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Advertising purchased on all network programs aired simultaneously so that all consumers viewing TV at this time will be exposed to the brand’s advertising is called a roadblock.

For media planners, the choice of media and vehicles is, in many respects, the most straightforward of all marketing communications activities.

Media planning is the design of a strategy that shows how investments in advertising time and space will contribute to the achievement of marketing objectives.

Geographic information generally provides the most meaningful basis for segmenting target audiences.

The percentage of a target audience that is exposed, at least once, during a specified time frame to the vehicles in which an advertising message is inserted represents reach.

The time frame used by the majority of media planners for measuring reach is usually two weeks.

Frequency refers to the number of people who purchased a product as a result of an advertisement.

Gross ratings points are calculated by dividing reach by frequency.

If the media schedule for a brand yields 210 gross rating points and reaches 70 percent of the market, the frequency would be 3.

Effective reach is based on the idea that an advertising schedule is effective only if it does not reach members of the target audience too few or too many times during the media scheduling period.

According to the concept of effective reach, there is a theoretical optimum range of exposures to an advertisement with minimum and maximum limits.

Brands with lower market share require fewer advertising exposures to achieve minimal levels of effectiveness.

According to the three-exposure hypothesis, it is best to use three different mediums to maximize advertising effectiveness.

The objective of frequency value planning is to select the media schedule that generates the most exposure value per gross rating point.

The first step in frequency value planning is to define the budget.

In a continuous advertising schedule, an equal or relatively equal amount of ad dollars are invested throughout the campaign.

Pulsing and flighting advertising schedules are similar in that they both involve similar levels of advertising expenditures throughout the year.

According to the shelf-space model, the consumers' second exposure to an advertisement for a brand is the most powerful.

The shelf-space model assumes that the role of advertising is to teach consumers.

CPM stands for cost per month.

CPM is a measure of a media vehicle’s effectiveness.

The first step involved in using media-planning software is to select the criterion for schedule optimization.

National advertising is clearly the mainspring of newspapers.

The NAB offers a variety of services that assist both newspapers and national advertisers by simplifying the task of buying newspaper space and by offering discounts that make newspapers a more attractive medium.

Lack of flexibility is a limitation of newspaper advertising.

A magazine's media kit provides demographic and lifestyle profiles of that magazine's readership.

Market Research Corporation of America provides cost per thousand information for many magazines.

A strength of magazine advertising is that it provides more geographic options than other media.

Magazines are a poor source for providing detailed product information.

A limitation of magazine advertising is the long closing dates that require advertising materials to be on hand for weeks in advance of the actual publication date.

Subscription counting is an inadequate way of determining a magazine’s readership.

An advantage of radio advertising is its ability to reach prospective customers on a personal and intimate level.

Nielsen is the major company at both the national and local levels involved in measuring radio listenership and audience demographics.

The period preceding and following prime time television is known as fringe time.

Network television advertising, although expensive in terms of per-unit cost, can be a cost-efficient means to reach mass audiences.

More than any other medium, television is able to use humor as an effective advertising strategy.

Zapping takes place when ads that have been recorded along with program material using a video cassette recorder or a digital video recorder are fast-forwarded when the viewer watches the prerecorded material.

Consumers’ Internet usage continues to grow at the expense of the traditional media.

The Internet is quickly becoming the main element of IMC programs and receives the majority of an advertiser’s media budget, basically replacing conventional media.

Individualization refers to the fact that advertisers can control the flow of information to individual consumers.

Interactive advertising is defined as encompassing all media that enable the user (who no longer is a “receiver” in the traditional, passive model of communication) to control the amount or rate of information that she or he wishes to acquire from a commercial message.

The Internet user is in a “leaning forward” mind-set, which means he or she is goal driven and ads represent an interruption to them.

The Web site for a brand is an invaluable advertising medium for conveying information about the brand, its character, and its promotional offerings.

The major difference between Web sites and other alternative on-line ad formats is that users seek out Web sites in a goal-oriented fashion.

Banner ads are the least common form of Internet advertising.

Click-through rates (CTRs) to banner ads are very high, averaging more than 30 percent.

DoubleClick Inc. is perhaps the most prominent Internet ad-server company.

