger central places, which carry all goods and services found in lower-order central places plus more specialized ones that are not necessary. 2. (geography definition) A normative theory that explains the size, number, and spacing of distribution centers to serve a dispersed population.
See also: concentric zone theory, dialectic process, gravity model, multiple purpose trip, natural selection theory, retail accordion theory, retail life cycle, wheel of retailing theory,

central route to persuasion
    - One of two types of cognitive processes by which persuasion occurs. In the central route, consumers focus on the product messages in the ad, interpret them, form beliefs about product attributes and consequences, and integrate these meanings to form brand attitudes and intentions.
See also: peripheral route to persuasion

channel power
    - The ability of a particular channel member to control or influence the decision making and behavior of another channel member, or one channel member's potential for influence with another channel member.
See also: channel control

channel specialization
    - The channel members' choice of unique positions in the channel based on their capacities, interests, goals, expectations, values, and frames of references. Hence, each performs those tasks (participates in those channel flows) which it can perform at a comparative advantage.

cherry picking
    - A buyer selection of only a few items from one vendor's line and others from another line, failing to purchase a complete line or classification of merchandise from one resource. It also sometimes describes a customer's tendency to buy only items on sale.
click-through
    - Term used to measure the number of users who clicked on a specific Internet advertisment or link.
clickstream
    - The order of pages that people are visiting on the site. It is used to indicate what elements of a site are effective, and which are not.
cluster analysis
    - A body of statistical techniques concerned with developing natural groupings of objects based on the relationships of the p variables describing the objects.
See also: conjoint analysis, correlation analysis, discriminant analysis, factor analysis, regression analysis,

cognitive dissonance
    - 1. (consumer behavior definition) A psychologically uncomfortable state produced by an inconsistency between beliefs and behaviors, producing a motivation to reduce the dissonance. 2. (consumer behavior definition) A term coined by Leon Festinger to describe the feeling of discomfort or imbalance that is presumed to be evident when various cognitions about a thing are not in agreement with each other. For example, knowledge that smoking leads to serious physical ailments is dissonant with the belief that smoking is pleasurable and the psychophysiological need to smoke. Cognitive dissonance is similar to Heider's work on Balance Theory and Osgood and Tannenbaum's Congruity Theory. Dissonance is presumed to be an uncomfortable state that the individual strives to reduce.
See also: buyer\'s remorse, consistency theory, post-purchase evaluation,

cognition
    - 1. (consumer behavior definition) The sum total of an individual's beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, needs, goals, and learned reactions about some aspect of the individual's world. A cognition is the pattern of meaning of a thing. 2. (consumer behavior definition) The mental processes of interpretation and decision making, including the beliefs and meanings they create.
See also: awareness-trial-repeat and Wheel of Consumer Analysis

comparative advertising
    - 1. (consumer behavior definition) An advertisement in which there is specific mention or presentation of competing brand(s) and a comparison is made or implied. 2. (advertising definition) An approach to the advertising message that persuades the audience by comparing the performance of two or more brands of a product or service. The reference brand may be the previous formula used by the advertiser, an unnamed competitor of the advertiser, or a specific and named competitor of the advertiser.
comparison shopping
    - Includes two major types of activity, merchandise shopping and service shopping: 1. Merchandise shopping activities rendered by an organized shopping bureau includes checks of new items being offered by competing stores; reports on advertised promotions of competitors; comparison price shopping, etc. 2. Service shopping is normally performed by shoppers who pose as customers and report the quality of selling service on standard forms.
compensatory rule
    - In evaluating alternatives, the compensatory rule suggests that a consumer will select the alternative with the highest overall evaluation on a set of choice criteria. Criteria evaluations are done separately and combined arithmetically such that positive evaluations can offset or balance (compensate for) negative evaluations. This term is also called compensatory integration procedure, compensatory model, and compensatory process.
competition
    - The rivalry among sellers trying to achieve such goals as increasing profits, market share, and sales volume by varying the elements of the marketing mix: price, product, distribution, and promotion. It is the product of vying for customers by the pursuit of differential advantage, i.e., changing to better meet consumer wants and needs. In economic theory, various competitive states such as monopolistic competition, oligopoly, perfect competition, and monopoly are delineated based on the degree of control that sellers have over price.
See also: imperfect competition

