Z94.5 - Distribution & Marketing

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PERCEPTION. The attachment of meaning to information received through the five senses.

PERCEPTUAL MAPPING. Methods for measuring consumer perceptions of a product relative to competitive products based on a given set of product attributes.

PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION. The process by which goods are moved from the manufacturer, through the various intermediaries on to the ultimate customer, including shipping, warehousing inventory control as well as order processing and customer service functions.

PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE. The practice of manufacturing products with a predictably limited life due to changes in styles and/or physical wear-out.

PLANT SITE SELECTION. Identification, measurement, and comparison of total costs for providing sets of goods or services to all buyers from existing and contemplated sources. Objectives of such analyses are to optimize total costs while maintaining appropriate customer service. Short term analyses are used to influence operating decisions (rescheduling and distribution); long term analyses are used to influence capital investment decisions (adding capacity within existing plants or establishment of new plants). 

POINT-OF-PURCHASE ADVERTISING. Displays, signs, and demonstrations which promote a product at a time and place close to the point of sale.

 POSITIONING. A marketing strategy which concentrates on a specific market segment by attempting to relate a  particular product to its competitors.

PREMIUM. A bonus given without charge when a product is purchased.

PRICE CUTTING. Offering merchandise or a service for sale at a price below that recognized as usual or appropriate by its buyers and sellers.   Comment.  One obvious criticism of this definition is that it is indefinite.  But that very indefiniteness also causes it to be more accurately descriptive of a concept which is characterized by a high degree of indefiniteness in the mind of the average person affected by price cutting.  Traders' ideas of what constitutes price cutting are so vague and indefinite that any precise or highly specific definition of the phenomenon is bound to fail to include all its manifes-tations.  If you ask a group of traders in a specific commodity to define price cutting, you will get as many conflicting formulas as there are traders.  But if you ask those same traders at any particular time whether selling at a certain price constitutes price cutting, you will probably get a considerable degree of uniformity of opinion.  It is precisely this condition which the definition is designed to reflect.

PRICE LEADER. A firm whose pricing behavior is generally followed by other companies in the same industry.  Comment.  The price leadership of a firm may be limited to a certain geographical area, as in the oil business, or to certain products or groups of products, as in the steel business.

PRIMARY DATA. Original information collected for a specific market research study.

PRIVATE BRANDS. Brands sponsored by merchants or agents as distinguished from those produced and distributed by manufacturers or producers.  Comment.  This usage is thoroughly illogical, since no seller wants his brand to be private in the sense of being secret and all brands are private in the sense that they are special and not common or general in use.  But the usage is common in marketing literature and among traders.  Therefore the Committee presents it in this report.

PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION. A distribution giving the chance of value x as a function of x; or more generally, the probability of joint occurrence of a set of variables x1,x2,...,xp as a function of those quantities. 

PRODUCERS' COOPERATIVE MARKETING. That type of cooperative marketing which primarily involves the sale of goods or services of the associated producing membership. May perform only an assembly or brokerage function but in some cases, notably milk marketing, extends into processing and distribution of the members' production.

PRODUCT ADVERTISING. Advertising whose major purpose is to sell a product.

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE. The stages a new product idea goes through from beginning to end.

PRODUCT LINE. A group of products that are closely related either because they satisfy a class of need, are used together, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through the same type of outlets or fall within given price ranges. Example, carpenters' tools.  Comment. Sub-lines of products may be distinguished, such as hammers or saws, within a Product Line

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT. The planning, direction, and control of all phases of the life cycle of products, including the creation or discovery of ideas for new products, the screening of such ideas, the coordination of the work of research and physical development of products, their packaging and branding, their introduction on the market, their market development, their modification, the discovery of new uses for them, their repair and servicing, and their deletion.  Comment.  It is not safe to think of Product Management as the work of the executive known as the Product Manager, because the dimensions of his/her job vary widely from company to company, sometimes embracing all the activities listed in the definition and sometimes being limited to the sales promotion of the products in his/her care.

PRODUCT MIX. The composite of products offered for sale by a firm or a business unit.  Comment.  Toothpaste is a product.  The 50 cent tube of toothpaste is an item.  Toothpastes and powders, mouthwashes, and other allied items compose an oral hygiene product line.  Soaps, cosmetics, dentifrices, drug items, cake mixes, shortenings and other items may comprise a product mix if marketed by the same company.

PRODUCT POTENTIAL. A class of studies designed to express the potential market for a product in such terms as the personal characteristics of individual consumers or the demographic characteristics of market areas.

 PRODUCT RECALL. Return of product to manufacturer or local dealer for reprocessing, repair, or destruction because of failure to meet specifications or due to a potential safety defect. 

PRODUCT OBJECTIVE. (OR PROFIT FORECAST) A goal set by product management for profit to be achieved on a specified item of merchandise or on an entire line, based upon a sales volume and price forecasts and a total cost analysis.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT. This includes the areas of project evaluation and scheduling plus project coordination and control.  Useful techniques in project management include the concepts of cash flow and present worth, decision tree analysis, critical resource analysis and critical path scheduling.

PROMOTIONAL ALLOWANCE. A grant of money made by a manufacturer to those in the distribution channel to help promote a product.

PROMOTION EVALUATION. A group of techniques designed to reveal the relative effectiveness of various promotion strategies and tactics which may include consideration of competitive activity. 

PROMOTIONAL PRICE. A price created specifically as part of a selling strategy, e.g., "Buy one and get one free." 

PUBLIC RELATIONS. The communications and other relationships a firm has with its various audiences (i.e., customers, stock holders, employees, government, and neighbors of the plant).

PULLING STRATEGY. A plan to build user demand for a product that distribution channels will be forced to meet.

PURCHASING POWER. (BUYING POWER) The capacity to purchase possessed by an individual buyer, a group of buyers, or the aggregate of the buyers in an area or a market.

PUSHING STRATEGY. A marketing method directed to the channels of distribution, rather than the end user.

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