nglish is one of the most flexible languages in the world. Its entire vocabulary is derived or borrowed directly from other languages (mainly Saxon, Latin, French, and Greek). Combine this with the emergence of an Industrial Revolution in England and the United States, and it is no wonder that English speakers invent more new words and terms than anyone else. At whim we make verbs out of nouns, nouns out of adjectives, and adjectives out of nouns. New compound nouns and verb phrases appear almost daily, and new meanings are applied to old words.

     The 20th century likely saw more new words and terms per year than ever before. Many, such as those created by telecommunications revolution of the 1990s, are fully immersed in the culture and spoken by the masses. Others remain arcane to small groups of peakers.  These, of course, compose what we call jargon.

      At Culture Freak, our favorite jargon comes from the marketing, advertising, and public relations industries. These wild worlds of metaphor can produce some ridiculous language.  Some of it is so ridiculous that, for fun, my friend Big'Un and adopt and adapt silly marketing terms for our own use in everyday conversation.  For example, "We have to boost shelf-presence to increase brand awareness and grow the franchise" means "we have to go to more parties to meet chicks." Can ya dig it?

    For your reading pleasure, Culture Freak has assembled the following bundle of brand balderdash. More will be added, and submissions from industry and individual alike are welcome.  See also this interesting site of tobacco marketing terms, and this fun glossary dedicated to leather terminology.

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AB – Antibacterial; used to modify product categories like LDL

Affinity – a promotional concept which conveys a "membership" proposition. "Affinity" credit cards, for example, might feature the avocations / interest of the prospective cardholder such as images of golf, tennis, or other typically banal, American activities.  Affinity license plates have proliferated since the mid 1990s.

Acquisition Value – a consumer's perception of the relative worth of a product or service to them.  Formally defined as the subjectively weighted difference between the most a buyer would be willing to pay for the product or service, less the actual price of the item. The time a consumer must spend to 'acquire' is often used as a surrogate for 'relative worth' or price paid. For example, a user might be willing to expend drive time and a brief time in the store to buy something, but not wait on line for twenty minutes to complete the purchase. (I'm reminded of something I once overheard during the Christmas shopping season in Kenwood Mall, near Cincinnati, OH: "I don't think I should have to work this hard just to buy something." I hear ya babe... )

ADI – Area of Dominant Influence; a geographic area defined by Arbitron (a ratings researcher similar to Nielson), based on areas of primary television viewing

Alcohol Refreshers / Alcohol Refreshments – a category that started with wine coolers but now includes hard lemonades, Zima, Smirnoff Ice, etc.

Alcoh-pops – a category within the "refreshers" category (see above), bottled drinks made with vodka and/or malt liquor, combined with fruit juices and/or lemonades, energy drinks and isotonic beverages. In other words, sugary, prepackaged alcohol beverages aimed at younger drinkers.

Astroturf Organizing – (public relations industry) the term for fake grassroots organizing — i.e. lobbying, letter-writing campaigns, or other   acts of political activism that appear to be conducted by groups of ordinary citizens, but are actually engineered by PR specialists working for on behalf of a corporation or an entire industry

B1G1F –  abbreviation for "Buy One, Get Once FREE". Also, "BOGO." Extends to "B2G1F".

Back Card – a point-of-sale card affixed to the back of a bin or floorstand, designed to present an advertising message at eye level above the product.

Beautiful Food – refers to close-up photographs of food products for advertising or packaging purposes. Often they are retouched or color enhanced to make the product look more attractive than it is in real life. There is a disconcerting stylistic similarity between this type of photography and that of so-called "plumbing shots" in the porn industry.

BDI – Brand Development Index; an index that relates the percent of a brand's
sales in a market to the percent of the U.S. population in that same market.

BOGO – see B1G1F

Bonus Pack –  product packaging that provides the consumer with an extra quantity of merchandise at no extra cost over "regular" pack.  For example: "20% More Free!"

