Terms

• Customer – an individual or business that buys goods and services from a business
• Customer base – the group of customers a business sells its products to
• Market – all customers and consumers who are interested in buying a product and have the financial resources to do so
• Target market – individuals or organisations identified by a business as the customers or consumers of their products
• Consumer markets – markets for goods and services, bought by the final consumer
• Industrial markets – markets for goods and services bought by other businesses to use in their production process
• Business environment – the combination of internal and external factors that influence the operations of a business

  • economic factors
  • technological factors
  • financial resources
• Free trade – no barriers exist that might prevent trade between different countries
• Niche marketing – developing products for a small segment of the market
• Mass marketing – selling the same product to the whole market
• Privatisation – selling off public sector organisations to the private sector
• Deregulation - the removal of government controls from an industry
• Free trade agreement – a pact between 2 or more countries to facilitate trade and eliminate barriers such as tariffs and quotas on goods and services exchanged between them
• E-commerce - the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet
• Market segment – a part of the whole market in which consumers have specific characteristics
• Geographic segmentation – dividing consumers in the market by geographic area
• Demographic segmentation – dividing consumers in the market by factors such as age, gender, income, ethnic background and social class
• Psychographic segmentation – dividing consumers in the market by lifestyles, personalities and attitude