Glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

advertising:
Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor, using mass media to persuade or influence an audience.

advertising objective:
A specific communication task to be accomplished with a specific target audience during a specific period of time.

affordable method:
Setting the promotion budget at what management thinks the company can afford.

AIDA model:
A memorable and useful checklist of the aims of advertising, standing for attention, interest, desire, and action.

alliance:
Partnership formed when two or more organizations combine resources through a contractual agreement that allows them to overcome each other's weaknesses by benefitting from each another's strengths.

allocentrics:
Travellers who prefer exotic destinations, unstructured vacations rather than packaged tours, and more involvement with local cultures.

all-in pricing (all-inclusive pricing):
Charging consumers a single price for the various products or services on offer.

ambient advertising:
Advertising that uses new, unexpected ways of getting messages across.

attitudes:
Ingrained feelings about various factors of an experience.

augmented product:
The add-ons that are extrinsic to the product itself but may influence the decision to purchase.

B

banner ad:
An advertisement placed as a narrow band across the top of a Web page; the most common form of advertising on the Internet.

beliefs:
The thoughts that people have about most aspects of their life.

benchmarking:
A management technique that allows companies to compare how well they are performing relative to their competitors.

benefits:
The rewards the product gives the consumer.

Boston Consulting Group model:
A technique designed to show the performance of an individual product in relation to its major competitors and the rate of growth in its market.

brandicide:
The process of taking a well-known brand and extending it into a new area that will "kill" the brand.

branding:
A method of establishing a distinctive identity for a product based on competitive differentiation from other products.

break-even analysis:
A pricing technique that considers fixed and variable costs, customer volumes, and profit margins.

budget competitors:
Companies that compete for the same consumer dollars.

buyer-based pricing (sensitivity pricing):
Allows for high prices when the demand is high and for lower prices when the demand is low, regardless of the cost of the product.

C

call centre:
A central operation from which a company operates its inbound and outbound telemarketing programs.

cash cow:
A product that generates a high volume of income in relation to the cost of maintaining its market share.

cause-related marketing:
A technique whereby companies contribute to the well-being of society and associate themselves with a positive cause that will reflect well on their corporate image.

channel conflict:
Conflict that occurs when one member of a distribution channel perceives another to be engaged in behaviour that prevents or hinders the first member from achieving its goals.

channel management:
A process that includes selecting and motivating individual channel members and evaluating their performance over time.

cognitive dissonance:
A state of mind that customers experience after making a purchase, in which they are unsure whether they have made a good or bad decision.

competition-oriented pricing (going-rate pricing):
Technique in which an organization fixes the prices of products in relation to competitors' prices.

competitive parity method:
Setting the promotion budget to match competitors' outlay.

competitor analysis:
A review of competitors that allows the organization to identify and highlight the market trends and the level of loyalty of consumers.

competitor intelligence:
Keeping track of competition by having a clear understanding of who the competition is and knowing how the company is doing in comparison to the competitors.

concept testing:
Testing new product concepts with a group of target consumers to find out if the concept has strong consumer appeal.

consumer attitudes:
A consumer's enduring favourable or unfavourable cognitive evaluations, emotional feelings, and action tendencies toward some object or idea.

consumer behaviour analysis:
The study of why people buy the products they do and how they make decisions.

consumer research:
One type of applied research that focuses on the consumer.

contests:
Sales promotions in which entrants can win prizes based on some required skill that they are asked to demonstrate.

convention and visitor bureaus (CVBs):
Regional or city-level organizations responsible for marketing a specific destination.

conventional marketing system:
A distribution system that consists of a loose collection of independent organizations, each of which tries to maximize its own success.

cooperative direct mail:
A direct mail offer delivered as part of a package that includes offers from other companies.

core product:
The basic need function served by the generic product.

cost per thousand (CPM):
The process of selecting the media that will expose the product to the largest target audience for the lowest possible cost ("M" is the Roman numeral for 1000).

