P

Pack (package, packet): The product of a complete series of packaging operations or a unit consisting of a number of such products. See Packaging

Package deal: The combination of a number of units or range of services into one saleable unit. See also Turnkey.

Package modification: making any change to the attributes (shape, colour, size, graphics, lettering, etc) of a package.

Packaged goods: a sub-category of consumer non-durable goods; toothpaste, shampoo and soap powder are packaged consumer non-durables. See Consumer Non-Durables; Non-Packaged Goods.

Packaging: (1) The art of and the operations involved in the preparation of articles or commodities for carriage, storage, and delivery . (2) Marketing communications channel. In most retailing today, products come in packages; indeed, the package has become an integral part of the product. It protects the product, promotes and advertises the product (labelling design, coupons, reusable containers) and may display the product or make it more visible. It may be a convenient means for dispensing contents (liquid soaps, oil, glue, toothpaste), and may carry important information about the contents of the product (required by law) and directions for its use.

Pacific Rim: The countries that are situated on the Pacific Ocean.

Page exposure: See Page traffic.

Page proofs: Proofs of a leaflet, brochure, magazine or book, taken at the stage when the pages have been made up and used for final review and correction before printing is commenced.

Page rate: Price per page for advertising purposes.

Page traffic: Number of readers of a particular page in a publication expressed as a percentage of the total readership of that publication. See Read most, Noting.

Pagination: Numbering of pages in a printed publication. See Folio.

Paired associate learning: The learning of pairs of words or concepts by attempting to associate them with each other.

Paired comparisons: A data collection procedure in which respondents indicate which item in each pair of items is preferred; when used in conjoint analysis, the items in each pair represent predetermined combinations of attributes. In which respondents express a preference to a series of paired products which wig usually have differences which are being evaluated.

Pallet: Platform, usually of timber, upon which units are stacked, e.g. fibreboard cases, for bulk movement and transportation. Designed to be used in conjunction with fork-lift trucks.

Palletisation: the packing of goods onto small wooden platforms, or pallets, for ease of handling in shipment. See Containerisation; Unitisation.

Pamphlet: Short, printed but unbound treatise promoting a product, service, organisation or idea.

Panel: Refers to a group of individuals who have agreed to provide information to a researcher over a period of time. Panel (Omnibus) Fixed sample of respondents who are measured repeatedly over time but on variables that change from measurement to measurement. Panel(True) Fixed sample of respondents who are measured repeatedly over time with respect to the same variables.

Panel Test: a technique used to pretest advertising, new products, etc. A group of individuals selected from the target market are asked to evaluate alternative versions (of an advertisement, new product, etc)

Pan/panning: Abbreviation from panorama; slow movement of camera from left to right, or vice versa, across a scene, with camera set-up remaining stationary.

Panel: Sample of retail establishments or consumers specially recruited to provide information on buying, media, and consumption habits and sometimes to test potential new products. Requires careful supervision and maintenance to preserve effective data basis.

Panel data: Information, usually quantitative, gathered from a group of people specially commissioned to provide a continuous flow; is major source for marketing of consumer goods and services.

Panel testing: Establishing purchasing habits of the population as a whole by having a predetermined group of people record the products they have purchased or used in a given period of time.

Pantone colours: International system of designating colours for printing.

Pantry check: Used in connection with a panel to establish what is available in the home for consumption and as a check upon the veracity of reportage.

Paper: Sheet material manufactured mostly from wood pulp and used in printing and packaging in a variety of grades, e.g. Kraft, a very tough paper for bags and sacks; glassine, a specially processed paper which is grease resistant.

Paper setting: Setting of an advertisement by the printer of a periodical, usually free of charge. See Trade setting.

Paper sizes: These in many countries conform to international standards (ISO) of which the most popular is A4 (2lOx297mm).

Paperboard Commonly known as cardboard. Comprises a number of layers of wood fibres, sometimes of differing qualities, which are bonded together during their formation on a board machine.

Parallel readership: Reduction of the average claim period for readership research, where a second reading event occurs during original claim period so introducing error into estimated average readership figures leading to understatement of readership. See Readership replication.

Parameter: Fixed characteristic or measure of a parent or target population. (1) A quantity whose value specifies or partly specifies the process under consideration or the values of other quantities. (2) A quantity which changes relatively infrequently during a computation; in particular, in a routine, a quantity which may be given a different value each time the routine is used, but which remains unchanged throughout any one routine .

Parametric tests: Class of statistical tests used when the variable (variables) is (are) measured on at least an interval scale.

Pareto effect, principle or law): Operates where a small proportion has a disproportionate effect on the whole. Often used to refer to the so-called 80/20 rule, whereby, for example, 20 per cent of customers may take 80 per cent of production and vice versa.

Paretopoly: a market situation in which there are a few large sellers and many smaller ones.

Paretopsony: a market situation in which there are a few large buyers and many smaller ones.

Participative management: (also called consultative management) A form of management in which everyone is encouraged to take part in decision making, rather than the more traditional method, in which management and subordinate roles are clearly distinguished from one another. The idea of teamwork, employee participation, and experimental variations of management style come and go in various fads. In the 1960s and 1970s, quality circles were a popular and widespread representation of participative activity, although they were not touted as management as much as employee control and influence over their own work environment. Quality circles are still in use today in many companies, notably in manufacturing environments.

Part-load: (1) Goods occupying an unfilled transport vehicle. (2) Part-order or delivery.

Partnership: Association of limited number of persons carrying on business together, usually with a profit motive. Particularly associated with small or localised businesses.

Party selling: Distribution network through selling agents operating from the homes of customers, each of whom, in succession, holds a party for friends offering goods for sale and earning a commission on sales achieved. For example Tupperware.

Part-worth: A measure of utility or value that respondents assign specific levels of attributes in a conjoint analysis. Function that describes the relationship between the perceived utilities associated with various levels of an attribute and the objective or physical levels of the attributes (for example, utilities associated with various prices).

Pass for press: Final approval of a publication before printing.

Pass-on readership: The number of people reading a publication over and above the primary or original readers. Of particular relevance with trade and technical publications, where the total readership can be as high as ten times the subscribed circulation.

Passing-off: Trader leading customers to believe his/her business, services, or goods are those of another by way of product, trade mark, or trade name.

Pass-Up method: handling a buyer's objection by attempting to ignore or "pass off" the buyer's objection, especially if there is reason to believe that the objection is not made seriously and does not warrant a response. See Objections.

Patent: Legal protection for any person or organisation inventing or devising an improvement in a manufactured article, or in machinery or in methods of making it, when registered at the Patent Office.

Patronage: Of consumers, habitual use of particular sources of supply. See Testimonial advertisement.

Patterned interview: Technique of planned selling where interview is conducted by salespeople according to a predetermined plan.

