ADVERTISING GLOSSARY If you'd like a guide to some of the interesting terminology used in these Secrets and in the wonderful world of advertising, check out our Selected Glossary -- you might find some surprises!

SAVE POSTAGE You can achieve automation-based postal discounts if you mail 300+ pieces at a time. TARGET TUESDAY Tuesday is the lightest mail day of the week – plan your deliveries to hit on that day if possible. TEST, TEST, TEST Test different selling prices with each new mailing. Sometimes a higher price will actually draw more response than a lower one. Allow your prospects to help you determine the most appropriate price. ONE COLOR MAIL When planning a direct mail project and deciding between one and two colors, use one-color printing if two-color costs more. Two-color direct mail is no more effective, unless the second color is essential to the nature of the promotion, such as when promoting a red tag sale. STAMPS VS. METERED Surprise! Metered mail now gets virtually the same response as individually affixed stamped mail. The extra expense is not cost-justified. KEEP IT CLEAN Use blank envelopes for your direct mail promotion unless you have killer "teaser" copy to print on the outside of the envelope. RADIO COPYWRITING In developing radio spots, 1) articulate the advertising objective, 2) brainstorm creative situations, then 3) merge them, with the product's consumer benefit always in mind. HALFTONE TIP To get the most out of black and white reproductions, use an original photo print that is slightly larger than the finished halftone you want. Ideally, use a print that's about one-third larger. Much larger than that and halftones tend to muddy up upon reduction. On the other hand, very small original prints get grainy when overly enlarged. TRADEMARK USE Always use a trademarked word as an adjective. Never pluralize, use in possessive form, use as a verb or fail to follow a trademark with a generic noun. TRADEMARK CONSISTENCY Never alter the form of a trademark. Keep all trademarks in the form in which they were registered. Never abbreviate a trademark. Never hyphenate, coin new words from or change the spelling of trademark. Always use consistent colors for graphic trademarks. TRADEMARK USAGE Set trademarks apart from other words which are used in an advertisement or label, especially the generic description, by capitalizing the trademark or using different typography or color for the mark than is used for the surrounding text. Example: XEROX copiers are the best. NOTICE OF TRADEMARK The proper use and format of trademark notice varies depending upon whether a mark is federally registered. If a trademark registration has been granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, use the symbol ® or an asterisk * with a footnote reading, "Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off." PRESENT STANDING UP A very strong case can be made for standing up when making presentations with visual aids. According to research, your prospective customer is 43 percent more likely to be persuaded; the prospect will be willing to pay 26 percent more for the same product or service; the time it takes to explain complex subjects is reduced by 25 to 40 percent; and learning is improved by up to 200 percent. AFTERSALE TECHNIQUE The riskiest part of a sale is after the customer says "yes." That's when the seller feels elated and relaxes – and the buyer begins to worry that they may have made a mistake. What to do: Once the buyer has agreed to the sale, avoid comments such as, "You won't regret this," or "This will be the best deal you ever made." Such statements can raise worry in the most trusting customer. Better: Switch the topic of conversation from the professional to the personal – the buyer's golf game, children, anything to avoid making any comment that could raise doubt in the buyer. Then follow through with high quality after-sale service to reinforce the customer's overall sense of satisfaction. ALWAYS TEST SOMETHING You'll find the right combination if you test price, offer, list, design, format, seasonality and number of contacts frequently. The best way to test these is to do mailings in small groups. Keep track of the groups and the factors you have changed in each one. Then monitor the results. TEST PACKAGES -- DON'T REPLACE CONTROL WITH TEST PACKAGE UNTIL... If your test package beats your control, double or triple the size of that test mailing the next time. Only replace your control when the test package has proven itself over several mailings of increasing quantities. RELIABLE TEST MARKETING When thinking of test marketing a new promo, many think of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or other major city. But big city testing won't provide a good cross section of the American marketplace. Savvy marketers use towns more representative of the USA as a whole. Tulsa, Oklahoma is a leading test market because its demographics match national averages perfectly. Another excellent town to test ads is Boise, Idaho. This town is geographically isolated from any nearby alter-markets which might skew results. And if it's media coverage you want to test, Youngstown, Ohio is the place. Residents there spend more time with TV, radio, newspapers and magazines than in any other town in the nation. BILLBOARD TIPS In outdoor advertising, research has shown that highway ads do