cost-based pricing:
Adding a certain dollar amount or percentage to the actual or estimated costs of a service to arrive at a final price.

cost-plus pricing:
Adding a standard mark-up to the cost of the product to reach the price charged.

coupons:
Vouchers or certificates that entitle customers or intermediaries to a reduced price on a good or service.

cross-selling:
Offering a customer the opportunity to purchase allied products that go beyond the obvious core products.

cultural environment:
Institutions and other forces that affect society's basic values, perceptions, preferences, and behaviours.

culture:
The norms, beliefs, and rituals that are unique to each person.

customer loyalty:
A measure of how likely customers are to return to an organization, and of their willingness to build relationships with the organization.

customer satisfaction:
The difference between the service that a customer expects and the perceived quality of what is actually delivered.

D

DAGMAR model:
A hierarchies of effects model that stands for defining advertising goals for measured advertising results.

demographics:
Statistics that describe the observable characteristics of individuals.

destination branding:
Creating a superior proposition that is distinctive from competitors' and imparts meaning above and beyond the functional aspects of the destination.

destination marketing organizations (DMOs):
Government agencies, convention and visitors bureaus, travel associations, and other bodies that market travel to their respective destination areas.

destinations:
Places that have some form of actual or perceived boundary, such as the physical boundary of an island, political boundaries, or even market-created boundaries.

differentiation:
A strategy that consists of an innovative technological breakthrough, which can take competitors a long time to imitate. A competitive advantage can be gained by a product that is newer, better, and/or faster.

direct competitors:
Companies that offer similar goods and services to the same consumer at a similar price.

direct distribution channel:
A channel through which a company delivers its product to the consumer without the outside assistance of any independent intermediaries.

direct e-mail marketing:
Marketing in which a user chooses to receive messages from a particular advertiser via the Internet.

direct mail:
A type of direct response advertising in which an offer is sent to a prospective customer by mail.

direct marketing:
A marketing system, fully controlled by the marketer, that develops products, promotes them directly to the final consumer through a variety of media options, accepts direct orders from customers, and distributes products directly to the consumer.

direct response advertising:
Advertising through any medium, designed to generate a response by any means that is measurable (e.g., mail, television, telephone, fax, or Internet).

directional selling:
A vertically integrated travel agent's sale, or attempted sale, of the foreign package holidays of its linked tour operator in preference to the holidays of other operators.

discriminatory pricing:
Selling a product at two or more prices, despite the fact that the product costs are the same.

distribution channel:
A direct or indirect delivery arrangement used by a supplier, carrier, or destination marketing organization.

distribution system:
The "place" aspect of a company's marketing mix; its purpose is to provide an adequate framework for making a company's product or service available to the consumer.

diversification:
Seeking opportunities outside the present business.

dog:
A product that provides neither cash flow nor long-term opportunities and does not hold great promise for improved performance.

E

economic forces:
Those forces that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns.

elasticity of demand:
The sensitivity of customer demand to changes in the prices of services.

empowerment:
The act of giving employees the authority to identify and solve guest problems or complaints on the spot, and to make improvements in the work processes when necessary.

event sponsorship:
The financial support of an event (e.g., a car race, a theatre performance, or a marathon road race) by a sponsor in return for advertising privileges associated with the event.

exclusive distribution:
Strategy in which an organization deliberately restricts the number of channels that it uses to distribute its product or service to its customers; an effective method for marketing prestige products.

executive summary:
A few pages, usually positioned at the beginning of the marketing plan, that sum up the plan's main sections.

experience:
Occurs when a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event.

