business jargon buster

8/6/2019 Business Jargon Buster

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Business Jargon Buster

and Media Basics

Levine Lawrence – March 2009



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• Above-The-Line Marketing

– ATL is the traditional advertising technique using

specific channels to promote products and services.

This strategy makes use of traditional media like

newspapers, magazines, radio and TV.

• Below-the-Line Promotions

– BTL is a technique using unconventional methods

than the usual mass media to promote products or

services. It typically focuses on direct postal mail or email promotion, exhibitions, road shows, point-of-

sale activity, targeted at a particular audience to

maximize response rates.



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• Ambush Marketing (Guerrilla)

– It is an unconventional way of doing marketing

promotion on a very low budget. It could be about

gaining from the competitor’s ad-spend without paying

anything for it. For e.g. a promotion campaign focused

on a sporting event sponsored by a competitor.

• Branchising

– Empowering a company’s regional office to operate

more like franchises. In other words, decentralisation.



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• Cannibalization

– It happens when a new product takes away the sales

from an existing one of the same company. Although

cannibalization is usually undesirable, the profits from

the new product can make up for the costs of its

development and the lost sales.

• Churn rate

– It is the average number of customers who leave a

service or buy another product during a period of one

year.



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• Core competence

– It is defined as the singular capability among a

portfolio of capabilities that can lend the company a

distinctive and sustainable advantage. A core

competence is something a company does especially

well in comparison to its competitors.

• Cold Calling

– It means an uninvited call by a salesman with the

intention of securing an interview leading to the

placing of an order.



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• Concept Testing

– It is about a new product idea being tested for its

acceptability in the market before a prototype is

made. Used as a first stage in screening a new

product concept, the potential benefits are put across

to prospective buyers to get their reactions.

• Beta testing

– Beta testing is a stage in product development where

a product has passed the alpha stage during

development and has been released to selected

users for usability testing before its official release.



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• Critical Mass

– It is the amount of fissile material needed for a

sustained nuclear chain reaction. This term is used

figuratively, as a mass of users sufficient enough to

allow large scale production of a product or service.

(Also called Threshold Level or Tipping Point)

• Demographics

– It is the science of population statistics that is

essential for market research and campaign planning.



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• Key Customer Management

– It is about focussing on few sets of customers to build

a long-lasting relationship. The Pareto Rule states

that only 20% of your customers contribute to 80% of

your revenue.

• Mass Customization

– It is the use of flexible computer-aided manufacturing

systems to produce customised output. These

systems combine the low unit costs of massproduction processes with the flexibility of individual

customization. The famous Dell ‘build-to-order’ model

is a classic example.



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• CRM

– Customer Relationship Management is all about customisation and one-

to-one marketing which involves IT-enabled tools and other database

techniques to build a relationship with the customer.

• ERP

– Enterprise Resource Planning is a management information system that

integrates and automates all the business operations. ERP systems

typically handle manufacturing, logistics, distribution, inventory,shipping, invoicing, and accounting and can also control other activities

like sales, billing, inventory and HR.

• SCM

– Supply Chain Management deals with supply chain planning process,which is now automated where software takes care of components like,

demand forecasting, order deadlines, production scheduling, distribution

plan and logistics.



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• FMCG

– It is an acronym for Fast Moving Consumer Goods which is

defined as fast selling, low unit value consumer productsnormally in universal demand. This includes categories like

toiletries, cosmetics and other non-durables. Unlike FMCG,

Consumer Durables such as kitchen appliances are generally

replaced once a year.

• SMEs

– Small and Medium-sized Enterprises are companies whose

headcount or turnover fall below certain limits. The current

accepted definition is companies with fewer than 100 employees

as ‘small’, and those with below 1000 employees as ‘medium’.

(SMB, MSME)



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• Gut Feel

– It means a hunch or opinion based upon intuitive grasp of a

situation, arising from experience rather than logical deduction.

• Hedging

– It means negotiation of contractual arrangements to protect a

buyer or seller against changes in price, supply or economicconditions, which may be to their disadvantage.