Pay-back period: (1) Time taken to repay development costs of a business venture before profit is earned. (2) Period allowed for repayment of a financial loan.

Pay off: Expected return or consideration for providing a service.

Payoff Table: Table containing three elements: alternatives, states of nature, and consequences of each alternative under each state of nature.

Pay TV: Cable television to a community who pay for the service by subscription.

PDM: See Physical distribution management.

Peak time: Segment of television airtime, usually the middle part of the evening, where the highest rate is charged and, theoretically, the highest number of people are viewing. Has similar application in radio transmissions.

Peak time band: In television advertising, a span of time during which it can be forecast the maximum audience will be viewing. Potentially applicable to radio commercials.

Pedestrian housewife poster: Poster measuring 5 feet high and 3 feet 4 inches wide consisting of four double crown sheets. Mounted at street level where it will be seen by most shoppers. Often illuminated.

Pedlars: Door-to-door or street salespeople carrying stock of wares or services for immediate sales on demand.

Peer group: Group of people who are perceived as having the same characteristics as oneself, e.g. in status, rank, class, education, standing or merit. Some may regard Peer groups as a category of Opinion-formers (see) and the term has obvious connections with the purchasing behaviour that marketing is concerned to influence.

Pegged prices: Selling prices which are held at a stable level, with the seller absorbing increased costs and possibly subsidised by government action. When undertaken on private initiative, they may enable the seller to win customers from rivals, or at least to maintain market share, especially during periods of inflation. Such an outcome can, however, in no way be guaranteed in all cases.

Penalty clause: Clause in an agreement stipulating compensation of an agreed amount (or some alternative course of action) upon breach of a contract. 'The penalty clause will not necessarily reflect the true cost of the breach, which may be difficult to estimate in advance of the event.

Penetration: (1) Extent to which a product or an advertisement has been accepted by, or has registered with the total of possible users, usually expressed as a percentage. (2). The number or percentage of individuals, consumers, or homes in a test area that meet the terms of one or more testing mechanisms.

Penetrated market: the individuals or organisations in a particular market who have already purchased the product.

Penetration pricing: Adoption of a lower price strategy in order to secure rapid penetration of a market.

Penetration strategy: The use of low prices and heavy advertising to increase market share. When a company has a product in a market supplied by products that are relatively similar to one another, it may decide to use penetration strategy to increase its product's market share. For penetration strategy to be attempted, the market will have to be large enough for the company to be able to sustain relatively low profit margins. The strategy has the added advantage that it may deter potential new entrants into the market because profit possibilities may appear limited.

People-Based services: services in which people, rather than equipment or machinery, play the major role in delivery; for example, people play the major role in the delivery of financial planning services. See Equipment-Based Services.

People meter: A device used to measure when a TV is on, to what channel it is tuned, and who in the household is watching it. Each member in a household is assigned a viewing number, which the individual is supposed to enter into the people meter whenever the set is turned on, the channel is switched, or the person enters or leaves the room.

People orientated (oriented) Inclined to be interested in people individually or collectively particularly before material goods. Used to indicate an attitude of mind appropriate to marketing activities.

Per capita income: Total income of a nation averaged over the population, thus giving an arbitrary, but comparative measure of income per head of the population.

Perceived benefit: See Attributes.

Perceived freedom: A motivational need experienced by people to maintain their behavioural freedom.

Perceived risk: A consumer's perception of the overall favourability of a course of action based upon an assessment of the possible outcomes and on the likelihood that those outcomes will occur. see Risk.

Percentage-of-change graph: A graph that shows the degree of change rather than actual value in a series of outcomes. This is an appropriate technique in many instances, especially when small deviation from a normal or accepted level may be expected. For other trends, however, it may be deceptive, especially if recipients usually receive reports showing actual values in graphic form.

Percentage-of-sales method: Means of arriving at a marketing budget by applying a predetermined percentage to the total sales turnover of the previous year or to the current or future sales target.

Perception: personal interpretation of what one sees, hears, smells, i.e. the reception of sensory stimuli and conscious or unconscious application of them to form an acceptable interpretation of their meaning. The ways in which people organise the information received and how they interpret this information so that it has meaning.

Perception by exception: Registering by consumers of particular distinction Matured in a brand promotion. Is the basis of brand differentiation and the prerequisite is a unique selling proposition.

Perceptual map: A graphic representation of the perceived relationships among elements in a set, where the elements could be brands, services, or product categories. Commonly used to describe the output of a multi dimensional scaling (MDS) analysis.

Perceptual mapping: Multi-dimensional maps of consumers' product positioning, often revealing indirect competition between different product choices. A technique borrowed from mathematical psychology and used by marketers to understand the structure of a market. Consumers develop an image of the product based on its particular features or its benefits (real or imagined) or its price. These perceptions can be identified (see qualitative research) and products then plotted on a graph or map. The closer two brands are on the map, the closer they are in competition. If research has also identified the characteristics of an 'ideal' product, then the closer a brand is to that point, the more likely it is to be preferred over the others. Gaps on the map may represent potential market opportunities. see multi dimensional scaling and positioning. also called Position Mapping.

Per diem expense plan: the payment of travel and accommodation expenses to a salesperson at a fixed daily rate.

Perfect binding: Method of binding used on books. The printed sections are folded and then sewn together on the spine. Glue is then applied and the cover is drawn on.

Perfect competition: Term used by economists to describe an open market situation, where free trade prevails without restriction, where all goods of a particular nature are homogeneous and where all relevant information is known to both buyers and sellers. Such conditions rarely, if ever, apply in fact but the hypothesis has been found useful in analysing the forces governing the operation of supply and demand factors in real life conditions.

Perfect elasticity: a situation which occurs when the quantity of goods supplied or demanded varies with no change in the price. See Elasticity of Demand.

Perfect inelasticity: a situation which occurs when the quantity of goods supplied or demanded does not change at all when the price changes. See Inelasticity of Demand.

Performance appraisal: Audit of actual achievement against forecast.

Performance gap: discrepancy between anticipated performance obtainable by continuation of current strategies and objectives and desired performance.

Performance of objective tasks: Method of assessing attitudes that rests on the presumption that a subject's performance of a specific assigned task (for example, memorising a number of facts) will depend on the person's attitude.

Performance price: the value to a consumer of the time saved by using a new product to complete a specified task; the performance price can often offset other "time prices". See Non-Monetary Price; Time Price.

Performance risk: concern in the buyer's mind that the product being considered for purchase will not work efficiently; also called Functional Risk. See Risk.

Performance standard: An expected level of performance against which actual performance can be compared.

Peripheral route to persuasion: Persuasion that occurs in low-involvement circumstances when little information elaboration occurs.

Perk: Abbreviation from the word 'perquisite', defined by Webster as 'an incidental gain or profit in addition to regular salary or wages'.

