Lesson 24: Marketing and Advertising

Marketing
Marketing is a way to spread the word (tell many people) about a company’s
products or services, and convince people to buy them. One way to do this is
to show the product’s features (the different aspects of the product itself) and
benefits (how the product will improve someone’s life).

It’s important to make the product stand out – this means it catches people’s
attention and appears different or better than other similar products.

There are a lot of different marketing strategies:

• direct mail – sending advertisements to peoples’ addresses

• telemarketing / making cold calls – calling people to tell them about
the product. A “cold call” means the person has not previously had
contact with the company.
• door-to-door sales – visiting people’s homes to tell them about the
product
• online advertising such as banner ads – images displayed on websites
encouraging people to click on them to learn more about the product or
buy it
• social media marketing – publishing content on social networks like
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Marketers hope to have their content
go viral (get viewed/shared by thousands of people)

A product can get extra publicity if it is endorsed by a celebrity (used and

recommended by someone famous) or if it sponsors a sports team or event
(pays to have its name and logo displayed prominently).

Sometimes marketing happens “organically” by word of mouth – customers

naturally tell their friends about the product. If newspapers are writing

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stories about the company/product and TV programs want to show it, then
the product is getting a lot of publicity.

Companies often try to measure ROI – return on investment – that’s how

many sales come in as a result of the money spent on marketing.

Sometimes marketing tries to encourage prospects (potential customers) to

buy the product immediately. Other marketing strategies aim to gather leads
– collect contact information for people who might be interested in the
product, but will need a little more persuasion to buy.

Finally, marketing can also be used to increase brand awareness / brand

recognition – that is simply the number of people who know about the
company.

Advertising
Every day, we see hundreds of advertisements (called ads for short).

We see commercials on TV and hear them on the radio.

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We see billboards next to the road.

We see posters on walls.

We might receive brochures and pamphlets on the street.

When you open a magazine or newspaper, you see printed ads. When creating
a printed ad, designers have to make an eye-catching layout - that means a
design that attracts your attention - and write interesting copy ("copy" refers
to the text of an ad). Both printed ads and websites might also
include testimonials - short quotes or stories from the company's satisfied
customers.

When a company publishes a series of ads over time, this is called

a campaign. Advertisements can have a few different purposes. For example,
a company might run ads for a specific promotion or sale, like 25% off all
products for the Christmas season. There might also be a special campaign
when the company launches a new product (makes it publicly available).

One way that companies help people remember them is by using a slogan -
this is a short phrase that describes the company or its purpose. For example,
the slogan of Nike, which is a brand of athletic clothing and equipment, is "Just
do it."

Another advertising strategy is using a jingle - this is a short piece of music

used in TV and radio commercials. It's especially good if the jingle gets stuck
in your head - this expression means when a piece of music keeps playing in
your imagination and you can't forget about it.

Before launching an ad, companies often do market research to discover

information about their customers and potential customers. Market research
can be done through surveys (questionnaires given to a large number of
people) focusing on the company's target audience - that's the specific group
of people who the company hopes will become customers. For example, the
target audience of a company that produces baby products is parents with
children under 2 years old.
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Quiz: Lesson 24
1) After our initial marketing efforts, word started to _________ naturally as
people told their friends about it.

A. distribute
B. run
C. spread

2) What really makes this product stand ________ is how easy it is to use.

A. off
B. out
C. up

3) More than 10,000 potential customers have been called by our

_______________ staff.

A. door-to-door
B. social media
C. telemarketing

4) The country's top soccer player has ___________ our energy drink.

A. endorsed
B. featured
C. sponsored

5) We get a better ____________ on investment with Facebook ads as opposed to

Google ads.

A. awareness
B. return
C. publicity

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6) There are several _____________ along the highway encouraging people to stay
at the hotel.

A. billboards
B. commercials
C. posters

7) Our newspaper ad isn't performing very well. Let's write new ___________
and run it for another week.

A. brochure
B. copy
C. layout

8) We'll be doing a big back-to-school ____________ with ads in the newspaper

and online.

A. campaign
B. pamphlet
C. testimonial

9) The product __________ was delayed several months due to final quality
control checks.

A. launch
B. slogan
C. target

10) They did a lot of market ____________ to find out what products are most
needed by fitness instructors.

A. audience
B. jingle
C. research

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Quiz Answers: Lesson 24

1.C, 2.B, 3.C, 4.A, 5.B, 6.A, 7.B, 8.A, 9.A, 10.C

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