F

facilitation strategy:
Creates marketing bridges between a destination marketing organization and individual operators in the tourism industry; exercises a facilitative influence over the industry.

factual survey:
The respondent is asked to state certain facts, such as age or number of children.

family life cycle:
The stages through which families might pass as they mature.

feature stories:
Articles of human interest that entertain, inform, or educate readers, viewers, or listeners.

features:
The objective attributes of a tourism product.

fixed costs:
Costs that do not vary with the amount of the service provided.

focus:
A strategy that concentrates on designing a good or service to meet the needs of one segment of the market better than the competition does.

focus group:
Type of research in which the researcher acts as a facilitator to obtain views representative of a wider population; usually comprises 8 to 10 people.

forecasting:
A market-research-based but future-oriented process that relies on expectations, vision, judgment, and projections for factors such as sales volume and revenue trends, consumer profiles, product profiles, price trends, and trends in the external environment.

franchises:
Businesses that are established when a franchiser grants a franchisee the right to engage in offering, selling, or distributing its goods or services under its marketing format.

full-service agency:
An advertising agency that provides the four major staff functions: account management, creative services, media planning and buying, and account planning.

G

games:
Sales promotions similar to sweepstakes but involving the use of game pieces, such as scratch-and-win cards.

general competitors:
Companies that provide the same service.

gift certificates:
Vouchers or cheques that are either selectively given away by the sponsor or sold to customers, who in turn give them to others as gifts.

goals:
The primary aims of the organization.

H

horizontal conflict:
Conflict between organizations at the same level of the distribution channel.

I

importance-performance analysis (IPA):
A procedure that shows both the relative importance of various attributes and the performance of the company, product, or destination under study in providing these attributes.

indirect distribution channel:
A channel through which a company distributes its product with the assistance of independent intermediaries.

infomercial:
A commercial, usually 30 minutes long, that presents in great detail the benefits of a product or service on the television.

integrated marketing communications (IMC):
The unification of all marketing communications tools, as well as corporate and brand messages, so they send a consistent, persuasive message to target audiences.

intensive distribution:
Strategy in which an organization maximizes the exposure of its travel services by distributing through all available outlets or intermediaries.

internal marketing:
Marketing aimed internally, at a company's own employees.

International Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus (IACVB):
An organization that provides educational resources and networking opportunities to its members and distributes information on the CVB industry to the public.

interpretive survey:
The respondent acts as an interpreter as well as a reporter.

in-depth interview:
A qualitative research technique in which an interviewer will meet an interviewee for about 45 minutes to one hour.

J

joint promotion:
A promotion in which two or more organizations that have similar target markets combine their resources to their mutual advantage.

junket representatives:
Companies that serve the casino industry as intermediaries for premium players.

L

learning:
The way in which visitors receive and interpret a variety of stimuli.

learning and enrichment travel:
Refers to vacations that provide opportunities for authentic, hands-on, or interactive learning experiences.

life cycle model:
Suggests that travel patterns and destinations vary as people move through their life cycle.

lifestyle analysis:
Examines at the way people allocate time, energy, and money.

lifetime value of a customer:
A calculation that considers customers from the point of view of their potential lifetime revenue and profitability contributions to a company.

low-cost leadership:
The simplest and most effective strategy for dealing with competition, but one requiring large resources and strong management to sustain. It may be short-lived, as it is easy for competitors to match a low price in an attempt to drive off the challenge.

M

macroenvironment:
The larger societal forces that affect the microenvironment: competitive, demographic, economic, environmental and natural, technological, political, cultural and social, and legal forces.

market development:
Identifying and developing new markets for current products.

market penetration:
Modifying an existing product for the current market.

market share:
The proportion of sales in a market achieved by a product or organization.

market skimming:
This policy of "skimming the cream" calls for setting high prices at the launch stage and progressively lowering them as the product becomes better established.

marketing:
The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual (customer) and organizational objectives.

marketing communications:
An all-encompassing term (and activity) that includes communication via any and all of the marketing mix elements.

marketing information system (MIS):
The way in which an organization gathers, uses, and disseminates its research in the marketing context.

marketing intermediaries:
Channels of distribution that include travel agents, tour operators, travel specialists, and the Internet.

marketing plan:
A written, short-term plan that details how an organization will use its marketing mix to achieve its marketing objectives.

