Glossary of Terms | Plan-It-Promotions

Account Opener: A direct premium given initially to new customers by a bank or savings and loan association.
Ad Copy: Lettering printed on any item. Usually an advertiser's name, sales message, trademark or slogan.
Advance Premium: A premium given to a new customer on the condition that he or she will continue to make purchases.
Agate Line: A unit of advertising space in the media. An agate line is one column wide and done fourteenth of an inch deep.
Agency: Belief that one's organization will provide the opportunity and necessary support for the realization of a goal (Ford, 1992).
ADI/Area of Dominant Influence: The geographic area within which a television or radio station achieves affective audience allegiance.
Attendance Program: Promotion designed to reduce employee absenteeism and increase productivity.
Audience Composition: The composition of media audience in terms of demographic, psychographic or qualitative variables.
AA/Author's Alterations: Changes in copy or layout at the proof stage made by and generally chargeable to the client/author.
Award: Something awarded or granted, as for merit.
Award Budget: The amount of money specified for awards that will be given to participants in incentive programs.
BAS Relief: Design that is impressed into its base material. This process is the opposite of intaglio, which is raised.
Basis Weight: The weight of a ream (500 sheets) of paper cut to industry standards. For example, a ream of 25" x 38" 50# bond weighs 50 pounds.
B1G1F: Marketing abbreviation for "Buy One, Get One Free." Also referred to as "BOGO".
Behavior: The actions or reactions of persons under specific circumstances.
Bill Enclosure: Promotional piece designed to be delivered along with an invoice. Also, "statement stuffer".
Blank Dummy: A full sized mock-up model of a point-of-purchase display that has no printing or artwork on it.
Bleed: A printed ad fills the entire medium "page", magnet, bookmark etc. too its edges without margin.
Blind Embossed: Design stamped into board or plastic material, without leaf or ink, to achieve a bas relief effect.
Blueline/Blueprint: Paper proofs in which the printing areas are shown in blue.
Body Copy: The text of print ads as distinguished from headlines, sub-headlines, picture captions and tag lines.
Boldface: Heavy type face used for titles or for emphasis, usually employed with captions or sub heading, etc.
Borrowed Interest Advertising Executions: Advertising executions in which the focal point of the advertisement has high inherent interest but has no direct relation to the advertised product.
Bounce-Back: A printed ad sent along with an already-ordered premium offering to sell additional premiums on a self-liquidating basis. Usually intended to encourage repeat purchase, or continuity.
Broadcast Rating: The proportion of total television or radio homes tuned to a particular broadcast program or availability. Expressed in terms of percentage.
Calibration: The process of ensuring that colour reproduction devices are set to a known state, sometimes using industry standards or manufacturer's specifications.
Case Divider: Display case or food freezer divider that may carry an advertising message as well as help the retailer to organize the case.
Celebration: A planned or spontaneous event in recognition of individual or team achievement.
Chance: An occasion where winners are selected by a random process.
Characterization: The process of creating an ICC profile that describes the unique colour characteristics of a colour reproduction device such as monitors, scanners, colour printers and four-colour presses.
Chroma: The amount of colour in a colour sample. Grey has a chroma value of 0 while a neon sign has a high chroma value. Also referred to as Saturation.
CIE L *a*b*: A colour model using lightness (L*) and two colour values (a*&b*). The colour coordinates define where a specific colour lies in a Cartesian graph: the a* value defining a red-green axis and the b* value defining the blue-yellow axis. The L* value adding a third dimension to the colour space.
Clipping: The severe transformation of colours that are re-purposed to another device's colour gamut. These colours lie within the original colour space but outside the destination colour space.
Closed – Ended Programs: ncentive programs that have a pre-determined number of award earners.
CMM: Colour management module. A set of colour algorithms used to transform colour values. The CMM is the engine that calculates colour values based on predefined colour characteristics in the ICC profiles.
CMS: Colour Management System. This is system-level functionality that maps, or translates the colour space of one device to the colour space of another. ColourSync on the Mac OS and ICM 2.0 on Windows are examples of CMS's.
Collateral Materials: Advertising materials that are not transmitted to consumer via advertising media. Thus collateral material includes catalogues, shelf cards, posters, trade information material etc.
Collectables: Premiums designed to have inherent value based upon their perceived "collectibility".
Colourimeter: A colour-measuring instrument. The Colourimeter uses a three-color model, usually RGB, to determine colour characteristics of output devices. Colourimeters are usually used to calibrate and characterize monitors.
