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VV.A.T: Value Added Tax. A tax that has been added to the overall price of a product reflecting the value added to the product by processing.
Valance: An overhead banner typically used as a light baffle.
Valid objection: A truthful objection raised by a prospective buyer to a good or service offered by a salesperson; some valid objections are answerable, while others (no money, no need for the product) are not. See Objections; Hidden Objection; Invalid Objection.
Validation mailing: Second modest mailing to confirm initial test results prior to making a large continuation or rollout.
Validation: A procedure for recontacting respondents to confirm that interviews were conducted correctly. /M: Per thousand.
Validity: In marketing research, the obtaining of the right information for the purposes of the study.
VALS: Value and life style system - a technique, developed in the U.S. by SRI International, in which individuals are classified into groups on the basis of attitudes and demographic characteristics.
Value added reseller (VAR): Retailer who assembles, augments, modifies, and repackages a good and/or service to suit the individual buyers' needs. Computer industry VARs who add custom hardware and software applications, support services, maintenance contracts, training, etc., are better known as system integrators. Also called value added retailer.
Value added retailer (VAR): See Value added reseller.
Value Added Tax (VAT): Indirect tax on the domestic consumption of goods and services, except those that are zero-rated (such as food and essential drugs) or are otherwise exempt (such as exports). It is levied at each stage in the chain of production and distribution from raw materials to the final sale based on the value (price) added at each stage. It is not a cost to the producer or the distribution chain members, and whereas its full brunt is borne by the end consumer, it avoids the double taxation (tax on tax) of a direct sales tax. Introduced by the European Economic Community (now the European Union) in the 1970s.
Value added: 1) in marketing, the creation of a competitive advantage by bundling, combining, or packaging features and benefits that result in greater customer acceptance. 2) in economics, the difference between the total sales revenue of an industry and the total cost of components, materials, and services purchased from other firms within a reporting period (usually one year). It is the industry's contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) and is the basis on which value added tax (VAT) is computed.
Value analysis: The rating by a buying organization of slightly different product offerings for the same task on a scale to select the most appropriate.
Value and Life Style System (VALS): A system developed at Stanford Research Institute for classifying the American adult population into nine distinct groups on the basis of their values and lifestyles.
Value chain: Interlinked value-adding activities that convert inputs into outputs which, in turn, add to the bottom line and help create competitive advantage. A value chain typically consists of1) inbound distribution or logistics, (2) manufacturing operations, (3) outbound distribution or logistics, (4) marketing and selling, and (5) after-sales service. These activities are supported by (6) purchasing or procurement, (7) research and development, (8) human resource development, (9) and corporate infrastructure.
Value pricing: A pricing approach in which the selling price of a good or service is based on the company's assessment of the highest value of the product
to the consumer, that is, on what the consumer is willing to pay for it, see competition-oriented pricing, cost-plus pricing, and target return pricing.
Value proposition: 1) a clear statement of who the target market for a particular product is, of what key benefits the product will deliver, and of the price that will be charged. The specific and definitive offer of value from one organization to another. 2) the functional, emotional, and self-expressive benefits delivered by product, service, or brand, that provide value to the customer, and the rationale for making one brand choice over another.
Value retailing: Positioning a retail store as one in which consumers receive greater overall value-to-cost benefits (if not necessarily lower prices) than in competitors' stores.
Value-added consumer orientation: A recognition by the company that the price consumers are prepared to pay for its product will depend on the benefits received and not just on the physical product itself.
Value-added tax: A tax based on the amount by which value has been added to a product at each stage of production.
Value-added wholesaling: Providing more wholesaler services and lowering the cost of these services to retailers to improve productivity and profitability.
Value-adds: Merchandise that includes something of value designed to encourage an individual to choose one product over another.
Values: Enduring moral beliefs shared by members of a society and contributing to its culture.
Vampiring: A colloquial term used in reference to a situation in which a celebrity (from the media, arts, sporting world, etc) is so dominant in an advertisement or advertising campaign that the advertiser's message tends to be diminished.
Van distributor: A specialty wholesaler making frequent and regular deliveries of fast-moving consumer goods, mainly cigarettes and foodstuffs, to retailers.
VAR: Acronym... value added reseller... term generally used to describe an organization that sells another organization's product after adding features to it.
