Glossary

Business Terms

- A -

Acceptance Ratings - An estimate of store handling/stocking share developed by dividing the current period’s share by the average of the current and prior month’s distribution.

Area of Dominant Influence (ADI)- Geographic television and radio market boundaries. You may (Download) a data file of geographic definitions of ADI’s here; but for final work, you may want to ask a reliable data vendor for the most up-to-date file as some geographic file reference data changes as zip and county codes change. (See recommended Mapping Sources)

Advertising Weight- The amount of planned advertising messages placed over a period of time; frequently expressed in GRP’s.

All Commodity Volume (ACV)- A frequently used basis for reporting of a product’s distribution which attempts to adjust it to a consumer ‘exposure’ basis through recognition that all stores are not of equal size or traffic. The total sales of all products of a retail outlet or group of retail outlets is used to proxy for traffic and weight store count distribution by size of store.

Allowance- The amount of money offered by a product’s manufacturer to retail outlet(s) for various actions; stocking, display activity, feature pricing, etc.

Awareness- A measure of recall of a brand by the surveyed population of interest, expressed as a percent of those questioned.  Unaided awareness would prompt the respondent to recall the names of brands they can think of in a particular category of products.  Aided awareness would subsequently present to the respondent a list of brands and ask if they have heard of the brand.  Awareness is typically measured in tracking the in-market effectiveness of an advertising campaign. Awareness is ideally measured within the exact same target audience which is defined for the media planners to efficiently reach. With the same definition, the measured awareness among the target is clearly a direct function of the performance of the media creative. It would mainly be captured by the “stopping power” type measure or a pretest like “Starch measures” in print media or Weinstein eye-camera component measures of visual stimuli. These types of component measures are key to directing where improvements might be made in graphics, copy, etc. On a more general performance basis, awareness is captured on a ‘recall’ basis. Many use ‘day after’ recall; however, the key is simply consistency of the exact measure on testing of various layout choices as effective in improving performance on that measure. Most fundamental, is that an awareness tracking effort capture ‘source’ of awareness consistent with all media types is being used and that the specific day of awareness data collection be captured so it can be used in decay rate estimations.

- B -

BASES test- BASES is a marketing research firm with standardized testing protocols aimed at quantitative testing of new products or new product positions.  The level of the test and the associated accuracy varies, so the goals of the research are important to selection of the BASES test; they generally would include:    - Pre-BASES tests for early relative rank screening     - BASES I quantitatively tests concept w/o repeat    - BASES II includes product placement w/ repeat  

Brand- A specific product under a commonly promoted name in its various package, size, form, ingredient or other unique characteristics which may be presented as separate SKU’s.

Brand Development Index (BDI)- A ratio of brand shipments for one geographic area in contrast to another.  It is typically calculated by dividing brand unit movement by population; but commons variations include currency based rather than unit sales and use of a subcomponent of the population relevant to brand usage rather than total population.

- C -

Cannibalize- A measure of the volume or share which one brand, size, form, or type of product gains from another.  Most commonly used to describe such gains ‘within’ the portfolio of one company’s products rather than across more than one company.

Category- A grouping of products used to define a market; which, is then used to measure market share.  Because category definition is subject to manipulation of measured performance in market, the GMIR department maintains careful control of the definitions through a ridged set of rules (see Category Definition)

Category Development Index (CDI)- See Brand Development Index calculations.  Utilizes the same logic but for the complete category rather than a single brand.

Causal Factors- A term frequently utilized with A.C. Nielsen or IRI audit data regarding the activities which could influence a brand’s performance; such as ads, displays, couponing, etc. (see Nielsen Facts)

Cell- A unit for research sampling and/or projection.  It is the smallest unit of discrete measurement, with its members used to project the the universe of their class.

Census- The numeration of population, stores, etc. Often, with reference to demographic data, the term refers to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Commissaries- Are stores for military personnel and their families which can represent significant volume not measured by routinely purchased audit data services. Especially in certain categories, like infant formula which skews demographically young like military families, the unaudited volume can be significant.

Concept Statement- A narrative description of a product or service crafted to expose a potential purchaser to subsequently measure reaction to, interest in, or suggestions for it.  Most frequently used in the earliest phases of product development before significant investment is made.  May be used to obtain consumer input into preliminary verbal product models for product development and/or for the establishment of a refined communication approach to promote the product or service.  A refined concept statement is often submitted to quantitative measurement via a BASES test. The final concept used to project anticipated volume should be fully reflected in finished copy to result in predicted performance in-market.