Colour Model: A dimensional coordinate system used to numerically describe colours. Some models include Red, Green, Blue (RGB); Hue, Lightness, Saturation (HLS); Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (CMYK); Lightness, a, b (Lab).
Colour Proof: A first or early print of a finished colour advertisement combining impressions from each of the separate progressive colour plates.
Colour Separation: The separation of multi-coloured original art to produce individual, separated colours. Usually has four separations: cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow and black for full colour printing.
ColourSync: An Apple System software architecture that enables, with ICC profiles, system level colour management.
Column Inch: Measure of printed media space one column wide and one inch deep.
Comparative Advertising: Advertising that makes direct comparisons between features of competitive products. The brands included in the advertising are identified, and the sponsoring brand is inevitably proved superior in such advertising. Also, "comparison advertising".
Consideration or Purchase: What an entrant must do to participate in a contest; can be monetary or non-monetary. For example, a customer must buy the sponsor’s product and show proof of purchase with entry, or the customer must answer survey questions in order to qualify for entry.
Consumer Incentives: Motivational products targeting consumers.
Container Premium: The container of a product that may be used as a substitute for a normal container, usually partially or completely self-liquidating.
Content Theories: Motivational theories having a focus on the factors within a person that energize, direct, sustain and stop behavior. They look at the specific needs that motivate people.
Contest: A competition based on skill in which prizes are offered. A game in which chance is eliminated. Winners are chosen according to predetermined criteria or skills, such as writing the best essay or reaching a sales goal.
Continuity (Advertising): The plan that develops a particular flow (even or uneven) of advertising messages to prospects.
Continuity Premiums: A related succession of premium items usually offered over a period of 6 to 8 weeks as one offer per week. These premiums are usually self liquidating.
Continuity Program: A program designed to offer an Incentive to an individual that encourages her or him to return to do additional business. Types of continuity programs include frequent flyer mileage, trading stamps, etc.
Continuity Promotion: Event that encourages regular, repeat purchasing of a product, because doing so enables purchaser to collect additional savings or offers.
Continuous Tone: Artwork comprised of tonal effects, which requires it be screened into dots for reproduction. The result will be a halftone. Also referred to as "grayscale".
Controlled Circulation: Business publication free circulation that is sent to a selected list of recipients with known and desirable characteristics for particular business advertisers. The circulation is "controlled" since it is directed to particular kinds of people at no cost to them.
Cooperative AdvertisingM: Jointly sponsored advertising under an articulated program by manufacturers and retailers.
Copy Testing: Test to determine consumer response to advertising copy and, more broadly, to the total content-written and visual of advertisements.
Copy: The written content of advertising or editorial matter in the media. The editorial matter in broadcast media may also be referred to as continuity.
Cost per Inquiry (CPI): Method of evaluating a direct marketing campaign based on the total cost of a mailing divided by the number of inquires received.
Cost Per Thousand (CPM): Relative measure of media cost. Total cost of an ad, divided by the potential audience reached, usually expressed in thousands of persons or households.
Counter Display: Point-of-Sale display of merchandise, or promotional material, intended to stand on a checkout counter.
Coupon Plan: Program in which premiums can be earned by accumulating proof of purchase coupons. Often the plan allows premiums to be self-liquidated for fewer coupons than required to get them with no extra payment.
Coverage: Geographic area or fraction of an audience reached with specified intensity by an advertising medium.
Creative Strategy: Strategy that states explicitly what advertising will communicate about the product, service, or institution and specifies how communication about the product, service or institution will be meaningfully related to consumer needs, wants, desires and/or dreams.
Crop: To eliminate portion of a picture, illustration or photograph that contains unnecessary material.
Dangler: Point of Sale piece that hangs down from a shelf, usually from the price channel (shelf). Also referred to as "wobbler".
Dealer Incentive: Reward given to a retailer in return for promotional support for quantity purchase.
Dealer Loader: ncentive given to wholesaler or retailer in return for quantity purchase. Often, a premium fastened to a point-of-sale display in order to make sure the display is noticed by a retail manager.
Dealer Premium: A premium offered to retailers for meeting specified performance criteria.
Debit Cards: These cards are redeemable only at participating merchant outlets and are reloadable.
Debossing: Indenting a discreet image into tag or board material with a positive die to create an intaglio effect. The opposite effect is embossing. Often used with leather and imitation leather products.
Densitometer: An instrument used for reading the amount of light reflected by a surface or transmitted by an object. Densitometers are often used to measure the density of process-colour inks on press. These density readings can then be used to calculate other values like dot gain and colour difference. By measuring emulsion densities, Densitometers are also commonly used to analyze colour characteristics of film.