Perimeter advertising: Posters and other such displays in sports grounds 'around the perimeters'.

Periodical: Publication which appears at regular intervals, e.g. daily, weekly, monthly.

Peripheral route to persuasion: Persuasion that occurs in low-involvement circumstances when little information elaboration occurs.

Perishability: one of the four characteristics (with inseparability, intangibility and variability) which distinguish a service; perishability expresses the notion that a service cannot be made in advance and stored. See Inseparability; Intangibility; Services Marketing; Variability.

Perishables: Goods with a limited sales life, such as fruit and vegetables.

Permutation: The number of different ways that an outcome may occur, regardless of the order of occurrence.

Perpetual inventory method: (also known as continuous inventory or periodic inventory method) A system of counting inventory in which the count is maintained on a continual basis. The book value of inventory is changed periodically to reflect changes in the physical inventory.

Per pro: By proxy: through an agent. In relation to a signature on a letter, a representative signing on behalf of someone else. Abbreviation 'pp'.

Perquisites: See Perks.

Persistent demand Continuing demand for brand, often in spite of increasing prices.

Personal influence: Refers to the idea that one individual may intentionally or unintentionally influence another in his or her beliefs, attitudes, or intentions about something.

Personal interview: Meeting between two or more people, with a view to discussing a project or proposition or eliciting answers to questions as in market research. Direct, face-to-face conversation between a representative of the research organisation (the interviewer) and a respondent, or interviewee. See also Face-to-face selling.

Person marketing: marketing activity aimed at creating target market awareness, and a favourable opinion, of a particular person.

Personal income: the wages, salary, etc earned by an individual.

Personal marketing: The marketing of one's own self to others

Personal (or Subjective) probability: See Bayesian Probability.

Personal selling: a form of promotion utilising the services of a sales team; one of the major controllable variables (with advertising, sales promotion and publicity) of the promotion mix. See Promotion Mix.

Personalised letter: A standard letter to which is added, usually by computer program, a personal touch such as the salutation.

Personal selling: The process of making oral commercial representations during a buyer/seller interview situation. Direct, face-to-face communication between buyer and seller. Personal selling is as old as marketing itself (see direct marketing). In industrial goods' marketing, personal selling is generally more important than advertising, because the salesman often has to meet the particular, perhaps unique, requirements of each customer. Colloquially referred to as face-to-face selling. Sometimes known as buyer/seller interface.

Personality: (1) Term which attempts to aggregate that combination of traits which may indicate what a person will do, or how an individual will behave when placed in given or differing situations. (2) Well-known person such as may be used to feature in an advertisement or a campaign. See Psychographic Segmentation.

Personality promotions: (1) Use of well-known persons to endorse a product or service. See Testimonial advertisement. (2) Use of readily identifiable, often gaily dressed, persons from whom a prize can be claimed if approached with the use of a promotional phrase or saying.

Perspective: Method for two-dimensional drawing in such a way that an impression of three-dimensions is given, e.g. by drawing converging lines away from the basic outline.

Persuasion: Personal process with aim of changing a person's attitude or behaviour with respect to some object. In marketing, the development in a person of a desire to purchase a product or service or, more properly, to acquire the perceived benefit.

Persuasive advertising: advertising intended to persuade (rather than to inform or remind).

Persuasive communication: Any form of communication which is primarily intended to exercise persuasion, e.g. advertising, editorial publicity, sales presentations, speeches, films and film strips, etc.

PERT (Project Evaluation and Review Techniques): A discipline applied to the methodical planning of complex systems, e.g. major events or projects.

Peter principle: To come to an end. In business the practice whereby people tend to be promoted until they occupy positions for which they are incompetent.

PEEST: Mnemonic for Political Economic, Environmental, Scientific and Technological. A basis for assessing the effects of external influences on a business.

Phased strategy: A strategy of combining various decision heuristics in order to make a product or service choice (e.g., using a conjunctive model followed by a lexicographic model).

Phased or zonal distribution: Distributing goods to one area or one group of customers at a time, until a national network has been established. See Zone.

Photocall: A staged photographic event with the intention of gaining editorial publicity.

Photocomposition: Typesetting by photographic means, in which light is transmitted through a grid bearing the outlines of lettering on to photosensitive material which can then be used for artwork.

Photogenic: Attractive in photographs. See Telegenic.

Photogravure: Printing process in which the subject matter is photochemically etched into a polished copper cylinder. Used widely for large-circulation colour magazines.

Physical distribution: the storage, handling and movement of goods, and all that such movement implies, from the manufacturer to the user, via various channels of distribution.

Physical distribution management: the management and control of the activities involved in the storage, handling and movement of goods within an organisation and in their shipment to customers.

Physical risk: concern in the buyer's mind that the product being considered for purchase will be harmful, unhealthy or cause injury.

Physical surroundings: The concrete physical and spatial aspects of the environment encompassing a consumer activity.

Physiological needs: innate human feelings of deprivation related to an individual's biological well-being. See Psychological Needs.

Physiological reaction technique: Method of assessing attitudes in which the researcher, by electrical or mechanical means, monitors the subject's response to the controlled introduction of some stimuli.

Pica: A printer's unit of measure, a 12 point em, i.e. approximately 1/6 inch.

Pictogram: Bar chart in which pictures represent amounts -for example, piles of dollars, pictures of cars for automobile production, people in a row for population.

Pictorial presentation: Expression of data or information in picture form in order to ease, or further, comprehension.

Picture caption: Heading or description of photograph for publication.

Picture-Response technique: A projective technique requiring the subject to use his or her imagination to describe what is happening in a series of vaguely structured pictures. (A construction type projective technique.)

Pie chart: Circle, representing a total quantity, divided into sectors, with each sector showing the size of the segment in relation to that total. Pictorial presentation, showing the parts of a total activity or performance as sectors of a circle. May also be used to contrast the behaviour of two sets of variables by comparing the angular dimensions and/or area of each piece and changes occurring over time. See circle graph.

Piece: News item or feature.

Pied type: Used by printers to describe words or lines of type rendered meaningless by displaced or wrong letters.

Piggy-back export schemes: Government-supported export service in which would-be exporters are put in touch with existing exporters who assist them.

Piggybacking a low-cost market entry tactic in which manufacturers of products arrange for manufacturers of complementary, non-competing products to represent their products in another country or region.

Piggy-back promotion: Where a product is accompanied by another product or a voucher for one, e.g. a free sample.

Piggy-back selling: In which an established organisation accesses its services for use by a smaller business for a consideration. Has particular reference to overseas activities.

Pilot: Test survey to check mechanical or operating details before embarking upon a major study.