Bottle-Necker – see "Necker"

Bounce Back – (direct-mail marketing); a subsequent offer by a mail order
company, which is sent to consumers along with the merchandise they just ordered. Catalog operators often include another copy of the current catalog which created the order as the bounce back.  A simple bounce back example, is when you order food for delivery, and receive another menu with your order.  (Outside offers, which may for a fee accompany the merchandise, are "package inserts," not bounce backs.)

Brown Goods – liquor industry and marketing term for whiskey, brandy, and other dark colored liquors; see also white goods

BUMO – stands for "Brand Used Most Often" by an individual consumer ("72% of those surveyed said they would choose our Tripe!_TM brand crap product over BUMO")

Burst – a point-of-sale device that features pricing or special offer. Often shaped like a sunburst.

Category Killer – A retailer who's combination of size, selection, service and / or pricing can drive the majority of competing retailers out of business; Home Depot, for example has driven out competitors like Home Quarters and Builder's Square, and has quite successfully killed the hardware category for other retailers like Sears.

Category Management – The practice of maximizing retail profits based on alternative brand stocking, shelf-set, promotion, and merchandising mixes on overall category sales performance.  Basically this is the term for how retailers stock and design their shelf space.

Cause Marketing – marketing that infuses a social or political cause into the product.  "A percentage of the profits go to" whatever.  Cause marketing is usually akin to public relations motives (i.e. making a company look good), but can also involve the downright USING of a social cause in order to tap a target market and reap profits.  Of course there are some real shining stars of cause marketing — such as Paul Newman's products — where all the profits, after taxes actually go to a charity or cause.

Centroid  – In direct marketing, the geographic center point of a ZIP Code, equidistant from each boundary.

Change Makers – small, inexpensive products (usually confectionery) which are often purchased in order to make change at a convenience store or deli

Cobranding – (also "CO-branding") partnership marketing between major brand names.  My favorite recent co-brand is the "Braun-Oral B electric toothbrush."  Dig that Braun-Oral B combo action!

Cognitive Dissonance – see Dissonance

Conversion – (1) in retail sales, the transformation from "browser" to "buyer"; the number of people who buy something in your store verses those that just enter, browse and leave, represents your store's "conversion rate" (2) in promotions, an activity designed to motivate tryers (first time buyers) to purchase a product a second time with the hope that the tryer will ultimately become a regular user.  Example: when Coca-Cola introduced their flop, "New Coke" in 1985, Royal Crown stepped in with their ad campaign that intended to 'convert' Coke drinkers to RC.  The tag that accompanied images of RC Cola said, "What to do while waiting for Old Coke to come back ... you may never return."

Co-pack – A promotional technique wherein two brands, with related usage or similar customer bases (target markets), are physically packaged together as a specially-priced single unit sale.  For example: toothpaste with toothbrush, shampoo with rinse, or vodka with mixers.  Seagrams 7 and 7 UP would make a snazzy co-pack for fans of the "7 and 7" cocktail. Not to be confused with "co-packer" or "copacker" — a manufacturer contracted to make consumer products for a marketer/brand owner.

Craft Beer – a product category named by beer marketers. It includes what you and I call microbrews, but more often refers to fake microbrews made by the big boys (Anheuser-Busch, Miller Brewing, Coors — see Stealth Brand). I am amused when I see advertisements or bottle labels with the words "Craft Beer" on them because it shows that the marketers have forgotten that only they really use that term. Such use makes it clear to me that a beer brand is not a mom & pop product. It's a nice example of marketing people becoming so lost in their world and its jargon, that don't notice that human beings don't speak like they do.

Reader Comment: "Maybe the artist formerly known as the boys on Madison avenue hasn't forgotten how America talks, but simply doesn't like it, and wants to make America speak its language for a change instead of trying to figure out what America's calling the category every couple of years." CF Response: "Yes, after seeing this term only in trade journals and beer ads, I now hear real people use it."

