Terminology

We’ll help you to sort through the sea of acronyms and technical terminology the marketing worlds insists upon. Use our handy resource chart and discover that a “g.i.f.” is not a type of peanut butter and that a JPEG is not something a one-legged pirate uses to walk.

A.I.D.A

A model depicting the successive stages a buyer passes through during the personal selling process. The letters stand for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.

Acrobat

A series of applications developed by Adobe to create and view PDF files. Acrobat is used to create the PDF files, and Acrobat Reader is used to view the PDF files.

Animated GIF

A photographic animation consisting of a series of 2 or more images, overlapping, to create motion.

Annual Report

A document, published yearly, that acts to instill confidence by communicating marketplace news, operations, management, fiscal information and other relevant details. These are generally presented to share and stockholders or the general public.

Awareness

Using unique branding methods to gain recognition and to set a company apart from its competitors.

Backgrounder

A tool for media to use, which includes the history and bare facts of a product or service.

Banner Advertising

An advertisement found on a web page. Banner ads are very common on Web sites that sell ad space or promotional announcements. They are most often designed as hot links to attract potential web visitors, create awareness and increase web traffic.

Bitmap Image (bmp)

A graphic, which is defined by specifying the colors of dots or pixels, which make up the picture. It is also defined as an image stored as a specific arrangement pixels. Also known as raster graphics. Examples of common types of bitmap images are GIF, JPEG, Photoshop PSD and TIFF.

Bleed

In print design, when a page or a cover design extends to and off the edge of the paper, it is called a "bleed". To achieve this, the artwork or block of color is printed on larger-size paper and is then trimmed to the desired size.

Blog

Or web log is a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order.

Brand Awareness

The portion of a target audience that recalls a specific brand and serves as a common measure of marketing communications effectiveness.

Brand Message

How the brand is defined in the mind of the customer through a torrent of thoughts, ideas, emotions, images and beliefs.

Brand Promise

A stated guarantee on how the brand will fulfill specific customer needs in an ever-changing market.

Branding

The symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to the product and serves to create associations and expectations around it.

Breadcrumb Navigation

A referred to as a ‘breadcrumb trail’, locates the current webpage in a navigation. It allows the user to easily know where the page they are currently viewing falls in the sitemap.

Browser

The software used to view, manage, and access web pages by interpreting hypertext and hyperlinks. Examples of common browsers are Netscape, Internet Explorer, Safari, Camino, Mozilla, Firefox and Opera. Web pages will appear differently depending on the kind and version of the browser used to view them.

Business Development

A number of techniques and responsibilities designed to create new customers and penetrate new or existing markets. Business development involves marketplace evaluation leading to deliberate action using such tools as marketing, sales promotion, information management and customer service.

Campaign

A series of print, web, broadcast and radio initiatives energetically pursued to achieve a large-scale objective.

CMYK

Stands for the colors Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-(K)Black. In print design, all colors are defined as a percentage of each of these 4 colors, which provides for a couple thousand possible color tints, shades and schemes. In contrast, display devices (i.e. computer monitors) typically define colors using RGB, which allows for several million colors.

Co-Branding

An arrangement between two or more companies to jointly display content and perform joint promotion using their brands to strengthen complementary products or create synergies that add value for the participants. For example, Gatorade might offer a promotion to collect UPC codes to redeem for a Nike t-shirt, while Nike offers coupons for Gatorade.

Collateral

The collection of media used to support sales of a product or service. These many include: brochures, handouts, presentations, graphs, charts or any other form of demonstrating benefits. These are intended to make the sales process consistent, efficient and more effective. The brand of the company is typically presented by way of its collateral to heighten awareness and promote recall.

Comp

A full color mock-up, taken to the client, that shows the most accurate representation of what the final work will be.

Consistency

Repetitive throughout, delivered with minimal or no variation.

Consumer Behavior

Quantitative and qualitative research that focuses on psychographics, e.g. the criteria for segmenting consumers by life-style, attitudes, beliefs, values, personality, preferences, buying habits and buying motives.

Convergence Marketing

The coming together of two or more disparate disciplines or technologies.

Cookie

A cookie is a tiny message given to a browser by a web server. The purpose of cookies is to identify web site users/visitors and to prepare personalized web pages for them.

Copy

The written form of communication included in marketing materials.

Cost per Inquiry (C.P.I)

The cost of getting one individual to inquire about your product or service. The formula is derived by dividing the total cost of the marketing communications tool by the number of inquires received.

Cost per Order (C.P.O)

A measure that determines the number of orders generated, relative to the cost of running a campaign. The formula is derived by dividing total cost of a direct marketing campaign by number of orders received. Based on actual orders rather than inquiries.

Cost per Thousand (C.P.M)

The cost of reaching 1,000 members of the target audience. This is the common rate used for list rentals, when fee is based on actual orders rather than inquiries.

Creative Platform

An essential element of the planning process that identifies specific marketing obstacles, key customer benefits, a proposed selling strategy including objectives and the creative rationale and how it will support all of the communications strategies. It may also include other viable information such as an audience profile and competitive assessment.

Crop Marks

90º horizontal and vertical lines that indicate the edge of the printed piece where the trim will take place.

Cutlines

(Sometimes called captions or legends) are explanatory text that provides information about illustrations and/or photographs.