Pop-ups are ads that appear between (rather than within a page) two content Web pages.

Interstitials are ads that appear in a separate window that materializes on the screen seemingly out of nowhere while a selected Web page is loading.

With interstitials, users have to wait until the entire ad has been shown.

Superstitials are short, animated ads that play over or on top of a Web page.

Unsolicited e-mail messages are referred to as spam.

Regulations against unsolicited e-mail (spam) are much more stringent in North America than in Europe.

E-zines tend to focus on traditional issues, such as family and religion.

Phishing occurs when a competitor or other party clicks on a sponsored link repeatedly in order to foul up advertising effectiveness.

Electronic measurement of a sample of users is possibly the most valuable tool for assessing Internet usage activity.

The CPM metric is a simple way to measure an Internet ad’s effectiveness.

Direct advertising enables the advertiser to convey a message to a target market that has been selected with precision.

One reason for the growth of p-mail is the rising cost of television advertising and increasing audience fragmentation.

On a cost per thousand basis, p-mail is less expensive than other media.

An up-to-date database can offer varied messages to different groups of customers.

An up-to-date database provides firms with a number of assets, including the ability to calculate the lifetime value of a product.

If a marketer focuses on customer retention rather than just customer acquisition, customer lifetime value can be increased.

The problem with databases is that they are small in size with few addresses and few variables for each database entrant.

The R in a company's R-F-M formula stands for referral rate.

The M in a company's R-F-M formula stands for motivation.

Companies are increasingly using the audio-visual medium (i.e., videotapes, CD-ROMs, or DVDs) to present customers with detailed product information.

Although unverified in a scientific sense, it stands to reason that video advertising is potentially less entertaining than comparable print advertising and is, thus, less effective in gaining attention and influencing memorability of an advertising message.

The yellow pages is an advertising medium that consumers turn to when they are seeking a product or service supplier and are prepared to make a purchase.

The yellow pages represent a huge advertising medium with annual revenues exceeding $140 billion.

Research shows that users of yellow pages tend to have relatively low household incomes.

Videogames provide an excellent advertising medium for reaching young males.

Mediamark has developed a service to measure videogame audiences.

One advantage of brand placements is that they are generally less intrusive than advertisements and thus less likely to be avoided.

Product placements in movies date back to the 1940s, yet the frequency of occurrence is greater now than ever.

Brand placements have occurred in songs.

Promotion refers to any incentive used by a manufacturer to induce the trade and/or consumers to buy a brand and to encourage the sales force to aggressively sell it.

Sales promotion is better suited than advertising to enhance buyer attitudes and augment brand equity.

Less money is spent on consumer sales promotions compared to trade sales promotions.

A pull strategy consists of advertising and promotion directed at consumers.

American marketing has experienced a shift from less push marketing to more pull marketing.

In recent years, the balance of power has been shifting from the retailer to the manufacturer.

Recent changes in accounting standards now require that promotions expenditures be treated in exactly the same fashion as advertising expenditures, namely, as current expenses that are deducted from top-line revenue.

The difference between the “old” and “new” accounting procedures with respect to promotions is in the amount for the top-line revenue.

Sales promotion can facilitate the introduction of new products and brands.

Sales promotion can be used to offset competitors' advertising and sales-promotion efforts.

Sales promotion can provide consumers with a compelling, long-term reason to continue purchasing a brand.

Sales promotion can permanently stop an established brand's declining sales trend.

The most effective trade promotions are those that target long-term sales goals.

The objectives of trade allowances for retailers often conflict with the objectives of manufacturers.

Retailers are usually contractually bound to pass along discounted prices to consumers.

Manufacturers estimate that retailers usually comply with trade allowance agreements and pass through to consumers most of the trade funds that they provide to retailers.

Bill-back allowances are for retailers who feature the manufacturer's brand in advertisements or for providing special displays.

Manufacturers pay slotting allowances to retailers to get the retailer to purchase the product.

Slotting allowances are a mechanism used by manufacturers to exploit the competition among retailers.

Manufacturers can avoid paying slotting allowances by investing in a pull strategy to create consumer demand for their brands.