Piloting. The testing of a questionaries used in a survey. The questionnaire is a vital and frequently used research instrument, and its construction requires great skill if it is to yield the sort of information sought by the researcher. It is usual, therefore, to try it out before its release for field work. Interviewers conduct an interview in a normal way and note any difficulties that arise. The feedback from this trial run is then - used to redesign those parts of the questionnaire that cause problems.

PIMS (Profit Impact on Marketing Strategy) A Strategic Planning Institute (SPI) research program which provides reports on the products of SPI member firms; these reports assist the member firms in analysing marketing performance and formulating marketing strategies

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PIMS Database: A computerised data base maintained by the Strategic Planning Institute, containing data on over 200 marketing, financial, and operating performance variables collected from almost 2,000 business units.

Pioneering advertising: advertising which is intended to create primary rather than selective demand; commonly used at the introductory stage of the product's life cycle. See Primary Demand; Selective Demand.

Pioneer selling: See Commando selling.

Pipe dream rumours: Wishful thinking or positive hopes concerning something that is going to happen.

Pirated products: Use of another's trade mark, tradename, or copyright to gain the benefit of that established name or reputation. See Commercial counterfeiting.

Pitch: Colloquial term describing an agency presentation before a prospective client. Also refers to a sales pitch - a presentation by a salesperson to a buyer. See Presentation.

Placard: Small poster.

Place one of the four controllable variables (with product, price and promotion) of the marketing mix; the delivery of a good or service to a consumer; also referred to as Distribution. See Distribution; Marketing Mix.

Place marketing: marketing activity intended to promote an awareness, and favourable opinion, of a particular place or region.

Placebo effect: Power of suggestion, inherent in many advertising promises; usually a feature of Transference or Positioning.

Place cues: See Cues.

Place strategy: the element of a firm's decision-making concerned with developing an efficient and effective means of storing and handling finished products and of getting them efficiently to the target market.

Place utility: the value given to a product by virtue of the fact that it is where it is wanted. See Utility.

Placement test In such a test, products or packs are derived to selected usage points for trial to be followed up by interviews collecting information on performance and attitudes towards them. See Extended use tests.

Placing: Process of selecting, organising and implementing a choice between marketing alternatives.

Planned cannibalisation: the expected loss of sales of a product in a line to a more recent product introduction. Planned cannibalisation might occur when a company wants its customers to switch to another of its own products rather than to a product of a competitor.

Planned obsolescence: a tactic by which a manufacturer deliberately seeks to make earlier versions of its product appear undesirable in the eyes of consumers who have purchased them, in order to expand the market for later versions, by improving the characteristics of later versions or by altering consumers' perceptions of the desirability of the models they have already purchased. See Built-in obsolescence.

Planned selling: Operating selling activity along predetermined lines with calculated aims and goals, specified strategies and tactics, and monitored against these standards; it means guiding and controlling each sales interview against a plan setting its objectives, yet allowing some degree of variations to occur in achieving them, reflecting the human situations involved but keeping salesperson operation within a systematic schedule. Part of the overall marketing plan implemented by the sales force comprising all other sub functions of marketing.

Planning: A basic function of management that involves setting objectives, developing strategies to achieve the objectives and working out tactics to implement the strategies. Some manifestation of the process will be found at every level of management and may be called by various names. When it is carried out by top management, it is called corporate planning and involves long-term company objectives, broad directions in which the company should move, and allocation of resources . At lower levels it becomes marketing planning and may be applied to product lines or groups of product lines, single products or brands, or markets. When planning focuses on developing broad strategies for action over time, it is called strategic planning. (Since corporate plans are concerned only with broad strategies, they are sometimes called strategic plans instead of corporate plans.) Strategic planning has become very important over the last decade or so, reflecting the switch in managerial interest from short-term profits with hope for tomorrow to planned long-term profitability. In large complex companies, strategic planning provides a framework in which the strategies developed at one level of management become the objectives of managers at lower levels.

Regardless of the level at which planning occurs, the first step is one of situation analysis and evaluation. Many sophisticated analytical tools are available to managers: Portfolio Analysis to show the profitability potential of products: SWOT analysis and Environmental scanning techniques to indicate internal strengths and weaknesses and point out marketing opportunities or dangers. At each planning level, the same pattern of analysis and evaluation and formulation of objectives and strategy takes place until at the end of the chain the many detailed action plans on which the corporate plan depends are drawn up and executed.

Planning horizon: the total time span covered by a firm's marketing plans; the length of the planning horizon is commonly determined by the degree of uncertainty in the environment.

Plans board: Group of senior executives, usually in an advertising agency, who meet to assess a particular campaign or proposed strategy.

Plant utilisation: See Down-time.

Plastic-comb binding: See Mechanical binding.

Plastics: Synthetic materials available in a variety of forms, sheeting, mouldings, extrusions and laminates. Have a wide range of properties, optical and mechanical, and are particularly resistant to water and to solvents and other chemicals. Available in rigid, semi-rigid, or pliable form. Basically of two types: thermoplastics (which soften or melt with heat), e.g. polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene; or thermosetting, which hardens (polymerises) on the first application of heat, and thereafter maintain their form, e.g. phenol formaldehyde (Bakelite), urea formaldehyde. Some plastics can be blown into expanded form with a variety of uses in packaging, e.g. foam plastic. See Blister pack.

Plate: Printing block or litho plate.

Platform: See Copy platform.

Playback (1) Reproduction on closed circuit of recorded material. (2) Reproduction of material, either live or recorded, through a loudspeaker to enable actors to synchronise with it.

Pleasure principle: A psychoanalytic concept upon which the id operates.

PLC: abbrev. Product Life cycle.

Plug: Promotion of product or company by medium without charge. Often used as a testimonial in conversation.

Plus-One dialling: A sampling technique for telephone surveys that requires the researcher to select a sample from an existing directory and add one to each number thus selected.

Plus-One Sampling: Technique used in studies employing telephone interviews in which a single randomly determined digit is added to numbers selected from the telephone directory.

PMT: Photo-mechanical transfer. Method of reproducing artwork or typesetting in which an image from the original is exposed onto photo-sensitive paper to form a negative. This in turn is converted into a positive paper which is a facsimile of the original.

Pocket envelope: An envelope with the flap on the short edge.

Point: (1) Unit of type - 0.0138 inches, 12 points to the pica, approximately 72 points to the inch. (2) Full-stop.

Point Estimate: A statistical estimate of a parameter (such as a population mean) involving only a single value. Example: if a single sample mean is used as the estimate of the population mean, the sample mean is a point estimate.

Point-of-purchase: Arguable alternative term to point-of-sale, but may differ in some respects, e.g. in mail order where the point-of purchase differs from the point-of-sale in terms of time span, or where vending machines are in use.