Crave Food – a packaged or prepared food product — usually brand-specific — for which there is no substitute or alternative for a desirous consumer. The Twinkie® is a good example: Should one crave a Twinkie, only a Twinkie will truly satisfy that craving. For others a crave food might be M&M's® candy, the Big Mac®, Doritos® chips, etc. The White Castle hamburger chain's "What You Crave" tagline plays off this idea. White Castle "slyders" are definitely a crave food (but not mine). The most prominent crave food in my life has been the Friendly_®'s Reese's® Pieces Sundae.

Cross-merchandising – A technique in which in-store display activity features saving offers on other, usually related, brands. This is similar, but not identical to a co-pack

C-store – convenience store

Dangler – a point-of-sale piece that hangs down from a shelf, usually from
the price channel. AKA "wobbler" and "shelf talker"

Date Transaction Market – a term, possibly coined (but certainly used) by Stephen Fisher, president of the Seagram Beverage Company Ltd.  describes a situation wherein a purchasing decision by a member of one sex is affected by the presence of a member of the opposite sex.  Most often it is a man's purchase decision that is affected by the presence of a woman (gee, surprise).  Food  and drink are the products most associated with this.  Example: dude A might be inclined to order a Zima or a cosmopolitan in the presence of chick A.   It is far less likely that dude A would make such a decision in the presence of dude B.

Demo – short for demographic profile; as in "the 18-34 demo" of which I am a member

Designer Foods – see Nutraceuticals

Dissonance – the feeling by a consumer that s/he has made the wrong purchase decision (i.e. perhaps another brand was a better value); the process of rationalizing that same purchase decision — usually involving iteration of the benefits ("well, it is actually really good for...") is known as Cognitive Dissonance.

Dovetailing when two distinct marketing trends converge and benefit each other, sort of the marketing equivalent to "abiotic symbiosis" *SG

Drive Trial – to encourage consumer trial of a product through an incentive, such as special pricing or coupons

EDLP – Every Day Low Price; The practice of eliminating temporary "sale prices" and providing consistent lower pricing of marketer's brands or retailer's store offerings.

Elasticity – comes from "elasticity of demand" to determine what effect in
response a change in price or offer will create. Those markets that show
little change are inelastic; those that vary greatly with price are highly
elastic.

Endcap – (AKA End-Aisle Display) Retail display of product on the shelves located at the end of store aisle.

Envelope Stuffers – (AKA "ride-alongs") printed offers placed in the envelopes of others, such as in billing envelopes for utilities, credit card companies or department stores.

Event Marketing – a themed promotional activity taking place "live"; e.g. car race, state fair, sporting event, concert, etc., related to the selling of a product or a group of products.

Evoked Set – A set of alternatives that are activated directly from memory; certain brands considered during the buying process. So, when you're walking down the supermarket aisle thinking "hmm Cornflakes, Cheerios...", those brands are part of your evoked set.

Fem-Hy – abbreviation for the "feminine hygiene" product market *SG

Fringe time – (television) the evening hours that precede and follow primetime.

FSI – "Free Standing Insert"; these are those one page ads you find in the Sunday paper or at the local supermarket. FSI's usually include a coupon, rebate, or some other incentive.

Functional Foods – see Nutraceuticals

Gatekeeper – The individual who controls the flow of information from the mass media to the group or individual.  When I worked in radio market research, the person who first answered a phone at a business was considered the "gatekeeper." You would first convert them to being a listener of the client radio station through stupid promotional enticements, and then ask to speak to someone else in order to do the same.

Greek – (printing & advertising industries) gibberish or nonsense text placed in a "dummy" or mockup print ad to signify where the copy will eventually be.

Hero Shot – the main picture of a product in a presentation.  At CF we can't help but notice a similarity between this term and that of "money shot", the porn industry term for "come shot."  See also beautiful food

HBA – Health & Beauty Aids (product category)

High Ticket Buyers – (direct mail/market research) Consumers who have purchased expensive items by mail.

