Library · 220 explainers

Concept Explainers

Long-form, plain-English explanations of every business and marketing framework you'll meet in undergrad — organized by category, cross-linked to case studies and practice questions.

Consumer Behavior

30 concepts

The Consumer Decision Process

A five-stage model — Need Recognition, Information Search, Evaluation, Purchase, Post-Purchase — describing how consume…

Consumer Behavior

Problem Recognition

The first stage of the consumer decision process — the moment a consumer perceives a gap between their actual and desir…

Consumer Behavior

Information Search

The second stage — the consumer gathers information from internal memory and external sources to form a consideration s…

Consumer Behavior

Evaluation of Alternatives

The third stage — the consumer applies a decision rule (compensatory or non-compensatory) to rank or filter brands in t…

Consumer Behavior

Purchase Decision

The fourth stage — the consumer commits to a brand, but five sub-decisions (vendor, quantity, timing, payment, and inte…

Consumer Behavior

Post-Purchase Behavior

The fifth stage — the consumer experiences satisfaction or dissonance after purchase, which shapes loyalty, advocacy, a…

Consumer Behavior

Cognitive Dissonance

Festinger's theory: psychological discomfort when a person holds two conflicting beliefs — in marketing, the post-purch…

Consumer Behavior

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's five-tier pyramid — physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, self-actualization — used to map which need a br…

Consumer Behavior

Consumer Perception

The process by which consumers select, organize, and interpret marketing stimuli — the bridge between an ad in the worl…

Consumer Behavior

Selective Attention

The first filter in perception — consumers notice only a tiny fraction of marketing stimuli, and notice more of what is…

Consumer Behavior

Classical Conditioning

Pavlov's associative learning — pairing a brand with a positive stimulus until the brand alone evokes the response.

Consumer Behavior

Operant Conditioning

Skinner's theory: behavior followed by reward is repeated; behavior followed by punishment is extinguished — used in lo…

Consumer Behavior

Tricomponent Attitude Model

Attitudes have three components — cognitive (beliefs), affective (feelings), and conative (intentions) — each requiring…

Consumer Behavior

Theory of Reasoned Action / Planned Behavior

Fishbein-Ajzen models linking beliefs to attitudes to intentions to behavior — used to predict and influence consumer a…

Consumer Behavior

Reference Groups

Groups whose values and behaviors a consumer uses as a reference point — membership, aspirational, and dissociative gro…

Consumer Behavior

Opinion Leaders

Individuals whose recommendations carry disproportionate weight in their social network — used in word-of-mouth strateg…

Consumer Behavior

Family Buying Roles

In household purchases, five roles — initiator, influencer, decider, buyer, user — may be played by different family me…

Consumer Behavior

Social Class Influence

Social class — a stratified grouping by income, education, and occupation — predicts patterns of consumption that demog…

Consumer Behavior

Cultural Influence on Consumption

Culture — shared values, beliefs, and norms — shapes what consumers want, what they buy, and how brands must communicat…

Consumer Behavior

Subculture Marketing

Subcultures — groups within a culture sharing distinctive values — are often viable target segments with their own medi…

Consumer Behavior

Lifestyle and the VALS Framework

Lifestyle reflects how people spend time and money; SRI's VALS sorts US consumers into eight types based on motivation …

Consumer Behavior

Motivation and the Drive State

A motive is an aroused need that drives action — marketers use Maslow, Herzberg, and McClelland to identify which motiv…

Consumer Behavior

Personality and Brand Personality

Brands take on human personality traits; Aaker's five-dimension model lets marketers measure and steer brand personalit…

Consumer Behavior

Just-Noticeable Difference (Weber's Law)

The minimum change in a stimulus that a consumer can detect — small enough changes go unnoticed; bigger ones trigger re…

Consumer Behavior

High vs Low-Involvement Decisions

Involvement — the perceived importance of a purchase — divides decisions into high (extended problem solving) vs low (r…

Consumer Behavior

B2B vs B2C Buying

Business buyers differ from consumers — fewer buyers, larger volumes, professionalized purchasing, longer cycles, and a…

Consumer Behavior

The Organizational Buying Process

The eight-step Webster-Wind model for B2B purchase: problem recognition, need description, product spec, supplier searc…

Consumer Behavior

The B2B Buying Center

In B2B, multiple stakeholders share a purchase decision — initiator, user, influencer, decider, approver, buyer, and ga…

Consumer Behavior

Buy Classes: Straight Rebuy, Modified Rebuy, New Task

B2B purchases divide into three classes — straight rebuy (routine), modified rebuy (some change), new task (first time)…

Consumer Behavior

Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior varies systematically across cultures along Hofstede dimensions; international marketers must adapt o…

Consumer Behavior

Digital & Analytics

20 concepts

SEO Fundamentals

Search Engine Optimization — earning organic ranking on Google through technical, on-page, and off-page factors.