Point-of-Purchase displays: a form of promotion used to support personal selling and advertising; displays, consisting of packages, signs, display cartons and so on (more common in the marketing of consumer goods) are used to provide additional product information and to impel on-the-spot buying.

Point-of-sale (POS): Usually referring to retail sales outlet. Place at which a sale is made; also refers to publicity material used there, e.g. posters, show cards, display units, dispensers and leaflets.

Politz-Simmons method: A method of adjusting survey results for non response. It assumes that the responses of "not-at-home" (non respondents) would have been similar to the actual responses of respondents who characterise themselves as seldom at home."

Poll: (1) Public opinion survey. (2) To seek information.

Polyopoly: a market situation in which there are no large sellers but many small ones.

Polyopsony: a market situation in which there are no large buyers but many small ones.

POP: See Point-of-purchase.

Popular delusion: A broad-based rumour involving wishful thinking among large numbers of people that a fortune can be made.

Popular price: Pricing technique intended to appeal to a majority of buyers.

Population: Total number in a group, whether geographical area or specialised group. also called the Universe.

Population characteristics: variables including age, gender, income, marital status, education, nationality, race, religion, etc upon which a population may be segmented.

Population Specification: Error Variation between the population required to provide the needed information and the population selected by the researcher.

Portfolio: Presentation kit used by salespeople when interviewing prospective customers.

Portfolio analysis: (1) Analysing elements of the marketing mix. (2) Analysing product performance within the product range. Two variables frequently used in the evaluation are market growth rate and relative market share. Portfolio analysis. Borrowed from investment portfolio analysis and used by marketing management to evaluate a company's product offerings for the purpose of determining how best to allocate company resources. There are several different methods of product portfolio analysis in current use, such as the Boston Consulting Group's growth/share matrix, General Electric Business Screen, and Shell International's Directional Policy Matrix, but they all involve an analysis of the profitability, prospects and investment requirements of the company's products.

A company's ideal product mix consists of a balance between products which are very profitable and those which are expected to become very profitable, the cash flowing in from the former being available for investment in support of the latter. Product portfolio analysis enables marketing managers to decide which of their products to channel resources into or away from, which products to consider for deletion, and where opportunities to add new products exist, in order that the desired balance of products might be attained.

Product portfolio analysis is a tool of strategic planning that can be used at more than one level of management. In a large multi-product company, it is applied at top management level to the company's Strategic Business Units (SBUs), separate divisions each handling one of the company's product lines. It may also be used by SBU and other managers to analyse the products under their responsibility. see Harvesting strategy, product elimination, marketing plan and planning. See Boston Consulting Group Portfolio Analysis Matrix.

Portfolio tests: a method of pretesting an advertisement; after looking through a portfolio of different versions of a particular advertisement, respondents chosen from the target market are asked to recall in detail those which they can remember.

Portrait: Describes an illustration or piece of print in which the vertical dimension is greater than the horizontal one. Opposite to landscape.

POS: See Point-of-sale.

Position Bias: The tendency on the part of respondents to favour responses occupying certain positions in lists of responses. Examples include middle positions in lists of numbers, first or last item in a list of long alternatives.

Positioning: The attempt by marketers to give a product a certain identity or image so that consumers will perceive the product as having distinctive features or benefits relative to competing products. see Market Positioning

Position media: Advertising media with fixed site or position, such as posters. Usually used as a blanket term to cover poster and transport advertising.

Positioning: (l) A judgment of the consumer's perception of a product's value and benefit, compared to other, competing products. The manufacturer of a product hopes to create the best possible positioning for its product. (2.) The location of advertisements in printed media or of a commercial in a radio or television program. Some positions, such as on a right-hand page or centrefold, or during prime time, are considered far more valuable than others and are priced accordingly.

Position mapping: see Perceptual Mapping.

Positions: A person's place in a group or social system that possesses a specific status.

Positioning theory: Advertising style devoted to owning a part of the consumer's mind, so occupying a position of trust and loyalty for the brand concerned-

Positive reinforcer: A stimulus whose presence as a consequence of a behaviour increases the probability of the behaviour reoccurring.

Possessing rituals: Acts in which a person engages in order to lay claim, display, and protect possessions, such as auto waxing.

Possession utility: the value given to a product by virtue of the fact that the purchaser has the legal right to own and use it freely. See Utility.

POSSLQ: abbrev. Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters; sometimes written as POSLSQ - Persons of Opposite Sex Living in Same Quarters.

Post acquisition processes: The consumer behaviours that occur after the purchase of a product.

Post peak: Time following peak viewing or listening times in broadcast media.

Post purchase: Referring to arrangements made after a purchase has been completed.

Post-purchase advertising: Reassuring customers that they have made the right decision; intended to stimulate word-of-mouth recommendation through brand personality. May also encourage buyers to make repeat purchases.

Post-Purchase evaluation: the quick mental assessment of a low-involvement product by a consumer after purchase. See Low-Involvement Product.

Post-purchase dissonance: See Cognitive dissonance.

Post-Purchase satisfaction the pleasure that a carefully selected high-involvement product gives to a consumer after purchase. See High-Involvement Product.

Postage stamp pricing: see Uniform Delivered Pricing.

Poster an outdoor advertising medium; a billboard.

Post-sales service Promotional activities designed to maintain customers' goodwill and support with a view to repeat sales. See After-sales service.

Post-test: Evaluation of a campaign or an advertisement after it has run and has had time to have an effect. Could also apply to a new product launch.

Postal research: Use of the post for research purposes as against personal or telephone interviews.

Postcall analysis: Reviewing achievements following sales interview. See Kerbside conferences.

Poster panel: Fixed position for poster advertising, usually found in trains and stations or other transportation media.

Poster site classifications: Based on type of location, category of road, and degree of visibility, for each poster site.

Poster sizes These are in multiples of one standard size called Double crown, which see.

Potential market: all the individuals and organisations in a particular market who have some level of interest in the product.

Potential user: Likely future user.

Power: (1) Function associated with a statistical test indicating the probability of correctly rejecting a false null hypothesis. (2) The ability to cause an action.

Power of attorney: A document or instrument which, by appointing a person as agent, grants that person the right to act in behalf of another, as well as to perform specific acts or types of acts on behalf of the principal.

pp: See Per pro.

PR: abbrev. Public Relations.

Pragmatic validity: Approach to validation of a measure based on the usefulness of the measuring instrument as a predictor of some other characteristic or behaviour of the individual; it is sometimes called predictive validity or criterion related validity.

Preactive interference: The type of forgetting that occurs when earlier information, which has been received, interferes with the recall of information received later.

Preapproach: Preparation of all relevant material in relation to objectives prior to a selling interview.

Pre campaign exposure: Assessing impressions or attitudes about a brand or a concept prior to a campaign. Used to develop refinement in campaign strategy.