Control Area- A geographic area where a brand’s sales level is considered under normal activity and which is compared against an area(s) where the brand is under changed activity level.  The comparison of difference is used as a measure of the test activity effectiveness. (See recommended Mapping Sources)

Control Brand- A brand that is not available to all retailers, most commonly private label but also includes a franchise brand; one which is normally sold by only one retailer in a specific geographic area (exclusive territory).

Control Market Test- A research method for evaluating promotions across a multi-store test compared to a control market(s) where the test is not being conducted. This type of testing is often used when a broad based promotion such as advertising is being tested while Control Store Testing is more commonly done when any in-store actions are being tested.

Control Store Test- A research method for evaluating promotions, price, etc. by controlling the variables within the test store(s) compared to control stores where the variable being evaluated is not changed.

Copy- Represents the reading material in an advertisement.  This may include: – Headline: The most outstanding, typically larger and frequently top of page/column  copy.  – Sub Head: A secondary headline usually above the body copy. – Body Copy: The main portion of the written part of the ad.

• may also refer to the verbal content of a TV or radio advertisement
  

County- A geopolitical subdivision of States in the United States of America often employed in sub-geographic marketing actions and measurements. County is also often cross-referenced to other geographic boundaries such as ADI, DMA, MSA, Nielsen Scantrac area, etc.  Downloadable cross-reference files are available here, but for mission critical work you should obtain the most up-to-date files from a reliable data vendor. (See recommended Mapping Sources)

Coverage Factor- A comparison of shipments accounted for by an audit measurement service.

- D -

Days Supply- The number of days of sales which can be covered by inventory.

Demographic- A statistical measure of population such as births, women of child bearing age, income, race, ethnicity, etc. (See recommended Demographic Sources)

Direct Shipments- Product shipped directly from the manufacturer to a retailer rather than through a wholesaler.

Displays- An off-shelf location presentation of merchandise. (see Nielsen Facts)

Disproportionate Sampling- A method used in research to over or under-represent respondents or store observations in a cell.  Over-representation is often done when a phenomena to be measured is of low incidence in the universe population under study and it would be unproductive to obtain similar detailed measurement from the broader universe rather than only the subgroup of interest.

Distribution- 1) A term describing how a product gets to market; 2) The presence of a product available at retail which may further be qualified as store count or All Commodity Volume (ACV) distribution. Aware and motivated purchasers are the objective of media contact but are insufficient to directly translate to sales. People who want to buy the product they just heard about can be side-tracked by not finding the product. For highly penetrated existing brands with deep historical distribution approaching 100%, this might not be much of an adjustment factor in the media spend to revenue generation equations. But, for new products or SKU launches, this can be a huge adjustment factor that must be accounted for in the equations and thus in an underlying media management database architecture.

Designated Marketing Area (DMA)- A Nielsen television market area sub geography. The boundaries of DMA’s are defined by exclusive county designation and a further description with data files can be obtained by selecting this link.

Drug Store- A retail outlet whose sales are primarily of Health & Beauty Aid, patent medicine, and prescription pharmaceutical products; with or without a pharmacist present (see Proprietary Store). 

- E -

economic development - is commonly used to obtain a framework for the potential of people to be able to afford a product. Especially for multi-national companies, they will consider the level of economic development of various countries to determin which they might plan to do business within. Even within a country economic development might be considered for where you might want to do business. An example might be that the coastal provinces of China tend to have higher levels of economic development than the interior; thus companies might only sell near the coastal cities or might offer smaller pack sizes at cheaper entry point prices in the interior to start developing their consumer base as economic opportunity expands.

End-aisle-displays - are found in retail stores as one turns from one aisle to the next. Also called end-caps, they are considered a prominent location to feature your product to achieve better consumer exposure. Think about catching the eye of passing consumers.

Exposure Frequency to Awareness Ratio – There is a body of academic work that suggests the number of exposures which are required to generate awareness is in the 7 to 17 exposures range. This number is a major factor in overall performance determination of promotion efficiency. As such it is a key factor to determine and track. Further, such tracking must be media vehicle specific. One can assume a quality face-to-face sales call might have an exposure to awareness ratio approaching one-to-one. On the other hand a television commercial run only on select cable channels in the wee hours of the night might have an infinite exposure to awareness ratio if such time slotting is not fitted to the target market. From a practical perspective, these extreme examples are not likely to be as significant an issue as effectively measuring the typical media mix’s differences on these ratios. Maintaining detailed records of all media exposure data and linking it with awareness tracking research findings by ‘source’ of awareness should be a key part of an overall media tracking and performance management effort.