marketing research:
The systematic and objective search for and analysis of information relevant to the identification and solution of any problem in the field of marketing.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs:
Maslow's theory that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy, from the most pressing to the least pressing; these needs in order of importance are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.

media mix:
A combination of traditional media vehicles (print, broadcast, etc.); non-traditional media (electronic media, unexpected places like the floors of stores); and marketing communication tools such as public relations, direct marketing, and sales promotion, used to reach the target audiences.

microenvironment:
Forces close to the organization that can affect its ability to serve its customers: the organization itself, marketing channel firms, customer markets, and a broad range of stakeholders or publics.

mission statement:
A brief simple phrase or sentence that summarizes the organization's direction and communicates its ethos to internal and external audiences. It also answers the question, "What business are we in?"

monopoly:
A supply situation in which there is only one seller.

motivational houses:
Companies that provide incentive travel, offered to employees or distributors as a reward for their efforts.

motivations:
Inner drives that people have that cause them to take action to satisfy their needs.

N

needs:
The gaps between what customers have and what they would like to have, seen as the force that arouses motivated behaviour.

negotiating:
A technique used to establish prices when at least two parties are involved and they have a conflict of interest with respect to one or more issues about the product.

niche marketing:
The tailoring of products to meet the needs and wants of narrowly defined geographic, demographic, or psychographic segments.

O

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.

objectives:
The specific aims that managers accomplish to attain organizational goals.

off-set pricing (bait pricing):
Charging a low basic price and charging for extra services.

opinion survey:
The respondent is asked to express an opinion or make an evaluation or appraisal.

P

packaging:
The process of combining two or more related and complementary offerings into a single-price offering.

penetration pricing:
Pricing at a lower level to get maximum sales and market share; used when an organization is trying to get maximum distribution for the product or service in the initial stages.

percentage of sales method:
Setting the promotion budget at a certain percentage of current or forecasted sales or as a percentage of sales price.

perception:
An overall mind-picture of the world, shaped by information that people filter and then retrieve.

perceptual mapping:
Technique used to identify the relationship between the level of perceived importance of certain aspects of a product on the part of the tourist and the actual performance on the part of the supplier.

permission marketing:
Marketing in which consumers volunteer to be marketed to on the Internet in return for some kind of reward.

personal selling:
A personalized form of communication in which a seller presents the features and benefits of a product to a buyer for the purpose of making a sale.

persuasion test:
A test that evaluates the effectiveness of an advertisement by measuring whether the ad affects consumer's intentions to buy a brand.

point-of-purchase merchandising:
A technique used to promote a product at locations where it is being sold.

portfolio analysis:
An approach to evaluating a very diverse group of goods and services, based on long-term planning and economic forecasts.

positioning:
Establishing an image for a product or service in relation to others in the marketplace.

positioning statement:
A phrase that reflects the image an organization wants to create.

premium pricing:
Setting prices above market price, to reflect either the image of quality or the unique status of the product.

premiums:
Goods offered either for free or at low cost as an incentive to buy a product.

press release (news release):
A short article about an organization or an event that is written in an attempt to attract media attention, which will then hopefully lead to media coverage.

prestige pricing:
Setting prices high to position a product at the upper or luxury end of the market.

price lining:
Pre-establishing price lines (levels) that the company feels confident will attract customers.

price points:
The number of "stops" along the way between the lowest-priced item and the highest- priced item.

price spread:
A range of products and prices that will suit the budget of all target markets.

price-quality trade-off:
Acceptance of the higher cost of a better quality of product.

primary data:
Information collected for the specific purpose at hand.

product category competitors:
Companies that produce the same product or class of products.

product development:
Developing a genuinely new product to be sold to existing customers.

product differentiation:
A technique that enables organizations to seek to gain competitive advantage by offering a product that has features not available in the offerings of competitors.

product life cycle (PLC) analysis:
A way of plotting products or services to identify what stage they are at in their life cycle; a valuable way of reviewing a product's past and current position and making predictions about its future.

