Maharashtra HSC Marketing & Retail Management (Vocational) flashcards

36 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Marketing

The process of identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs profitably through exchange, encompassing product, price, place and promotion decisions rather than selling alone.

Need, want and demand

A need is a felt deprivation; a want is that need shaped by culture and personality; demand is a want backed by ability and willingness to pay.

Marketing myopia

Defining a business by the product it makes instead of the customer need it satisfies, which causes firms to miss threats and opportunities from substitutes.

Marketing mix

The set of controllable tactical tools a firm blends to produce the response it wants in its target market, traditionally product, price, place and promotion.

Product levels

Three layers of an offering: the core benefit the buyer really seeks, the actual product with features and branding, and the augmented product with warranty and service.

Break-even quantity

The sales volume at which total revenue equals total cost, computed as fixed cost divided by the difference between unit price and unit variable cost.

Push versus pull promotion

Push directs promotion at channel members to stock and resell the product; pull directs promotion at end consumers to create demand that pulls the product through the channel.

Micro and macro environment

The micro environment covers close actors such as suppliers, intermediaries, customers and competitors; the macro environment covers broad demographic, economic, natural, technological, political-legal and socio-cultural forces.

Market segmentation

Dividing a heterogeneous market into smaller groups of buyers with similar needs or behaviour, using geographic, demographic, psychographic or behavioural variables, so each group can be served with a tailored offer.

Targeting strategies

The choice of how many segments to serve: undifferentiated (whole market), differentiated (several segments), concentrated (one niche) or micromarketing (local and individual level).

Positioning

Designing an offer and image so that it occupies a distinct, valued place in the target customer's mind relative to competing brands.

Buying decision process

The five stages a buyer passes through: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post-purchase behaviour; routine purchases may skip stages.

Cognitive dissonance

Post-purchase discomfort arising from doubt about whether the right choice was made; it increases with price and irreversibility and is eased by reassurance and after-sales contact.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

A five-level ordering of human motives: physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualisation, in which lower-level needs are generally satisfied before higher ones become active.

Buying roles

The distinct parts played in a purchase: initiator who first suggests it, influencer who shapes the choice, decider who authorises it, buyer who pays and user who consumes.

Selective perception

The tendency of consumers to notice, interpret and remember stimuli selectively; it appears as selective attention, selective distortion and selective retention, and explains why repeated consistent messages work.

Retailing

All activities involved in selling goods or services directly to final consumers for personal, non-business use, including sorting, breaking bulk and providing assortment and service.

Wheel of retailing

A theory holding that new retail formats enter as low-price, low-service outlets, then gradually add services and raise prices, leaving room for newer low-cost entrants.

Sales per square foot

A retail productivity measure computed as net sales divided by selling area, used to compare store and department performance and to assess space allocation.

Shrinkage

The gap between recorded book inventory and physical stock, caused by internal and external theft, supplier fraud and administrative or paperwork error.

Hypermarket

A very large retail format combining a full supermarket range with general merchandise, usually located at the edge of town with ample parking and low prices.

Category killer

A large specialty retailer offering an extremely deep assortment in one product category at competitive prices, which often displaces smaller specialist competitors.

Franchising

An arrangement in which the franchisor supplies brand, systems and training while the franchisee supplies capital and local management and pays fees or royalties.

Assortment breadth and depth

Breadth is the number of distinct product categories stocked; depth is the number of variants such as size, colour or brand offered within a category.

Planogram

A diagram specifying the exact placement, facings and shelf space of each product on a display, used to standardise layouts and check compliance.

Grid layout

A store layout of parallel aisles and shelving, typical of supermarkets, that maximises product exposure and shopping efficiency but offers limited browsing freedom.

Sell-through rate

The percentage of units received that are sold in a period, calculated as units sold divided by units available, used to trigger replenishment or markdown decisions.

Markup versus margin

Markup is profit as a percentage of cost; margin is profit as a percentage of retail price. The same rupee profit therefore gives different percentages on each basis.

Everyday low pricing

A pricing policy of holding consistently low shelf prices with few temporary promotions, instead of high base prices punctuated by frequent discounts.

SERVQUAL dimensions

Five dimensions used to judge service quality: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles, with reliability generally rated most important by customers.

Reorder point

The inventory level at which a new order is placed, calculated as average daily demand multiplied by lead time in days, plus a safety stock buffer.

Stock turnover

The number of times average inventory is sold in a period, computed as cost of goods sold divided by average inventory at cost; higher turnover means less capital tied up.

Bullwhip effect

The amplification of demand variability as orders move upstream in a supply chain, caused by forecasting from orders rather than end-customer sales and by batch ordering.

Omnichannel retail

An approach integrating store, website, app and marketplace around one inventory and one customer view, so shoppers can buy, collect and return through any channel.

Return on ad spend

Revenue generated by an advertising campaign divided by the campaign spend; it must exceed the reciprocal of gross margin for the campaign to be profitable.

Showrooming

The practice of examining a product in a physical store and then buying it online, often at a lower price from a different seller.