Marketing Styles: A Glossary of Terms from Today's Marketplace

Special Report on Marketing Styles

Once upon a time, marketing was, well, marketing. This art and science consisted of relatively uniform, commonly-held principles, based on the few prevailing theories of consumer behavior.

Today, multiple theories of behavior and motivation abound, and technology has given marketers the ability to analyze and segment the marketplace in an amazing variety of ways. The result: a variety of marketing styles, each designed to capitalize on a unique facet of consumer behavior.

Here's a summary of the more common marketing styles today. Use it to familiarize yourself with the approaches your colleagues are using -- and to identify the steps you can take to boost your marketing success in the future.

Aftermarketing. Activities designed to "upsell" customers after an initial sale. Aftermarketing usually focuses on goods and services related to the initial purchase, and may attempt to give customers greater value for the initial purchase. An individual purchasing a computer, for instance, might be persuaded through aftermarketing to purchase a service contract or computer accessories.

Business-to-Business Marketing. Marketing to the trades and professions, as opposed to the general consumer population.

Cause Marketing. Marketing efforts designed to benefit a business as well as a charitable cause. Can include a wide range of activities such as charitable coupons, fund raising events, charitable traffic-building promotions, and a variety of other programs sponsored by a business firm on behalf of a charity.

Cohort Marketing. A specialized form of direct marketing that attempts to match marketing messages to some significant event or stage in a prospect's life. A marketing program designed to sell vacation real estate to affluent senior adults just prior to their retirement might be an example of cohort marketing. These marketing programs often make use of historical events or imagery common to the lives of the prospects they influence. For example, the vacation real estate promotion might reference events or experiences prospects encountered in the years following World War II.

Continuity Marketing. Activities that build response through a "subscription" or "negative option" program. Historically, continuity marketers included book and record clubs and companies that sold collectibles by mail.

Cooperative Marketing. Promotional and advertising programs designed by a manufacturer or distributor, usually on behalf of local retailers. Costs are often split between the two parties.

Cyber-Marketing. A slang term referring to marketing driven by computers and technology.

Database Marketing. Catch-all term that includes programs driven by a data base -- a computer-stored collection of biographic and purchasing data and, perhaps, buying and lifestyle preferences. Database marketing is often used as the basis for direct response marketing programs.

Desktop Marketing. The variety of marketing efforts that can be initiated within an office, on a computer, without the aid of outside marketing consultants. Desktop marketing can encompass the production of materials, marketing research via on-line services and the World Wide Web, and communication with prospects and customers through e-mail.

Direct Marketing. Marketing efforts geared directly toward individual consumers, usually by telephone or mail and sometimes, in this high-tech age, by electronic means.

Direct Response Marketing. Pretty much the same as "direct marketing," except that direct response attempts to motivate the individual consumer to take some positive action in response to the marketing appeal, such as sending back an order form or requesting more information by telephone.

Electronic Marketing. Also termed "e-marketing." Describes the range of promotional vehicles, ordering options and prospect service programs offered via the Internet, diskette, audio, video, CD-ROM, and other electronic tools. Increasingly, the term "electronic marketing" is used synonymously with "interactive marketing."

Image Marketing. Generally refers to advertising designed to foster a specific perception of a business, or "position" a product in the minds of consumers.

Integrated Marketing. A series of marketing activities systematically designed to complement each other. For example, a mass media ad campaign might prompt consumers to recognize an upcoming direct mail offer which, in turn, might stimulate the use of retail sales promotion.

Interactive Marketing. Another catch-all term, this one describing marketing activities that engage the prospective buyer. Traditional interactive marketing might involve such activities as contests. Today's interactive marketing involves sales-oriented CD-ROM material, diskette-based material, and open-ended customer response forums on the World Wide Web. Increasingly, the term "interactive marketing" is associated with the electronic tools being used to promote products and services.

Intercept Marketing. Efforts to introduce products or services to people while they're performing some other activity or traveling somewhere. A colorful kiosk promoting yard supplies located near the door of a mall, for instance, might be used to intercept mall visitors and motivate them to learn more.

Lifestyle Marketing. Marketing efforts which attempt to match products and services with the hobbies, ideologies and personal interests of prospects. While lifestyle marketing may include advertising in special-purpose periodicals, it often makes use of sophisticated databases containing psychographic information on prospects. Today's lifestyle marketing relies heavily on computer technology.

Mass Marketing. One of the most traditional forms of marketing. Attempts to influence consumer behavior through advertising in mass-circulation newspapers, periodicals or broadcast media. Sometimes includes related sales promotional efforts.

Network Marketing. Most often used to describe the sales efforts of a chain of independent distributors who purchase sales rights and products within assigned territories. Network marketing has been used in recent years to sell a wide variety of items, most notably personal care items and household goods.

Niche Marketing. Marketing efforts directed toward a very specific group of people, such as "upwardly-mobile suburban homeowners" or "craft hobbyists between the ages of 40 and 60." Niche marketing can, at times, be used to promote general consumer products. For example, an insurance firm using a niche strategy might try to convince hobbyists or affluent senior adults why they need insurance.

Outdoor Marketing. Typically refers to billboard advertising, but occasionally refers to road signs or air advertising.

Relationship Marketing. A term closely related to database marketing. Describes the use of database technology to track the buying preferences and activities of individual customers in great detail, maintain close and personal contact with them, and keep individual customers abreast of product offerings of unique interest to them.

Saturation Marketing. An attempt to blanket a particular geographical area or prospect constituency with a product message. By engaging prospects with "multiple impressions" of the message, the marketer fixes an image of the product as the only logical buying alternative.

Strategic Marketing. Catch-all term used to describe marketing activities based on a carefully-crafted marketing plan. Often involves marketing outreach directed toward specific constituencies.

Target Marketing. A term often used in different and ambiguous ways. Frequently refers to database or niche marketing geared toward a highly specific audience, but sometimes used to describe mass media activities directed toward a particular geographic area. Sometimes used to describe promotional efforts leading to increased brand awareness of a newly introduced product.

Teaser Marketing. A gradually unfolding marketing campaign that's intended to tantalize the reader, viewer or listener. A series of newspaper advertisements that bring increasingly complete parts of the message with each passing ad is an example of a teaser campaign.

Telemarketing. Usually refers to the selling of goods and services over the telephone. Can include "outbound" telemarketing (calls are directed toward prospects) or "inbound" telemarketing (calls come from prospects who are motivated by some other form of advertising). Telemarketing includes activities ranging from cold calling to customer follow-up calls on large accounts.

Test Marketing. Term used to describe "market tests," often involving product introductions. Generally, test market programs are conducted by national firms in geographical areas which are believed to be broadly representative of the target market or the population as a whole. n