Precision: Desired size of the estimating interval when the problem is one of estimating a population parameter; the notion of degree of precision is useful in determining sample size.

Pre-coded: Questions to be put and the possible answers which may be received in a survey are keyed to enable easy tabulation of results using a numerical coding system. This facilitates computer analysis making possible the rapid handling of a high volume of data.

Predictive validity: The extent to which the future level of some variable can be predicted by a current measurement of the same or a different variable. Examples include using a person's current score on the GMAT exam to predict his or her future success in a graduate program; using a person's current attitude about a product to predict his or her future purchase of the product.

Predictor variable: The independent variable in an associative relationship among variables. (See Criterion Variable.) A predictor variable, such as a SAT or GMAT score, is often used to "predict" how well a person will do in pursuing a college degree.

Pre-empt spot: In television, an advertisement spot bought in advance in a particular time segment at a discount but which will not be screened if another advertiser offers to take up that time at the full rate.

Preferred stock: A form of stock that is generally for the most conservative of equity investors. In the event of liquidation, preferred stockholders are given priority of claim over the company's assets, before claims of the common stockholders.

Premium offers: A form of sales promotion which offers a customer the opportunity of obtaining one product, often at an attractive price, by purchasing another (very popular with cosmetic and toiletry manufacturers). It is a device to promote the sale of the product on the shelf

Pre measurement error: An experimental error that occurs when subjects are measured two or more times, and the first measurement influences the responses to the second measurement. Example: students often score higher on the SAT exam the second time they take it because of their experience taking it the first time.

Preneed problem recognition: Problem recognition that occurs in anticipation that a need will occur (e.g., prepaid tuition plans for college).

Prepurchase search: This involves the information seeking activities that consumers engage in to facilitate decision making concerning a specific purchase in the marketplace.

Presentation: A face-to-face report or show, often including carefully planned visual aids. In advertising, presentations are made to clients to gain approval for new campaigns. In business applications, presentations are made during sales pitches or internal meetings, for example, and may include handouts, slides, and sample materials.

Pretest: Use of a questionnaire (observation form) on a trial basis in a small pilot study to determine how well the questionnaire (observation form) works.

Pretesting: the testing of a questionnaire, advertisement, etc on respondents selected from the target market before using it in a full-scale research study, campaign etc.

Predatory pricing: a pricing practice by which a company hopes to inhibit or eliminate competition by charging lower than normal prices for its products in certain geographic regions.

Preferred position: A particular part of a newspaper or magazine in which an advertiser wishes to appear. An additional charge is usually made. See Facing matter.

Premium: Additional price charged in return for some commercial benefit over and above the product itself.

Premiums a type of sales promotion in which merchandise is given free or at a reduced price to purchasers of products or visitors to a store. See In-Pack Premium; Near-Pack Premium; On-Pack Premium; With-Pack Premium.

Premium offer: Special offer of merchandise at a reduced price in consideration of purchasing a particular product, as evidenced by the sending in of a qualifying number of labels or coupons. Usually conducted as a self-liquidating operation.

Premium pricing: see High-Price Strategy.

Preneed problem recognition: Problem recognition that occurs in anticipation that a need him occur (e.g., prepaid funeral plans).

Prepaid cards: See Reply card.

Prepeak: Time prior to peak viewing or listening times in broadcast media.

Prepurchase search: This involves the information seeking activities that consumers engage in to facilitate decision making concerning a specific purchase in the marketplace.

Presales service: Activities by sales force or their supporting organisation to provide prospective customers with advice or help in their movement towards a purchasing decision.

Preselected campaign (PSC): National poster campaign, sold as a package, either aimed geographically or for a specialist category. See also Impactaplan.

Presence: Refers to a form of measurement which endeavours to indicate whether members of a target audience are actually present during the transmission of commercials as well as the programs within which they are slotted. Crude viewing figures require modification for translation in terms of attention value.

Presentation: Meeting in which proposals are put to an audience in a planned and usually formal manner. Much used by advertising and research agencies but also used by companies communicating with distributors or, for example, publishers desiring to influence main opinion formers.

Press: All periodicals, whether national, local, trade, or technical.

Press advertising: Advertising in the press. See Advertising.

Press conference: a meeting to which media personnel are invited by a government body, organisation or company seeking to make a public announcement, usually to gain favourable publicity or to offset some negative reaction. See Press reception.

Press cuttings: Excerpts on a particular subject cut from any kind of periodical. Used as a monitoring device to indicate the extent to which a subject is receiving publicity. See Cuttings.

Press date: Date on which a publication or a section of a publication is due to be passed for press. See Copy date.

Press Kit: see Press packs

Press mentions: Brand or company references in the media.

Press packs: Kit of documents, samples and other related items for issue to journalists, providing them with comprehensive coverage of an event or news item.

Press puffs: Complimentary brand or company references in the media.

Press reception: Meeting to which press representatives (editors journalists, reporters) are invited in order to be informed of an event, and to have the opportunity of questioning or commenting.

Press relations: That part of public relations activity aimed at establishing and maintaining a favourable relationship both with and through the press. Not to be confused with public relations.

Press release: Written statement describing an event or item which is considered to be of sufficient interest to readers for an editor to publish some reference to it. Sometimes referred to as a news release - a more appropriate term as it includes the use of broadcasting media. ; also called a News Release

Press visit: Visit by members of the press to a place of interest, usually coupled with a special event, such as the official opening of a new establishment or launching of a new activity.

Pressure group: any group of individuals who work together to exert an influence upon the decision-making of a company to achieve some specific outcome.

Pressure selling: Forceful selling effort. Referred to as high pressure selling when the effort is perceived to be aggressive. See Low pressure selling, High pressure selling.

Pressure group: any group of individuals who work together to exert an influence upon the decision-making of a company to achieve some specific outcome.

Prestel: Television viewdata information service connecting a conventional television set with a computer database via the public telephone service.

Prestige advertising See Corporate advertising.

Prestige pricing: a pricing strategy in which prices are set at a high level, recognising that lower prices will inhibit sales rather than encourage them and that buyers will associate a high price for the product with superior quality; also called Image Pricing. See Psychological Pricing.

Prestige products: items of superior quality; high status merchandise.

Pretest: Test of product or advertisement prior to full scale testing program.

Pretesting: See Product evaluation, Product testing; Concept testing.

Pretesting copy: Exploratory research to check the efficacy of a particular piece of advertising copy prior to its being used in an actual advertisement. See Advertising research.

Preview: Showing of a film, commercial or advertising campaign to a select audience, in advance of general public viewing.

Price: Agreed exchange value forming the essential basis for a trading agreement. One of the four controllable variables (with product, promotion and place) of the marketing mix. See Marketing Mix.

Price Adjustments: allowances, discounts, etc granted by a seller to meet the requirements or circumstances of specific buyers.