In a deslotting allowance agreement, the risk of a new brand introduction is transferred from the manufacturer to the retailer.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently passed a ruling that prohibits the use of slotting fees in the marketing of food products.

Everyone benefits from forward buying because a substantial portion of retailers' savings are passed on to consumers.

While manufacturers incur increased costs due to forward buying, their margins are increased to off-set the price discounts.

Most retailers acknowledge that they have engaged in the practice of diverting.

Diverting occurs when products intended for foreign markets are diverted back into a domestic market.

The quality and safety of a product could be jeopardized as a result of diverting.

Almost all retailers welcome everyday low pricing.

Retailers tend to prefer pay-for-performance programs more so than do manufacturers.

The use of scanning technology is critical to the implementation of a pay-for-performance program.

As with off-invoice allowance promotion, account-specific marketing directs promotional dollars to specific retailers.

Temporary retail price reductions substantially increase sales, both in the short- and long-term.

Higher market share brands are more deal elastic.

The effects of promoting higher- and lower-quality brands are symmetric.

Whereas sales promotion makes consumers aware of your brand and promotes a positive image, advertising serves to consummate the transaction.

All promotion techniques provide consumers with rewards.

Consumers who use sales promotions receive various utilitarian and hedonic benefits.

In general, consumers are more responsive to delayed rewards because they are usually larger than immediate rewards.

While samples offer consumers an immediate reward, all types of coupons merely offer delayed rewards.

Promotions are capable of accomplishing more than a single objective.

Manufacturers use consumer-oriented sales promotions also to leverage trade support.

Coupons are the premier sales-promotion device for generating trial usage.

Sampling is effective because it provides consumers with an opportunity to personally experience a new brand.

The vast majority of manufacturers use sampling as part of their marcom programs for purposes of generating trial or retrial and leveraging trade support.

Brand managers are increasingly distributing samples online.

A coupon is a promotional device that rewards consumers for purchasing the coupon-offering brand by providing either cents-off savings or free merchandise.

More coupons are distributed in the United States than elsewhere.

Only a small amount of couponing occurs in France.

Freestanding inserts account for the majority of all coupons distributed in the United States.

Retailers typically hire another company, called a clearinghouse, to sort and redeem coupons.

The major source of coupon misredemption is large-scale professional misredeemers.

A greater percentage of consumers take advantage of free mail-in offer premiums than any other type of premium offer.

Price-off promotions are effective when the marketer's objective is to reward present brand users.

Price-offs cannot reverse a downward sales trend.

Price-off labels may be used on new brands.

The Federal Trade Commission states that there must be a hiatus period of at least 90 days between price-off label promotions on any given brand size.

Bonus packs are extra quantities of a product that a company gives to consumers at the regular price.

Bonus packs are intended to encourage trial from consumers.

Bonus packs are sometimes used as an alternative to price-off deals.

One drawback for manufacturers offering rebates is that many consumers never bother to redeem them.

Rebate fraud can be committed by manufacturers, retailers, and consumers.

Contests and sweepstakes are used primarily to enhance a brand's image.

Contests generate greater response than sweepstakes.

Compared with many other sales-promotion techniques, sweepstakes are relatively expensive.

The major objective of continuity promotions is to enhance the image of the brand.

Identifying the objectives is the first step in evaluating sales promotion ideas.

The issue surrounding evaluating promotions is whether or not to even evaluate promotions.

All new products can rely on publicity for successful introductions.

Proactive marketing public relations is dictated by a company’s marketing budget.

Reactive marketing public relations deals typically with changes that have negative consequences for an organization.

Executive-statement releases may address such topics as forecasts of future sales or views on the economy.

Executive-statement releases are typically published in the business section of a publication.

Feature articles are detailed descriptions of products or other newsworthy programs that are written by a public relations firm for immediate publication or airing by print or broadcast media or distribution via appropriate Internet sites.

Feature articles are expensive to prepare.

Commercial rumors are widely circulated but unverified propositions about a product, brand, company, store, or other commercial target.

Conspiracy rumors deal with undesirable or harmful product or store features.

The only effective way for marketers to handle a commercial rumor is to ignore it.

Opinion leaders are found in every social class.

