Direct Marketing Lexicon

L - from Label to Low-involvement products

Label

In a direct marketing context, this refers to an address label.

Laser fonts

Laser printers transfer text and addresses stored in a computer onto suitable carriers. Rather than transferring the image from a metal plate to the paper, an electro-photographic printing unit is used to produce the image. The advantages of this printing technique include the large selection of fonts, the reproduction quality and most importantly, the fast production speed. Continuous laser printers can only print on one side of the sheet, whereas sheet-fed laser printers can print (personalised) text onto both sides.

Laser-printed material

Advertising material that was printed and/or personalised by means of a laser printer. Includes e.g. advertising letters, letter-brochure combinations with response elements and advertising letter-plus-form combinations (e.g. bank transfer slips).

Latest posting time

Time by which mail items have to be posted at Deutsche Post AG so they can be processed that same day.

Layout

Draft sketch of the advertising material that shows the placement of text and images. The layout provides the basis for the final draft, the last step in the process of designing an Advertising mailing. In the case of smaller companies or freelance graphic artists, the draft sketch and the final draft (Setting) are often produced by the same person.

Lead

A prospective customer's address.

Lead generation

Denotes both the acquisition of new customers and the generation of additional (new) sales.

Leaflet

A flyer, small information sheet or brochure.

Letter

One of the most important elements in a direct marketing campaign. The letter usually contains a sales pitch. That is why the addressee should always be addressed in person in order to enhance their attention level and degree of interest in the offer.

Letter brochure

A hybrid between a letter and a brochure; either a brochure with an integrated letter or an illustrated letter. Its main advantage is its very low cost.

Lettershop

Generic term for companies or company divisions that manage all dispatch-related activities in a direct advertising campaign. For a description of these activities, see Dispatch preparation.

Lifestyle data

A list that is segmented by lifestyle and behavioural criteria, i.e. preferences, interests, activities.

Lifetime value

The value denoting the contribution to profits per customer over the expected duration of the customer relationship.

Lift letter

An additional letter inside a Mailing that is intended to reinforce the message conveyed by other elements of the mailing, thus increasing ('lifting') the rate of response.

Link

On a Web page, a clickable connection to either another place in the document or another Website. Links can be single words within the text body, headlines or a graphic element. The links represent the structure of a website.

List broker addresses

Usually these are lists containing the addresses of customers and prospects of certain companies. Mail order companies, publishers and service providers often rent out their address lists to other advertisers that are not their competitors, for one-off use.

List brokerage

Denotes the rental of address lists by brokers.

List building

Establishing an (own) customer or prospect list.

List management

The management and use of, and the control over, address lists.

List sorting

Denotes the sorting of addresses by certain criteria, e.g. alphabetically or by postcode.

List testing

Test involving the use of a representative section of a list to verify the effectiveness and/or suitability of the entire list for a certain campaign. One test method involves a computer extracting and printing e.g. one in ten addresses from a list. Only these addresses are approached, ensuring that you receive reliable basic information for your media planning at relatively low cost.

Lithography

1. Planographic printing process using stone or prepared zinc plates. 2. Finished film.

Lithos

The term lithos was coined in the age when images were produced using actual stone plates, or lithos. The term is still in use today even though Offset printing uses film to produce the printing plates, rather than stone plates and lead. PC or Mac files are converted to film that is then used to produce printing plates. Many printers expose their own films and can make you a complete offer for Exposure and Offset printing services.

Logo

Words, images, image trademark or company signature giving the image of a company an unmistakable appearance.

Low-involvement products

Products where the decision to buy does not require any rational or emotional involvement on the part of the buyer, e.g. staple consumer goods.