product mix:
The portfolio of products that an organization offers to one market or several.

product placement:
The insertion of brand logos or branded merchandise into movies and television shows.

product-bundle pricing:
Grouping together a company's products to promote them as a package.

profit maximization:
Corporate objective that causes managers in organizations to make decisions in such a way as to maximize profits.

projection techniques:
Called "what if?" techniques, as they involve measures to get subjects to respond to hypothetical, or projected, situations.

promotion strategy:
Reaching prospective visitors via expenditure on a promotional mix intended to achieve destination awareness and influence prospective customers' attitudes and purchasing behaviour; a traditional approach to destination marketing.

promotional mix:
A company's total marketing communications program.

promotional pricing:
A temporary reduction in price.

prospecting:
The process of searching for new accounts.

psychocentrics:
Travellers who prefer familiar destinations, packaged tours, and "touristy" areas.

psychographic analysis:
Attempts to measure people's activities, interests, and opinions.

psychological pricing:
Using slightly lower prices to give consumers the perception of added value.

public relations (PR):
The activities that a tourism or hospitality organization uses to maintain or improve its relationship with other organizations or individuals.

publications:
Annual reports, brochures, and company newsletters and magazines that can draw attention to a company and its products, and can help build the company's image and convey important news to target markets.

publicity:
Attention received through news media coverage.

pull strategy:
A promotion strategy that calls for spending a large amount on advertising and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand; if 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 to consumers.

Q

qualitative research:
Research methods and techniques that use and give rise to qualitative (subjective) information.

quantitative research:
Research to which numerical (empirical) estimates can be attached.

question marks:
Fairly speculative products that have high-risk potential. They may be profitable, but because they hold a small market share, they may be vulnerable to competition.

R

recall test:
A test that evaluates the memorability of an advertisement by contacting members of the audience and asking what they remember about the advertisement.

recognition test:
A test that evaluates the memorability of an advertisement by contacting members of the audience, showing them the ad, and then asking whether they remember having seen it before.

reference groups:
Groups that have a direct (face-to-face) or indirect influence on a person's attitude or behaviour.

reference price:
A price derived from market prices and the customer's previous experience.

relationship marketing:
Marketing that attracts customers, retains them, and enhances their satisfaction.

repertory grid technique:
Structured research technique that requires respondents to select from a group of three items.

responsible marketing:
The balancing of environmental initiatives and environmental communication in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

return-on-investment goals:
Working out the expected profit returns based on the costs of reaching a customer or group of customers; also called break-even analysis or payout planning.

S

sales management:
The management of the sales force and personal selling efforts to achieve desired sales objectives.

sales promotion:
A technique used by a company to increase the value of its product by offering an extra incentive to purchase the product.

sales quotas:
Performance targets set periodically for individual sales representatives, branch offices, or regions.

sampling:
Giving away free samples of a product to encourage sales, or arranging in some way for people to try all or part of a service.

secondary data:
Information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose.

second-chance selling:
Trying to sell additional services to a customer who has already booked services.

segmentation analysis:
The practice of dividing total markets up into groups on the basis of similar characteristics.

selective distribution:
Strategy between intensive and exclusive distribution, in which a company uses more than one but less than all of the possible distribution channels.

service culture:
A culture that supports customer service through policies, procedures, reward systems, and actions.

service quality:
Customers' perceptions of the service component of a product.

service recovery:
The process by which a company attempts to rectify a service delivery failure.

services marketing mix:
The original four P's of the marketing mix-product, place, promotion, and price-plus the people, the physical evidence, and the process.

services marketing triangle:
A model that illustrates the three interlinking groups that work together to develop, promote, and deliver services: the company, the customer, and the provider.

servicescape:
The environment in which the service is delivered and in which the firm and customer interact, and any tangible components that facilitate performance or communication of the service.

