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Word Play

By Peter Breen

Please send us your feedback.

The In-Store Marketing Institute ends a lot of emails with that request, but it has never been an afterthought. We value the thoughts and opinions of our members, who now represent more than 500 companies whose success (or failure) is made at retail.

I'm leading with it this month because we've launched a new content initiative for which we really need your assistance: The In-Store Marketing Institute's Shopper Marketing Glossary.

Since its launch in May 2003, instoremarketer.org has benefited greatly from member contributions, whether it was actual submissions of lectures, case studies, Image Vault photos or other content, or even just suggestions on what information we should provide or how we should present it. To all those who've helped us fill the archives with 10,000 articles and 30,000 images, we offer a very sincere thank you. (For those of you who haven't, the door is always open.)

Obviously, 5,000-plus minds are smarter than a few. And it will take more than a few to put together a comprehensive, definitive glossary for the emerging discipline of "shopper marketing," which combines the practices and processes of numerous segments of the marketing world.

We got the ball rolling in June with a definition of "shopper marketing," and take things further this month by unveiling a glossary of more than 500 terms related to this new discipline. The list includes definitions from the practices of product merchandising, media advertising, marketing research, consumer and trade promotion, display manufacturing, packaging, retail design -- all of the areas that are converging to form this vital new industry focus.

This initial glossary is designed to establish the parameters that have been set for "shopper marketing" and offer at least a few definitions from each area within them. But it's a work in progress, and we'll be adding new terms and refining old ones on a regular basis. Our member roster couldn't be more qualified to help with the task, because it contains experts in all of the aforementioned fields.

I strongly encourage you to take a look at what we have, then let us know what else we need. The more feedback we receive, the better the glossary will be.

So please, send us your feedback.

P.S. I'd like to extend a special thanks to Institute member Eastman Chemical Co. for underwriting our efforts to create the glossary.

Peter Breen
Managing Director, Content
In-Store Marketing Institut

Published: July 2008

Source: In-Store Marketing Institute

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