How companies advertise

Advertising informs consumers about the existence and benefits of products and services, and attempts to persuade them to buy goods. The best form of advertising is probably word-of-mouth advertising, which occurs (случается) 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 (опираться) on this information. They use paid advertising instead of that. Indeed, many organizations also use institutional or prestige advertising which is designed to build up their reputation rather (в большей степени) 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 advertising company has. The most talented advertising people generally prefer to work for agencies rather than for individual companies. These companies give 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 company generally gives the advertising agency a ready-made budget; a statement of the objectives of the advertising campaign, known as a brief; and an overall advertising strategy concerning the message which will discuss the target of 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. How much time they will need? (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 the country before a final choice is made by 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 channels 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 influenced by the comparative cost reaching 1,000 members of the target audience, the cost per thousand (often abbreviated to CPM, using the Roman numeral for 1,000).

1. Найдите английские эквиваленты для следующих словосочетаний:

попытка убедить купить товар, нельзя полагаться лишь на рекламу из уст в уста, иметь тенденцию, множество, влиять на, увеличивать теку­щие продажи, возможности увидеть, предпочитать работу в агентствах, контракты на рекламу, процент, расходы.

2. Переведите следующие словосочетания:

To develop a media plan, an account, media space the benefits of products an overall advertising strategy, the message, irritating, a target audience, a new buyer.

3. Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

1) What does advertising make?

2) What is the best form of advertising?

3) Why do large companies tend to use large advertising agencies?

4) Why do agencies produce alternative ads?

5) Who sets the budget of advertising agency?

6) How much money do they need to spend?

7) Who is considered to be the most promising customer?