Home Meal Replacement – see Meal Solution

Influentials – In business mail order, those executives who have decision power on what and when to buy. Also those who exercise power in their business classification or community. In consumer PR mail, those individuals (executives, professionals, educators, clergy, labor, and so on) who make a difference in their localities or work.
 

Interactive Candy – candy made to look like a toy or other object. New entrants include Monopoly, Scrabble, and Connect Four candy based on the respective games.

LDL – Light Dish Liquid; that is hand dish washing liquid as opposed to. industrial strength cleaners or dishwasher soap)

Lifetime Value – the overall "value" of a consumer to a marketer. This is weighed by two key factors: 1) cost to buy a customer; 2) value of the customer over the term of the relationship. It is the lifetime value which determines whether or not a given effort has produced a profit for the marketer.

Live Tag – The voice-over at the end of a prerecorded commercial that provides current or local information, dealer addresses, etc. Example: "Available at Computer City, 5th Avenue."

Loss Leader – a product featured by retailer and sold at below-cost (loss), in order to bolster store traffic, and sell additional items.

Matchmaker – a firm that links marketers with events for sponsorship, licensing, promotions, or product tie-ins.

Magalog – A mail-order catalog that carries editorial matter and advertisements for multiple companies.

Meal Solution – a ready-to-eat food product designed and marketed to function as a meal in itself. Typical portions are the single serving, or servings for a family of four. Examples are Sara Lee's Today's Selection meal line for retail; and KFC's "You'd Be Crazy To Cook Meal" for food service. Both include entree, side dishes, and sometimes dessert. Increasingly, retail food marketers are positioning themselves as direct competitors with food service industry giants like Boston Market.

Medical Foods – see Nutraceuticals

"Me Too" Brand – Known as 'biting' in the hip hop world, me too brands are simply copies or knockoffs of another company's product. Usually these products are not as successful as those introduced by the 'category leader.' Coca-Cola's Frutopia brand, a piss poor attempt to compete with Snapple, is a classic example. Incidentally, did you know that Coke created the Frutopia line because for the first time in decades their annual sales increase of 18% slipped a few points? The blame was put on the new age beverages who's fruity liquids were pouring down the mouths of millions in the mid 90s.

Necker – a promotional material designed to be delivered by hanging it directly on a bottle. Also: "neckhanger" or "bottle-necker."

Nester – (psychographics) term referring to someone whose purchasing decisions are driven by homebound comforts — i.e., they'll spend more disposable income at Home Depot than going to ball games or movies, and more on video rentals than on movie tickets, etc. *SG  (this word might be proprietary; i.e. a trademark of Claritas, Inc. or other marketing research company)

New Age Beverage – I call this stuff "gentrified Kool-Ade." These are premium drinks produced by the "Alt-Bev" industry such as Snapple, Frutopia, Arizona Iced Tea, etc. New Age Beverages are usually characterized by bright colors on packages and in the beverages themselves. [Brand Trivia: from what company did Triarc Beverages purchase Snapple for less than its true value? Answer: Quaker. But wait, there's more! In September of 2000 Triarc sold its entire beverage portfolio (which includes Royal Crown, Nehi, Stewart's, Snapple, and Mistic iced tea) to Cadbury-Schweppes. Triarc owns the Arby's, T.J. Cinnamons, and Pasta Connection restaurant franchises]

Niche Marketing – positioning brands to narrow target-audience segments.

Nutraceuticals – (AKA medical foods, pharmafoods, funtional foods, and designer foods) these are food products which are positioned beyond the well-known realm of "Low Fat!/Low Cholesterol!" These packaged goods are designed by manufacturers to help consumers lower their blood pressure, prevent cancer, etc. Manufacturers must prove their health-specific claims to the FDA via substantial laboratory testing, before their products are approved for market. Of course, the FDA standards may not equal yours or mine.

