Marketing is Full Of Jargon. What Do All The Words and Terminology Mean? If You Are Perplexed By Jargon This Marketing Dictionary Explains Marketing Terminology.
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This is the beginning of our dictionary project, more words are being added every day.
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Marketing Dictionary – A
Advertising
A persuasive means of communicating with consumers to encourage the purchase or use of specific (often commercial) products or services.
Three types of advertising
Above the fold
Originally used to denote the upper half of a newspaper. Ie the section seen when the paper was folded in half.
today it is also used to describe the content of online content that is seen before scrolling down. The actual amount of space depends on the size of the screen so the meaning is now quite flexible.
Advertisement
An announcement or notice, usually consisting of words and /or images, to promote a service or product to potential customers.
There are essentially three types of advertising, brand, sales and relationship building.
Askimet
A WordPress plugin that checks comments. contact form messages and trackbacks against its databases to filter out spam.
Marketing Dictionary – B
B2B
Business to Business. A term to describe a busienss that provides services or sells products to other businesses.
B2C
Business to Consumer. A term to describe a business that trades with end users consumers rather than other businesses or middle men.
Banner Ad
A term taken from early print newspaper advertising. An advert that appears at the top of the page. In digital terms it is an advert that appears at the top of the screen in the headline position.
Brand
A company’s brand isn’t, as often thought, a logo, name or design symbol. It’s actually the customers/consumers perception of a company. A new logo doesn’t rebrand a business!
Marketing Dictionary – C
Cold Calling
Cold calling is normally associated with the unsolicited phone calls but is often loosely used to describe unsolicited approaches via many other media.
Unsolicited or cold calling is a controversial topic with many cold callers insisting that sales would collapse without it and others describing it in very negative terms as a pervasive and intrusive sales technique that has no place in contemporary marketing.
Governments in many countries have brought in legislation to control cold calling. Many phones have a block feature and apps such as TrueCaller are available to flag up “spam” calls before they are answered.
Content
Content normally refers to the content of blogs, webpages, and other written material either online or offline. Ie it is the copy contained within these mediums.
Content is an important concept when we consider SEO, where indexed content is used to provide the search engine results following a search. Though over 200 factors are considered in indexing and delivering the results, arguably content is one of the most important. It is argued that thin content is less likely to provide good search engine results as it does not contain enough information. Though the content should be concise it needs to contain sufficient data to provide a meaningful result.
CTR (Click Through Rate)
CTR is a metric used in online advertising and is the percentage of viewers that click through from the advert to the targeted web page, video, lead magnet or whatever is the desired advertising outcome.
Marketing Dictionary – D
Data mining
The process of obtaining information from a database. In most cases this is a database owned by the company concerned but may also refer to moning data from sources not owned by the busienss owner. E.g mining data from publicly owned databases displayed on websites etc.
Deceptive Advertising
Advertising with the aim to deceive is illegal in some countries and unethical in all countries.
Deceptive advertising is when the advert is designed to deceive or deceives without being designed to do so. For example, relevant caveats and criteria that changes context may be missed out.
For example, this advert on a store wall facing the car park makes it clear that there is a sale with 50% of. It sounds like there are some bargains to be had. But if you look very carefully, there is a caveat “hidden” in the number 5. It says “up to”! So most hings could have no discount whatsoever or a small discount. It only needs one item in the whole store to be sold at 50% discount to be in the sale .. .in fact, does it even need to be available as it doesn’t promise a single item at 50% discount?
Deceptive Packaging
Packaging that is designed to deceive the consumer into thinking the pack size or contents are bigger than they really are. For example a large box or bottle may contain a small amount of product. But the larger container is designed to make the consumer believe they are getting more product than they do.
Another example is where a clear package uses a label to hide an empty space. The consumer sees a large piece of say, fish, in the prepacked supermarket plastic package and assumes the fish continues under a cardboard outer or paper label when it doesn’t.
Other forms of deceptive packaging are used to imply the product is of a much higher quality than it really is.
Deceptive Pricing
Where goods are priced in a deception way to mislead the customer. Eg. Pack pricing may look attractive but when coupled with deceptive packaging it may hide the true price per standard unit. Ie the price per kilo or whatever may be exorbitant.
Another example is where the price is quoted per 100g when most other packs are quoted as price per kg. The tenfold difference can hide a multitude of price increases.
Marketing Dictionary – E
Editorial calendar
A schedule that shows when different features or items will be published in a print publication or online.
It can be used to encourage advertisers to run ads alongside it or as a planning tool for editors and content writers.
Some websites use plugins that carry the planned editorial and will automatically print it on a given day if required.
Electronic Mail. Email can be free or paid for. For example Hotmail, Google and others are free forms of email supported by advertising ort other means. There are also paid-for versions of several of these. Plus there are paid-for versions of autoresponders than are used to send bulk email to lists.