Dot Gain: Net percent increase in halftone dot size (or tone value) throughout the tone scale of a press sheet. Dot gain is a consequence of ink soaking into paper and spreading. A dot gain of 20% means that a 50% tint reproduces at 70% apparent dot area on paper.
Efficacy (Self Efficacy or Team Efficacy): "Belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainment" (Bandura, 1997, p.3).Self and Group efficacy is the belief that "We can do it in this context."
Employee Incentive: Motivational product targeting an employee of a sponsoring company.
Expectancy Theory: Looks at how likely it is that the performance and outcome will occur. An individual makes voluntary choices about: (1) whether the job can be accomplished, (2) whether the outcome will occur as a result of performing and (3) whether the outcome will be desirable.
Extinction: Decline in response rate due to non-reinforcement (ignoring).
Extrinsic: Rewards that are external to the job, i.e., pay, promotion, fringe benefits or tangible awards; or rewards that are administered by someone else.
Gamma: In monitors, the relationship between the voltage input and the brightness of a monitor. This relationship is logarithmic. Gamma can be thought of as a hard-wired contrast curve.
Gamut: The total range of colours reproduced by a device. A colour is said to be "out of gamut" when its position in one device's colour space cannot be directly translated into another device's colour space. For example, the total range of colours that can be reproduced with ink on coated paper is greater than that for uncoated newsprint, so the total gamut for uncoated newsprint is said to be smaller than the gamut for coated stock. A typical CMYK gamut is generally smaller than a typical RGB gamut.
Gift Cards: Plastic cards with a magnetic strip and/or bar code preloaded with a dollar or point amount. Some are reloadable (in which case they are sometimes called debit cards); others are not. They are generally available in two types: (1) those that carry a major credit card brand and are redeemable at any merchant accepting the brand; and (2) merchant-specific cards, such as those issued by well-known retailers, which are redeemable only by the issuing merchant.
Gift Certificates: Vouchers with dollar or point values embossed on them. They can be personalized with the recipient's name and giver’s logo and, depending on the vendor, can be replaced in case of loss or theft.
Gift Checks: Sometimes synonymous with gift certificates, gift checks usually refer to money orders issued by banks or credit card firms.
Goal: A purpose toward which an endeavor is directed; an objective. A destination or state to be attained. Something that an individual, team, or organization is consciously trying to attain.
Group Incentive Travel: Qualifying meetings and incentive trips held in especially appealing destinations, usually targeting salespeople and resellers – among the most potentially powerful in terms of impact but also among the most logistically complex.
Hue: The basic colour of an object, such as red, green, purple, etc. Defined by its angular position in a cylindrical colour space, or on a Colour Wheel.
Incentive System: An organized program of rewards and/or recognition offered for the purpose of motivating employees in specific ways. Attributes of an incentive system include intentionally (deliberately developed with the intention of influencing employee performance); externality (devised and administered by agents external to the employee or employee group); standardization (applied in a clearly defined manner that specifies employees affected by the incentive system, the nature of the incentives and the rules for attaining specified rewards).
In-Pack, On-Pack, Near-Pack Offers: Merchandise that is offered free with other merchandise. Frequently found in supermarkets.
Incentive: Objects or events that are valued, which incite to action or effort. Something valued by an individual or group that is offered in exchange for increased performance. “A stimulus or condition that exists in an organization with the expectation of directing or influencing the behavior of organizational members” (Chung, 1972, p.31).
Incentive Federation: An alliance of incentive product manufacturers, industry suppliers, and associations.
Incentive Motivation: The characteristics of the goals one works to obtain will influence his/her behavior.
Incentive Program: A planned activity designed to motivate an individual to achieve predetermined organizational objectives.
Incentive System: The program by which incentives are offered for the achievement of work goals and assessment procedures are identified and explained. The four types of incentive system formats or schemes are: quote, piece rate, tournament, fixed rate (Bonner, et al. 2000). Other types include open-ended, closed-ended, and plateau programs.
Incentive Travel: 1) Any form of face-to-face event designed to motivate, either directly or indirectly. This includes the traditional definition of a formal, qualifying incentive program that offers incentive travel a one or all of the awards. It also includes any motivational use of a face-to-face event to accomplish a business objective – distinct from meetings designed to get work done and communicate routine information.; 2) Packaged programs for individuals and significant others, used in every type of program from employee recognition to consumer sweepstakes and contests. Many major airlines and hotel chains sell certificates for such awards, and there are several dozen companies that package and resell them.