better than those placed on local street boards. Black and white ads were also found to work better than color ads (probably because most other billboards were in color, making the black & white boards stand out). If you can reduce your message to seven words or less, you'll greatly increase readership and recall. COPY TIP The trick to writing a good lead sentence is to immediately focus on the most newsworthy point of the story and to reserve other details until later in the story. Try to reduce the essence of the news to a single sentence or even a single word. BUSY, BUSY, BUSY Surprisingly, busy ad layouts often pull better than neat and symmetrical ones. One recent split-run test showed busy layouts outpulling neat ones by 14 percent. CHANGE IT Vary shapes, sizes and colors when designing your catalog or multi-page brochure. People get bored and turn pages more quickly if there is no graphic variety. NEWSPAPER COLOR Color will attract attention, but many times it does not prove to be cost effective in newspaper ads. Tests show that color is not a wise buy in as many as four out of five cases. Consider using color only when the product itself demands it. SINGULAR SENSATION Putting something unique or odd into a picture will attract attention, i.e. David Oglivy's Hathaway Shirt Man, who wore an eyepatch. MAINTAIN FOCUS IN PRINT ADS Too many extraneous graphic elements or props can divert attention from the subject of the ad. For example, a curtain materials company ran an ad with a cute teddy bear. The company got more calls asking about the bear than they did about their product. PHOTOS SCORE BEST Photographs are more convincing than drawn illustrations. Appropriate photos can increase response by over 50 percent as compared to illustrations. BEFORE AND AFTER PHOTOS This classic technique is a great way to demonstrate graphically the benefit of your product or service. SWITCH COLORS When you mail similar-looking direct mail packages regularly and are using black as a second color, switch the second color you use. Mailing the same offer to the same list, but changing colors – e.g., from green to blue – boosts response. People perceive that it's a different offer and they're more likely to open the envelope or read the copy. Savvy marketers switch colors as soon as response falls off – and the technique usually works. WHAT'S THE PROBLEM Solve the Right Problem: "I'm not returning until you fix it," bandleader Count Basie told a club owner whose beat-up old piano was always out of tune. A month later Basie got a call that everything was fine. When he returned, the piano was still out of tune. "You said you fixed it!" an irate Basie exclaimed. "I did," came the reply. "I had it painted." Are you solving the right problem? Is there a more significant problem that your advertising and marketing is overlooking? THE RELATIONSHIP'S THE THING Four out of five clients who change agencies do so not because the advertising failed to produce the expected results, but because the relationship went wrong. Try to repair the problem you might be having with your current agency before you throw in the towel and begin an agency search (unless, of course, you're thinking of calling us). DON'T ASSUME Drop an Assumption – Columbus challenged the Spanish courtiers to stand an egg on its end. They tried but failed. He then hard-boiled one and squashed it down. "That's not fair," they protested, "you broke the rules." "Don't be silly," he replied, "you just assumed more than you needed to." What can you let go of? What unnecessary assumptions can you eliminate from your current advertising program? MARKETING STRATEGY See the obvious. "Only the most foolish of mice would hide in a cat's ear," says designer Scott Love, "but only the wisest of cats would think to look there." Don't miss the obvious. What are you overlooking? What's the most obvious thing you can do? What marketing resources or promotional solutions are right in front of you? MOVE THE PRODUCT Sell, Sell, Sell. "It isn't creative unless it sells," goes the advertising adage. You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you can't sell it, you won't get very far. What are three reasons why someone else would want your idea or product? What benefits does it promise? How can you make your idea more attractive to people? CATALOG TIPS Readers allot only so much time to your publication, so don't assume that BIGGER is always better. Readers' attention spans are limited, so extra pages won't necessarily ensure that they will spend all their time on your catalog. And they spend an average of only 5 to 7 seconds per catalog page. LEFT-HANDED COMPLIMENT Studies have found that a right hand page receives no more readership than a left hand page. PHOTOS SPEAK LOUDER WITH WORDS Photos work better with captions, because captions measurably increase readership. Two-line captions work best. HYPHEN MODERATION Is it a dash or a hyphen you want? A 450-page book requires a hyphen. A dash, which is much longer, is intended to show a change in thought or a break. Using a hyphen to get attention isn't always smart. Making up a fancy Made-in-the-Deep-South may satisfy a creative urge, but how much does it really accomplish? Do you think you'll get away with reducing the word count in a classified ad with that construction? Nope, afraid not. The rule is usually that each dictionary word counts as one word. Made-in-the-Deep-South is five (5) words. Check it out. QUOTES WORK An ad headline in "quotes" draws 28 percent more readership! Apparently the headline appears more important and gets greater readership because the reader perceives that someone noteworthy is being quoted. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SERIF The latest research reports that in tests, comprehension averaged 67 percent for type set in Corona or Times Roman (with serif) as compared to 12 percent for Helvetica (sans serifs). In both cases 8 point type with traditional 1 point leading was used (The leading in modern software, like Pagemaker or Quark, would be 9). Moral: Use a serif-style typeface if you want your body copy to be understood better. THE BENEFITS OF COLOR Color commands attention and influences buying decisions when it is integral to the merchandise or service being offered in magazine ads. According to research, magazine color ads sold an average of 43 percent more merchandise than the same ads run in black-and-white. SIGNATURE COLOR To design and produce color ads that work for your business, create a consistent color image, carrying your color palette across a series of ads. Use a "signature color" for your product's image – like Campbell Soup's red. Avoid distraction caused by using too many competing colors. NOT TOO LARGE Headlines with extremely large type actually add little attention value to an ad. WORDS IN THE MAIL Some of the words and phrases we have found to be successful in direct marketing: LIMITED TIME OFFER SEND NO MONEY NOW NOT SOLD IN STORES CHARTER OFFER FREE PROVEN IMPORTANT YOU SAVE EASY LEADING VISUAL For print advertising, try to use a single dominant visual. Your ad should focus on one attention-getting graphic or headline. LEAVE SOME SPACE Use white space. Many advertisers feel they're wasting money if every bit of ad space isn't used. Actually, leaving some white space will make your ad stand out more and be easier to read. DISTINCTIVE LOGO Develop and use an easily recognizable logo. Your firm's logo/logotype is a powerful marketing tool. When used consistently, the public will come to identify it with your organization. GET TO THE POINT Be direct. Make it easy for your prospective customers to get the information they need from your advertising. If price is a big selling point, for instance, make the price stand out. Be sure your copy is easy to understand and gets quickly to the point. CALL TO ACTION For best results, tell customers how to buy: "Come in today for a test drive," "Send in the completed form below," or "Visit our outlet this Sunday." Create a sense of urgency. When appropriate, set a time limit, an end date for the sale or state that a limited number of units are available if such is the case. This will encourage prospects to act now rather than later or never. PHRASEOLOGY When it comes to ad copy, how you say something is as important as what you say. For example, assume you are advertising a high-priced item, such as a Caribbean cruise. Rather than display a high price, such as $1,795, advertisers often show the amount of the discount – such as "$305 off." To be different, you may try showing the $305 in large type, and then put the word "better" in smaller type below it. It says the same thing but is enough of a jolt to catch the reader's eye and encourages readership of the entire offer. WORD POWER Seek the most creative way to promote your product or service. To create the menu wording for a banana split sundae, you might print "Half The Calories" set large and bold above a photo of the sundae. Then, below those words, in parentheses, is the statement "When You Share One With A Friend!" SAY IT DIFFERENTLY Try to think up unique ways to re-state an oft-repeated offer. You can be creative without being deceptive. And you can often get a smile from an unsuspecting customer. Like the sign in the bar window that said "Get In Here!" or the gift shop that didn't want an ordinary "Open" sign in their window, so they had one made that said "Sure – We're Open." Another example – "Keys Made While You Watch." HEADLINE PLACEMENT Headlines in print ads should be placed below the illustration. This is because the eye naturally falls first onto the illustrative area of an ad. Should the headline be above the illustration, the eye must then fight gravity and go "uphill." By placing the headline below the illustration, the eye can fall effortlessly to the copy and begin reading. BODY COPY TIPS With regards to typefaces, make line width comfortable to handle. 87 percent of readers find body copy too hard to read when set narrower than 20 characters. Use reverse type with caution. Readers find white type on a black background difficult to read. HEADLINE TYPE Set long headlines in initial caps and lowercase for the rest of the wording – this approach is the one that readers are accustomed to seeing and prevents non-traditional capitalization formats from obscuring the sense of the headline. WEB RESEARCH According to a recent PointCast Viewer study, a full 45 percent of auto purchasers said that they did their research on the Internet. As more and more consumers gain access to the web and become more comfortable using it, an even greater percentage of retail advertising dollars will be aimed at cyberspace. ADVERTISING GLOSSARY Click here to get to our glossary.