Variability: One of the four characteristics (with inseparability, intangibility and perishability) which distinguish a service, variability expresses the notion that a service may vary in standard or quality from one provider to the next or from occasion to the next.
Variable costs: Costs that vary directly with the volume or quantity produced, variable costs plus fixed costs equal total costs.
Variable data printing: Digital printing in which information, in the form of text or graphics, is merged from one or more information sources with one or more background pages. One example of variable data printing is a form letter where the name and address of the recipient changes on each letter but the letter body remains the same.
Variable field: Way of laying out list information for formatting that assigns a specific sequence to the data, but not specific positions.
Variable pricing: See flexible pricing.
Variable: An aspect of the sale that can be changed to better meet the needs of the seller and/or buyer, (i.e. price, quantity, lead-time, payment terms, technical components, styling considerations, routine maintenance, delivery, warranty, etc).
Variable-length record: Means of packing characters on a name and address record so as to eliminate blank spaces. For most rental work such lists must then be reformatted to fixed fields in which each field, whether filled or unfilled, occupies the same numerical positions on a tape.
Variables (criteria): Identifiable and selectable characteristics that can be tested for mailing purposes.
Variance: A summary statistic (parameter) for a sample population that is the average of squared deviations from the mean.
Variety seeking decisions: Purchase decisions made by consumers who are willing to try a diversity of brands for variety and to avoid boredom; variety seeking decisions occur when the degree of involvement with a product is low. See Boredom Avoidance; Low-Involvement Products.
Variety store: Is a retail store that sells inexpensive items, usually with a single price point for all items in the store. Typical merchandise includes cleaning supplies, toys, and confectionery. Formerly many variety stores had lunch counters for inexpensive meals.
Varnish: A coating printed on top of a printed sheet to protect it, add a finish, and/or add a tinge of color. Varnish applied to specific areas of a sheet is called spot varnish.
VAT: Abbrev. Value Added Tax.
Vegetable-based Ink: Ink using vegetable oil, rather than petroleum solvents, as the vehicle for carrying pigment.
Vehicle: A specific channel or publication for carrying the advertising message to a target audience. For example, one medium would be magazines, while one vehicle would be Time magazine.
Velcro: The trade name for a fabric closure with two components: hooks and loops. The two components adhere when pressed together and separate when pulled apart, allowing repeated use.
Vellum: An uncoated paper finish that is fairly even, but not quite as even as a smooth finish.
Vender analysis: Assessment of strengths and weaknesses of current and prospective suppliers in terms of their capacity, sales revenue, reputation, stocks, markdowns, markups, gross margins, quality, reliability, service, pricing policies, payment terms, etc.
Vending machine: A coin-operated device which can be used to dispense a variety of consumer products (food, cigarettes, etc) and services (automatic teller machines at banks).
Vendor analysis: The rating by a buying organization of all possible suppliers of a product on a scale to select the most appropriate; also referred to as Vendor Rating. See Value Analysis.
Vendor loyalty: The allegiance a firm gives to a supplier; straight rebuys usually reflect vendor loyalty but they are sometimes due to inertia.
Vendor managed inventory (VMI): Inventory replenishment arrangement whereby the supplier either monitors the customer's inventory with own employees or receives stock information from the customer. The vendor then refills the stock automatically, without the customer initiating purchase orders. See also collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment (CPFR).
Vendor rating: See vendor analysis.
Vendor selection strategy: The decision-making that occurs when a firm selects a supplier in order to minimize the risk of choosing the wrong one. Strategies used include the rating of vendors on a scale; the practice of choosing vendors from an approved list; multiple sourcing; and choosing the lowest priced vendor to minimize the potential for financial loss.
Vendor: Supplier of any facet of direct response advertising: lists, creative, printing, marketing, computerization, merge/purge, fulfillment.
Venture capital: Capital invested in a start up business that is thought to have excellent growth prospects but does not have access to capital markets because it is a private company.
Venture team: Key people from various departments of an organization given responsibility for the development of a new product from concept to commercialization.
Verification: Process of determining the validity of an order by sending a questionnaire to the customer.
Vertical channel conflict: Discord among members at different levels of a marketing channel, for example manufacturer-wholesaler or wholesaler-retailer discord. See Channel Conflict; Inter-Type Channel Conflict; Horizontal Channel Conflict.
