Below you will find a list of 20 commonly used phrases in SNHU's undergrad Marketing courses. If you have questions about your marketing assignments, please join the Marketing and Business Office Hours session. See the schedule linked at the bottom of this page.
Marketing Vocabulary List:
- 4 Ps of Marketing/Marketing Mix: The foundational framework that helps marketers develop a plan to promote goods or services. The four Ps are: product, price, place, and promotion.
- Example: Product- organic, human-grade pet food. Price- priced to reflect higher quality and local ingredients, signifying status. Place- farmers markets, local pet shops, e-commerce via Whole Foods (places that attract organic shoppers). Promotion- in-store promotions with pet stores and farmers markets, ads in natural magazines, and flyers mailed to areas with high concentrations of organic/natural shoppers.
- Advertising: A targeted and paid message from a company to influence public behavior, attitudes, and awareness about its brand. Advertisements appear in various media, including digital, print, and outdoor.
- Example: A local restaurant pays influencers to create a video of them dining at the establishment, with the hope of attracting more guests.
- Brand Awareness: The extent to which consumers recognize a brand, ranked in one of the four following stages: unaware, aware, familiar, and top-of-mind.
- Example: A sunscreen company with a recognizable logo, scent, commercial jingle, and billboard ad can move sun-seekers from unaware to top-of-mind by providing a consistent and recognizable brand package.
- Buying Journey: Consists of three central stages: awareness, consideration, and decision.
Example: A fan who is watching a football game thinks, “I’d like a jersey with that player's name on it, that is the awareness stage. Next, they search a variety of sporting goods stores to compare visual appeal, the consideration stage. Finally, they purchase the jersey that fits their preferences and budget needs after seeing strong reviews and customer photos during the decision-making phase.
- Customer Lifetime Value: The total projected revenue that a single customer earns for a business for their entire relationship. Formula: CLV (the average purchase cost) x (number of transactions) x (consumer lifespan amount).
- Example: If a customer purchases a subscription box for $20 per month and stays for 2 years, the equation would be 20 x 12 x 2 = $480
- Customer Retention: The percentage of customers that are going from first-time buyers to remaining loyal to one brand over time, without switching to a competitor. This is determined by dividing the number of repeat customers by the total number of customers over a specified period.
Example: An at-home coffee brand achieves 60% customer retention after new customers make their first purchase of ground beans.
- Data life cycle: A Process in which marketers collect data to offer insights into consumer behavior and attitudes. The data lifecycle varies by company, but typically follows a pattern of collection, processing, analysis, activation, retention, and deletion.
- Example: Purchases are tracked via an app (collection), the company organizes and stores this data, so it is usable (processing), trends are discovered (analysis), a targeted marketing campaign is launched (activation), success or failure is reviewed (retention), and data is disposed of in compliance with laws (deletion).
- Demographics: The Practice of placing consumers into groups based on statistical qualifiers such as education, gender, occupation, family status, age, and income, to help marketers run effective campaigns.
Example: Reinforced knee pants are being promoted to working-class parents of toddlers and school-age children, who value affordability and durability.
- Geographics: A form of market segmentation that divides customers into groups based on location, such as climate, city, state, and country. This form of segmentation enables companies to tailor their messaging to local preferences.
Example: A sporting goods company promoting skiing gear in cold mountainous regions vs surfboards in beachside cities.
- Impressions: A measure of advertisement visibility displayed in a potential customer viewing area. Impressions do not include any form of engagement; they only represent the number of times an ad was viewed or displayed.
- Example: A banner ad for TV installation running on an electronic retailer’s website, viewed 1,500 times per day.
- KPI: Key Performance Indicator. Quantifiable value that is used to track if an organization, individual, or team is meeting their specific goals.
- Example: “Achieve a growth rate of 8% by the end of Q1 through opening our new location.”
- Marketing Campaign: The set of strategic and coordinated promotional activities launched to bring awareness, generate leads and sales, and retain customers by a marketing team. Campaigns use specific goals and aligned channels to guide customers through a buying journey.
Example: A landscaping company airs humorous “spring clean-up” radio and television ads each spring, offering a coupon code for new customers, aligning with seasonal consumer needs.
- Persona: A semi-fictitious representation of a company’s most likely individual customer, that is more specific than a target market and is based on demographic and psychographic data.
- Example: Tee M., 32 years old, female, Atlanta, GA, with a bachelor’s degree, single, earning $85k yearly, values self-sufficiency and mental wellness, often makes purchases via social media after conducting extensive research.
- Product Differentiation: The process of distinguishing a product or service as different from its competition by showcasing whatever details will make it most attractive to a specific audience.
Example: A video game console advertising its portability (in comparison to other consoles) to teens and college-age adults to showcase that even when busy, you do not have to sacrifice quality or convenience.
- Psychographics: The Practice of placing consumers in groups based on psychological qualities such as attitudes, interests, belief systems, and lifestyles, to help marketers run effective campaigns.
Example: A digital photo frame targeted toward empty nesters and grandparents who value connection yet live far from their family members.
- Return on Investment: The total net profit returned to a company after the cost of investment, showing if the investment was effective. Formula: ROI = (Profit – investment cost) / investment x 100.
- Example: If a subscription box company spends $1,000 on TikTok posts, which generates $2,400 in revenue, the ROI would be 2,400-1,000/ 1,000 x 100= 140% ROI.
- Sales funnel: A visual roadmap, represented by a funnel image, depicting a consumer journey from general awareness to brand loyalty. The funnel is broken into four stages, and depending on a customer’s location within the funnel, marketing decisions can be made to move them toward loyalty, the final stage.
- Example: Offering a 15% off coupon to a customer who has not purchased an item from a wellness shop in over six months.
- Segmentation: Division of the potential consumer market into smaller groups (segments) with shared traits that allows companies to use marketing tactics that will resonate most with each group. These groups are categorized by demographic, geographic, behavioral, or psychographic characteristics.
- Example: A ticketing website segments event-goers behaviorally based on previous ticket purchases, and sends that group event preview emails to let them know of upcoming ticket sales in their area.
- SEO: Search Engine Optimization is the process of driving increased traffic to a company's website by attempting to ensure that the company is shown first, or at least primarily, in a consumer search engine results list.
- Example: A local golf course adding keywords such as “affordable golfing packages” and “driving range reservations” to their meta tags to outrank competitors.
- Target Market: The most likely group of customers to purchase a business product or service. Members of the target market share characteristics such as lifestyle, location, age, or income.
- Example: A rechargeable lawnmower sale targeting suburban upper-class homeowners who have a habit of purchasing environmentally conscious products.
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