Price awareness: Extent to which consumers react to, or are aware of, price differences between competing brands.

Price bundling: a pricing strategy in which various products sold to a customer together are offered at a price less than the sum of the prices of the products sold individually.

Price competition: a competitive situation in which price is used as the major means of differentiating the product of one firm from that of a rival. See Non-price Competition.

Price cues: See Cues.

Price cutting: Selling at prices below the commonly accepted level for the product or commodity concerned.

Price (demand) elasticity: Relationship between the selling price of a product and the volume of demand which will be generated as a result. High elasticity is indicative of a product for which demand will be very sensitive to changes in price. This is often to be found in highly competitive markets and is more closely associated with non-essential commodities. Low elasticity will apply to essentials and particularly in a monopolistic situation. Price-demand elasticity should never be taken to imply that reducing prices will inevitably lead to increasing demand or that increasing prices will result in a reduction in demand; the reverse may actually occur in both cases. See Giffen goods.

Price determinant: One or more of factors affecting the final price of a product or service. Often used to describe merely the major determining factor in establishing a price.

Price differentiation: A demand orientated pricing method whereby a firm uses more, than one price in the marketing of a specific product; differentiation of prices can be based on several dimensions, such as type of customers, type of' distribution used, or, the time of the purchase.

Price discrimination: Charging different prices to different markets or classes of buyers. Occurs most commonly as between cash and credit or instalment purchases but will also reflect the value Of particular outlets.

Price elasticity: Refers to the extent that changes in price influence consumer buying. A price inelastic product would reveal little change in purchase patterns as a result of changes in price.

Price/earnings ratio: Quoted price of an ordinary share divided by the most recent year's earnings per share.

Price haven: Securing a favourable position in brand loyalty where changes in price will not affect company sales volume.

Price Incentives: a common form of sales promotion in which price reductions are offered to consumers to encourage them to buy a particular product earlier or in larger quantities.

Price index: Sequence of price changes expressed against a base year, usually starting at 100. See Indexing.

Price inelasticity buyers' insensitivity to price. When the percentage change in quantity demanded is less than the percentage change in price, buyers are price-insensitive.

Price leader: a firm whose prices set a lead for other firms in the industry to follow.

Price leadership: Attributed to that company which initiates new price levels.

Price lining: pricing different products in a product line at various price points, depending on size and features, to make them affordable to a wider range of customers.

Price list Sheet of paper on which is printed a schedule of prices for a product or service.

Price mechanism System of allocation of scarce resources according to effective demand, expressed through price and price movements.

Price objection: an objection raised by a prospective buyer on the grounds of price, credit terms, discounts, allowances, freight charges, etc related to the cost of a product offered by a salesperson. See Objections.

Price packs: a type of sales promotion in which consumers are offered a reduction in the regular price of a product; the amount of the reduction is usually marked, or "flagged", prominently on the label or package; also called a "cents off" deal.

Price-quality relationship: The concept that consumers infer higher quality with higher prices and vice versa.

Price range: Prices from the lowest to the highest available for a particular type of product. Frequently used to describe the whole spectrum of prices within a company's product range.

Price sensitive: In which the demand for a product or service decreases quickly following a rise in price, and vice versa. See Law of supply and demand.

Price skimming: High initial selling price in markets where price is not likely to be elastic. May be set to secure a quick return, to recover high research and development costs, or to take advantage of a patent.

Price structure: Detailed prices and discounts, the amount of detail depending on whether prepared for trade or the final user or consumer.

Price tag: Price declared on an item or in an advertisement describing an item.

Price-Value relationship: the connection that consumers make between price and quality; products with a higher price are commonly perceived to be of better quality.

Price war: In which two or more organisations progressively decrease their prices in order to gain increased market share.

Pricing: marketing activity concerned with the setting of prices for new products and the adjustment of prices for existing products.

Pricing mix Policy adopted in setting prices of particular products to meet competition.

Pricing plateau: Round figure for selling price, above and below which sharply increasing elasticity tends, in theory, to occur, hence fixing of price at $4.99 rather than $5.

Pricing strategy: Deliberate planning of the pricing structure in relation to factors such as consumer wants, product attributes and competition in such a way as to ensure overall profitability. Such a strategy must have regard to price-demand elasticity as well as encompassing such variables and incentives as volume discounts, commission and premium offers.

Pricing tactics: Short-term pricing manipulation used in an effort to stimulate brand switching or an increase in the share of total market.

Primacy and recency effects: The relative impact of information placed either at the beginning or the end of the message. Primacy refers to earlier information having greater impact. Recency refers to the most recent information having the greater impact.

Primary advertising: advertising intended to create demand for a class or category of product rather than for a brand. See Generic Advertising; Pioneering Advertising.

Primary data: Information which is specially collected by means of a research program carried out for a specific purpose. See Secondary data.

Primary demand: demand for a product class rather than for a particular brand within the class.

Primary Packaging a product's immediate container or wrapper. See Secondary Packaging; Shipping Packaging.

Primary readership: Readership figures based upon initial purchasers of a publication, e.g. paid for by any member of a household. See Secondary readership. See also Tertiary readership.

Primary Research: marketing research undertaken to collect first-hand data; also called Field Research because the researcher visits or contacts clients, potential users etc to ask questions, observe behaviour or conduct experiments. See Primary Data; Secondary Data; Secondary Research.

Primary Source: Originating source of secondary data.

Prime time: Those transmission hours in television and radio which attract the largest audiences.

Priming: Occurs when a small amount of exposure to a stimulus leads to an increased drive to be in the presence of the stimulus.

Principal: Person or organisation who appoints and directs an agent (e.g., export agent) who is acting on his/her behalf for instance in another country.

Principle of integrating interests: a technique used in selling in which the salesperson, knowing the buyer's personal interests or buying motives, places emphasis on these in the presentation rather than on the features or benefits of the product.

Print media: Blanket term covering printed media and distinguishing it from broadcast or position media.

Print run: Quantity involved in any print order or publication.

Printed matter: See Matter.

Private acceptance: Occurs when a person actually changes his or her beliefs in the direction of the group.

Private brand: Retailers' or wholesalers' own brand. See Distributors' brand, Own label and Manufacturer's Brand.

Private carrier: Carries goods according to specific contracts and is under no obligation to provide scheduled services.

Private Label see Private brand, Dealer brand.

Preactive marketing control system: a system of marketing control in which marketing management anticipates any change in the environment and designs new procedures and methods for evaluating and controlling marketing performance; an adaptive control system is a proactive system whereas an after-the-fact control system and a steering control system are reactive systems. See Adaptive Control System; After-the-Fact Control System; Marketing Control System; Steering Control System.

PRO: See Public relations officer.

