Definition list

1. Administered channel systems

various channel members informally agree to cooperate with each other.

2. Brokers

agent middlemen who specialize in bringing buyers and sellers together.

3. Cash-and-carry wholesalers

like service wholesalers, except that the customer must pay cash.

4. Catalog showroom retailers

stores that sell several lines out of a catalog and display showroom with backup inventories.

5. Chain store

one of several stores owned and managed by the same firm.

6. Channel of distribution

any series of firms or individuals who participate in the flow of goods and services from producer to final user or consumer.

7. Close

the salesperson's request for an order.

8. Containerization

grouping individual items into an economical shipping quantity and sealing them in protective containers for transit to the final destination.

9. Contractual channel systems

channel members agree by contract to cooperate with each other.

10. Convenience products

products a consumer needs but isn't willing to spend much time or effort shopping for.

11. Convenience store

a convenient place to shop—either centrally located near other shopping or "in the neighborhood."

12. Customer service level

how rapidly and dependably a firm can deliver what customers want.

13. Demand curve

a graph of the relationship between price and quantity demanded in a market—assuming that all other things stay the same.

14. Department stores

larger stores that are organized into many separate departments and offer many product lines.

15. Direct marketing

direct communication between a seller and an individual customer using a promotion method other than face-to-face personal selling.

16. Distribution center

special kind of warehouse designed to speed the flow of goods and avoid unnecessary storing costs.

17. Diversion in transit

redirection of railroad carloads already in transit.

18. Door-to-door selling

going directly to the consumer's home.

19. Dual distribution

when a producer uses several competing channels to reach the same target market.

20. Elastic demand

if prices are dropped, the quantity demanded will stretch enough to increase total revenue.

21. Elastic supply

the quantity supplied does stretch more if the price is raised.

22. Emergency products

products that are purchased immediately when the need is great.

23. Exclusive distribution

selling through only one middleman in a particular geographic area.

24. F.O.B.

a transportation term that means "free on board" some vehicle at some point.

25. Freight absorption pricing

absorbing freight cost so that a firm's delivered price meets the price of the nearest competitor's.

26. General merchandise wholesalers

service wholesalers who carry a wide variety of nonperishable items such as hardware, electrical supplies, plumbing supplies, furniture, drugs, cosmetics, and automobile equipment.

27. General stores

early retailers who carried anything they could sell in reasonable volume.

28. Gross margin (gross profit)

the money left to cover the expenses of selling the products and operating the business.

29. Gross national product (GNP)

the total market value of goods and services produced in a year.

30. Gross sales

the total amount charged to all customers during some time period.

31. Heterogeneous shopping products

shopping products that the customer sees as different—and wants to inspect for quality and suitability.

32. Homogeneous shopping products

shopping products that the customer sees as basically the same—and wants at the lowest price.

33. Hypermarket

very large store that tries to carry, not only foods, but all goods and services the consumer purchases routinely (also called superstore).

34. Intensive distribution

selling a product through all responsible and suitable wholesalers or retailers who will stock and/or sell the product.

35. Inventory

the amount of goods being stored.

36. Just-in-time delivery

reliably getting products to the customer just before the customer needs them.

37. Limited-function wholesalers

merchant wholesalers who provide only some wholesaling functions.

38. Limited-line stores

stores that specialize in certain lines of related products rather than a wide assortment—sometimes called single-line stores.

39. Logistics

the transporting and storing of goods so as to match target customers' needs with a firm's marketing mix—within individual firms and along a channel of distribution (i.e., another name for physical distribution).

40. Macro-marketing

a social process that directs an economy's flow of goods and services from producers to consumers in a way that effectively matches supply and demand and accomplishes the objectives of society.

41. Mail-order wholesalers

sell out of catalogs that may be distributed widely to smaller industrial customers or retailers.

42. Major accounts sales force

salespeople who sell directly to large accounts such as major retail chain stores.

43. Manufacturers' agents

agent middlemen who sell similar products for several noncompeting producers for a commission on what is actually sold.

44. Manufacturers' sales branches

separate businesses that producers set up away from their factories.

45. Market

a group of potential customers with similar needs and sellers offering various products—that is, ways of satisfying those needs or a group of sellers and buyers who are willing to exchange goods and/or services for something of value.

46. Market development

trying to increase sales by selling present products in new markets.

47. Merchant wholesalers

wholesalers who own (take title to) the products they sell.

48. Net profit

what the company has earned from its operations during a particular period.

49. Physical distribution (PD)

the transporting and storing of goods so as to match target customers' needs with a firm's marketing mix—within individual firms and along a channel of distribution.

50. Physical distribution (PD) concept

all transporting and storing activities of a business and a channel system should be coordinated as one system—which should seek to minimize the cost of distribution for a given customer service level.

51. Price

what is charged for "something."

52. Primary demand

demand for the general product idea, not just the company's own brand.

53. Production

actually making goods or performing services.

54. Promotion

communicating information between seller and potential buyer to influence attitudes and behavior.

55. Prospecting

following down all the "leads" in the target market to identify potential customers.

56. Psychographics

the analysis of a person's day-to-day pattern of living as expressed in his /Activities, /interests, and Opinions—sometimes referred to as AlOs or life-style analysis.

57. Public warehouses -

independent storing facilities.

58. Raw materials

unprocessed expense items—such as logs, iron ore, wheat, and cotton—that are handled as little as needed to move them to the next production process.

59. Retailing

all of the activities involved in the sale of products to final consumers.

60. Risk taking -

bearing the uncertainties that are part of the marketing process.

61. Sale price

a temporary discount from the list price.

62. Sales decline

a stage of the product life cycle when new products replace the old.

63. Sales forecast

an estimate of how much an industry or firm hopes to sell to a market segment.

64. Sales managers

managers concerned with managing personal selling.

65. Sales presentation

a salesperson's effort to make a sale.

66. Selective demand

demand for a specific brand rather than a product category.

67. Selective distribution

selling through only those middlemen who will give the product special attention.

68. Service

a deed performed by one party for another

69. Single-line (or general-line) wholesalers

service wholesalers who carry a narrower line of merchandise than general merchandise wholesalers.

70. Specialty wholesalers

service wholesalers who carry a very narrow range of products and offer more information and service than other service wholesalers.

71. Storing

the marketing function of holding goods.

72. Storing function

holding goods until customers need them.

73. Superstore

very large store that tries to carry, not only foods, but all goods and services the consumer purchases routinely (also called hypermarket).

74. Supplies

expense items that do not become a part of a finished product.

75. Supply curve

the quantity of products that will be supplied at various possible prices.

76. Target market

a fairly homogeneous (similar) group of customers to whom a company wishes to appeal.

77. Target marketing

a marketing mix is tailored to fit some specific target customers.

78. Telephone and direct-mail retailing

allows consumers to shop at home—usually placing orders by mail or a toll-free long distance telephone call and charging the purchase to a credit card.

79. Total cost

the sum of total fixed and total variable costs.

80. Trademark

those words, symbols, or marks that are legally registered for use by a single company.

81. Transporting

the marketing function of moving goods.

82. Transporting function

the movement of goods from one place to another.

83. Vertical integration

acquiring firms at different levels of channel activity.

84. Wheel of retailing theory

new types of retailers enter the market as low-status, low-margin, low-price operators and then—if they are successful—evolve into more-conventional retailers offering more services—with higher operating costs and higher prices.

85. Wholesalers

firms whose main function is providing wholesaling activities.

86. Wholesaling

the activities of those persons or establishments that sell to retailers and other merchants, and/or to industrial, institutional, and commercial users, but who do not sell in large amounts to final consumers.