Digital & Analytics

SEM and Google Ads

Paid search advertising — bidding on keywords to appear in search results, paying per click, with auctions optimizing f…

Digital & Analytics

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Systematic experimentation to increase the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action — purchase, signup, lea…

Digital & Analytics

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

The total profit a firm expects from a customer relationship over its lifetime — the metric that determines how much ca…

Digital & Analytics

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

The total cost — sales, marketing, content, technology — divided by new customers acquired. The denominator of the LTV/…

Digital & Analytics

LTV/CAC Ratio

Customer Lifetime Value divided by Customer Acquisition Cost — the dominant unit-economics metric for evaluating custom…

Digital & Analytics

Marketing Attribution Models

Methods for assigning credit to marketing touchpoints across the customer journey — last-touch, first-touch, multi-touc…

Digital & Analytics

First-Touch vs Last-Touch Attribution

The two simplest attribution models — credit to the first or last touchpoint — each systematically biased.

Digital & Analytics

A/B Testing in Marketing

Comparing two versions of a marketing element with random assignment to estimate which performs better — the gold stand…

Digital & Analytics

Cohort Analysis

Tracking customers grouped by acquisition period to compare retention, revenue, and behavior over time — exposes trends…

Digital & Analytics

Churn Rate

The percentage of customers who cancel in a given period — the complement of retention, and one of the most important s…

Digital & Analytics

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Reichheld's loyalty metric: percentage of Promoters (9-10) minus Detractors (0-6) on the "would you recommend" question…

Digital & Analytics

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

A direct measure — typically a 5-point scale — of how satisfied a customer is with a specific interaction, product, or …

Digital & Analytics

Customer Effort Score (CES)

A measure of how much effort the customer had to expend to complete a task — predicts loyalty better than NPS in servic…

Digital & Analytics

Marketing Funnel Metrics

Metrics for each funnel stage — Reach, Engagement, Conversion, Loyalty, Advocacy — that diagnose where prospects drop o…

Digital & Analytics

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

The percentage of impressions that result in a click — a creative-quality metric, not a conversion metric.

Digital & Analytics

Bounce Rate

The percentage of website visitors who leave after viewing only one page — a signal of relevance and engagement.

Digital & Analytics

Retention Curves

A graph of the percentage of customers retained over time — flattens to a long-term retention rate that determines life…

Digital & Analytics

Engagement Metrics

Time on site, pages per session, return visits, daily/monthly active users (DAU/MAU) — measures of how deeply customers…

Digital & Analytics

Marketing ROI (ROMI)

Return on Marketing Investment — the incremental profit attributable to marketing divided by marketing spend. The ultim…

Digital & Analytics

Distribution & Place

15 concepts

Channel Design Decisions

Designing a distribution channel involves analyzing customer needs, defining objectives, identifying channel alternativ…

Distribution & Place

Channel Conflict

Disputes between members of a distribution channel — vertical (manufacturer vs retailer), horizontal (retailer vs retai…

Distribution & Place

Intensive, Selective, Exclusive Distribution

Three intensity levels of channel coverage — intensive (everywhere), selective (chosen retailers), exclusive (one per t…

Distribution & Place

Vertical Marketing System (VMS)

A unified, integrated channel — corporate, contractual, or administered — in which one member coordinates the entire ch…

Distribution & Place

Horizontal Marketing System

Two or more firms at the same channel level cooperate to exploit a marketing opportunity neither could pursue alone.

Distribution & Place

Omnichannel Strategy

A unified customer experience across every channel — physical, online, mobile, social — where customers can move betwee…

Distribution & Place

Multichannel vs Omnichannel

Multichannel uses many channels independently; omnichannel integrates them into one customer experience.