SERVQUAL:
An instrument used to measure the difference between consumers' expectations and perceptions of service quality.

situation analysis:
A business review that summarizes all the relevant information available about the product, the company, the competitive environment, the industry, and the consumers.

"smart" rule:
Rule used in the development of the mission statement in order to ensure that the statement is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and trackable.

social class:
The position one occupies within society, determined by such factors as income, wealth, education, occupation, family prestige, value of home, and neighbourhood.

solo direct mail:
A direct mail piece sent out by one company and delivered by the company itself.

spam:
E-mail advertisements sent to lists of recipients who have not agreed to receive them.

specialized agency:
An advertising agency that specializes in certain functions (e.g., writing copy, producing art, media buying), audiences (e.g., minority, youth), or industries (e.g., health care, computers, leisure).

sport tourism:
Travel away from a person's primary residence to participate in a sporting activity for recreation or competition; travel to observe sport at the grass roots or elite level; and travel to visit a sport attraction.

stars:
Products that have a dominant share of a fast-growing market.

strategic marketing plan:
A written plan for an organization covering a period of three or more years into the future.

strategic pricing:
Setting prices early, in accordance with the long-term view of corporate strategy, product positioning, and value for money in the marketplace.

sweepstakes:
Sales promotions that require entrants to submit their names and addresses; winners are chosen on the basis of chance, not skill.

SWOT analysis:
A technique that provides scope for an organization to list all its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

T

tactical pricing:
Making short-term pricing decisions in response to changes in the marketing environment.

tangible product:
The specific features and benefits residing in the product itself-styling, quality, brand name, design, etc.

target market:
A clearly defined group of customers whose needs the company plans to satisfy.

target rate of return:
Corporate objective that aims to achieve a particular return on the assets employed in an organization.

telemarketing:
Using the telephone to reach customers or prospective customers.

tour brokers:
Companies that sell motorcoach tours, which are attractive to a variety of markets.

tour operators:
Organizations that offer packaged vacation tours to the general public.

tourism and hospitality products:
A group of selected components or elements brought together in a "bundle" to satisfy needs and wants.

tourism area life cycle (TALC):
The stages a destination goes through, from exploration to involvement to development to consolidation to stagnation to rejuvenation or decline (also known as the "tourism destination life cycle").

tourism market:
A market that reflects the demands of consumers for a very wide range of travel and hospitality products.

travel agents:
Marketing intermediaries that offer the tourism customer a variety of services, including everything from transportation plans and tour packages to insurance services and accommodation.

travel specialists:
Intermediaries that specialize in performing one or more functions of a company's distribution system.

U

undercut pricing:
Setting prices lower than the competition and using the price as a trigger to purchase immediately.

unique selling proposition (USP):
A feature of a product that is so unique that it distinguishes the product from all other products

up-selling:
Upgrading price and profit margins by selling higher-priced products.

V

VALST:
A typology framework that divides the population into eight lifestyle groups, defined according to factors such as self-image, aspirations, values, and products used.

value-for-moneypricing:
Charging medium prices and emphasizing that the product represents excellent value for money at this price.

variable costs:
Costs that increase as more of a service is provided.

vertical conflict:
Conflict between organizations at different levels of the same distribution channel.

vertical marketing system:
A system in which all members of the distribution channel work together as a unified whole.

virtual focus groups:
Online "chat" sessions, in which one to dozens of pre-recruited respondents type in responses to a guided online discussion.

volume discounting:
Offering special prices to attract customers who agree to major purchases.

W

willingness to pay (WTP) assessment:
Asking potential customers what they would be willing to pay for the product.

word of mouth:
Communication about products and services between people who are perceived to be independent of the company that is producing or providing the product.

Y

yield:
The profit that is made on the sales of goods and services; calculated based on the number of customers, how much they spend, and the number of products they buy.

yield management:
The practice of developing strategies to maximize opportunities for the sale of an organization's perishable products, such as airline seats, hotel rooms, and tour seats, and therefore improving its long-term viability.

Z

zero-based planning:
The practice of analyzing