Chapter 3 Flashcards
Environmental Scanning
The process of collecting information about forces in the marketing environment.
Environmental Analysis
The process of assessing and interpreting the information gathered through environmental scanning.
Competition
Other organizations that market products that are similar to or can be substituted for a marketer’s products in the same geographic area.
Brand Competitors
Firms that market products with similar features and benefits to the same customers at similar prices.
Product Competitors
Firms that compete in the same product class but market products with different features, benefits, and prices.
Generic Competitors
Firms that provide very different products that solve the same problem or satisfy the same basic customer need.
Total Budget Competitors
Firms that compete for the limited financial resources of the same customers.
Monopoly
A competitive structure in which an organization offers a product that has no close substitutes, making that organization the sole source of supply.
Oligopoly
A competitive structure in which a few sellers control the supply of a large proportion of a product.
Monopolistic Competition
A competitive structure in which a firm has many potential competitors and tries to develop a marketing strategy to differentiate its product.
Pure Competition
A market structure characterized by an extremely large number of sellers, none strong enough to significantly influence price or supply.
Business Cycle
A pattern of economic fluctuations that has four stages: prosperity, recession, depression, and recovery.
Prosperity
A stage of the business cycle characterized by low unemployment, and relatively high total income, which together ensure high buying power (provided the inflation rate stays low).
Recession
A stage of the business cycle during which unemployment rises and total buying power declines, stifling both consumer and business spending.
Depression
A stage of the business cycle when unemployment is extremely high, wages are very low, total disposable income is at a minimum, and consumers lack confidence in the economy.
Recovery
A stage of the business cycle in which the economy moves from recession or depression toward prosperity.
Buying Power
Resources, such as money, goods, and services, that can be traded in an exchange.
Income
For an individual, the amount of money received through wages, rents, investments, pensions, and subsidy payments for a given period.
Disposable Income
After-tax income.
Discretionary Income
Disposable income available for spending and saving after an individual has purchased the basic necessities of food, clothing, and shelter.
Wealth
The accumulation of past income, natural resources, and financial resources.
Willingness to Spend
An inclination to buy because of expected satisfaction from a product, influenced by the ability to buy and numerous psychological and social forces.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
An agency that regulates a variety of business practices and curbs false advertising, misleading pricing, and deceptive packaging and labeling.
Better Business Bureau (BBB)
A system of nongovernmental, independent, local regulatory agencies supported by local businesses that helps settle problems between customers and specific business firms.
National Advertising Review Board (NARB)
A self-regulatory unit that considers challenges to issues raised by the National Advertising Division (an arm of the Council of Better Business Bureaus) about an advertisement.
Technology
The application of knowledge and tools to solve problems and perform tasks more efficiently.
Sociocultural Forces
The influences in a society and its culture(s) that change people’s attitudes, beliefs, norms, customs, and lifestyles.
Consumerism
Organized efforts by individuals, groups, and organizations to protect consumer’s rights.
