Glossary/Strategy & Frameworks

• 3Cs Model

  Kenichi Ohmae's 1982 strategy framework focusing on the Company, its Customers and its Competitors.

• 4Cs of Marketing

  Robert Lauterborn's 1990 customer-centric alternative to the 4Ps: Consumer wants, Cost, Convenience and Communication.

• 7Ps of Marketing

  Bernard Booms and Mary Jo Bitner's 1981 extension of the 4Ps for services, adding People, Process and Physical Evidence.

• 60/40 Rule

  Les Binet and Peter Field's guideline that budgets typically perform best split roughly 60% to long-term brand building and 40% to short-term activation.

• Aaker Brand Equity Model

  David Aaker's 1991 model defining brand equity through brand loyalty, awareness, perceived quality, brand associations and other proprietary assets.

• AIDA Model

  Elias St. Elmo Lewis's 1898 sales model describing how buyers move through Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.

• Always-On Marketing

  Continuous, sustained marketing presence across channels rather than stop-start campaigns, keeping a brand available whenever buyers enter the market.

• Anchoring

  Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman's 1974 finding that people rely heavily on the first number they see, such as a list price, when judging value.

• Ansoff Matrix

  Igor Ansoff's 1957 growth grid: market penetration, market development, product development and diversification, by new versus existing products and markets.

• Barbell Strategy

  Borrowed from Nassim Taleb's investing concept, a marketing approach that concentrates spend at two extremes, such as broad brand building and precise performance, while cutting the middle.

• Bass Diffusion Model

  Frank Bass's 1969 forecasting model predicting new-product adoption from innovation (external influence) and imitation (word-of-mouth) coefficients.

• BCG Matrix

  Bruce Henderson's 1970 Boston Consulting Group portfolio tool classifying products as Stars, Cash Cows, Question Marks or Dogs by market growth and relative share.

• Beachhead Market

  A narrow initial segment a company dominates first to build momentum, a strategy central to Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm.

• Blue Ocean Strategy

  W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne's 2005 strategy of creating uncontested market space instead of fighting rivals in crowded 'red oceans'.

• Brand Archetypes

  Twelve character types, such as Hero, Outlaw and Caregiver, applied to branding by Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson in 2001, drawing on Carl Jung.

• Brand Extension

  Using an established brand name to launch a product in a new category, leveraging existing equity but risking dilution.

• Brand Identity Prism

  Jean-Noël Kapferer's hexagonal model defining brand identity through physique, personality, culture, relationship, reflection and self-image.

• Brand Key

  Unilever's brand positioning model capturing a brand's essence through elements such as target, insight, benefits, values, reasons to believe and discriminator.

• Burst Advertising

  Concentrating heavy media weight into a short, intense period to create rapid impact, such as for a launch or seasonal peak.

• Business Model Canvas

  Alexander Osterwalder's one-page template of nine building blocks, from customer segments to cost structure, popularized in 'Business Model Generation' (2010).

• Category Design

  The discipline of creating and defining a new market category so the creator becomes its leader, set out by Play Bigger's authors in 2016.

• Challenger Brand

  A brand that competes against category leaders by thinking and behaving differently, a concept defined by Adam Morgan in 'Eating the Big Fish' (1999).

• Cialdini's Principles of Persuasion

  Robert Cialdini's influence principles from 1984: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking and scarcity, with unity added in 2016.

• Consumer Decision Journey

  McKinsey's 2009 model, by David Court and colleagues, replacing the linear funnel with a loop of consideration, evaluation, purchase and a 'loyalty loop'.

• Crossing the Chasm

  Geoffrey Moore's 1991 thesis that tech products must bridge a gap between early adopters and the pragmatic early majority to go mainstream.

• Customer Journey Mapping

  The practice of visually charting each step, touchpoint, emotion and pain point a customer experiences in order to improve the experience end to end.

• Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE)

  Kevin Lane Keller's 1993 model, later drawn as a pyramid, building from salience to performance and imagery, judgments and feelings, then resonance.

• DAGMAR

  Russell Colley's 1961 approach, 'Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results', which sets measurable communication objectives for each campaign.

• Decoy Effect

  Joel Huber, John Payne and Christopher Puto's 1982 finding that adding an inferior option shifts preference toward a target option.

• Diffusion of Innovations

  Everett Rogers's 1962 theory of how new ideas spread through innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.

• Disruptive Innovation

  Clayton Christensen's theory, introduced with Joseph Bower in 1995, of simpler, cheaper offerings that start at the low end and eventually displace incumbents.

• Double Jeopardy Law

  The pattern, identified by William McPhee in 1963 and extended by Andrew Ehrenberg, that small brands have fewer buyers who are also slightly less loyal.

• Duplication of Purchase Law

  Gerald Goodhardt and Andrew Ehrenberg's finding that a brand shares customers with competitors in proportion to those competitors' market penetration.

• Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

  Richard Petty and John Cacioppo's 1980s model that persuasion works through a central route (careful thought) or peripheral route (cues).

• Excess Share of Voice (ESOV)

  Share of voice minus share of market; John Philip Jones showed in 1990 that brands with positive ESOV tend to grow share.

• First Moment of Truth (FMOT)

  Procter & Gamble's term, popularized around 2005, for the few seconds when a shopper first encounters a product on the shelf.

• Flighting

  A media scheduling strategy that alternates periods of advertising with periods of no advertising.

• Flywheel Model

  Jim Collins's 2001 'Good to Great' concept of self-reinforcing momentum, adopted by HubSpot in 2018 to replace the funnel with attract, engage, delight.

• Fogg Behavior Model

  B.J. Fogg's model (2007) that behaviour happens when Motivation, Ability and a Prompt converge, summarized as B=MAP.

• GE-McKinsey Matrix

  A nine-box portfolio tool developed by McKinsey for General Electric in the early 1970s, rating business units on industry attractiveness and competitive strength.

• Golden Circle (Start With Why)

  Simon Sinek's 2009 model arguing inspiring brands communicate from the inside out: Why they exist, then How, then What they do.

• Good-Better-Best Pricing

  Offering three tiers of a product at rising prices so customers self-select, often nudging them toward the middle option.

• Guerrilla Marketing

  Low-cost, unconventional tactics that create surprise and buzz, named by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book.

• Hierarchy of Effects

  Robert Lavidge and Gary Steiner's 1961 model that advertising moves people through awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and purchase.

• Hook Model

  Nir Eyal's 2014 habit-forming loop of Trigger, Action, Variable Reward and Investment, from his book 'Hooked'.

• How Brands Grow

  Byron Sharp's 2010 Ehrenberg-Bass book arguing brands grow mainly by increasing penetration among light buyers via mental and physical availability.

• Hype Cycle

  Gartner's model, introduced by Jackie Fenn in 1995, charting emerging technologies through a peak of inflated expectations, a trough of disillusionment and a plateau.

• Inbound Marketing

  Attracting customers with useful content and experiences rather than interruption, a term coined by HubSpot co-founder Brian Halligan around 2005.

• Jobs to Be Done (JTBD)

  The theory, popularized by Clayton Christensen, that customers 'hire' products to make progress on a specific job in their lives.

• Kano Model

  Noriaki Kano's 1984 model classifying product features as basic must-haves, performance attributes or delighters by their effect on satisfaction.

• Land and Expand

  A B2B growth strategy of winning a small initial deal in an account, then expanding usage, seats or products over time.

• Lean Startup

  Eric Ries's 2011 methodology of building, measuring and learning through rapid experiments and validated learning to reduce startup waste.

• Long Tail

  Chris Anderson's 2004 Wired theory that online businesses can profit from selling small volumes of many niche products.

• Loss Aversion

  Kahneman and Tversky's 1979 prospect-theory finding that losses feel roughly twice as powerful as equivalent gains.

• Loss Leader

  Pricing a product at or below cost to attract customers who then buy other, more profitable items.

• Lovemarks

  Kevin Roberts's 2004 Saatchi & Saatchi concept that great brands earn 'loyalty beyond reason' by combining high love and high respect.

• Market Segmentation

  Dividing a market into groups of buyers with shared needs or traits so offers and messages can be tailored; formalized by Wendell Smith in 1956.

• Marketing Mix (4Ps)

  The framework of Product, Price, Place and Promotion, formalized by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960 from Neil Borden's 'marketing mix' concept.

• Marketing Myopia

  Theodore Levitt's 1960 Harvard Business Review argument that firms fail when they define themselves by products rather than customer needs.

• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

  Abraham Maslow's 1943 theory ranking human needs from physiological and safety through belonging and esteem to self-actualization, widely used in messaging.

• Mere-Exposure Effect

  Robert Zajonc's 1968 finding that people develop a preference for things simply because they have seen them repeatedly.

• Messy Middle

  Google's 2020 research, with The Behavioural Architects, describing how shoppers loop between exploration and evaluation before purchase.

• Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

  The simplest version of a product that allows maximum validated learning, a term coined by Frank Robinson and popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries.

• Network Effects

  When a product becomes more valuable as more people use it, creating a powerful competitive moat for platforms and marketplaces.

• Nudge

  Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein's 2008 concept of steering choices through design without restricting options or changing incentives.

• OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)

  A goal-setting system pairing ambitious objectives with measurable key results, created by Andy Grove at Intel and popularized by John Doerr.

• Outbound Marketing

  Marketing that pushes messages to audiences who did not request them, such as cold outreach, TV spots and display ads.

