Valid Objection - a truthful objection raised by a prospective buyer
to a good or service offered by a salesperson; some valid objections are
answerable, while others (no money, no need for the product) are not.
See Objections; Hidden Objection; Invalid Objection.
Validity - in marketing research, the obtaining of the right information
for the purposes of the study.
VALS - abbrev. Values and Lifestyle System.
Value Added
Value Added Tax
Value Analysis - the rating by a buying organisation of slightly different
product offerings for the same task on a scale to select the most appropriate.
Value and Life Style System (VALS) - a system developed at Stanford
Research Institute for classifying the American adult population into nine
distinct groups on the basis of their values and lifestyles.
Value Chain
Value Pricing - a pricing approach in which the selling price of a good
or service is based on the company's assessment of the highest value of
the product to the consumer; that is, on what the consumer is willing to
pay for it. See Competition-Oriented Pricing; Cost-Plus Pricing; Target
Return Pricing.
Value Proposition - a clear statement of who the target market for a
particular product is, of what key benefits the product will deliver, and
of the price that will be charged.
Value Retailing - positioning a retail store as one in which consumers
receive greater overall value-to-cost benefits (if not necessarily lower
prices) than in competitors' stores.
Value-Added Consumer Orientation - a recognition by the company that
the price consumers are prepared to pay for its product will depend on
the benefits received and not just on the physical product itself.
Value-Added Wholesaling - providing more wholesaler services and lowering
the cost of these services to retailers to improve productivity and profitability.
Value-Added Tax - a tax based on the amount by which value has been
added to a product at each stage of production.
Values - enduring moral beliefs shared by members of a society and contributing
to its culture.
Values and Lifestyle System (VALS) - a technique, developed in the U.S.
by SRI International, in which individuals are classified into groups on
the basis of attitudes and demographic characteristics.
Vampiring - a colloquial term used in reference to a situation in which
a celebrity (from the media, arts, sporting world, etc) is so dominant
in an advertisement or advertising campaign that the advertiser's message
tends to be diminished.
Van Distributor - a specialty wholesaler making frequent and regular
deliveries of fast-moving consumer goods, mainly cigarettes and foodstuffs,
to retailers.
Variability - one of the four characteristics (with inseparability,
intangibility and perishability) which distinguish a service; variability
expresses the notion that a service may vary in standard or quality from
one provider to the next or from occasion to the next. Also referred to
as Heterogeneity. See Services Marketing; Inseparability; Intangibility;
Perishability.
Variable Costs - costs that vary directly with the volume or quantity
produced; variable costs plus fixed costs equal total costs. See Fixed
Costs; Total Costs.
Variable Pricing - see Flexible Pricing.
Variety Seeking Decisions - purchase decisions made by consumers who
are willing to try a diversity of brands for variety and to avoid boredom;
variety seeking decisions occur when the degree of involvement with a product
is low. See Boredom Avoidance; Low-Involvement Products.
Variety Store
VAT - abbrev. Value Added Tax.
Vending Machine - a coin-operated device which can be used to dispense
a variety of consumer products (food, cigarettes, etc) and services (automatic
teller machines at banks).
Vendor - a seller or supplier.
Vendor Analysis - the rating by a buying organisation of all possible
suppliers of a product on a scale to select the most appropriate; also
referred to as Vendor Rating. See Value Analysis.
Vendor Loyalty - the allegiance a firm gives to a supplier; straight
rebuys usually reflect vendor loyalty but they are sometimes due to inertia.
Vendor Rating - see Vendor Analysis.
Vendor Selection Strategy - the decision-making that occurs when a firm
selects a supplier in order to minimise the risk of choosing the wrong
one. Strategies used include the rating of vendors on a scale; the practice
of choosing vendors from an approved list; multiple sourcing; and choosing
the lowest priced vendor to minimise the potential for financial loss.
Venture Team - key people from various departments of an organisation
given responsibility for the development of a new product from concept
to commercialisation.
Vertical Channel Conflict - discord among members at different levels
of a marketing channel, for example manufacturer-wholesaler or wholesaler-retailer
discord. See Channel Conflict; Inter-Type Channel Conflict; Horizontal
Channel Conflict.
Vertical Co-operative Advertising - shared advertising by two or more
members at different levels of a channel of distribution, each paying part
of the total cost. See Co-operative Advertising; Horizontal Co-operative
Advertising.
Vertical Decisions - management decisions which coordinate the flow
of goods and services, title, information, payment and promotion along
the channels of distribution.
Vertical Diversification - see Vertical Integration.
Vertical Integration - a strategy for growth in which a company adds
new facilities to existing manufacturing or distribution facilities; vertical
integration can be either forward or backward. Also called Vertical Diversification.
See Backward Integration; Forward Integration. See also Horizontal Integration.
Vertical Market - a market for a product that is used in one (or few)
industries. See Horizontal Market.
Vertical Marketing System - an organised, structured and unified distribution
channel system in which producer and intermediaries or middlemen (wholesalers
and retailers) work closely together to facilitate the smooth flow of goods
and services from producer to end-user. See Conventional Marketing System;
Administered Vertical Marketing System; Contractual Vertical Marketing
System; Corporate Vertical Marketing System.
Vertical Price Fixing - agreement between producers and retailers to
maintain the producers' recommended retail price; vertical price fixing
is resale price maintenance, a practice now illegal in Australia. See
Price Fixing; Horizontal Price Fixing.
Videotex - a home shopping technology; an interactive system allowing
subscribers to the system to access information about products on their
normal TV screens by means of a small computer terminal, and to order items
directly. See Home Shopping.
VMS - abbrev. Vertical Marketing System.
Voice-Over - a commentary heard on a TV advertisement, but spoken by
an off-screen announcer.
Volume Analysis - a technique or method of marketing control in which
sales volume in dollars or units or physical volume in units is measured
over a given period in an attempt to identify underachieving salespeople,
sales territories, etc.
Volume Discount
Volume Segmentation - the division of a market into segments on the
basis of the varying volume of demand for the product by individuals, groups
or types of customers; typically, the segments are ranked to denote heavy
usage, medium usage or light usage.
Voluntary Chain - a group or chain of retailers working together on
a non-contractual basis to achieve economies of scale in buying, advertising,
etc.
Voluntary Group - see Voluntary Chain.
Voucher - a type of consumer sales promotion in which vouchers (or coupons)
sent by mail or included in newspaper advertisements, etc. can be exchanged
for merchandise to encourage trial of a new product.