- F -

Facings – When you look at a retail store shelf, facings are the number of units visible at the front. Products that turnover with high-volume categories generally get more shelf facings. Your Trade Sales organization should be rewarded for achieving a disproportionately high number of facings.

Frequency – simply the number of exposures a media message is presented to an audience. With an advertisement, this might be a dozen times in terms of a schedule of placements over a month for radio or television. For print, it might be the number of placements in monthly magazines with readership by the target audience. With a sales force, it might be the number of sales calls made over a select time slot like a Plan of Action cycle.

- G -

GRP – Gross Rating Pointsare a thumbnail summary of media deployment. It fundamentally is the percentage of the target audience reached by an advertisement. But on such a simplified basis, it would only be presented as such if that advertisement was only seen once. So GRP’s are really the end result of a combination of a reach percentage and a frequency. 100 GRP’s might mean 100% of a target covered once or 50% of the target covered twice. Thus it is important to obtain media detail on reach and frequency from your media planner to effectively link any media plan to a prediction of awareness generation or sales forecast.

gross impressions - refers to advertising exposures. You might create a media plan with an advertising buy that reaches a million people three times per year and thus have three million gross impressions.

- P -

Persuasion – just recalling or being aware of an advertisement is NOT sufficient to generate sales. You also need to generate interest in the product and this is typically measured via purchase intent on a five-point scale. Purchase intent to actual purchase behavior needs to be calibrated for each point on that scale; the ‘do what you say you will do’ adjustment factor. There are a variety of calibration approaches which need to be included and monitored in full data architecture design. It is very likely that TCCC’s existing efforts around the ONS measure will be an appropriate foundation for this measure.

purchase cycles - this represents a period of time between purchases. It is also frequently stated in the context of the number of purchase in occassions in a year. For example, you might buy mustard four times per year for a purchase cycle of quarterly or once every three months.

Proprietary Store- Drug Stores without a pharmacist.

- R -

Reach– the percentage of a target audience covered by a media execution. Reach can be tiered if there are substantial differences between segments that are targeted. Most often this is done when there are huge differences in the value of a segment versus other segments. Under such circumstances, the objective for the highest value segment may be achieving closer to 100% reach combined with a higher frequency to assure maximizing revenue generation from a core franchise.


Repeat rates – this is mainly a function of consumer’s belief that the promise made to get them by an advertisement to make an initial purchase was actually delivered by the product experience. For a short-purchase cycle product, with a relatively silent self generating need-state reminder, media may operate as an important reminder to stimulate repeat. Product satisfaction testing in the market may be appropriate and such satisfaction measures might be an important ‘modifying’ variable to account for in a media performance database when it is fully developed. Especially if a product is brand leader in a category, advertising may be as much about stimulating repeat of the category at a greater rate than it is about brand share shifting; this can be volumetrically modeled. A program to evaluate repeat patterns, and/or review of existing research observations, should be undertaken to determine the extent repeat should be made a design consideration.

Repeat volumes - Consumers may modify the volume which they purchase at repeat. You may have a trial pack that initially lowers the price point and perceived risk to try a new item. Then once the consumer finds they like it they may buy more on a repeat occassion. You also need to which your promotional scheduling so you aren’t ‘training’ your consumers to buy on deal. If they see frequent repeat deals being offered they may buy small amount in between and then load up when you offer deals; this can erode your profit margin.

- S -

Share
 - Share trends to present a percentage of something. It is commonly used to report your percent or share of a market. But it can also be used in the context of advertising by something like a ‘share of voice’.

Shelf Talkers
 - These are basically tiny signs displayed right at the shelf location of your product. Make sure you understand the retailer requirement when you design yours. In addition to your brand name and calling out ‘new’, ‘improved’, some brand attribute advantages, it is not uncommon to present any special pricing being offered such as a BOGO. It may not be good or allowed to present an actual price because of the retailers system coordination implications.

Slotting Allowance - Also called a slotting fee. It basically is a retailer charging to present your brand on their store shelves. See Slotting fee.

- T -

Trade Slicks - Having your brand obtain broad exposure amoung your target is important. You want to carefully control how it is presented. One way you can extend reach yet control presentation is by preparing micro-ads that others use while interacting with a propectitive customer base. You make these in various shapes and sizes so they can be dropped into locations convenient to those using them on your behalf. This may be retailers who have something like a flyer or free standing insert; or it may be a digital partner who you trade exposure with against a shared consumer base in a synergistic rather than competitive manner.

Trial rates
 - represent a percent of target consumers who try a new item.

Trial volumes - represents the amount of an item that is purchased upon initial trial.

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