C

Call frequency
the frequency with which a salesperson calls on a customer

Campaign
usually refers to a planned marketing or advertising activity designed to achieve certain commercial objectives

Campaign objectives
goals set by an organization in terms of e.g. sales, profits, customers won or retained or awareness creation

Cannibalization
a situation where a new brand gains sales at the expense of another of the company’s brands

Cash cows
high-share products in low-growth markets

Catalogue stores
retail outlets promoting their products through catalogues which are either posted or are available in the store for customers to take home

Category killer
retail outlets with a narrow product focus but with an unusually wide breadth and depth to that product range, for example Toys ‘ ’ Us

Category management
the management of brands in a group, portfolio or category with specific emphasis on the retail trade’s requirements

Cause-related marketing
the commercial activity by which businesses and charities or causes form a partnership with each other to market an image, good or service for mutual benefit

Centralization
in international marketing it is the global integration of international operations

Change master
a person who develops an implementation strategy to drive through organizational change

Channel integration
the way in which the players in the channel are linked together

Channel intermediaries
organizations which facilitate the distribution of products to customers

Channel of distribution
the means by which products are moved from the producer to the ultimate consumer

Channel strategy
the selection of the most effective distribution channel, the most appropriate level of distribution intensity and the degree of channel integration

Classical conditioning
the process of using an established relationship between a stimulus and a response to cause the learning of the same response to a different stimulus

Coercive power
power inherent in the ability to punish

Cognitive dissonance
definition required

Cognitive learning
the learning of knowledge and development of beliefs and attitudes without direct reinforcement

Commission
a method of payment based on the achievement of sales results and are usually expressed as a percentage of the value sold

Communications mix
advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity, public relations and direct marketing

Compensation
a form of exchange where payment involves using both goods and cash

Competencies
the skills and resources which a company has

Competitive advantage
a clear performance differential over competition on factors that are important to target customers

Competitive behaviour
the activities of rival companies with respect to each other. It can take five forms conflict, competition, coexistence, cooperation and collusion

Competitive scope
the breadth of a company’s competitive challenge, e.g. broad or narrow

Competitive strategy
the strategy a firm adopts in relation to the competition

Competitor analysis
an examination of the nature of actual and competitor analysis and their objectives and strategies

Competitor audit
a precise analysis of competitor strengths and weaknesses, objectives and strategies

Competitor targets
the competitors that the company chooses to compete against

Concession analysis
the evaluation of things that can be offered to someone in negotiation valued from the viewpoint of the receiver

Concession close
an attempt to convince an indecisive buyer to close a deal by offering a concession, e.g. a discount

Consultative selling
working with customers to discover their needs and work out an acceptable business solution

Consumer behaviour
the reasons why customers buy, their choice criteria, when, how and where they buy

Consumer decision-making process
the stages a consumer goes through when buying something, namely, problem awareness, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and post-purchase evaluation

Consumer panel
household consumers which provide information on their purchases over time

Consumer pull
the targeting of consumers with communications designed to create demand that will pull the product into the distribution chain

Continuous research
repeated interviewing of the same sample of people

Contractual joint venture
two or more companies form a partnership but no joint enterprise with a separate identity is formed

Contractual vertical marketing system
a franchise arrangement tying producers and resellers together

Control
the stage in the marketing planning process or cycle when the performance against plan is monitored and observed

Convenience stores
retail outlets offering customers the convenience of close location and long opening hours every day of the week

Core competencies
the principal distinctive capabilities possessed by a company – what it is really good at.

Core strategy
the means of achieving marketing objectives, including target markets, competitor targets and competitive advantage.

Corporate goals
the overall objectives of an entire organization

Corporate identity
the ethos, aims and values of an organization, presenting a sense of its individuality which helps to differentiate it from its competitors

Corporate plan
a document which contains the strategy for the corporate entity usually for a one-year time horizon

Corporate vertical marketing system
a channel situation where an organization gains control of distribution through ownership

Cost focus strategy
with this strategy a firm seeks a cost advantage with one or a small number of segments

Cost leadership
the achievement of the lowest cost position in an industry, serving many segments

Counteroffensive defence
a counterattack that takes the form of a head-on counterattack, an attack on the attacker’s cash cow or an encirclement of the attacker

Counterpurchase
the seller agrees to sell a product to a buyer and receives cash, subject to the seller buying goods from the buyer for all or part of the original amount

Countertrade
a method of exchange where not all transactions are concluded in cash; goods may be included as part of the asking piece

Country of origin
the country in which a product is substantially manufactured

Covert power play
the use of disguised forms of power tactics

Credit scoring
a system used by financial service and mail order companies to help predict credit or loan default rates based on customer profiles

Credit terms
the basis (usually the number of days delay in payment) on which goods are released to the customer before payment is received

Critical success factors
those factors which an organization needs to control if it is to succeed

Cross-selling
persuading an existing customer to buy another product from the company

Cultural distance
the degree to which norms and values or working methods between two companies differ because of their separate national characteristics

Custom targeting
treating each customer as a separate segment

Customer analysis
a survey of who the customers are, what choice criteria they use, how they rate competitive offerings and on what variables they can be segmented

Customer benefits
those things that a customer values in a product. Customer benefits derive from product features

Customer choice criteria
the criteria on the basis of which customers decide to buy or not to buy a product or service

Customer database
a system which records details about the organization’s customers

Customer satisfaction
the fulfilment of customers’ requirements or needs

Customer satisfaction measurement
a process through which customer satisfaction criteria are set, customers are surveyed and the results interpreted in order to establish the level of customer satisfaction with the organization’s product

Customer services
definition required

Customer value
perceived benefits minus perceived sacrifice

Customized marketing
the market coverage strategy where a company decides to target individual customers and develops separate marketing mixes for each