competitive advantage
    - 1. (strategic marketing definition) A competitive advantage exists when there is a match between the distinctive competences of a firm and the factors critical for success within the industry that permits the firm to outperform its competitors. Advantages can be gained by having the lowest delivered costs and/or differentiation in terms of providing superior or unique performance on attributes that are important to customers. 2. (global marketing definition) A total offer, vis-a-vis relevant competition, that is more attractive to customers. It exists when the competencies of a firm permit the firm to outperform its competitors.
competitive analysis
    - The analysis of factors designed to answer the question, "how well is a firm doing compared to its competitors?" The analysis goes well beyond sales and profit figures in assessing the firm's ratings on such factors as price, product, technical capabilities, quality, customer service, delivery, and other important factors compared to each of the major competitors.
constant dollars
    - Dollars that have been adjusted statistically to a base period in an attempt to remove the effects of inflation and deflation.
constant sum method
    - A type of comparative rating scale in which an individual is instructed to divide some given sum among two or more attributes on the basis of some criterion (e.g., their importance to him or her).
See also: graphic-rating scale, Guttman scale, interval scale, itemized rating scale, nominal scale, ordinal scale, ratio scale, Stapel scale, summated rating,

consumer
    - Traditionally, the ultimate user or consumer of goods, ideas, and services. However, the term also is used to imply the buyer or decision maker as well as the ultimate consumer. A mother buying cereal for consumption by a small child is often called the consumer although she may not be the ultimate user.
See also: consumer behavior

consumer behavior
    - 1. (consumer behavior definition) The dynamic interaction of affect and cognition, behavior, and the environment by which human beings conduct the exchange aspects of their lives. 2. The overt actions of consumers. 3. (consumer behavior definition) The behavior of the consumer or decision maker in the market place of products and services. It often is used to describe the interdisciplinary field of scientific study that attempts to understand and describe such behavior.
See also: buyer behavior

consumer price index (CPI)
    - A statistical measure maintained by the U.S. government that shows the trend of prices of goods and services (a market basket) purchased by consumers.
consumer satisfaction
    - 1. (consumer behavior definition) The degree to which a consumer's expectations are fulfilled or surpassed by a product. 2. (consumer behavior definition) The post-purchase evaluation of a consumer action by the ultimate consumer or the decision maker. The beliefs, attitudes, and future purchase patterns; word-of-mouth communication; and legal and informal complaints have been related to the post-purchase satisfaction/dissatisfaction process.
See also: confirmation and disconfirmation

consumers' goods
    - Goods that directly satisfy human wants in consumption and that assist in further production only indirectly or incidentally, if at all.
consumption function
    - A schedule of the amounts of their disposable income that individuals tend to devote to consumption at various levels of income.
See also: propensity to consume

containerization
    - The physical grouping of master cartons into one unit load for materials handling or transport. The basic objective is to increase materials handling efficiency.
contribution pricing
    - A method of determining the price of a product or service that uses the direct costs or indirect traceable costs related to the production and sale of the product or services as the relevant costs.
convenience product
    - A consumer good and/or service (such as soap, candy bar, and shoe shine) that is bought frequently, often on impulse, with little time and effort spent on the buying process. A convenience product usually is low-priced and is widely available.
See also: consumer product, emergency product, impulse product, shopping product, specialty product, staple good,

convenience store
    - A retail institution whose primary advantage to consumers is locational convenience. It is usually a high-margin, high inventory turnover retail institution.
cookie
    - An information file stored on a user's computer by a Web site as an identifier. Cookies are often used to manage user preferences and personalization on Web sites.
cooperative advertising
    - An approach to paying for local advertising or retail advertising whereby the advertising space or time is placed by a local retail store but is partly or fully paid for by a national manufacturer whose product is featured in the advertising.
See also: advertising allowance and dealer tie-in

copyright
    - 1. (legislation definition) A copyright offers the owner of original work that can be printed, recorded, or "fixed" in any manner the sole right to reproduce and distribute the work, to display or perform it, and to authorize others to do so, during the author's lifetime and for fifty years thereafter. 2. (product development definition) An exclusive right to the production or sale of literary, musical, or other artistic work, or to the use of a print or label. Occasionally, it is applied to a brand, but brands are usually protected by registration in the Patent and Copyright Office as a trademark.
core product
    - The central benefit or purpose for which a consumer buys a product. The core product varies from purchaser to purchaser. The core product or core benefit may come either from the physical good or service performance, or from the augmented dimensions of the product.
See also: augmented product

corporate strategy
    - The overall plan that integrates the strategies of all the businesses within the corporation. It usually describes the overall mission, the financial and human resource strategies and policies that affect all businesses within the corporation, the organization structure, the management of the interdependencies among businesses, and major initiatives to change the scope of the firm such as acquisitions and divestments.
See also: corporate purpose

