Advertising

It is a well-known fact that advertising informs con­sumers about the existence and benefits of products and serv­ices, and attempts to persuade them to buy them.

Large companies could easily set up their own advertising departments, but they tend to hire the services of an adver­tising agency. The client company in the first place decides on its advertising budget, the amount of money it plans to spend in developing its advertising and buying media time or space. Next it provides a brief or a statement of the objectives of the advertising, and finally it gives an overall advertising strategy concerning what message is to be communicated. The choice of how and where to advertise (newspapers and magazine ads, radio and television commercials, cinema ads, posters on hoardings (GB) or billboards (US)₅ point-of-pur­chase displays in stores, mailings of leaflets, brochures or booklets, and so on), and in what proportions, is called a media plan. The advantages and disadvantages of each medi­um must be weighed up because each medium has its own characteristics and covers different areas of a potential mar­ket. More than that when a firm has selected the means of delivering the message it must decide on the number of times the advert should be displayed.

The set of customers whose needs a company plans to sat­isfy, and therefore to expose to an advertisement is known as the target market.

In general the advertising of a particular product or serv­ice during a particular period of time is called an advertising campaign.

Favourable mentions of a company's products or services, in any medium read, viewed or heard by company's customers or potential customers that are not paid for, are called pub­licity.

Useful Language

Generalising 1. it is common knowledge 2. on the whole 3.	Listing 1. first 2. second 3.
4.	4.
	5.
Expressing reason 1. as 2.	Adding 1. moreover 2.
	3.
Expressing result 1. so i 2"	Expressing contrast 1. however 2.

|5 Read what famous people said about goals of advertising. Discuss the position of the authors. Support your point of view with reasons and examples from your reading, your observa­tions or your own experience. Use the expressions from the Useful Language box.

1. The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague.

BUI Cosby (1937-), American actor, producer

2. The aim of advertising is to know the customer and understand what product or service fits him and sells itself.

Peter F. Drucker, American management consultant

3. The headline is the most important element of an ad. It must offer a promise to the reader of a believable benefit. And it must be phrased in a way to make it memorable.

Morris Hite

4. Advertising may be described as the science of arrest­ing the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.

Stephen B. Leacock (1869-1944), Canadian humorist, economist

4. Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.

Sinclair Lewis (1885- 1951), American novelist, Nobel Prize Winner

|5 Read what famous people said about the essence of advertising. Discuss the extent to which you agree or dis­agree with the opinion stated below. Support your point of view with reasons and examples from your reading, your observations or your own experience. Use the expressions from the Useful Language box.

1. Advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century.

Marshall Mcluhan (1911-1980), Canadian communications theorist

2. What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.

David Ogilvy (1911 ), American businessman,

advertising expert

3. You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements,

Norman Douglas (1868-1952), British author

4. Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British author

5. Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise.

Laurence J. Peter

Chapter SEVEN

_PROMOTION

Unit 1. READING AND TRANSLATION PRACTICE