Distribution & Place

Supply Chain Management Basics

The integrated management of all activities involved in sourcing, producing, and delivering products — from raw materia…

Distribution & Place

Types of Retailers

Retailers classify by product breadth (specialty, department, supermarket), price-service mix (discount, off-price, ful…

Distribution & Place

Wholesaler Types

Wholesalers — merchant wholesalers, brokers/agents, manufacturer's sales branches — act as intermediaries between manuf…

Distribution & Place

Franchising as a Distribution Strategy

A contractual VMS in which the franchisor licenses its business model to franchisees who own and operate individual out…

Distribution & Place

E-

E-Commerce Channels

Direct-to-consumer websites, marketplaces (Amazon, eBay), social commerce, and mobile commerce — each with different ec…

Distribution & Place

Direct-to-Consumer (D2C)

Bypassing traditional retail intermediaries to sell directly to end customers — captures more margin and customer relat…

Distribution & Place

Last-Mile Logistics

The final delivery from distribution center to customer — the most expensive segment of logistics, with growing custome…

Distribution & Place

Reverse Logistics

The flow of products back from customer to firm — returns, recycling, refurbishment, recalls — increasingly material to…

Distribution & Place

Management & Organization

15 concepts

Maslow's Hierarchy in the Workplace

Applying Maslow's five-tier hierarchy to employee motivation — physiological (pay), safety (job security), belonging (t…

Management & Organization

Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory

Herzberg distinguished hygiene factors (cause dissatisfaction if absent) from motivators (cause satisfaction if present…

Management & Organization

McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y

Two opposing assumptions about workers — Theory X assumes laziness and need for control; Theory Y assumes self-directio…

Management & Organization

Situational Leadership

Hersey & Blanchard's model: leadership style should adjust based on the follower's development level — directing, coach…

Management & Organization

Transformational vs Transactional Leadership

Two leadership paradigms — transactional (exchange-based: reward for performance) and transformational (inspiration and…

Management & Organization

Organizational Culture Types

Cameron & Quinn's Competing Values Framework — four culture types (Clan, Adhocracy, Market, Hierarchy) with different v…

Management & Organization

Kotter's 8-Step Change Model

John Kotter's eight-step process — urgency, coalition, vision, communicate, empower, wins, sustain, anchor — for leadin…

Management & Organization

Lewin's 3-Step Change Model

Kurt Lewin's three-stage model — Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze — the foundational framework for organizational change mana…

Management & Organization

Internal SWOT for Organizations

Applying SWOT inside an organization to assess internal capabilities — culture, talent, processes, technology, leadersh…

Management & Organization

Organizational Structure Types

Functional, divisional, matrix, network, and team structures — each with different trade-offs in coordination, accounta…

Management & Organization

Span of Control

The number of direct reports a manager can effectively supervise — narrow span (3-5) for complex work; wide span (15-20…

Management & Organization

Delegation

Assigning authority and responsibility to lower-level employees — multiplies leadership capacity and develops talent, b…

Management & Organization

The Project Management Triangle

The classic constraint triangle — Scope, Time, Cost — where increasing one or two requires sacrificing the third (or qu…

Management & Organization

Agile vs Waterfall

Two project methodologies — Agile (iterative, adaptive) vs Waterfall (sequential, plan-driven) — appropriate to differe…

Management & Organization

Kanban and Scrum

Two agile methodologies — Scrum (fixed sprints, defined roles) and Kanban (continuous flow, WIP limits) — appropriate t…

Management & Organization

Marketing Fundamentals

38 concepts

The Marketing Mix (4 Ps)

Product, Price, Place, Promotion — the four levers a marketer pulls to deliver a value proposition to a target segment.

Marketing Fundamentals

The Extended Marketing Mix (7 Ps)

The 4 Ps plus People, Process, and Physical Evidence — used when marketing services rather than goods.

Marketing Fundamentals

Market Segmentation

Dividing a heterogeneous market into smaller groups of buyers with similar needs, behaviors, or characteristics so each…

Marketing Fundamentals

Target Marketing

Choosing which segment(s) of a segmented market to serve, based on segment attractiveness and the firm's ability to win…

Marketing Fundamentals

Market Positioning

Designing the offer and image so the brand occupies a distinctive, valued place in the target customer's mind relative …

Marketing Fundamentals

Value Proposition

A clear statement of the bundle of benefits a target customer gets, and why it is more valuable to them than the next-b…

Marketing Fundamentals

Needs, Wants, and Demands

Kotler's distinction between basic human needs, the culturally-shaped wants that satisfy them, and the demands that eme…

Marketing Fundamentals

The Marketing Concept

A management orientation that holds firms succeed when they identify and satisfy customer needs better than competitors…

Marketing Fundamentals

The Production Concept

A management orientation that prioritizes production efficiency, low cost, and wide distribution — assumes customers pr…

