Objections - any form of sales resistance offered by a buyer to a salesperson.
Objective and Task Method of Budgeting - a budgeting method in which
the amount to be spent on sales promotion, advertising, personal selling,
etc is determined by the desired result of the activity and the nature
of the tasks necessary to achieve it.
Objectives - specific, measurable outcomes or results that an organisation
plans to achieve in a given period.
Observation Method - an method of obtaining marketing research data
by watching human behaviour; mechanical monitoring devices are also commonly
used.
Odd Pricing - pricing so that all prices end in an odd number, as in
$7.95, $19.95; sometimes referred to as Odd-Even Pricing. See Psychological
Pricing.
Odd-Even Pricing - see Odd Pricing.
Off-Invoice Allowance - a reduction in price allowed to a retailer
in return for purchasing specific quantities of goods within a specified
time; the purpose of the allowance is to push slow-moving merchandise,
to counter competitive programs, to introduce new products or line extensions,
or to "load" channels members. Also referred to as a Purchase
Allowance.
Off-Premise Buying - buying that is done by wholesalers and retailers
through buying offices located overseas or in distant locations.
Off-Price Retailer - a retail store specialising in buying leading brand
items in bulk for resale at discount prices.
Oligopolistic Competition - a competitive situation in which there
are only a few sellers (of products that can be differentiated but not
to any great extent); each seller has a high percentage of the market and
cannot afford to ignore the actions of the others. See Monopolistic Competition;
Pure Competition; Pure Monopoly.
Oligopoly - a market situation in which there are only a few sellers;
in an oligoplistic situation the marketing action of one firm will have
a direct effect on the others.
Oligopsony - a market situation in which there are only a few buyers.
Omnibus Survey - a type of marketing research survey, commonly organised
by a major professional marketing research company, in which different
cross sections of the community are interviewed by probability sampling
at regular intervals about buying habits, product and brand preferences,
etc; called an "omnibus" survey because any marketer can join
in (on a regular or ad hoc basis), for a fee, to add questions.
On-Pack Premium - a common form of consumer sales promotion in which
a gift is banded to the package of another product to encourage its purchase.
See Premiums; In-Pack Premium; Near-Pack Premium; With-Pack Premium.
On-the-Job Training - sales training given in the field rather than
in a formal classroom setting. See Curbside Sales Training; Formal Training.
One Level Channel - a marketing channel in which there is only one
intermediary (for example, a retailer) between manufacturer and end-user.
See Marketing Channels.
One-Price Policy - a policy of offering the same price to every customer.
See Differential Pricing.
Open Bid - a system, common in the government market, of calling for
bids from selected suppliers.
Open Dating - an aspect of labelling in which certain products are
required, either by law or under voluntary industry codes, to be marked
with a "use-by" date to indicate their expected shelf life; also
called Date Stamping.
Open Promotion - a sales promotion which is advertised widely and available
to all who wish to enter. See Closed Promotion.
Open System - any system or enterprise (nation or business firm) that
is affected by external forces.
Open-Ended Question - a question that allows the respondent the opportunity
to express an opinion in his or her own words. See Closed-Ended Question.
Open-to-Buy - the money that a reseller has available to spend on stock
purchasing at any given time.
Operant Conditioning
Operating Expenses - all the costs incurred by a firm in carrying out
its day-to-day activities.
Operating Statement - a statement of the financial results of a company's
operations during an accounting period.
Opinion Leader - an individual who actively provides opinions about
products to others or from whom views, opinions and advice is sought.
See Key Influence People.
Opportunity Analysis - see Marketing Opportunity Analysis.
Opportunity Cost - the value of the benefit forfeited by choosing one
alternative over another.
Opportunity Matrix - a diagnostic marketing tool providing a means
of appraising environmental attributes to alert managers to the benefits
associated with changing environmental conditions and to impending dangers.
See SWOT Analysis.
Optimal Reorder Frequency - see Economic Order Quantity; Just-In-Time
Inventory System.
Optimal Reorder Level - see Economic Order Quantity; Just-In-Time Inventoy
System.
Optimising - an approach to planning in which a firm expresses its
intention to do things better (as opposed to "better things")
in the future. See Adaptivising, Satisficing.
Order Cycle Time - the time between placement of the order by the customer
and the receipt of the merchandise.
Order Filling Costs - costs associated with filling orders - warehousing,
transportation, order processing, billing and collection of payments.
Order Generation Costs - costs associated with obtaining orders - advertising,
personal selling and sales promotion.
Order Getter - a salesperson responsible for actively persuading customers
to buy rather than simply collecting orders that the customers wish to
place. See Order Taker.
Order Processing - all of the activities related to filling a customer's
order - checking the order, prices, terms, customer credit and stock levels;
producing an invoice; picking the goods from the warehouse; packing and
shipping them, and collecting payment.
Order Taker - a salesperson who writes up orders but is not involved
in persuading customers to buy. See Order Getter.
Organisation Marketing - activity related to the marketing of an association,
school, college, hospital, sporting or social group, club, charitable body,
etc.
Organisational Buyer - the individual responsible for the firm's purchasing.
See Buying Centre.
Organisational Buying - purchasing done by organisations for resale
purposes, for use in the manufacture of other goods and services, or for
the operation of their businesses.
Organisational Buying Behaviour - the study of the motives and actions
of, and the influences upon, organisations while engaged in purchasing
goods and services.
Organisational Goals - an organisation's broad, longer-term aims or
performance expectations as opposed to its organisational objectives which
are of a more specific nature and generally cover a shorter, specified
period of time.
Organisational Markets - the sum of all industrial, institutional, reseller
and government markets whose buyers purchase products for use in making
other products, for resale, or in the operation of their businesses.
Organisational Objectives - the sum of all industrial, institutional,
reseller and government markets whose buyers purchase products for resale,
for use in the manufacture of other products, or in the operation of their
businesses.
Organisational Services - see Industrial Services.
Organisational Structure - the way in which a firm has arranged its
lines of authority and communication, and allocated duties and responsibilities;
the structure may be of a divisional, geographic or functional kind or
some combination of these. See Functional Organisation; Geographic Organisation;
Line Organisation; Product Organisation.
Out-of-Stock Costs - the cost of sales lost when a particular item
is not available when ordered by a customer.
Out-Suppliers - suppliers with whom the buying organisation has not
had dealings previously and therefore considers risky. See In-Suppliers.
Outbound Telemarketing - telemarketing in which a company uses trained
salespeople to sell to customers by telephone. See Inbound Telemarketing.
Outdoor Advertising - advertising by means of posters and signs, stationary
or mobile.
Outer-Directed Consumers - one of three broad groups of consumers (with
inner-directed consumers and need-directed consumers) identified in the
Stanford Research Institute's survey of American lifestyles; outer-directed
consumers buy "with an eye to appearances and to what other people
think." This group represents about two-thirds of consumers in the
U.S. See Value and Life Style Program (VALS); Inner-Directed Consumers;
Need-Directed Consumers.
Outside Order-Taker - a salesperson who visits customers to write up
orders but is not responsible for persuading them to buy. See Inside Order-Taker.
Outside Sales Facilities - manufacturers' agents and representatives,
sales agents, dealers, distributors, etc available to supplement or even
to replace a firm's own sales force.
