F

Facelift
a minor product change with little or no change to the rest of the marketing mix or target market

Family brand name
a brand name used for all products in a range

Features
attributes of a product which may or may not confer a customer benefit

Fighter brands
low-cost manufacturers’ brands introduced to combat own-label brands

Flanking attack
attacking geographical areas or market segments where the defender is poorly represented

Flanking defence
the defence of a hitherto unprotected market segment

Focus group
a group of 6–8 consumers brought together for a discussion focusing on an aspect of a company’s marketing

Focused marketing
a market coverage strategy where a company decides to target one market segment with a single marketing mix

Focused targeting
Competing in one segment only (also known as niche targeting)

Folder techniques
a press advertising pre-testing method in which proposed advertisements are placed in a folder of competing displays in order to test unaided recall

Foreign consumer culture positioning
positioning a brand as associated with a specific foreign culture (e.g. Italian fashion)

Foreign direct investment (FDI)
investment in a foreign-based assembly or manufacturing facility

FRAC
stands for frequency, recency, amount and category and forms the transactional information on a customer’s purchases in a direct marketing database

Franchising
a form of licensing where a package of services (including product and trade name) is offered by the franchiser to the franchisee in return for payment

Freephone
a special telephone number which customers can call without incurring any expense

Frontal attack
a competitive strategy where the challenger takes on the defender head-on

Full cost pricing
pricing so as to include all costs and based on certain sales volume assumptions

Full-service marketing departments
departments which show a high degree of integration of marketing functions, control or influence all marketing decisions