Habitual Decision Making - consumer decision making or problem solving
requiring only minimal search for, and evaluation of, alternatives before
purchasing. Also referred to as Automatic Response Behaviour, Routine
Response Behaviour and Routinised Problem Solving. See Extensive Problem
Solving; Limited Problem Solving.
Halo Effect - the transfer of goodwill from one product in a company's
line to another; the attribution, by association, of the qualities of one
item to others in the group.
Hard Sell Approach - an approach to selling in which the salesperson
puts pressure on the buyer to make a commitment to purchase; an approach
typical of the period of the "selling era" from the 1930s to
1950s.
Harvest Strategy - a deliberate decision to cut back expenditure of
all kinds on a particular product (usually in the decline stage of its
life cycle) in order to maximise profit from it, even if in doing so it
continues to lose market share. See Hold Strategy.
Head-to-Head Competition - a competitive situation characteristic of
oligopolistic circumstances, where the second or third leading company,
decides to challenge the leader.
Hedonists - formally, those who habitually seek pleasurable experiences;
individuals who, by nature, seek products which provide them with the most
pleasure, without regard to calories, sugar content, salt content, cholesterol
levels, colouring or preservative additives, and so on; hedonists are above-average
consumers of chocolates, soft drinks, beer, etc.
Herzberg's Theory of Motivation - a theory of motivation developed by
Henry Herzberg in which satisfiers (factors that cause satisfaction) are
distinguished from dissatisfiers (factors which cause dissatisfaction).
Thus, consumers will compare the number and degree of satisfiers to the
number and degree of dissatisfiers before making purchase decisions. See
Freudian Motivation Theory; Maslow's Theory of Motivation.
Heterogeneity - see Variability.
Heterogeneous Shopping Goods - shopping goods perceived by consumers
as markedly different in quality and attributes; price is consequently
less important. See Homogeneous Shopping Goods; Shopping Goods.
Hidden Objection - an unstated objection which a prospective buyer has
to a product offered by a salesperson. See Objection; Invalid Objection;
Stated Objection; Valid Objection.
Hierarchy of Effects Models - various illustrations of the notion that
marketing promotion induces consumers to move in steps from one mental
state to the next before eventually deciding to purchase a particular product;
in the AIDA model the steps, in ascending order, are awareness, interest,
desire and action, while in Lavidge and Steiner's expanded model (1962)
they are ignorance, awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction
and purchase.
Hierarchy of Needs - see Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
High-Contact Retailing - a recent trend in retailing in which some retailers
attempt to position themselves by emphasising the services aspects of their
products more than the goods themselves.
High-Involvement Products - products for which the buyer is prepared
to spend considerable time and effort in searching. See Low-Involvement
Products.
High-Price Strategy - a planned approach to pricing, appropriate in
situations of inelastic demand, in which an organisation decides to keep
its prices high; reasons for such a strategy might include a growing super-premium
segment of the market, overcrowding at the bottom-end of the market, or
the desire to create a prestige image for the product. Also called Premium
Pricing.
High-Touch Service - customer service that is characterised by a high
level of personal contact with customers, as opposed to "low-touch"
customer service which is provided by vending machines, self-service counters,
etc. See Low-Touch Service.
Historical Analogy - an approach to sales forecasting in which the past
sales results of a similar product are used to predict the likely sales
of a similar new product.
Ho-Hum Products - a colloquial term used in reference to common, everyday
items (such as paper clips, drawing pins, staples and scribble-pads) which
cannot be differentiated significantly from those of competitors; purchasers
of "ho-hum" products will generally favour the cheapest available.
Hoisting the Flag - an approach to product introduction or launching,
useful when the cost of introducing a new item is low; a new variant is
introduced to see if it proves more popular than an existing one.
Hold Strategy - a course of action appropriate for a product (usually
in the decline stage of its life cycle) in which a company decides to hold
by keeping expenditure on it to a minimum to maximise the return before
having to delete it from the line. See Harvest Strategy.
Holding Costs - costs associated with keeping inventory, including warehousing,
spoilage, obsolescence, interest and taxes; also called Inventory Carrying
Costs.
Home Shopping - forms of non-store retailing which include television
home shopping (in which articles are demonstrated on TV so that consumers
can place telephone orders for direct-to-home delivery), videotext or electronic
catalogue shopping, etc.
Homogeneous Shopping Goods - shopping goods perceived by consumers to
be essentially the same in quality and attributes; price is consequently
the deciding factor. See Heterogenous Shopping Goods; Shopping Goods.
Horizontal Channel Conflict - discord among members at the same level
of a marketing channel, eg. wholesaler-wholesaler discord or retailer-retailer
discord. See Channel Conflict; Inter-Type Channel Conflict; Vertical Channel
Conflict.
Horizontal Co-Operative Advertising - shared advertising by two or more
members at the same level of a distribution channel, each paying part of
the total cost.
Horizontal Diversification - a growth strategy in which a company seeks
to add to its existing lines new products that will appeal to its existing
customers. See Concentric Diversification; Conglomerate Diversification.
Horizontal Integration - a strategy for growth in which a company develops
by seeking ownership of, or some measure of control over, some of its competitors.
See Backward Integration; Forward Integration.
Horizontal Market - a market for a product which is bought by many industries.
See Vertical Market.
Horizontal Marketing Management - the organisation of marketing activities
by independent firms on the same level in a marketing channel so that they
work closely together in buying, promotion, etc. to achieve economies of
scale.
Horizontal Price Fixing - the practice, usually unlawful, of sellers
of different brands of the same product making agreements to charge the
same price to consumers. See Collusion; Price Fixing; Vertical Price Fixing.
House Accounts - see Direct Accounts.
Hypermarche - see Hypermarket.
Hypermarket - a giant, one-stop shopping facility offering a wide choice
of grocery and general merchandise at discount prices; sometimes called
a Hypermarche.
