IDC Revision

Marketing strategy & entrepreneurship 13

Attribution & measurement 7

Media & advertising channels 7

Brand identity & storytelling 12

Brand outcomes (trust, equity, loyalty) 5

Co-creation & B2B branding 9

Generative AI & technology 15

Manipulated & AI advertising 8

Persuasion & influencers 6

Social marketing & purpose 7

Media buying & pricing models 6

  • CPM:

    Cost Per Mille — Cost per 1,000 impressions; you pay for exposure/reach (low price, low engagement guarantee).
  • CPC:

    Cost Per Click — You pay only when a user clicks the ad.
  • CPA:

    Cost Per Acquisition / Action — You pay only when a defined action/conversion occurs (low pricing, high engagement requirement).
  • CPL:

    Cost Per Lead — You pay per qualified lead captured.
  • CPV:

    Cost Per View — You pay per video view.
  • PPC:

    Pay Per Click — Pricing/bidding model where advertiser pays per click (e.g. Google Ads).

Performance metrics & KPIs 8

  • KPI:

    Key Performance Indicator — A metric chosen to track progress toward an objective.
  • OMTM:

    One Metric That Matters — The single most important metric to focus on at a given stage.
  • CTR:

    Click-Through Rate — Clicks ÷ impressions; ad engagement measure.
  • CR:

    Conversion Rate — Conversions ÷ visitors (or clicks).
  • ROI:

    Return On Investment — Net return relative to cost.
  • ROAS:

    Return On Ad Spend — Revenue generated per unit of ad spend.
  • MAU / DAU:

    Monthly / Daily Active Users — Count of unique active users in the period; engagement/retention measure.
  • Opt-out rate:

    Share of users opting out of tracking; a confound when reading Analytics (a high opt-out can invalidate "traffic is up" claims).

Channels, platforms & media 8

  • POEM:

    Paid, Owned, Earned Media — The cross-platform media framework; planning across all three is the goal.
  • GDN:

    Google Display Network — Google's display/banner network across publisher sites; reaches audiences not active on social media; gives publishers more certain ad revenue.
  • SEM:

    Search Engine Marketing — Paid search advertising. ⚠ collides with "Structural Equation Modelling" (research method) — context matters.
  • SEO:

    Search Engine Optimization — Organic improvement of search ranking.
  • SERP:

    Search Engine Results Page — The page returned for a query.
  • UGC:

    User Generated Content — Brand-relevant content created by users/consumers.
  • FAST:

    Free Ad-supported Streaming TV — Ad-funded streaming channels (vs subscription/linear TV).
  • Linear viewing:

    Watching content at the time of its original broadcast/distribution as set by the publisher (e.g. live TV) — contrast with on-demand. (Defined in past exams.)

Strategy & branding models 12

  • STP:

    Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning — Core strategy sequence; positioning is the "P".
  • USP / UVP:

    Unique Selling / Value Proposition — The distinctive benefit/value a brand offers.
  • 4Ps:

    Product, Price, Place, Promotion — Classic (firm-centric) marketing mix.
  • 4Cs:

    Consumer/Customer, Cost, Convenience, Communication — Customer-centric reframing of the 4Ps (shift = product→customer centricity).
  • CRM:

    Customer Relationship Management — Systems/strategy for managing customer relationships and data.
  • CDJ:

    Customer Decision Journey — Loyalty-loop model replacing the linear sales funnel (esp. B2B — Dell).
  • CBBE:

    Customer-Based Brand Equity — Keller's model of brand equity from the consumer's perspective. (Ebrahim)
  • STEPPS:

    Social currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical value, Stories — Berger's Contagious virality model.
  • AIDA:

    Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action — Classic purchase-funnel stages.
  • B2B / B2C:

    Business-to-Business / -Consumer — Market type; B2B has derived demand, DMUs, longer cycles.
  • DMU:

    Decision-Making Unit — The group of people involved in a B2B purchase decision.
  • CSR:

    Corporate Social Responsibility — Corporate accountability for social/environmental impact. (BrandFusion §3.13)

Customer engagement value (Kumar et al.) 5

  • CE:

    Customer Engagement — Umbrella construct of a customer's total value contribution.
  • CLV:

    Customer Lifetime Value — Value from a customer's own purchases over time.
  • CRV:

    Customer Referral Value — Value from customers they refer.
  • CIV:

    Customer Influence Value — Value from their social influence/word-of-mouth.
  • CKV:

    Customer Knowledge Value — Value from the feedback/knowledge they provide (key in an AI world).

AI, GenAI & advertising tech 6

  • AI:

    Artificial Intelligence — Learning systems acting via flexible adaptation.
  • GenAI / GAI:

    Generative AI — AI that creates novel + appropriate content (text, image, audio, video).
  • LLM:

    Large Language Model — A large pre-trained language foundation model.
  • ML:

    Machine Learning — The learning building block of AI.
  • GAN:

    Generative Adversarial Network — Generator + discriminator that fabricate new media (Campbell).
  • Narrow / General / Super AI:

    Rodgers' AI-type axis (single-task → human-level → beyond-human).