Vertical Co-operative Advertising: Shared advertising by two or more members at different levels of a channel of distribution, each paying part of the total cost. See Co-operative Advertising; Horizontal Co-operative Advertising.
Vertical decisions: Management decisions which coordinate the flow of goods and services, title, information, payment and promotion along the channels of distribution.
Vertical diversification: See vertical integration.
Vertical integration: A strategy for growth in which a company adds new facilities to existing manufacturing or distribution facilities; vertical integration can be either forward or backward. Also called Vertical Diversification. See Backward Integration; Forward Integration. See also Horizontal Integration.
Vertical market: Situation where the market for a good or service is confined to a segment constituting relatively few prospective customers (is narrow) but within which most of the customers need the item (is deep).
Vertical marketing system: An organized, structured and unified distribution channel system in which producer and intermediaries or middlemen (wholesalers and retailers) work closely together to facilitate the smooth flow of goods and services from producer to end-user. See Conventional Marketing System; Administered Vertical Marketing System; Contractual Vertical Marketing System; Corporate Vertical Marketing System.
Vertical price fixing: Agreement between producers and retailers to maintain the producers' recommended retail price; vertical price fixing is resale price maintenance. See Price Fixing; Horizontal Price Fixing.
Vertical publication: Publication whose editorial content deals with the interests of a specific industry, e.g., CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and Multi-channel Marketing.
Videotex: A home shopping technology; an interactive system allowing subscribers to the system to access information about products on their normal TV screens by means of a small computer terminal, and to order items directly. See Home Shopping.
Viral marketing: The act of marketing a product or service using tactics that encourage individuals to pass along a marketing message to other individuals (word of mouth, email etc) in order to have the message delivered at an exponential rate and at very little to no cost to the marketer... a successful viral marketing campaign encourages prospects and customers to market a product or service for the marketing company or individual.
Viral responses: The number of recipients, who received the referral, opened it and clicked on a link.
Virus: A program or computer code that affects or interferes with a computer’s operating system and can be spread to other computers either accidentally or on purpose through emails, downloads, network messages or infected CDs.
Vision: A guiding theme that articulates the nature of the business and its intentions for the future, based upon how management believes the environment will unfold. A vision is informed, share, competitive and enabling.
Visits: Is the number of visitors to a web site in a given period of time, usually measured in terms of visits per day.
Visual identity: Visible elements of a brand, such as color, form, and shape, which encapsulate and convey the symbolic meanings that cannot be imparted through words alone. In a broader (corporate) sense, it may include elements such as building architecture, color schemes, and dress code.
Visualization: To see with the mind's eye, used by professional athletes and sales people to build beliefs, they "see" themselves performing an action successfully, building a confidence they can repeat that action in real life situation.
VMS: Abbrev. Vertical Marketing System.
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP): A category of hardware and software that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls by sending voice data in packets using Internet protocol.
Voice response unit C.I.F. (Cost, Insurance, Freight): Solutions that respond to caller-entered digits or speech. In this way, callers can interact directly with a company’s database to check information and complete transactions.
Voice-over: A commentary heard on a TV advertisement, but spoken by an off-screen announcer.
Volume analysis: A technique or method of marketing control in which sales volume in dollars or units or physical volume in units is measured over a given period in an attempt to identify underachieving salespeople, sales territories, etc.
Volume discount: Scheduled discount for volume buyers of a given compiled list.
volume segmentation: The division of a market into segments on the basis of the varying volume of demand for the product by individuals, groups or types of customers, typically, the segments are ranked to denote heavy usage, medium usage or light usage.
Voluntary chain: A group or chain of retailers working together on a non-contractual basis to achieve economies of scale in buying, advertising, etc.
Voluntary group: See voluntary chain.
Voter registration list: List utilized to add multiple family members as well as age data to compiled consumer files.
Voucher copy: Free copy of a publication sent to an advertiser or organization as evidence that an advertisement has been published.
Voucher: A type of consumer sales promotion in which vouchers (or coupons) sent by mail or included in newspaper advertisements, etc. can be exchanged for merchandise to encourage trial of a new product.
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This marketing glossary is a comprehensive dictionary of business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B) and general marketing terms, as well as terms related to specific areas of marketing. Should you not find the term you are looking for, click here to contact us today and we will research the term and add it to this page.