cost-plus pricing
    - A method of determining the price of a product or service that uses direct costs, indirect costs, and fixed costs whether related to the production and sale of the product or service or not. These costs are converted to per unit costs for the product and then a predetermined percentage of these costs is added to provide a profit margin. The resulting price is cost per unit plus the percentage markup.
culture
    - 1. (consumer behavior definition) The set of learned values, norms, and behaviors that are shared by a society and are designed to increase the probability of the society's survival. 2. (consumer behavior definition) The institutionalized ways or modes of appropriate behavior. It is the modal or distinctive patterns of behavior of a people including implicit cultural beliefs, norms, values, and premises that govern conduct. It includes the shared superstitions, myths, folkways, mores, and behavior patterns that are rewarded or punished.
See also: acculturation, rituals, socialization, subculture,

customer
    - The actual or prospective purchaser of products or services.
customer lifetime value
    - The combination of actual value and potential value.
See also: actual value, potential value,

customer relationship management
    - A discipline in marketing combining database and computer technology with customer service and marketing communications. Customer relationship management (or CRM) seeks to create more meaningful one-on-one communications with the customer by applying customer data (demographic, industry, buying history, etc.) to every communications vehicle. At the simplest level, this would include personalizing e-mail or other communications with customer names. At a more complex level, CRM enables a company to produce a consistent, personalized marketing communication whether the customer sees an ad, visits a Web site, or calls customer service.
database marketing
    - An approach by which computer database technologies are harnessed to design, create, and manage customer data lists containing information about each customer's characteristics and history of interactions with the company. The lists are used as needed for locating, selecting, targeting, servicing, and establishing relationships with customers in order to enhance the long-term value of these customers to the company. The techniques used for managing lists include: 1. database manipulation methods such as select and join, 2. statistical methods for predicting each customer's likelihood of future purchases of specific items based on his/her history of past purchases, and 3. measures for computing the life-time value of a customer on an ongoing basis.
deceptive advertising
    - The advertising intended to mislead consumers by falsely making claims, by failure to make full disclosure, or by both.
deceptive pricing
    - Savings claims, price comparisons, "special" sales, "two-for-one" sales, "factory" prices, or "wholesale" prices are unlawful if false or deceptive. When these terms are used, the terms and conditions of the sale must be made clear at the outset. False preticketing--the practice of marking merchandise with a price higher than that for which it is intended--is unlawful.
decision calculus models
    - The quantitative models of a process that are calibrated by examining subjective judgments about outcomes of the process (e.g., market share or sales of a firm) under a variety of hypothetical scenarios (e.g., advertising spending level, promotion expenditures). Once the model linking process outcomes to marketing decision variables has been calibrated, it is possible to derive an optimal marketing recommendation (Little 1970; Chakravarthi, Mitchell, and Staelin 1981; Little and Lodish 1981). Examples for advertising decisions include ADBUDG, ADMOD, and MEDIAL. Examples for overall brand/product decisions are BRANDAID and STRATPORT. Examples for sales force decisions include CALLPLAN and DETAILER.
See also: advertising models, decision support system, marketing mix models, resource allocation models,

decision making, consumer
    - 1. (consumer behavior definition) The process of selecting from several choices, products, brands, or ideas. The decision process may involve complex cognitive or mental activity, a simple learned response, or an uninvolved and uninformed choice that may even appear to be stochastic or probabilistic, i.e., occurring by chance. 2. (consumer behavior definition) The process by which consumers collect information about choice alternatives and evaluate those alternatives in order to make choices among them.
decision variables, marketing
    - These correspond to the major marketing functions that influence revenue and profit. They are summarized in the well-known four P's: product, price, promotion, and place (distribution). Other marketing decision variables may include service policies, credit, and so forth.
demand
    - 1. (economic definition) A schedule of the amounts that buyers would be willing to purchase at a corresponding schedule of prices, in a given market at a given time. 2. (business executive definition) The number of units of a product sold in a market over a period of time.
demographics
    - The study of total size, sex, territorial distribution, age, composition, and other characteristics of human populations; the analysis of changes in the make-up of a population.
demography
    - 1. (economic definition) The study of people in the aggregate, including population size, age, sex, income, occupation, and family lifecycle. 2. (consumer behavior definition) The study of population characteristics such as age distribution, income, death rate, etc.
department store
    - A retail establishment that carries several lines of merchandise, such as women's ready-to-wear and accessories, men’s and boys' clothing, piece goods, small wares, and home furnishings, all of which are organized into separate departments for the purpose of promotion, service, accounting, and control. For Census purposes, it is an establishment normally employing 25 or more people and engaged in selling some items in each of the following lines of merchandise: furniture, home furnishings, appliances, radio and TV sets, a general line of apparel for the family, household linens, and dry goods. An establishment with total sales of less than $10,000,000 in which sales of any one of these groupings is greater than 80 percent of total sales is not classified as a department store.
differential advantage
    - 1. (product development definition) A property of any product that is able to claim a uniqueness over other products in its category. To be a differential advantage, the uniqueness must be communicable to customers and have value for them. The differential advantage of a firm is often called its distinctive competences. 2. (economic definition) An ad-vantage unique to an organization; an advantage extremely difficult to match by a competitor.
See also: competitive advantage, distinctiveness, product differentiation,