Marketing Fundamentals

The Selling Concept

A management orientation that holds customers will not buy enough on their own — so the firm must mount aggressive sell…

Marketing Fundamentals

The Societal Marketing Concept

An evolution of the Marketing Concept that says firms must satisfy customer needs in ways that also enhance societal we…

Marketing Fundamentals

Market(ing) Orientation

A firm-wide culture, not just a department, in which every function generates and acts on customer and competitor intel…

Marketing Fundamentals

The Market Research Process

A six-step disciplined sequence — define, design, collect, analyze, interpret, report — for turning a business question…

Marketing Fundamentals

Primary vs Secondary Research

Primary research is data you collect yourself for a specific decision; secondary research is data already collected by …

Marketing Fundamentals

Qualitative vs Quantitative Research

Qualitative research explores why with rich, unstructured data from few people; quantitative research measures how many…

Marketing Fundamentals

Focus Groups

A moderated 60–90 minute discussion among 6–10 representative target customers, used to surface attitudes, language, an…

Marketing Fundamentals

Survey Design

The discipline of writing questions, sequencing them, and choosing scales so a sample of respondents produces unbiased,…

Marketing Fundamentals

Sampling Methods

Probability vs non-probability techniques for choosing whom to survey, with trade-offs in cost, bias, and statistical g…

Marketing Fundamentals

Marketing Plan Structure

The standard nine-section document — exec summary, situation, SWOT, objectives, strategy, programs, budget, controls, c…

Marketing Fundamentals

The Microenvironment

The actors close to the firm — company itself, suppliers, intermediaries, customers, competitors, publics — that direct…

Marketing Fundamentals

The Macroenvironment

The six broad uncontrollable forces — demographic, economic, natural, technological, political/legal, cultural — that s…

Marketing Fundamentals

Demographic Segmentation

Slicing the market by age, gender, income, occupation, education, family stage, religion, and race — the most measurabl…

Marketing Fundamentals

Geographic Segmentation

Segmenting by country, region, city size, density, climate, or neighborhood — useful when consumption varies by where t…

Marketing Fundamentals

Psychographic Segmentation

Segmenting by lifestyle, values, attitudes, interests, and personality — variables that often predict behavior better t…

Marketing Fundamentals

Behavioral Segmentation

Segmenting by usage rate, occasion, benefits sought, loyalty status, and readiness — the most predictive basis because …

Marketing Fundamentals

Niche Marketing

Targeting a small, well-defined sub-segment with a tailored offer that larger competitors do not bother to serve — trad…

Marketing Fundamentals

Mass Marketing

A coverage strategy in which the firm offers one product and one marketing program to the entire market — banking on sc…

Marketing Fundamentals

Differentiated Marketing

A coverage strategy in which the firm targets several segments with a tailored offer for each — accepting higher cost i…

Marketing Fundamentals

Undifferentiated Marketing

Synonym for mass marketing — a single offer for the entire market, ignoring segment differences.

Marketing Fundamentals

Concentrated Marketing

A coverage strategy in which the firm focuses all resources on one segment, becoming the dominant choice within it.

Marketing Fundamentals

Micromarketing

Tailoring offers to individuals or very small geographic units — local marketing and one-to-one marketing.

Marketing Fundamentals

Positioning Statement

A one-sentence internal articulation of who the brand is for, what category it competes in, what makes it different, an…

Marketing Fundamentals

Perceptual Mapping

A two-axis diagram plotting brands by customer perception on two key attributes — used to visualize positioning, gaps, …

Marketing Fundamentals

Points of Parity

The category-level features a brand must offer just to be considered a credible competitor — the table stakes.

Marketing Fundamentals

Points of Difference

The unique attributes that customers strongly associate with a brand and cannot find at competitors — the actual basis …

Marketing Fundamentals

Marketing Myopia

Theodore Levitt's 1960 warning that firms fail when they define their business by the product they sell rather than the…

Marketing Fundamentals

AIDA — The Marketing Funnel

A classic four-stage model — Attention, Interest, Desire, Action — describing how a prospect moves from first awareness…

Marketing Fundamentals

Customer Journey Mapping

A visual representation of every touchpoint, decision, and emotion a customer experiences from need-recognition through…

Marketing Fundamentals

Pricing

15 concepts

Pricing Strategies — Overview

Three primary approaches to setting price — cost-based, value-based, and competition-based — each appropriate to differ…

Pricing

Cost-Plus Pricing

Setting price by adding a standard markup to product cost — simple but ignores customer willingness to pay and competit…

Pricing

Value-Based Pricing

Setting price based on the customer's perceived value rather than cost — captures the maximum the customer is willing t…

Pricing

Competition-Based Pricing

Setting price based on competitor prices — going-rate (matching), premium (above), or discount (below) — depending on p…

Pricing

Penetration Pricing

Launching at a deliberately low price to capture share quickly, then raising once the market is established.

