Business English Course Lector dr.
Adriana L ] UHVFX
ADVERTISING
1. Ways of advertising
1a Vocabulary
Identify these different advertising media.
Eight different ways of advertising are illustrated (one of them by the indirect means of sports
sponsorship). Classify them according to how much you think each of these advertising messages
costs, going from the most expensive to the cheapest.
a) b) c)
d) e)
f) g) h)
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Business English Course Lector dr. Adriana L ] UHVFX
1b Reading
Read the text opposite and answer the following questions.
1 What is the best kind of advertising?
2 Why do most companies use advertising agencies?
3 When a company hires an advertising agency, what are the roles of both parties?
4 What is a media plan?
5 Why does advertising become ineffective after a certain point?
HOW COMPANIES ADVERTISE
Advertising informs consumers about the existence and benefits of products and services, and
attempts to persuade them to buy them. The best form of advertising is probably word-of-mouth
advertising, which occurs when people tell their friends about the benefits of products or services that
they have purchased, Yet virtually no providers of goods or services rely on this alone, but use paid
advertising instead. Indeed, many organizations also use institutional or prestige advertising, which is
designed to build up their reputation rather than to sell particular products.
Although large companies could easily set up their own advertising departments, write their own
advertisements, and buy media space themselves, they tend to use the services of large advertising
agencies. These are likely to have more resources, and more knowledge about all aspects of advertising
and advertising media than a single company. The most talented advertising people generally prefer to
work for agencies rather then individual companies as this gives them the chance to work on a variety
of advertising accounts (contracts to advertise products or services). It is also easier for a dissatisfied
company to give its account to another agency than it would be to fire its own advertising staff.
The client company generally gives the advertising agency an agreed budget; a statement of the
objectives of the advertising campaign, known as a brief; and an overall advertising strategy
concerning the message to be communicated to the target customers. The agency creates
advertisements (the word is often abbreviated to adverts or ads), and develops a media plan specifying
which media - newspapers, magazines, radio, television, cinema, posters, mail, etc. - will be used and
in which proportions. (On television and radio, ads are often known as commercials.) Agencies often
produce alternative ads or commercials that are pre-tested in newspapers, television stations, etc. in
different parts of a country before a final choice is made prior to a national campaign.
The agency’s media planners have to decide what percentage of the target market they want to reach
(how many people will be exposed to the ads) and the number of times they are likely to see them.
Advertising people talk about frequency or ’OTS’ (opportunities to see) and the threshold effect - the
point at which advertising becomes effective. The choice of advertising media is generally strongly
influenced by the comparative cost of reaching 1,000 members of the target audience, the cost per
thousand (often abbreviated to (M, using the Roman numeral for 1,000). The timing of advertising
campaigns depends on factors such as purchasing frequency and buyer turnover (new buyers entering
the market).
How much to spend on advertising is always problematic. Some companies use the comparative-
parity method - they simply match their competitors’ spending, thereby avoiding advertising wars.
Others set their ad budget at a certain percentage of current sales revenue. But both these methods
disregard the fact that increased ad spending or counter-cyclical advertising can increase current sales.
On the other hand, excessive advertising is counter-productive because after too many exposures
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Business English Course Lector dr. Adriana L ] UHVFX
people tend to stop noticing ads, or begin to find them irritating. And once the most promising
prospective customers have been reached, there are diminishing returns, i.e. an ever-smaller increase in
sales in relation to increased advertising spending.
1c Vocabulary
Find the terms in the text which mean the following:
1 free advertising, when satisfied customers recommend products to their friends
2 advertising that mentions a company’s name but not specific products
3 companies that handle advertising for clients
4 a contract with a company to produce its advertising
5 the amount of money a company plans to spend in developing its advertising and buying media time
or space
6 the statement of objectives of an advertising campaign that a client works out with an advertising
agency
7 the advertising of a particular product or service during a particular period of time
8 a defined set of customers whose needs a company plans to satisfy
9 the people who choose where to advertise, in order to reach the right customers
10 the fact that a certain amount of advertising is necessary to attract a prospective customer’s attention
11 choosing to spend the same amount on advertising as one’s competitors
12 advertising during periods or seasons when sales are normally relatively poor
1d Discussion
Which of the following claims do you agree with?
1 Advertising is essential for business, especially for
launching new consumer products.
2 A large reduction of advertising would decrease sales.
3 Advertising often persuades people to buy things
they don’t need.
4 Advertising often persuades people to buy things
they don’t want.
5 Advertising lowers the public’s taste.
6 Advertising raises prices.
7 Advertising does not present a true picture of products.
8 Advertising has a bad influence on children.
Now at your local feed store
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Business English Course Lector dr. Adriana L ] UHVFX
In a well-known survey, the Harvard Business Review asked 2,700 senior business managers whether
they agreed with these statements. The survey produced some unexpected results. Which of the
following percentages do you think go with which of the statements above?
41 % 49% 51 % 57% 60% 72% 85% 90%
Now you may listen to the true figures.
After listening to the opinions expressed in the Harvard Business Review survey, do you want to revise
the opinions you expressed above?
2. Radio commercials
2a Listening
Listen once to the three radio commercials, which come from music-based radio stations in London.
What are the products and services being advertised?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Now listen again to each of the commercials in turn, as many times as necessary to answer the
questions which follow.
2b Commercial 1
1 Which three aspects of the service are emphasized?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
2 What, according to the ad, will be the effect of the first two of them on the customer?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
3 Why do you think these three aspects were chosen, and why does the ad use these particular verbs?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
4 What is the short, last sentence of the ad?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
5 What else does the ad use apart from words?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
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Business English Course Lector dr. Adriana L ] UHVFX
2c Commercial 2
1 What is the horror story here, and why?
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2 Unusually, the listener is not expected to understand everything that is said in this ad. Why not?
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3 The ad mentions home entertainment systems. What other terms does it use instead of the more
common stereo, radio, television and video recorder?
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4 Do you find this ad amusing?
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2d Commercial 3
1 How does the ad give an Italian '
flavour'
? Can you think of any other way in which this could have
been done?
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2 Which of these three ads do you prefer, and why?
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2e Scripting a radio commercial
In small groups, write a script for a 20-second commercial to be played on a popular English-language
radio station, advertising either a well-known product exported by your country, or some form of travel
to your country. Remember that you have to persuade and inform, and are not supposed to say anything
misleading or untruthful - although of course in this case you are free to invent the name of the
company, the details of its service, and so on. You may use music and sound effects if you have access
to them. If not, merely indicate what you would use in addition to a voice or voices.
English for Business Studies
@ Cambridge University Press 2002
