end–of–chapter resources

Reviewing the Key Terms

advertising: Any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.
affordable method: Setting the promotion budget at the level management thinks the company can afford.
buyer-readiness stages: The stages consumers normally pass through on their way to purchase, including awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase.
buzz marketing: Cultivating opinion leaders and getting them to spread information about a product or service to others in their communities.
competitive-parity method: Setting the promotion budget to match competitors' outlays.
direct marketing: Direct connections with carefully targeted individual consumers to both obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships.
integrated marketing communications (IMC): The concept under which a company carefully integrates and coordinates its many communications channels to deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling message about the organization and its products.
marketing communications mix (promotion mix): The specific mix of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations a company uses to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives.
nonpersonal communication channels: Media that carry messages without personal contact or feedback, including major media, atmospheres, and events.
objective-and-task method: Developing the promotion budget by (1) defining specific objectives; (2) determining the tasks that must be performed to achieve these objectives; and (3) estimating the costs of performing these tasks. The sum of these costs is the proposed promotion budget.
percentage-of-sales method: Setting the promotion budget at a certain percentage of current or forecasted sales or as a percentage of the unit sales price.
personal communication channels: Channels through which two or more people communicate directly with each other, including face to face, person to audience, over the telephone, or through the mail.
personal selling: Personal presentation by the firm's sales force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships.
public relations: Building good relations with the company's various publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good "corporate image," and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories, and events.
pull strategy: A promotion strategy that calls for spending a lot on advertising and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand. If the strategy is successful, consumers will ask their retailers for the product, the retailers will ask the wholesalers, and the wholesalers will ask the producers.
push strategy: A promotion strategy that calls for using the sales force and trade promotion to push the product through channels. The producer promotes the product to wholesalers, the wholesalers promote to retailers, and the retailers promote to consumers.
sales promotion: Short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service.
word-of-mouth influence: Personal communication about a product between target buyers and neighbors, friends, family members, and associates.