• Paradox of Choice

  Barry Schwartz's 2004 argument, building on Iyengar and Lepper's jam study, that too many options can reduce satisfaction and purchases.

• Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)

  The observation, named by Joseph Juran after Vilfredo Pareto's 1890s findings, that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes.

• PAS Copywriting Formula

  A classic copywriting structure of Problem, Agitate, Solution: name the pain, intensify it, then present the offer as the fix.

• Penetration Pricing

  Entering a market with a low price to win share quickly, then raising prices once customers are acquired.

• Permission Marketing

  Seth Godin's 1999 concept of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who have opted in, rather than interrupting them.

• PESTLE Analysis

  A scan of Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental forces, evolved from Francis Aguilar's 1967 ETPS framework.

• Physical Availability

  Byron Sharp's term for how easy a brand is to notice and buy across purchase occasions, the counterpart to mental availability.

• Pirate Metrics (AARRR)

  Dave McClure's 2007 startup framework tracking Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral and Revenue.

• Porter's Five Forces

  Michael Porter's 1979 model of industry competitiveness: rivalry, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, buyer power and supplier power.

• Porter's Generic Strategies

  Michael Porter's 1980 model stating firms win through cost leadership, differentiation, or a focus on a narrow segment.

• Price Skimming

  Launching at a high price to capture early adopters, then lowering it over time, described by economist Joel Dean in 1950.

• Product Life Cycle

  The model that products pass through introduction, growth, maturity and decline, popularized by Theodore Levitt's 1965 Harvard Business Review article.

• Pulsing

  A media schedule combining a continuous low base of advertising with periodic heavier bursts around key moments.

• Purple Cow

  Seth Godin's 2003 idea that products must be genuinely remarkable to stand out, because ordinary products become invisible.

• RACE Framework

  Dave Chaffey's Smart Insights digital planning model of Reach, Act, Convert and Engage, usually preceded by a Plan stage.

• Razor and Blades Model

  Selling a base product cheaply and profiting from recurring consumables or add-ons, an approach popularly associated with Gillette.

• Recency Planning

  Erwin Ephron's 1990s media approach of maintaining continuous weekly reach to catch buyers near purchase rather than piling up frequency.

• RFM Analysis

  A direct-marketing segmentation method scoring customers on Recency, Frequency and Monetary value of purchases.

• Rule of 7

  An old heuristic that prospects need about seven exposures before acting, often traced to 1930s film promotion and lacking rigorous research support.

• Scarcity Principle

  Cialdini's finding that people value things more when they seem limited in quantity or time, underpinning limited editions and countdowns.

• See-Think-Do-Care

  Avinash Kaushik's framework (2013, with Care added later) organizing content and measurement by audience intent rather than funnel stage.

• SMART Goals

  George T. Doran's 1981 criteria that goals be Specific, Measurable, Achievable (originally Assignable), Realistic and Time-bound.

• Social Proof

  The tendency to follow what others do when uncertain, named by Robert Cialdini in 'Influence' (1984) and used via reviews, ratings and testimonials.

• StoryBrand (SB7)

  Donald Miller's 2017 seven-part messaging framework casting the customer as the hero and the brand as the guide who offers a plan.

• STP Model (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning)

  A core strategy process, popularized by Philip Kotler, of dividing a market into segments, choosing which to target, then positioning the brand for them.

• SWOT Analysis

  A planning tool assessing internal Strengths and Weaknesses and external Opportunities and Threats, commonly credited to 1960s work at Stanford Research Institute.

• System 1 and System 2

  Two modes of thinking, fast intuitive and slow deliberate, named by Keith Stanovich and Richard West and popularized by Daniel Kahneman in 2011.

• Technology Adoption Lifecycle

  A bell-curve model of adopter groups, from innovators to laggards, originating in Joe Bohlen and George Beal's 1957 Iowa State farm research.

• TOFU / MOFU / BOFU

  Shorthand for top, middle and bottom of funnel, used to match content and offers to awareness, consideration and decision stages.

• Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

  Rosser Reeves's concept, set out in 'Reality in Advertising' (1961), that each ad should make one distinctive, compelling benefit claim competitors cannot.

• Value Chain

  Michael Porter's 1985 model breaking a firm into primary and support activities to find where it creates value and competitive advantage.

• Value Ladder

  Russell Brunson's model of offers rising in price and value, moving customers from free or low-cost entry offers to premium ones.

• Value Proposition Canvas

  Alexander Osterwalder's 2014 tool matching customer jobs, pains and gains with a product's pain relievers and gain creators.

• Viral Marketing

  Marketing designed to spread person to person, popularized by Draper Fisher Jurvetson after Hotmail's 1996-97 'Get your free email' signature growth.

• Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)

  Google's 2011 concept, introduced by Jim Lecinski, for the online research moment when shoppers decide before they ever reach the shelf.