Intrinsic: Rewards that are part of the job itself, i.e., responsibility, challenge and feedback; or rewards that are self-administered.
Mental Effort: Mindful, innovative work. “Using my head”. Thoughtful effort. Often contrasted with “mindless work”. Defined by researchers as “the conscious use of non-automatic elaborations” (Salomon, 1984).
Mood: An emotional state of mind influenced, for the most part, by experiences, beliefs and bio-chemical processes in the body.
Negative Reinforcement: The removal of a negative reinforcer that increases the frequency of response (taking away something).
Open-ended Programs: A type of incentive program that enables all people who achieve program goals to earn awards.
Persistence: The consistent performance of a task in the face of obstacles. Sometimes called “commitment” or “sticking to it”.
Pixel: A tiny picture element that contains red, green and blue information for colour rendering on a monitor or a scanner. When generating colours, pixels are similar to dots of ink on paper. A monitor resolution description in terms of pixels-per-ink (ppi) is similar to a printer resolution description in terms of dots-per-ink (dpi).
Plateau Programs: A type of incentive program that provides awards at different levels of program achievement.
Point-of-Purchase: Marketing term for where product is displayed in a store.
Points Program: A type of incentive program where participants collect and redeem points for awards. Points programs also apply to reloadable (“Stored Value”) gift cards.
Positive Reinforcement: Anything that increases the strength of response and induces repetition of the behavior that preceded the reinforcement (adding something positive).
Premium: Merchandise offered free, generally to induce an individual to buy a product.
Prize: Anything of value awarded to winners, even if the value is nominal.
Process Printing: Output from a printing press that uses four colours, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black to create the illusion of continuous tone images. For that reason, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black are also known as process colours (CMYK).
Process Theories: Theories of motivation that provide a description and analysis of how behavior is energized, directed, sustained and stopped.
Punishment: An undesirable consequence of a particular behavior (adding a negative consequence or removing a positive consequence).
Recognition: An “after the fact” display of appreciation or acknowledgement of an individual’s or team’s desired behavior, effort, or business result that supports the organization’s goals and values.
Render Intent: The method a CMM uses for converting (i.e., mapping) colours from one device's gamut to another. The four methods are Perceptual, Saturation, Relative Colourimetric, and Absolute Colourimetric.
Reward: To recompense. An item given to an individual or team for meeting a predetermined goal.
Safety Program: Promotion designed to motivate employees to work safely, or drive safely, in their work environment.
Sales Incentive Program: Promotion designed to motivate sales people to sell a specific product during a promotion period, or achieve a certain percentage of sales increase in a time frame.
Self-liquidating: The money expended for the product equals the amount of money received for the product.
Service Award Program: Promotion designed to reward employees for length of service to the company.
Specialty Container: Merchandise that can be reused, like a basket or cup.
Sweepstakes: A promotion that awards prizes to winners who are determined by a chance. A game in which consideration is eliminated.
Task Value: The relative worth of a given work task (when compared to other work tasks) as perceived by the individual.
Trading Stamps: Collect and redeem stamps for merchandise.
Through-the-Mail Offers: Offers that are generally self-liquidating for the company offering them. Save UPC labels, proof of purchase, and send money for shipping and handling to receive "free merchandise".
UCR: Undercolour Removal. The replacement of cyan, magenta, and yellow inks with blank ink in the dark, shadowed areas of an image to lower the total amount of ink applied to the paper. UCR is also know as total ink coverage.
Utility Value: The perceived benefit of completing a work task. When work tasks are not themselves valued highly, people often weigh the benefits of completing the task against avoiding the punishment involved in avoiding a work task.
Value-Added: Merchandise that includes something of value designed to encourage an individual to choose one product over another.
Virtual Certificates: Many gift certificates can be delivered via email directly to the recipient’s mailbox, saving time and the expense of printing and delivery. The “virtual certificate” can contain a link to a Web site where recipients can select and claim their rewards.
Vouchers: Certificates bought by or given to consumers that can be applied for discounts on travel packages; a business unfortunately tainted by unscrupulous practitioners over the years. Legitimate suppliers provide a certifiable discount by asking the consumer to book through their agencies, which buy in bulk, receive commissions or achieve other economies that can be shared in the form of savings.
White Point: How the colour white is reproduced. On a monitor it is the combination of all three Red, Green, and Blue phosphors at full intensity - as measured by its colour temperature in YK. Necessary as a reference point in calibration and characterization.

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