Key terms Unit 4
Key term / DefinitionSender/ source / The person or group who is sending the message or information.
Receiver/ recipient / The person or group who receive the message or information
Feedback / What confirms to the sender the communication has been successful
Medium / The methods used to send the message or information for example telephone, letter, email, fax, advert and media such as TV and radio.
Audience / Who the communication is directed at.
Conflict / A clash between people, if employees and management disagree then it may cause conflict between the two sides.
Negotiation / A process by which two or more partners engage in discussion to try and resolve a dispute
Consultation / A process whereby one party may ask for the views or advice from other parties to help them arrive at a decision.
Culture / the beliefs and traditions of the people of a country or religion which sometimes mean similar messages/signals can be interpreted in different ways.
Brand awareness / Finding ways to make sure that customers are aware of a brand and that they choose that brand over rivals when making purchasing decisions.
Customer loyalty / A situation where customers prefer to buy form one business as opposed to any other in the same market and make that choice regularly.
Motivation / The process whereby individuals are committed and want to carry out activities on a regular basis to help achieve a business goal.
Customer service / The experience that customers have in using a business. High levels of customer service improve the experience they have and encourage them to return to use the business again.
Staff turnover / The number of staff as a proportion of all staff in an organisation that leave in a particular time period. For example, if BCG employed 50 staff and 10 left each year then the staff turnover rate would be 20% (10/50x100)
Product knowledge / The ability of an employee in a business to know about the product and be able to explain its key features, benefits and limitations to a customer or other stakeholder.
Social enterprises / Business organisations that aim to make a profit but have as their main aim social and/or environmental goals. Profits that are made may be distributed to the cause they are interested in rather than to investors.
Stakeholder / An individual or group with an interest in a business.
Internal stakeholders / Have a direct association and interest in the business – employees, managers and shareholders.
External stakeholders / Individuals and groups not directly involved with a business or its decisions but who are affected by or have an interest in the business, the local community, pressure groups, customers, suppliers and the government.
Dividend / A share of the profits of a company received by people who own shares.
Pressure groups / Groups set up to persuade businesses and government to behave in a certain way or take action in line with the beliefs of the pressure group.
Webcasts / A means of broadcasting over the internet.
Outsourcing / Transferring some operations of the business, like a call centre, to another business or even another country.
Agenda / A list of the main items that will be covered and discussed at a meeting.
Curriculum Vitae (CV) / A document often required by a business to help in the recruitment process. A CV is an outline of the key skills and qualities possessed by an individual and a summary of the personal details, qualifications and experience.
Minutes / A written record of the main points covered in a meeting with action points and details of those who have to carry out the actions.
Fax / A machine that copies and sends documents through a telephone line
Loyalty card / A means by which the buying habits of a customer can be tracked. The customer gets certain benefits in return such as money-off goods.
Customer profile / A description of the characteristics of buyers of a product or service, including features such as buying habits of a customer and income.
Just-in-time / A system of stock control used by manufacturing businesses to keep stock levels to a minimum and help keep control over costs. JIT systems rely on close relationships between manufacturers and suppliers and accurate flows of information between them.
Appraisal / A meeting between an employee and (typically) his/her line manager to review the goals, progress and future targets for the employee.
Appraisee / The employee at an appraisal meeting about whom the meeting is about.
Appraiser / The person who manages the appraisal meeting – often the employee’s line manager.
Brand / The creation of an image or identity for a product or service that creates recognition and/or associated by consumers.
Logo / A design which is aimed at creating an association with a product or brand.
Celebrity endorsement / The use of celebrities to help promote a brand or a product and which may be designed to reflect the desired image/reputation of the product.
Strap line / A short catch phrase which helps the consumers to recognise and associate the brand.
Formatting / A means of changing the physical appearance and layout of a document. This could be the style of or layout of a document. This might incorporate changing font size, font colour or the layout of a document or part of it.
Template / Provides a way of enforcing a particular layout, style, it ensures that documents are presented in a consistent style including the size and colour of the font, layout, boarders and so on.
Consistent / Ensuring that the same style is repeated throughout documents, establishing a corporate theme for a business.
Presentation / The process of communicating information to an audience.
Desktop publishing / A software package that allows the user to create professional looking documents which incorporate a range of styles and layouts.
Videoconferencing / A means of connecting people from different parts of the world through audio and video equipment. It allows interaction between people without them having to be physically present at a meeting.
Teleconferencing / A method of communication where more than two parties from different parts of a country or different continents are connected via telephone and are able to communicate with each other.
Hierarchy / The layers of responsibility and seniority in an organisation.
Centralised structure / Where decisions are made by head office.
Decentralised structure / When decisions are shared throughout different departments.
Hierarchical structure / Has many layers and is usually displayed in the form of a pyramid.
Chain of command / The lines of authority and responsibility in an organisation which show who is responsible for what and to whom.
Flat structure / A structure where employees have a greater degree of equal value and authority
Matrix structure / Where there are many different levels of responsibility.
e-mail / A means of creating, communicating, sorting and transmitting text and other files using digital communication system.
Typos / Spelling mistakes or words that have been mis-typed by the sender and which might change the tone of a message.
The Internet / A global network of computers that are able to exchange information.
The Web / One part of the internet which contains documents that are all linked together and which can be viewed at a computer or other device.
IP address / The means by which a computer connected to the internet is identified.
ISP / Internet Service Provider, a business that provides a service, usually a server, which allows the user to access the internet.
URL / Universal Resource Locator, the specific address of every document on the web which enables the server to identify it.
Server / A computer running software that receives information usually a request of some sort, processes that information and sends out the resulting information back to another computer.
HTML / Hyper Text Markup Language, the language which tells a browser what a web page should look like.
On-line presence / Having a web site that allows people to see/get information about the business
Niche market / A very small or specialised part of an existing market where customer needs are not currently being met.
Broadband / A means of connecting to the internet, often at relatively high speeds. Broadband allows users to always have a connection to the internet and also allows large amounts of data to be transferred more quickly.
Cascading style sheets (CSS) / A language used to specify the way in which a document is presented on the web. It ensures that pages are presented in a consistent style including the size and colour of the font, layouts, borders and so on.
Validator / A means of checking a web page against a standard as laid down by WorldWide web consortium (or W3C)
Domain name / The means by which a business can provide a unique identify for its web site that its stakeholders can recognise and associate with the business.
NOMINET / The organisation that manages domain names and registration for UK domains.
Hosting / Renting space on a server to store web pages. The host is the company that rents space.
E-commerce / The facility on a web site to allow customers to buy products or services.
Legislation / The laws passed by national and international government that businesses (and everyone else!) must adhere to.
Accessibility / Making sure that anyone, whatever, their physical or mental condition, is able to access the services of a business.
Copyright / The legal right for the creator of an idea, work of art of literature, image, musical material or filed work ot produce and control that work for a specified period of time.
Viral marketing / Using the power of the internet to spread information about a business through a reliance on individual sending on the message to friends and colleagues.
Guerrilla marketing / The use of non-traditional methods to make consumers aware of a product through, for example, chat rooms, forums, discussion boards, e-mail, blogs and Yellow Pages.
Success / The achievement of a gaol set.
Brand / A means by which a business creates an identify for a product or service that enables customer to associate or recognise the product more effectively.
Market research / The number of potential customers a business is able to target and make contact with.
Market share / The proportion of total sales in a market accounted for by a particular business.