Entrepreneurial Small Business Chapter 9 - Small Business Marketing: Customers and Products

Tangibility

An item's capability of being touched, seen, tasted, or felt.

Total Product

The entire bundle of products, services, and meaning of your offering; includes extras like service, warranty, or delivery, as well as what the product means to the customer.

4 Ps of Marketing

The four major components of a marketing effort--product, price, promotion, and placement. Sometimes called the marketing mix.

Purchaser

A customer role that describes an individual or institution that pays for or obtains a product or service.

End User

A customer role that describes the person who eventually makes actual use of a product or service in his or her personal or work life.

Survey

A data-collection method using a questionnaire--in person, on phone, on paper, or on the internet.

Customer Profile

A detailed description of an archetypical or hypothetical potential customer for a product or service, also called a customer person.

Focus Group

A form of data gathering from a small group led by a moderator.

Long-Term Value (LTV)

A marketing concept that refers to the revenue (or profit) generated by one customer over his or her lifetime dealing with one firm. Higher long-term value is usually preferred.

Product

Anything that is offered to the market to satisfy consumer wants, needs, and demands (goods, services, people, ideas).

Augmented Product

Core product plus features that tend to differentiate it form the competition.

Ethnographic Research

Data gathering by simple observation--seeing what consumers do, rather than asking them.

Idea Evaluation

Exhaustive process of specifying the details of each idea's technological feasibility, its cost, how it can be marketed, and its market potential.

Services

Nonphysical products.

Goods

Physical products.

Me-Too Products

Products essentially similar to something already on the market.

Open-Ended Question

Question that allows respondents to express themselves as they choose; for example, "What do you like about this book?"

Customer Job

The term given to what a potential customer is trying to do--perform or complete some sort of task, solve some problem. or try to achieve some outcome. The target of the job is often the key to what a proposed product or service is intended to help.

Pivot

Typically, a term describing a change of direction in the thinking of an entrepreneur or a firm, often based on new data or other findings.

Influencer

A customer role describing a person or group who can make credible or recognized suggestions or recommendations to others regarding purchase choices.

Decision Maker

A customer role that describes a person in an organization who is responsible for choosing which product or service will be obtained.

Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM)

A marketing term (also called the target market) that represents the customers that a firm expects to be interested in its particular product or service, and able to be serviced by the firm.

Penetrated Market (PM)

A marketing term that describes the actual number of customers of an operating firm, divided by the size of the target market, which gives a percentage of the market the firm (or product/service) has attained so far.

Total Available Market (TAM)

A marketing term that refers to all of the people or organizations (in one nation, region, or the world) who might consider a product or service being offered.

Serviceable Available Market (SAM)

A marketing term that refers to the customers within the geographic reach of a firm.

Inseparability

A quality of a service in the which the service being done cannot be disconnected from the provider of the service.

Heterogeneity

A quality of a service in which each time it is provided it will be slightly different from the previous time.

Perishability

A service exhibits perishability in that if it is not used when offered, it cannot be saved for later use.

Budget Cycle

A term applied to the schedule and the process for setting the schedule for making purchases by an individual or an organization.

Primary Research

An approach to researching based on the gathering of new information, using techniques such as interviewing, surveying, and observation.

Secondary Research

An approach to researching based on the use of existing information, often from government, commercial, or academia databases and research efforts.

Dichotomous Question

Question that has only two possible choices; for example, "Have you shopped here before?"

Categorical Question

Question that is answered by selecting the proper category; for example, "What is your ethnicity? White, African American, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, Other."

Scalar Question

Question that is answered by some sort of scale, for example, "On a scale of 1 to 5, how do you like this book?"

Value Proposition

Small business owner's unique selling points (also known as benefits) that customers can expect from your goods or services, including benefits that differentiate your offering from those of the competition.

Marketing Research

Systematic collection and interpretation of data to support future marketing decisions.

Core Product

The basic description of what a product is--a bar of soap, a housecleaning service, and so on.

Outstanding Customer Service

The idea of "going all out" for the customer or providing over-the-top service, not just the basic help, professionalism, and friendliness we all expect in any business transaction; an employee or manager who is trying to make sure the customer walks away with an exceptional experience.

Prototype

The name given to the first model of a product or service. Some prototype may be functioning, but built in a way that no consumer would buy it (e.g., with exposed wires and sharp edges) but shows the product can do what is promised. Some prototypes are made to prove aspects of the idea and are seen as the first stop along the path of product/service creation.

Product Development Process

The procedure to organize and pursue the creation of new goods or services.

Customer Development Process

The procedure to organize and pursue the finding, obtaining, and keeping of new customers.

Commercialization

The process of making the new products ready for use by consumers by achieving standards of durability and performance suitable for the market and comparable to (if not better than) the competition.

Purchasing Process

The sequence of steps an individual or organization goes through in making a decision to buy a product or service.