Email is one of the marketing platforms that is often ignored as very viable free marketing tool. It is also one of the platforms that is too frequently poorly used and overused and can result in spam.
Marketing Dictionary – F
Fairtrade Movement
The Fairtrade movement organisation ensuring first world countries give third world countries a fair deal for produce and goods. It’s about sustainable and equitable trade relationships and outlets being recognised as trading under the Fairtrade banner.
Coffee is one of the primary fairtrade goods recognised in the UK. Outlets serving Fairtrade coffee often display the Fairtrade logo and are sought by consumers. Some towns are awarded Fairtrade Town status, though it has to be said that the majority of people in my nearest Fairtrade town don’t understand what the criteria are!
First to Market
The first to market a product or service gains a competitive edge on its competitors.
Marketing Dictionary – G
Geocoding
The process where locations, normally physical address, are divided by area such a postcode, road, suburb, town, city, county or region.
Marketing Dictionary – H
Haptic
Haptic relates to touch, motion and the perception of an object or product associated with them. Eg. the weight of a product may infer quality. The vibration function on many phones is also a haptic quality.
Headline
The heading at the top of an advert, page, article, post, etc.
Headlines are normally used to encapsulate and/or describe the content that follows.
Sub heads are lower level headlines that occur in a subservient position. They elaborate or expand on the main headline and are used to break the main content in to smaller sections or ideas.
H tag
H tags are used in HTML code to indicate where a headline or sub head is placed. It is code that tells the web browser that an item is a headline and where to place it. It is amended by tags that indicate the position in the horizontal position eg align centre, align left, align right; and by italic and /or bold tags.
There are six H tags named H1, H2 etc. H1 is considered to be the most important and is used as the title tag for a page. Only one H1 tag should be used. There is no effective limit on the number of other H tags that can be used on a single page.
Marketing Dictionary – I
Image
- A graphical depiction of something, often used in photography but can also apply to other forms such as line drawings, artwork, scans etc.
- In personal terms, an individual may wish to create an image for themselves based on their words, actions and/or inactions.
Marketing Dictionary – J
Jingle
A short memorable soundtrack, usually of music or song, that accompanies a radio or podcast introduction, advert or similar. Jingles act like a sound-based brand or branding.
Marketing Dictionary – K
Keyword
Keyword and keyword phrases are the words that people search for when using search engines. They are therefore important in SEO (search engine optimisation) to ensure online information on pages or posts is easy to find.
Marketing Dictionary – L
Life Time Value (LTV)
LTV relates to individual clients or business and relates top the total value of business doe with them over a “lifetime”. Lifetime is sometimes ambiguous and can relate to the a previous period or an expected lifetime of transactions.
LTV, is often considered when transacting business with a customer for the first time. Favourable terms may be given because of an expected LTV.
The caveat here is that there is no certainty that more transactions will take place unless they are contracted. Favourable terms might therefore be offered and no follow up orders received.
LTV is however an interesting concept if viewed historically. For example the average value of all clients might be £1000 but we can see that 20% continue to trade with us after the initial term and they have an average LTV of £3000. LTV can then, with caveats, be used as a planning tool.
Logo
A graphic, or sometimes sound, that represents or reminds us of a business.
Marketing Dictionary – M
Mailshot
A mailing consisting of promotional material (collateral) sent to prospective consumers, usually with the aim to inform or sell.
Marketing Dictionary – N
Niche
A market niche is a specific segment that can be focused on. For example, my main market is the education sector, from pre-schools to universities. But my niche is further education (FE).
Marketing Dictionary – O
Outsourcing
To use another business to undertake certain work. Certain business functions such as accounts, payroll or marketing may be outsourced. Marketing departments might outsource their web design, SEO, advertising or other functions.
Marketing Dictionary – P
PPC (Pay Per Click)
Online advertising that is only paid for should someone click on the CTA (Call To Action) in the advert. Google was one of the first to offer PPC in a big way and if the ads are run correctly it is very effective.
The percentage of people clicking through is referred to as the CTR (Click Through Rate).
Price
The price equates to the value something commands in a market, it’s determined by what someone will pay/exchange in return for a given service or goods. This is often seen as a monetary exchange but need not be. It could equally as well equate to the value in terms of barter, inconvenience etc.
Price can be determined in a number of other ways and expressed through day or hourly rates, value based pricing etc.
Ultimately the price is determined by what someone will pay for something. All else is vanity pricing.
Pricing
The process of determining and setting the price of goods or services.
Pricing Strategies
Price is, in many senses, an arbitrary figure. In reality price is only determined by what someone has paid for a product or service. And that immediately becomes a historical price and doesn’t necessarily determine the price the next person will pay.
There are however a number of pricing strategies people use to fix the asking price for goods and services.
* Pile it high and sell it cheap pricing
This works well in some cases and companies such as Woolworths launched retail empires using this strategy. However, Woolworths went bust so its a strategy we should be cautious about. Certainly low prices attract some people but the problem is there are always others that think they can undersell the lowest price. Often this results in both companies going bust!
