Intention – 1.(marketing research definition) Anticipated or planned future behavior. 2. (industrial definition) The decision to acquire specific goods and/or services under given terms and conditions.
Intercept Merchandise – The merchandise that customers do not specifically go to a store to buy, but buy because the retailer intercepts them in the course of their store visit activities.
Interindustry Competition – The rivalry among sellers in different industries to achieve such objectives as gaining a larger share of a market, increasing profits, or increasing sales, by urging consumers to substitute a seller’s products or services for their current choices. Examples are substituting cotton clothing for synthetics, or fish for steaks.
Intermodal Transportation – The movement of goods that combines two or more modes of transportation such as truck and rail to maximize the benefits of both modes while minimizing the drawbacks. For example, the combination of rail and motor carriage utilizes the flexibility of motor carriers and the low line-haul cost of rail.
Internal Data – The data that originate within the organization for which the research is being done.
Internal Marketing – Marketing to employees of an organization to ensure that they are effectively carrying out desired programs and policies.
Internal Validity – One criterion by which an experiment is evaluated; the criterion focuses on obtaining evidence demonstrating that the variation in the criterion variable was the result of exposure to the treatment or experimental variable.
International Advertising – The advertising phenomenon that involves the transfer of advertising appeals, messages, art, copy, photographs, stores and video and film segments (or spots) from one country to another.
International Channel of Distribution – The structure of intracompany organization units and extracompany agents and dealers, wholesale and retail, through which a commodity, product, or service is marketed in international markets.
International Corporation – An early stage in the development of a global/transnational corporation. An international corporation may operate in many countries, but it does not have a global vision or strategy.
International Law – The set of rules and principles that states and nations consider binding upon themselves.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) – A multinational organization whose objective is to promote international financial cooperation and to coordinate the stabilization of exchange rates and the establishment of freely convertible currencies.
International Product Cycle – A model developed by Professor Raymond Vernon that shows the relationship of production, consumption, and trade over the life cycle of a product. Based on empirical data for the pre-1967 era, the model showed how the location of production shifted from the United States to the other advanced countries and then to less developed countries.
International Retailing – Retailing activity by an organization that reaches across national boundaries.
International Trade Product Life Cycle – A trade cycle that suggests that many products go through a cycle in which high income, mass consumption countries are initially exporters, then lose their export markets, and finally become importers of the product.
Interpersonal Factors – Those influences or forces on the consumer due to other individuals within the individual’s life space or sphere of activity. Wearing a tie when others are doing so would be an example, as would a person purchasing a perfume to impress someone else.
Intertype Competition – The competition between different types of firms selling the same product. For example, automobile tires may be sold through discount stores, gasoline service stations, department stores; tire, battery, and accessory dealers; and independent garages.
Interurbia – A large urban area resulting from the mingling and eventual uniting of close market areas into one large market area.
Interval Scale – A measurement in which the numbers assigned to the attributes of the objects or classes of objects legitimately allow comparison of the size of the differences among and between objects.
Inter-Selling – The process of selling between and among departments to facilitate larger transactions and to make it more convenient for the customer to accessorize.
Intraindustry Competition – The rivalry among sellers of the same product or service to achieve such objectives as increasing sales, market share, or profits.
Intransit Storage – A facility for storing, transferring, or modifying shipments enroute to their final destination, often used for break0bulk or consolidation purposes.
Intrapreneurship – The practice of intrapreneurship within a large firm. Intrapreneurship is a style of management thought to be independent, risk talking, innovative, daring, and typical of the style used in successful start-up firms. In some situations intrapreneurship requires that the entrepreneurial unit be segregated or isolated from the other units, thus permitting the unique style of management.
Intratype Competition – The conflict (or competition) between firms of the same type -e.g., a department store competes with another department store; a supermarket competes with another supermarket.
Intrinsic Reward – A reward that comes from within the individual rather than externally. Practicing the piano for the sheer joy of learning and creating music rather than for a cash reward is an example.
Introduction Approach – A method for approaching prospects in which salespeople simply state their name and the name of their company.
Introductory Stage of product Life Cycle – The first stage of the product life cycle. The new product is introduced to the market, sales are slow, promotion is usually heavy, costs are accumulated, profits are frequently negative, and expectation is focused on determining when and if the product will soon enter the second (growth) stage of the cycle.
Invention – A new device, process, etc., that has been created. The invention can be in either physical or conceptual form. Preexisting knowledge is combined in a new way to yield something that did not therefore exist. It is not to be confused with a product innovation, which is an invention that has been converted by future management and process development into a marketable product. Invention is thought to require both engineering science and art, but scientific findings and artistic creations, alone, though they may be original, may not constitute inventions.
Invention Pricing Policy – A pricing policy in which the company neither fixes a single price worldwide nor remains aloof from subsidiary pricing decisions, but strikes an intermediate position.
Inventory – 1. Goods or merchandise available for resale 2. The value of merchandise on hand at cost or retail.
Inventory Control – The procedures used to ensure that desired inventory levels are maintained. Most procedures are based on either perpetual or periodic review.
Inventory Cushion – The allowance in the inventory made for uncertainties in sales or deliveries, often added to the basic low stock to provide for conditions neither controllable nor accurately predictable.
Inventory Management – The process of acquiring and maintaining a proper assortment of merchandise while keeping ordering, shipping,handling, and other related costs in check.