diffusion of innovation
    - The process by which the use of an innovation is spread within a market group, over time and over various categories of adopters.
See also: adopter categories

direct marketing
    - 1. (retailing definition) A form of nonstore retailing in which customers are exposed to merchandise through an impersonal medium and then purchase the merchandise by telephone or mail. 2. (channels of distribution definition) The total of activities by which the seller, in effecting the exchange of goods and services with the buyer, directs efforts to a target audience using one or more media (direct selling, direct mail, telemarketing, direct-action advertising, catalog selling, cable selling, etc.) for the purpose of soliciting a response by phone, mail, or personal visit from a prospect or customer.
direct selling
    - 1. (sales definition) A marketing approach that involves direct sales of goods and services to consumers through personal explanation and demonstrations, frequently in their home or place of work. 2. (retailing definition) The process whereby the firm responsible for production sells to the user, ultimate consumer, or retailer without intervening middlemen.

119

BBA Discussion Forum / Marketing Definitions & Glossary (Part-3)

« on: August 30, 2015, 12:17:54 PM »

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.
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.
behavior
    - The overt acts or actions of consumers that can be directly observed.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
See also: advertised brand, brand extension, brand generic, brand image, brand name, brand personality, branded merchandise, branding, individual, branding, line family, competitive brands, distributor\'s brand, family brand, fighting brand, flanker brand, generic,

brand choice
    - The selection of one brand from a set of alternative brands.
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.
See also: family brand and 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 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.
See also: brand indifference and brand switching

brand name
    - 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 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.
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.
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.
See also: mixed bundling, multiple-unit pricing and price bundling,

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.
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 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.
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).
See also: purchasing power

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.

120

BBA Discussion Forum / Marketing Definitions & Glossary (Part-2)

« on: August 30, 2015, 12:17:20 PM »

after-market
    - The potential future sales generated by owners of equipment for repair and replacement parts.
agency theory
    - A theory of the firm that seeks to explain corporate activities as arising out of the natural conflicts between the principals (stockholders) and agents (managers) of a firm.
antitrust laws
    - Federal antitrust policy is set forth in four laws: the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Clayton Act, the Federal Trade Commission Act, and the Robinson-Patman Act. These laws are negative in character and outlaw restraints of trade, monopolizing, attempting to monopolize, unfair methods of competition, and, where they may substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly, price discrimination, exclusive dealing, and mergers.
area of dominant influence (ADI)
    - The geographic area surrounding a city in which the broadcasting stations based in that city account for a greater share of the listening or viewing households than do broadcasting stations based in other nearby cities.
assortment
    - 1. (retailing definition) The range of choice offered to the consumer within a particular classification of merchandise. In terms of men's shirts, for example, it is the range of prices, styles, colors, patterns, and materials that is available for customer selection. 2. (retailing definition) The range of choice among substitute characteristics of a given type of article. 3. (channels of distribution definition) A combination of similar and/or complementary products that, taken together, have some definite purpose for providing benefits to specific markets.
attraction model
    - A market share model that predicts a particular brand's market share as the quotient of that brand's "attraction" divided by the sum of the "attraction" level for all brands in the market. The attraction level for a brand is often in turn expressed as a function of customer characteristics, the marketing mix, and the competitive environment. Conditions under which an attraction model can be expected to hold have been described by Bell, Keeney, and Little (1975).
attribution theory
    - A theory, or group of several theories, stemming from Heider's (1958) belief in the importance of understanding individuals' "naive theories" of causality. Attribution theory assumes that individuals attempt to understand their environments in an analytical fashion, arriving at explanations of causality through a fairly logical process. Kelly (1967, 1972) provided an influential elaboration of the process by which individuals infer causality. Based on this, attribution theory suggests that individuals make inferences of causality based on the extent to which events co-vary across individuals, situations, and over time.
augmented product
    - This is the view of a product that includes not only its core benefit and its physical being, but adds other sources of benefits such as service, warranty, and image. The augmented aspects are added to the physical product by action of the seller, e.g., with company reputation or with service.
average cost per unit
    - Total cost, i.e., the sum of fixed costs and variable costs at a given level of output, divided by the number of units.
average-cost pricing
    - A practice of adding a "fair" or "reasonable" markup to the average cost of a product.