Pricing

Price Skimming

Launching at a high price to capture maximum margin from price-insensitive early adopters, then lowering price to expan…

Pricing

Dynamic Pricing

Continuously adjusting price based on demand, supply, time, customer, or competitor signals — common in airlines, hotel…

Pricing

Psychological Pricing

Pricing techniques that exploit cognitive biases — charm pricing ($9.99), prestige pricing (round numbers for luxury), …

Pricing

Bundle Pricing

Selling multiple products together at a price below the sum of individual prices — captures revenue from customers who …

Pricing

Freemium Pricing

Offering a free tier with limited features to drive adoption, then converting users to paid tiers with premium features.

Pricing

Price Elasticity of Demand

The percentage change in quantity demanded for a 1% change in price — elastic categories lose volume on price increases…

Pricing

Break-Even Analysis

Calculating the volume at which total revenue equals total cost — the minimum sales required for a product to be profit…

Pricing

Contribution Margin

Price minus variable cost per unit — the dollars each unit contributes to covering fixed cost and profit.

Pricing

Price Discrimination

Charging different prices to different customers for essentially the same product, based on willingness-to-pay — increa…

Pricing

EDLP vs Hi-Lo Pricing

Two retail pricing philosophies — Everyday Low Pricing (consistent low prices) vs High-Low (regular price with frequent…

Pricing

Product & Brand

25 concepts

Product Life Cycle

The four-stage progression — Introduction, Growth, Maturity, Decline — through which most products pass, with different…

Product & Brand

New Product Development (NPD)

The eight-stage process — idea generation, screening, concept testing, business analysis, product development, market t…

Product & Brand

Product Mix and Product Line

A product line is a group of related products serving the same need; the product mix is the firm's entire collection of…

Product & Brand

Product Line Stretching

Adding products to a line at higher (upmarket), lower (downmarket), or both ends of the price-quality spectrum.

Product & Brand

Product Line Length and Depth

Length is the number of items in a line; depth is the variants per item. Both decisions trade off range against complex…

Product & Brand

Customer-Based Brand Equity (Keller CBBE)

Kevin Lane Keller's pyramid model — brand identity, meaning, response, and resonance — describing how strong brands are…

Product & Brand

Aaker's Brand Equity Model

David Aaker's framework with five components — brand loyalty, awareness, perceived quality, brand associations, and oth…

Product & Brand

Brand Positioning

The distinct mental space a brand occupies in the customer's mind, defined by target, frame of reference, point of diff…

Product & Brand

Brand Architecture

The structure linking the firm's brands — house of brands, branded house, endorsed brand, hybrid — managing brand equit…

Product & Brand

Brand Extension

Using an established brand to enter a new product category — leverages equity but risks dilution if the extension does …

Product & Brand

Line Extension

Adding new variants — flavors, sizes, formulations, colors — within an existing product line, leveraging brand equity w…

Product & Brand

Co-Branding

Two brands jointly create a product or campaign, each contributing equity — used for category entry, premium positionin…

Product & Brand

Private Label vs National Brand

Private labels (retailer-owned brands like Costco Kirkland) compete with national brands (P&G, Unilever) on price, qual…

Product & Brand

Brand Licensing

A brand-owner grants a licensee the right to use the brand in exchange for royalties — extends brand reach without oper…

Product & Brand

Brand Revitalization

Restoring health to a declining brand through repositioning, product upgrade, or generational refresh — easier than bui…

Product & Brand

Rebranding

A fundamental change to brand identity — name, logo, visual system, sometimes positioning — typically following a merge…

Product & Brand

Brand Elements

The trademarkable components — name, logo, symbol, slogan, jingle, character, package — that identify and differentiate…

Product & Brand

Brand Recall vs Brand Recognition

Recognition is the ability to identify a brand when shown it; recall is the ability to retrieve the brand from memory u…

Product & Brand

Brand Loyalty Pyramid

Aaker's five-tier model from non-customer through brand insistent — used to diagnose loyalty depth and target marketing…