* Premium Pricing Strategy
A premium pricing strategy is the opposite of the pile it high and sell cheap strategy. It relies on the brand being strong and there being scarcity or other metrics such as perceived quality in play. This provides a strong competitive advantage and is the strategy that brought brands such as Rolls Royce, Porsche and Gillette to the fore.
* Convenience Pricing Strategies
With time at a premium, people are often prepared to pay a premium for convenience. Companies such as Harrys have used this strategy so that men can buy razors online and have them delivered to their homes, hence cutting out the hassle of buying razors.
Amazon have adopted similar model whereby “essentials” can be put on repeat order and delivered to your home on a regular basis, so you never run out.
Click and collect works in a similar “convenience” manner as does home delivery as adopted by many UK supermarkets.
Covid 19 saw a surge in this type of sales strategy.
All of the above rely on convenience pricing strategies that include “free” delivery, priced delivery slots and delivery passes.
* Penetration Pricing Strategies
Penetration pricing relies on artificially low pricing to break into a market, followed by a later price hike once market share is built.
* Early to Market Pricing Strategy
When a company is the only supplier it can price high to recoup research, development and initial marketing costs. This continues until such a time as they command that market. Once other suppliers come into the market they then need to cut prices OR maintain them at a premium price.
* Value-Based Pricing Strategies
Value based pricing relies on the supplier and buyer agreeing the value tha tsay, consultancy, will bring to the buyer and establishing price around that figure.
For example if the consultant can see a way of increasing a company’s profits or production figures and they agree that this will bring in an extra £1m they could fix the fee at say 10%. This means the consultant is paid £100,000 for their advice.
Companies often want some form of guarantee written into this type of agreement and the seller wants a guarantee that their advice will be followed. Trust and a good contract can overcome these issues.
Josiah Wedgwood was a pricing strategy genius. His strategy is related to the Trickle-down effect seen in fashion, the Coase Conjecture and Celebrity Endorsement.
Prospect
A prospect is someone that shows promise that they will become a customer. Qualified prospects fulfil certain objective criteria that indicates a high probability that they will become buyers.
Marketing Dictionary – Q
Quantitative research
Research based around hard facts and data that can be measured in firm numbers It can be used to quantify hard and soft factors from numbers of buyers for a product or service to buyers attitudes etc.
The four types of quantitative research are Descriptive, Correlational, Causal-Comparative/Quasi-Experimental, and Experimental Research.
Marketing Dictionary – R
Relationship marketing
A form of marketing that focuses on developing long term relationships with prospects and customers in the belief that it encourages sales and repeat sales. Relationship marketing encourages prospects and customers to provide their contact details and allow an ongoing dialogue that might include emails, surveys mailshots etc. The business will often endeavour to provide Value in Advance. Relationship Advertising is one of the three types of advertising.
ROI
Return on investment (ROI) is a measure of financial or other return on an investment and is normally measured as a percentage. Eg the advert gave us a 500% ROI.
Marketing Dictionary – S
Search engine
An online programme such as Google Search that searches an index of information to produce relevant answers to questions posed by the searcher. The words or phrases used to perform the search are called keywords.
Scroll
To use the scroll wheel or other device to move up or down through text or displayed items on a page.
Marketing Dictionary – U
Unique visitor
Website Analytics measures unique visitors who are individuals that visit the site on one or more occasions. This is not the same as visitors where the total number of visits is recorded. The weakness inherent in unique visitors is that if two people visit from the same IP address they are likely to be treated as one visitor by the analytics package.
Marketing Dictionary – V
Value in Advance
Prospects often require proof that a seller is credible and authoritative. Therefore it makes sense to provide them with value in advance of purchase as a way to convince them. This might include emailed advice, the writing of articles and posts as well as podcasts etc. All enable the prospect to get value in advance and be able to judge that value.
Marketing Dictionary – W
Wanamaker
John Wanamaker was an early advertising practitioner who allegedly said that half his advertising wasn’t working but the didn’t know which half.
Marketing Dictionary – X
XML markup language
XML is a markup language that allows documents to be both machine read and also be human-readable. This is useful when you want a document on a website to be indexed by search engines. PDF docs are notoriously hard for machines to read as they are effectively photographic images of content. It is possible to make PDFs machine-readable but this requires enhanced structural element. XML overcomes this problem.
Marketing Dictionary – Y
YouTube
YouTube is an online video sharing site where individuals and businesses can upload video for viewing by others. YouTube is the Google owned and is effectively the second largest search engine in the world, after Google search itself.
Marketing Dictionary – Z
Zero Cost Marketing
In a world where marketing is often regarded as very expensive, it’s great to know that there are hundreds of free or zero cost marketing tactics and platforms. From email and social media to phone calls and SEO, the range of zero cost marketing is huge.
