Marketing Research: Key Players

The major actors in a company's ( 1 ) are the company itself, suppliers, market intermediaries, ( 2 ) and competitors. Let us consider the roles of each of them.

The ( 3 ). All the ( 4 ) within a company (e.g. production, finance, personnel) have an impact on the ( 5 ) department's plans and actions.

The ( 6 ). Changes in the supplier environment, such as prices and availability of raw materials, have a considerable impact on a company's marketing ( 7 ).

The market ( 8 ). Middlemen such as agents, wholesalers and ( 9 ), are powerful actors. In some cases they can dictate terms and even bar the manufacturer from certain ( 10 ).

Customers. The marketer needs to know what people are involved in the buying decision and what role each person plays. For many ( 11 ), it is not difficult to identify the decision-maker. Men normally choose their own shoes and women choose their own make-up. ( 12 ), some products and especially new ones may involve more than one person’s ( 13 ). Competitors. A company's marketing system is greatly ( 14 ) by the ghost of ( 15 ). The best way for a company in grasp the full range of its competition is to take the ( 16 ) of a buyer.

There are four steps in the market research process: (1) ( 17 ) the problem, (2)

( 18 ) the research plan, (3) ( 19 ) the plan, and (4) interpreting and ( 20 ) the findings.

Task 2. Match each of the words or phrases on the left to an appropriate definition.

1. Accounting system	a) Revenue minus expenses
2. Assets	b) The value of what is received for goods sold, services rendered, and other sources
3. Bookkeeping	c) Financial statement, which reports revenues and expenses over a specific period of time, showing the results of operations during that period. It summarizes all resources that came into the film (revenues), and all the resources that let the firm and the resulting net income
4. Cash flow	d) Costs incurred in operating the business, such as rent, utilities, and salaries
5. Certified public accountant (CPA)	e) The methods used to record and summarize accounting data into reports
6. Cost of goods sold (or cost of goods manufactured)	f) The systematic write off of the value of an asset
7. Depreciation	g) Economic resources owned by a firm, such as land, buildings, machinery
8. Expenses	h) Totaling all the debit balances and all of the credit balances in the ledgers to be sure debits equal credits
9. Fundamental accounting equation	i) The recording of business transactions
10. Gross margin (profit)	j) Amounts owed by the organization to others. Current liabilities are not due within one year
11. Journals	k) Report of cash receipts and disbursements related to the firm’s major activities: operations, investments, and financing
12. Ledger	l) Accountants who pass a series of examinations and meet the state’s requirements for education and experience (in the USA)
13. Liabilities	m) Accountant who provides services for a fee to a number of companies; he can conduct independent audits
14. Liquidity	n) A particular type of expense measured by the total cost of merchandise sold (including cost associated with the acquisition, storage, transportation in, and packaging of goods)
15. Net income	o) Recording device in which information from accounting journals is categorized into homogeneous groups and posted so that managers can find all the information in the same place
16. Net sales	p) Net sales minus cost of goods sold
17. Owners’ equity	q) The ease with which an asset can be converted to cash
18. Private accountant	r) Accountant who works for a single company
19. Public accountant	s) The difference between cash receipts and cash disbursements
20. Revenue	t) Sales revenue minus discounts, returns, and other adjustments made for customers
21. Statement of changes in cash flow	u) Recording devices used for the first recording of all transactions
22. Income statement	v) Assets minus liabilities
23. Trial balance	w) Assets = liabilities + owners’ equity; it is the basis for the balance sheet