Product & Brand

Brand Archetypes

Carl Jung's 12 universal character types — Hero, Outlaw, Lover, Caregiver, Sage, etc. — used to give brands a coherent …

Product & Brand

Packaging Functions

Packaging serves four functions — protection, containment, communication, and convenience — and is often the most impac…

Product & Brand

Labeling Requirements

Labels carry mandatory regulatory information (ingredients, nutrition, warnings, country of origin) and voluntary marke…

Product & Brand

Consumer Product Classification

Four categories — convenience, shopping, specialty, unsought — based on customer effort and frequency, each demanding d…

Product & Brand

Industrial / B2B Product Classification

B2B products fall into materials/parts, capital items, and supplies/services — each with different sales cycles, decisi…

Product & Brand

The Three Levels of Product

Kotler's model: every product has three layers — Core Benefit, Actual Product, Augmented Product — each adding value be…

Product & Brand

Promotion & IMC

25 concepts

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

Coordinating every brand communication channel — advertising, PR, sales promotion, personal selling, direct, digital, s…

Promotion & IMC

DAGMAR Advertising Objectives

Russell Colley's framework setting advertising objectives by communication stage — Awareness, Comprehension, Conviction…

Promotion & IMC

Advertising Budget Methods

Four methods for setting an advertising budget — affordable, percentage of sales, competitive parity, and objective-and…

Promotion & IMC

Reach and Frequency

The two basic media planning metrics — Reach (how many unique people see the ad) and Frequency (how many times the aver…

Promotion & IMC

Gross Rating Points (GRPs) and TRPs

GRP — Reach × Frequency × 100 — is the universal media-buying currency; TRP measures only the target demographic, provi…

Promotion & IMC

Message Strategy

The core idea, voice, and appeal a campaign uses to communicate the brand's positioning to its target audience.

Promotion & IMC

Copy Platform

A creative-brief document that captures key message, support points, target, tone, and constraints — the contract betwe…

Promotion & IMC

Push vs Pull Strategy

Push strategies move product to channel partners through trade promotion; pull strategies create consumer demand that p…

Promotion & IMC

Sales Promotion Types

Short-term incentives — coupons, rebates, samples, contests, premiums, BOGO — designed to accelerate purchase or shift …

Promotion & IMC

Public Relations Tools

PR tools — press releases, media relations, events, sponsorships, lobbying, crisis communication — earn credibility tha…

Promotion & IMC

Personal Selling Process

The seven-step sales process — prospecting, pre-approach, approach, presentation, handling objections, close, follow-up…

Promotion & IMC

Direct Marketing

Communications that solicit a direct response from individual customers — direct mail, telemarketing, email, SMS, mobil…

Promotion & IMC

Social Media Marketing Strategy

A coordinated approach to platforms (Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc.) covering content, community, paid amplification…

Promotion & IMC

Content Marketing Strategy

Creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and retain a defined audience — building demand without…

Promotion & IMC

Influencer Marketing

Partnering with individuals — celebrities, creators, micro-influencers — whose audiences trust them, to amplify brand m…

Promotion & IMC

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Paid search advertising — bidding on keywords to appear at the top of search results — pays only when someone clicks an…

Promotion & IMC

Email Marketing

Direct messages to a permission-based subscriber list — the highest-ROI digital channel by most measures.

Promotion & IMC

Sponsorship Marketing

Aligning a brand with a property — sport, arts, cause, event — to gain audience access, brand association, and content …

Promotion & IMC

Guerrilla Marketing

Unconventional, low-budget, high-impact tactics that surprise consumers in public spaces or unexpected contexts.

Promotion & IMC

Viral Marketing

Content designed to be shared exponentially through social networks — most "viral" success comes from a small number of…

Promotion & IMC

Native Advertising

Paid content that matches the form, function, and feel of the platform on which it appears — sponsored posts on social,…

Promotion & IMC

Programmatic Advertising

Automated buying and selling of digital ad inventory through real-time auctions — combining ad-tech, data, and algorith…

Promotion & IMC

Ambush Marketing

A non-sponsor brand creating the impression of association with a major event without paying official sponsorship fees.

Promotion & IMC

Crisis Communication

A pre-built playbook for responding to negative events — product recall, executive scandal, data breach — that protects…

Promotion & IMC

Brand Storytelling

Using narrative structure — character, conflict, resolution — to communicate brand values and create emotional connecti…

Promotion & IMC

Strategic Frameworks

37 concepts