Page Pop – Strong visual appeal (of print ads, magazine covers, etc.) *SG

Pantry Load – As M&M Mars reminds us: "confectionery has no pantry load." A pantry load is basically the amount people stock up on a product for future use.

Peg – A strong, memorable element of a press release or campaign; the hook

Pharmafoods – see Nutraceuticals

Pillow Pack – packaging for food products; the 'bag' that M&M's candy comes in is a pillow pack.

Plan-o-gram – AKA "Shelf Set."  The diagrammed configuration of products as they will occupy a given shelf section in a store. Often these are developed in conjunction with a key marketer, who seeks to maximize space allocated to his own brands or establish an ideal "shelf-stocking map" for a brand.

Pole Topper – I've seen this described as "a point-of-sale riser card designed to be affixed to a core-wound pole to achieve extra visibility. Often used because a riser card is too heavy to attach to the case stack itself."  I'm working on finding out what 'riser cards' or 'core-wound poles' are.

POP – an acronym for "Point-of-Purchase", POP is an in-store promotion (displays, interactive merchandising units etc.)

Premium Brand – a name brand with an established image of quality; on the price scale they are found in the high end verses that of generics, store brands, or other so called "price" or "value brands."

Puffery – exaggerated claims in advertising which risk the perception by consumers as being unjustified.

Pull – the quantitative product movement generated by advertising and promotion which generates consumer demand.

Purchase Cycle – The frequency with which consumers buy a product and / or service.  For instance, eggs may tend to have a longer purchase cycle than milk.

QSR – "Quick Service Restaurant" - the industry term for fast food joint (McDonald's draws 87% of American Children aged 3-9 to its QSR's every month (from the 1996 McDonald's corporate report).

RASP – Retail Average Sale Price

Scan Down – (AKA "Scan Back") a marketer's price incentive to retailers (which is passed on to consumers) based on the number of that marketer's products that move through a check-out during a specific time period.  The data is collected by the check out scanner.

Shelf Presence – the amount of shelf space a marketer's product possesses. This amount is negotiated between trade marketers and retailers (with the trade marketers paying hefty fees to gain higher shelf presence).

Shelf Set – see plan-o-gram

Shelf Strip – Point-of-sale signage designed to snap into the retailers price channel (the slot on a store shelf where prices are placed).

Shelf Talker – point-of-sale  promotional signage designed to hang over the edge of a shelf.  AKA "dangler" and "wobbler"

Sizzle – Dazzle or excitement, as opposed to substance. In its bid for
consumers, some advertising plays up the "sizzle" rather than the "steak."

SKU – "Stock Keeping Unit" - the most specific product unit marketed by a company. For example, a Reese's peanut butter cup two-packs and four-packs are two SKU's of The Hershey Corporation. Speaking of Hershey, here's some more corporate trivia: Did you know that Hershey is the largest domestic producer of pasta products? It's true. They own Ronzoni and several other well-known names in the world of macaroni. (Update, 2001: Hershey has sold off its pasta businesses)

SLOB – "Slow/Obsolete" inventory, i.e. overstock of poor selling products

Slotting Fee – (AKA Slotting Allowances) cash or other payment given to a retailer by a marketer in return for each "slot" or space, granted on that retailer's shelf or fixture.  Top brands pay top slotting fees in order to maintain maximum shelf presence and optimum plan-o-grams.

Snipe – Originally a small advertisement illegally posted on an outdoor surface, marketers have adopted the term to refer to dealer (or retailer) mesages printed across the bottom of a manufacturer's promotional poster.

Spectacular – An outdoor advertising display unit built with structural steel and designed for a particular advertiser on a long term contract. Advertising copy is presented in a "spectacular" fashion through the use of incandescent lamps, luminous tubing flashers, chaser borders, motographs, or any other combination of electrical devices

SPIF – "Sales Promotion Incentive Funds". This is a trade incentive similar to a slotting fee but less transparent (i.e. I don't think it is usually cash but rather price agreements or other special deals given to the retailer by a marketer.