Research-method acronyms (appear in "according to the study…" questions) 8

  • SEM (Structural Equation Modelling):

    Structural Equation Modelling — Multivariate technique testing mediation/paths (Ebrahim; Lee & Theokary use PLS-SEM). ⚠ Same letters as Search Engine Marketing.
  • TPB:

    Theory of Planned Behaviour — Ajzen — intentions drive behaviour (Kariv).
  • EEM:

    Entrepreneurial Event Model — Shapero & Sokol — feasibility + desirability drive intentions (Kariv).
  • ELM:

    Elaboration Likelihood Model — Dual-route (central/peripheral) persuasion (Lee & Theokary).
  • LET:

    Language Expectancy Theory — Language-style expectation violations alter persuasion (Lee & Theokary).
  • ECT:

    Emotional Contagion Theory — People "catch" displayed emotions (Lee & Theokary).
  • PKM:

    Persuasion Knowledge Model — How consumers recognise/cope with persuasion attempts (contrast in Lee & Theokary; Campbell).
  • MTA:

    Multi-Touch Attribution — Distributes conversion credit across touchpoints (Buhalis & Volchek).

Data, bias & measurement 5

  • Survivorship Bias:

    Drawing conclusions only from the cases that "survived" a process while ignoring those that didn't — skews the result (Abraham Wald armoured the parts of returning WWII bombers with no bullet holes). L10
  • Selection Bias:

    Distortion from a non-representative sample — when how cases were chosen makes them differ from the population (umbrella for sampling, self-selection, survivorship, exclusion). L10
  • Sampling Bias:

    A selection bias where some population members are more likely to be sampled than others, so the sample misrepresents the whole. L10
  • Correlation vs Causation:

    Two variables moving together doesn't mean one causes the other — ice-cream and sunglasses sales rise together, both driven by sunny weather. L10
  • SMART Goals:

    Objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-based; turns vague aims into measurable KPIs. L10

App-economy & performance metrics 6

  • Bounce Rate:

    Share of visitors who land on a page and leave without further interaction — a site/landing-page engagement metric, not a campaign KPI. L10
  • ARPU:

    Average Revenue Per User = revenue ÷ users in a period; short-term unit-economics metric (e.g. streaming revenue per subscriber). L10
  • CAC:

    Customer Acquisition Cost = acquisition spend ÷ customers acquired; weighed against ARPU/CLV to judge profitable growth. L10
  • CPI:

    Cost Per Install = ad spend ÷ app installs; a user-acquisition metric specific to app marketing. L10
  • ASO:

    App Store Optimization — tuning a store listing (title, keywords, icon, screenshots, ratings) to rank higher and convert store visitors into installs; the app-store SEO. L10
  • Churn Rate:

    Share of customers/users who stop using a product over a period; the inverse of retention. L10

Emerging platforms & ad formats 8

  • Native Advertising:

    Paid content matching the form and feel of its platform — in-feed ads, content recommendations (Taboola), advertiser-initiated branded content. Blends in rather than interrupts. L8
  • Connected TV:

    CTV — TV streamed over the internet (smart TVs, sticks, consoles) vs linear broadcast; enables addressable, data-driven TV ads. L9
  • Streaming Models:

    How streaming monetises: SVOD (subscription), AVOD (ad-supported), TVOD (transactional), HVOD (hybrid), FAST (free ad-supported linear channels). L9
  • Geofencing:

    Location-based marketing that triggers an ad/message when a device enters a virtual boundary around a real-world place. L9
  • Location-Based Marketing:

    Targeting by physical location via IP address, GPS/proximity and geofencing. L9
  • Spatial Computing:

    Blending digital content into physical space via VR/AR/XR (Apple Vision Pro, AI glasses); an emerging immersive channel. L9
  • Banner Blindness:

    Users' learned habit of ignoring banner/ad-like page elements (eye-tracking); a driver of declining display-ad effectiveness. L8
  • Ad Blocker:

    Software that stops ads loading in a browser/app, shrinking digital advertising's reach and measurability. L8

Engagement & growth tactics 4

  • Growth Hacking:

    Rapid, low-cost, data-driven experimentation across the funnel for sustainable, scalable growth; favoured by resource-constrained startups. L10
  • Relationship Marketing:

    Building long-term, engaged customer relationships (retention, loyalty, lifetime value) over one-off transactions. L8
  • Contextual Marketing:

    Right message, right moment — aligning Content, Context and Channel (the 3Cs), e.g. a pizza brand inside a dating app at dinnertime. L8
  • EEAT:

    Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — Google's content-quality framework; content marketing signals all four to earn ranking and trust. L7