Market mavens are individuals who have information about many kinds of products, stores, and other facets of markets, and initiate discussion with consumers and respond to requests from consumers for market information.

Sponsorship marketing involves investments in events or causes for the purpose of achieving various corporate objectives.

Companies are able to avoid the clutter inherent in advertising media by attaching their names to special events and causes.

Sponsorship of special events and causes enables marketers to target their communication and promotional efforts to specific geographic regions and/or to lifestyle groups.

Brands are increasingly customizing their own events because it can be more effective and less costly than a preexisting event.

Some critics have claimed that sponsorship arrangements often involve little more than managerial ego trips.

Cause-oriented sponsorships typically involve supporting athletic events.

Reaching new market segments is a benefit of cause-related marketing.

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is also known as outdoor advertising, and it is the oldest form of advertising.

Billboard advertising is the major outdoor medium.

The two general categories of on-premise signs are external and internal.

The major forms of billboard advertising are painted bulletins and kiosks.

Painted panels are the type of billboards that are regularly seen alongside highways and in other heavily traveled locales.

Poster panel billboards are silk-screened or lithographed and then pasted in sheets to the billboard.

Painted bulletins are hand painted directly on the billboard by artists hired by the billboard owner.

Showings for out-of-home advertising are quoted in increments of 25 and are designated as #25, #50, #75, and #100.

Tobacco advertisers are the heaviest users of outdoor advertising in the United States.

Lack of verified data regarding audience characteristics has retarded the growth of the out-of-home industry and has prevented many advertisers from investing heavily in this type of advertising medium.

On-premise signs enable consumers to identify and locate businesses and can influence their store-choice decisions and prompt impulse purchasing.

Point-of-Purchase displays benefit all participants in the marketing process.

Point-of-Purchase displays can create a synergistic effect when used in conjunction with advertisements and promotions.

Informing consumers is P-O-P’s most basic communications function.

The encoding specificity principle states that information recall is enhanced when the context in which people attempt to retrieve information is at least similar to the context in which they originally encoded the information.

A brand lift index of 48 percent for a specific product category means that sales of that product category are 48 percent greater when a display is used.

P-O-P materials supplied by manufacturers rarely go unused by retailers.

One reason why some point-of-purchase materials go unused would be because they take up too much space for the amount of sales they generate.

One reason manufacturer-supplied P-O-P materials go unused by retailers is that they merely serve to transfer sales from one brand to another but do not increase the retailer’s overall sales and profits for the product category.

For marketing communicators, ethics involves matters of right and wrong, or moral, conduct pertaining to any aspect of marketing communications.

One criticism of advertising is that it creates and perpetuates stereotypes.

The mission of the National Association of Advertising (NAA) is to improve and strengthen the ad agency business, to advocate advertising, to influence public policy, to resist advertising-related legislation that it regards as unwise or unfair, and to work with government regulators to achieve desirable social and civic goals.

Four aspects of packaging that involve ethical issues include label information, packaging graphics, packaging safety, and environmental implications of packaging.

Consumers, as well as marketers, can be guilty of unethical behavior in the area of sales promotions.

Consumer privacy is an ethical issue that transcends all marcom activities.

The Golden Rule test states that you should take actions that would be viewed as proper by an objective panel of your professional colleagues.

Regulation is always justified.

A regulatory disadvantage is increased prices resulting from a reduction in a seller’s “informational market power.”

Costs of regulation include cost of complying, enforcement costs, and costs resulting from unintended side effects.

A false claim is, by definition, deceptive.

According to the FTC, a misrepresentation is said to occur when qualifying information necessary to prevent a practice, claim, representation, or reasonable expectation or belief from being misleading is not disclosed.

A material representation involves information that is important to consumers and that is likely to influence their choice or conduct regarding a product.

Unfair advertising is also deceptive advertising.

Corrective advertising is designed to punish a firm for deceiving consumers.

The NAD cannot impose fines on deceptive advertisers, but the NARB can.

Green Seal, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization, has developed standards and awarded seals to companies that meet environmental standards.

One of the Federal Trade Commission’s guidelines for environmental marketing claims states that “claims should not overstate an environmental attribute or benefit, either expressly or by implication.”