CIM MAE cheat sheet

Needs are states of felt deprivation; wants are needs shaped by culture and personality; demand is wants backed by buying power.

Maslow's hierarchy ascends physiological, safety, social, esteem, self-actualisation; lower needs generally dominate until satisfied.

Buyer decision process: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, post-purchase behaviour including cognitive dissonance.

Perception filters: selective attention (screening stimuli), selective distortion (interpreting to fit beliefs), selective retention (remembering supportive information).

Reference groups and opinion leaders exert normative and comparative influence; membership, aspirational and dissociative groups differ by belonging.

Segment criteria: measurable, accessible, substantial, differentiable, actionable. Positioning is the place a brand occupies in the target's mind relative to rivals.

B2B demand is derived, inelastic in the short run, fluctuating, and involves fewer but larger buyers with professional purchasing and multiple influencers.

Adoption of innovations follows a normal curve: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards; relative advantage and compatibility speed diffusion.

Planning sequence: mission and objectives, situational audit (internal and external), SWOT synthesis, assumptions, strategy, tactics, budget, implementation, control.

SMART objectives: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound; a campaign brief converts them into target audience, proposition, channels, budget and evaluation.

SWOT is only useful when paired: strengths with opportunities (SO), weaknesses with threats (WT); otherwise it is a list, not analysis.

Budget methods: percentage of sales, competitive parity, objective-and-task, and affordability. Objective-and-task is the most defensible because it links spend to required outcomes.

Campaign control uses leading indicators (reach, clicks, engagement) and lagging indicators (sales, share, ROI); variance analysis compares actual against plan.

Marketing metrics: market share = own sales / total market sales; ROMI = (gross profit from campaign minus cost) / cost; CAC = total acquisition spend / new customers.

Critical path scheduling identifies the longest dependent task sequence; float is the slack available before a task delays the project.

Contingency planning sets trigger points and pre-agreed responses so deviations from plan are corrected within the control cycle.

Ansoff matrix: market penetration (existing product, existing market), product development, market development, diversification (highest risk).

Porter's generic strategies: cost leadership, differentiation, focus; being stuck in the middle yields no defensible advantage.

BCG matrix: stars (high growth, high share), cash cows (low growth, high share, fund others), question marks (invest or divest), dogs (harvest or exit).

Porter's five forces: supplier power, buyer power, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, rivalry; each shapes industry profitability.

Product life cycle: introduction, growth, maturity, decline; pricing shifts from skimming or penetration at launch to competitive pricing at maturity.

Break-even volume = fixed costs / (price minus variable cost per unit); contribution margin is price minus variable cost per unit.

Marketing orientation holds that achieving goals depends on knowing target needs and satisfying them better than competitors; production and selling orientations prioritise output and push.

Portfolio decisions weigh strategic fit, growth potential, cash generation and risk; divestment or harvesting can be the rational choice for low-fit units.

Owned media (website, email, social profiles), paid media (ads, sponsored content), earned media (press, shares, reviews) differ in control, cost and credibility.

AIDA maps content to attention, interest, desire, action; digital channels typically shorten the path from awareness to conversion.

Conversion rate = conversions / visitors; cost per acquisition = spend / conversions; email ROI depends on list quality and segmentation.

Search splits into organic (earned ranking) and paid search; SEO targets relevance, authority and technical accessibility, while PPC bids on intent.

Greenwashing is unsubstantiated or misleading environmental claims; credible claims are specific, verifiable and life-cycle based, not vague.

Triple bottom line evaluates performance across profit, people and planet; circular economy design keeps materials in use and cuts waste.

GDPR-style consent requires a lawful basis, clear purpose, data minimisation and the right to withdraw; marketing consent must be freely given and specific.

Sustainability messaging must avoid greenhushing (under-reporting) and greenlabelling (vague eco-labels); regulated claims need evidence held on file.