Proactive marketing strategies: marketing activities which anticipate competitive action and attempt to forestall it; offensive strategies. See Reactive Marketing Strategies.

Probabilistic models: a statistical tool in which the probability that an event will occur again is estimated using historical data; for example, in sales forecasting past purchasing behaviour is used to estimate the degree of probability with which consumers will purchase the same item again.

Probability sample: a sample in which each individual within a total population has a known chance of being chosen.

Probability-Proportional-to-Size sampling: Form of cluster sampling in which a fixed number of second-stage units is selected from each first- stage cluster The probabilities associated with the selection of each cluster are, in turn, variable because they are directly related to the relative sizes of each cluster.

Probability sample: Sample in which each population clement has a known, non zero chance of being included in the sample.

Problem children: Brands with low market shares in high growth markets whose future profitability is uncertain. High investment in them by their companies involves high risk. It might - or might not - pay off. see Growth/Share matrix, Question Marks.

Problem recognition: The first stage of decision making. It occurs when the actual state falls below the desired state. It is a type of need recognition.

Problem-Solving approach an approach to selling in which the salesperson works with the buyer to evaluate alternative solutions to a problem and to select the best alternative; a consultative approach intended to build long term relationships with clients. Also called Depth Selling.

Probability: Basis of sampling theory; providing sufficient history Of an event is known, then the probability that it will occur again is calculable. In one respect, probability is the opposite of statistics. Probability is the study of results when a process is understood, and statistics provides the likely result when the process is not quite as certain.

Probability space: (also known as sample space) In statistics, the range of possible outcomes in a set.

Probe: Used to obtain further information when the initial inquiry does not produce a satisfactory response, or to make sure at interview that the respondent has answered the question fully.

Process materials: a classification of goods bought by organisations for incorporation into a product; the process materials cannot be recognised in the finished product.

Procurement: All those activities within an organisation which contribute towards the placement of an order. Synonym for Buying, or Purchasing.

Procurement costs: the costs involved in reordering an inventory item; the costs include the cost of processing and transmitting the order as well as the cost of the item itself.

Product: a bundle of need-satisfying tangible and intangible attributes offered to a buyer by a seller. A product is anything that can be offered to the market that might satisfy a need or want. It may be an object, a service, a place, an organisation, a person or an idea. Products can be thought about at a number of levels. Every product has a basic component, known as the 'core product'. We rarely think about products only in terms of core product, however. Products have brand names, packaging, qualities and styling, for example - these make up the formal product'. Beyond the formal product is the 'augmented product', which includes warrantees, guarantees, after-sales service, installation, delivery, credit. At a final level, marketers usually perceive the product as one that will be further developed. Therefore we have the future product. See Actual Product; Augmented Product; Core Product.

Product acceptance: Measurement deciding degree of success of product launch.

Product advertising: advertising in which a company promotes a particular good or service. See Advocacy Advertising; Corporate Advertising.

Product attributes: distinctive tangible and intangible features of a product that give it its value to a user.

Product-attribute association: The relationship between the brands held in a consumer's memory and the qualities or attributes of the brands.

Product audit: a systematic appraisal of a firm's product mix to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses and to assess the available opportunities.

Product-Based competitors: see Product Form Competitors.

Product-Based marketing organisation: a marketing structure of an organisation in which staff specialists have responsibility for various products of the organisation (rather than for particular markets); most appropriate when customer needs are differentiated by product. See Market Based Marketing Organisation.

Product benefits: Factors which go towards satisfying the requirements of a customer. Fundamentally, the purchasing decision is based upon the perceived product benefits rather than the product itself or its specification or performance. See Consumer want.

Product clutter: Wide range of products, many past their useful life, usually clogging the attempt to streamline effective marketing management.

Product class: A term applied to the largest grouping of products that have similar functions. Cigarettes, automobiles and microcomputers are each a product class. Also called product category

Product concept: see Product Orientation.

Product consumption/usage: An element of the post acquisition stage of consumer decision making that involves the consumption and use of a product.

Product cues: See Cues.

Product depth (of Line): see Product Line Length.

Product development: Activity leading to a product having new or different characteristics or consumer benefits. Such developments range from an entirely new concept to meet a newly defined consumer 'want' to the modification of an existing product or indeed its presentation and packaging. It forms part of a process which has to be continuous to arrest the decline era within the intrinsic life cycle of any existing product.

Product development cycle: Chain of events leading up to the birth of a new product, i.e. concept, mock-up, prototype, preproduction batch, full production.

Product differentiation: Policy which emphasises those features which distinguish one product from other similar products. The practice of making one product distinguishable from all other products. In virtually every product class there are many products performing similar functions and needing to be differentiated from each other. Not only must one company's brands be distinguishable from competing brands, but frequently from each other. Products may be differentiated by quality, features, styling, price, service. They may be differentiated by advertising and sales promotion, by which the marketer trying to develop special consumer attitudes towards a brand. Type of retail outlet may also differentiate products.

Product disposition: What consumers do with a product after they have completed their use of it.

Product diversification: The adoption of a completely different range of products, may be aimed at existing markets or to utilise spare capacity. Objective is often as a hedge against a decline in demand for present product range, or to provide a more stable business base.

Product elimination: the decision to drop a product (for example, in the decline stage of its life cycle) in order to use the costs associated with it to enhance profits or to release resources that could be more effectively used in other ways. The process for withdrawing a product from the market (also called product deletion).

Product evaluation: Of particular relevance to new products, product evaluation is the means by which the value of a product to a customer is determined in advance. This is of special importance in developing a pricing strategy but, in practice, should go much deeper in order to categorise each of the product benefits in relation to each of the market segments. From such essential background knowledge develops not only the marketing strategy and the media mix, but also the basic selling platform and the advertising appropriation.

Product extension: the introduction of a product that is known to the company but which has features or dimensions which are new to consumers. See Innovation; New Product Duplication.

Product failure: a product that does not meet management expectations in the marketplace.

Product flanking: a competitive marketing strategy in which a company produces its brands in a variety of sizes and styles to gain shelf space and inhibit competitors.

Product form competitors: firms offering slightly different variants of the same basic product.

Product image: Concept which describes what consumers believe the product to be or do, regardless of its literal accuracy or otherwise. Often their conclusions are made on value judgments without recourse to trial of alternative products. See Brand image.

Product innovators: The small set of people who are the first to buy new products.

Product item: a product variant with its own distinctive attributes (price, packaging, etc); also called a stock-taking unit.

Productivity: The relationship between marketing output (sales) and marketing inputs (expenditures).

Product knowledge: detailed knowledge of a product's features and benefits required by a salesperson to persuade a prospect to purchase.

Product launch: the introduction of a new product to the market; the last step in the new product development process - its commercialisation.

Product liability: the onus or responsibility imposed by legislation on a manu