Shelf-stable – refers to any packaged food that does not need to be frozen or refrigerated — most often this refers to ready-to-eat goods which are normally perishable; Velveeta® products, for example, are shelf-stable cheese-like substances.

Stealth Brand – a brand produced and marketed by companies which appear to be independent but are in fact subsidiaries of major corporations. A good historical example is the 1995 launch by RJ Reynolds of various cigarette brands, under the moniker, "Moonlight Tobacco Co." (if that link goes dead, I archived it here). Tobacco Timeline editor Gene Borio dubbed Moonlight a "faux-micro-smokery". Other examples include fake microbreweries (AKA "craft" beers) created by Anheuser-Busch, Miller Brewing, And, of course, as of 2006, Tom's of Maine is now owned by Colgate. I'd go so far as to give automobile manufacturer Saturn stealth status (since its basically General Motors) but some would argue ... (For the record, so far as I know, this isn't really a term used by marketing people. In fact I saw it used only once, and somewhat facetiously, by writer in BRANDWEEK magazine. Still, it's a good'un.)

Superpremium – yes, quite simply this means super premium.  The old terms of "premium" verses "value" or "price" brands apparently just aren't sufficient to describe all the product price points in the 90s.  Gillette's new Mach III razor is a good example of a superpremium product

Take-Ones – Direct Response offers available in boxes or displays at the point of purchase (POP) in a retail store.

Toyetic – an adjective used (exclusively?) in the movie industry, this word describes something that lends itself to the marketing of ancillary products (e.g. toys) by licenses. For example, Star Wars was one of the first movies to exploit its toyetic value in the form of action figures, comic books, etc.  Most Hollywood studios won't consider funding a movie for children or teens if it isn't toyetic enough. If you can't license the brand to McDonald's for their Happy Meal tie-ins, why bother? A toyetic movie means licensing deals, which in turn means more profit, and — more importantly — free advertising for the movie by the licensees selling the tie-in products.

Trade Marketing – not to be confused with trademarking, this is marketing aimed wholesalers, retailers, sales reps, and others that affect distribution of products in the marketplace.

Trade Up – (verb phrase) to convince a consumer to purchase a more expensive brand than they usually do or have in the past.  An example would be for Colgate-Palmolive to get you to buy Palmolive® dishwashing liquid (premium brand) over the Ajax® LDL (value brand)

Tryers – a consumer that tries a product once.

Unit Price – in the advertising industry, this refers to the price of a thirty-second television commercial. TV shows like ER obviously charges higher unit prices that anything on the WB

USP – "Unique Selling Proposition." The distinctive attribute a certain brand claims as its differentiating value. Often the USP can be found in a product's tagline such as "The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hands."

Value Added – the meaning of this term varies from industry to industry but remember this is Culture Freak MarketSpeak_™. The use we refer here is this: the addition to a product of a special attribute at no additional charge (e.g. car dealers often add value to their cars by offering options at no charge); Big'Un's former coworker is now the marketing manager for "Shelf Stable / Value Added" products at (Ho Ho Ho) Green Giant in Minnesota. I'm not really sure what products fit into this category – perhaps canned beans with a bacon flavor bonus (?)

Value Brand – a cheaper brand as opposed to a premium brand, like uh Hershey's instead of Toblerone, or Joy® verses Dove® dishwashing liquid

Wellness-Beverage – this is a new age beverage with some sort of herbal supplement.  An example is Snapple's six-flavor "Elements" line of fruit drinks and teas with names like Earth, Sun, Fire, Rain, Moon and Lightning. They contain Gingko Biloba and other trendy herb supplements

White Goods – (1) liquor industry term for gin, vodka, light rum, and other clear liquors; see also brown goods; (2) appliance industry term for refrigerators, washers, dryers, freezers, etc. I suppose this would be because so many are traditionally white.

Wobbler – see Dangler

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