Exercise 8. Re-arrange the lines of this advertisement, so that they are in a suitable order. AIt acts fast too. BBut when you have one
Re-arrange the lines of this advertisement, so that they are in a suitable order.
| aIt acts fast too. bBut when you have one, then you need the best solution around. cSplitting headache? dWhen the going gets rough, full-strength Nopain 500 helps you find your feet. e Full strength Nopain, for instance. fSo it’ll deal with your headache in no time. g In today’s busy world, a headache is the last thing you need. hEach tablet contains 500mg of paracetamol, a painkiller doctors recommend. iNopain 500 will ease your pain. jAnd it won’t harm your stomach. |
Which words need capitals? Suggest a picture to go with the advertisement.
? Writing
In good times people want to advertise, in bad times they have to. What’s your opinion on this saying?
Write your own advertisement for a new imaginary product.
It is interesting to know
& Reading
A. Read the article and make notes of:
a) the ‘tricks’ which help manufacturers sell their products;
b) how the customer ‘foots the bill’.
B. Give an example of what colour, according to the text, you think the packets of the
following are likely to be:
a) face creams
b) ice cream
c) expensive chocolates
d) painkillers
C. Decide whether the statements below are True and False.
a) Manufacturers will persuade us of something that is not true, if necessary, in order to
sell their products.
b) The colouring of the packaging depends on which manufacturer produces it.
c) Shoppers don’t always get the same amount as they think they are buying.
d) All manufacturers spend a lot on packaging.
e) Cosmetics companies often spend more than half the cost of their product on
presentation.
It costs a pretty packet!
Manufacturers have all sorts of tricks to make us buy their products but in the end
it’s the customer who foots the bill.
Shopping is not as simple as you may think! There are all sorts of psychological and eye-deceiving tricks at play each time we reach out for that particular brand of product on the shelf.
Colouring, for example, varies according to what the manufacturers are trying to sell. Most cosmetics are packaged in delicate pastel colours such as pink. Health foods come in greens, yellows or browns because we think of these as healthy colours. Ice cream packets are often blue because we identify that as a cool colour; and luxury goods, like expensive chocolates, are invariably gold or silver.
When a brand of painkiller was brought out recently, researchers found that pastel colours turned the customer off because they made the product look weak and ineffective. Eventually, it came on the market in a dark blue and white package – blue because we associate it with safety, and white for calmness.
The size of a product can attract a shopper. But quite often a jar or bottle doesn’t contain as much as it appears to. Recently a cosmetics company was successfullyprosecuted for marketing a jar of make-up which gave the impression it contained far more than it actually did.
All the research behind the wordingand presentation of packaging is obviously expensive, and there are no prizes for guessing that it is the customer who foots the bill. However, there are signs of revolution against fancy packaging: The Body Shop, for instance, sells its products in containers with handwritten labels. These bottles are practical as well as cost-effective and can be used again.
It is estimated that the more established cosmetics companies spend, on average, 70 per cent of the total cost of the product itself on packaging!
The most successful manufacturers know that it’s not enough to have a good product. The founder of Pears soap, who for 25 years have used enchanting little girls to promote their goods, summed it up. ‘Any fool can make soap, but it takes a genius to sell it,’ he said.
D. Look at the words in bold in the text and try to explain them. Give the Ukrainian equivalents.
E. Do the ‘tricks’ used by manufacturers make you buy their products?