• Iceberg Principle

– It is a psychological concept suggesting human personality issimilar to an iceberg, with innate desires hidden deep down

under the surface. Advertisers, feel that influencing people

frequently depends an appealing to less apparent desires.



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• Learning Curve

– Over time, there is a drop in the average per unit production

cost. This is a result of accumulated production experience,learning and use of the cost-saving methods of production, and

increased skill and competence at carrying out the task.

• Perceived Pricing

– A consumer perceives a price as high, low or fair, in relation to

the perceived or experienced value of the product.

• Stereotype

– A stereotype is a simplified mental picture of an individual or group of people who share certain characteristic or stereotypical

qualities. The term has a negative connotation and is seen as

undesirable beliefs which need change.



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• White Goods

– This refers to domestic appliances that accomplish some routine

housekeeping task. For e.g. refrigerator, washing machine, air

conditioner, etc.

• Brown Goods

– The term refers to products that include TVs, VCRs,

camcorders, CD players and all other audio products. `Browngoods' is a reference to early TVs and radios that came

packaged in wooden, wood-coloured plastic or Bakelite cases.

• Retail Therapy

– The term refers to shopping with the primary purpose of improving thebuyer's mood or disposition. Often seen in people during periods of

depression, which is normally a short-lived habit. Items purchased

during this period are sometimes referred to as ‘comfort buys’.



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• Push & Pull Strategy

– Push is a promotional strategy used to increase the sales

through sales promotion that pushes the product through thedistribution channel. The chain is: Producers> Wholesalers>

Retailers> Consumers. Pull is a strategy used to intensify the

sales by building awareness which leads to consumer demand,

in turn the retailers give order to the wholesalers.

• Viral Marketing

– (word-of-mouth) It is the personal communication about a

product between target buyers and their friends, relatives, and

associates. Viral marketing technique passes along the

company’s marketing message to create an exponential growth.



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• ROI

– The Return on Investment or returns is a calculation used to

determine whether a proposed investment is wise and how wellit will repay the investor. (ROE, ROC)

• SEC

– Socio-Economic Classification is the division of a total market

into smaller groups based on sociological, economical or cultural

variables, such as social class, income, religion, nationality,

beliefs, values or customs.

• DINK, YUPPIE, NINJA

– SEC demographic acronyms to indicate “Young Urban

Professional”, “Dual Income, No Kids”, "No Income, No Job and

no Assets"



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• SEO

– Search Engine Optimization is a set of methodologies aimed at

improving the visibility of a website in search engine listings. The

term also refers to an industry of consultants that carry outoptimization projects on behalf of client sites.

• SWOT

– A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis is

a tool for gathering, analysing, and evaluating information and

identifying strategic options facing an organisation at a given

time.

• USP

– Unique Selling Proposition is an advertising strategy that

focuses on a product or service attribute that is distinctive to a

particular brand and offers an important benefit to the customer.



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Media Basics



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• Advertorial

– It is an Editorial Advertisement which is designed in the form of a

piece of editorial matter. Such advertisements must however, beclearly labelled ‘advertisement’.

• Beat

– A reporter's topic area. Politics, Law, Education, Health, Sportsare some typical beats. Think of reporters covering their areas

as a cop might walk a beat.

• Broadsheet

– The standard size of most dailies, including the TOI, The Hindu,

Indian Express, DNA etc. Folded in half, it's a Tabloid.



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• Byline

– The name of the writer, appearing at the top of an article. Artists

and photographers typically get credits. When the reporter's

name appears at the end, it often is preceded by a dash and is

called a signer.

• Dateline

– The city or place designation at the beginning of a story. Some

newspapers strictly enforce a rule that the dateline must say

where the reporter was when the story was gathered. A foreign

story gathered by phone at home, then, could run without a

dateline.

• Tagline

– The writer's contact information, typically provided after the story



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• Circulation

– It indicates the number of copies sold for a publication at a given time,

such as one day of a daily newspaper. It is not the same as the number

of readers, as more than one reader generally reads a single copy,particularly with magazines that have a high pass-along readership.

• ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation)

– Audit Bureau of Circulation is a non-profit circulation-auditing

organization set up by the Press Council of India. The Bureau issuesABC certificates every six months by computing the net paid sales to

those publishers whose circulation figures are certified by a firm of

approved chartered accountants.

• National Readership Survey (NRS)

– It is one of the largest surveys in the world, with a sample size of over

2,60,000 house-to-house interviews to track the media exposure, the

estimated readership of publications and the changing consumer trends.



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• Embargo

– The time until when some news cannot be released. Sometimes

there may be a restriction on when news can be released to thepublic. Breaking an embargo -- reporting information early -- may

cause sources to be less willing to release news the next time.

• Inverted pyramid

– This term describes the structure of a news story which has the

essential and most interesting elements of the story loaded on

the top, with supporting information following in order of

diminishing importance.

• Pagination

– The act of creating a page on a computer screen.



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• Media Planning

– It outlines how advertising time and space in various media will

be booked in advance to achieve the marketing objectives of the

company.

• Masthead

– An area of a publication with its name, details of ownership, and

other information. It usually appears on the editorial or contents

pages, not atop page one. The title's name atop page one is

called the flag, logo, or nameplate.

• Op-Ed

– Some think it to be 'Opinionated Editorial', but is just 'Opposite of

the editorial page'. Usually contain columns and guest

viewpoints.



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• Quote

– The words of an important person in a reporter's story. It

indicates that the reporter has taken the facts from a relevantsource and has not cooked up a story.

• Paraphrase

– To summarize or rewrite a quote in your own words.Paraphrasing should not have quote marks.

• Post-mortem

– A review of a TV production or the previous day print edition. It’sa critique; usually focusing on what worked, what didn’t, lessons

learned and practices to be instituted for the next edition.



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• Reliable source

– The most loved word among journos that indicates anyone right

from their rumour monger friend in the stock market to a highlyplaced govt official.

• Scoop

– As a noun, 'a story no one else has'; as a verb, 'to do it to thecompetition'.

• Slug

– An internal name for a story, usually a one or two-word nameused to refer to a report. ‘Elex’ might be the slug word for a story

on the upcoming elections.



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• Teaser

– Usually found in print publications. Typically a graphical element

that hypes up a story somewhere else in the publication.

• TRP (Television Rating Points)

– These monthly reports give data of frequency of viewing and

overlapping of viewership amongst TV programmes. One TRP isequal to 1% of TV audience which has now become the

currency for buying and selling air time.

• Technical Writing

– It is a style of formal writing that is used in technical fields where

the writers try to explain complex ideas to technical as well as

non-technical audiences.



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• Widow

– A short line or a single word of text left at the top of a column.

Computerized typesetting makes them far more common than a

fussy page makeup person would have tolerated.

• White Paper

– A document written in essay style that provides an in-depth analysis

of a technology, trend, product or process. White papers arepredominantly informational rather than promotional material.

• Yellow journalism

– It is a type of journalism that downplays legitimate news in favour of

eye-catching headlines that sell more newspapers. It may feature

exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, sensationalism,

or unprofessional practices.



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• Ad lib

– Usually spontaneous, unscripted talking by the TV host about a subject when the producer

needs to fill extra time

• Cross-scripting

– It is writing or talking about one thing while showing another. Talking about a criminal while

showing a picture of the victim is bad cross-scripting.

• Dead air

– Just meaning silence which is a crime in TV or radio. Doordarshan exempted!

• Factoid

– Slang for a graphic with a kernel of information written on it. Remember the ‘Extra Shots’

during a Sony SETMAX movie show…

• Idiot cards

– Simply cue cards…You see them on talk shows, but not on news shows anymore. News

uses autocue.

• Rough cut

– Means a first-draft edit. Editorial types screen a rough cut and suggest changes. You rarely

get a chance to do rough cuts in daily news.

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