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Functions of Advertising

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Text 2 “Functions of Advertising”
Pre-reading discussion 1. Can companies do without advertising? If not, why? State your point of view. 2. What is your reaction to advertising? 3. Has any ad ever made you get interested in buying a product? 4. Has an ad ever made you buy a product? Share your experience 5. How many roles does the advertising play?

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The particular roles that advertising can play are many and varied, although they fall within three broad areas: • To inform • To persuade • To sell To inform In certain instances, advertising simply seeks to provide the public with specific pieces of information. In many cases, this has a neutral content, …show more content…

Government departments sometimes use this form of advertising to bring about a change in attitudes towards issues of general concern. In some market sectors, advertising may be used as a precursor to other activities. It may, for example, attempt to provide specific information to the target audience in order to persuade potential customers to take a sales call. To sell Most advertising seeks to promote the sale of particular goods or services. To achieve this objective, the advertising provides the potential or existing customer base with information about the product or service. In the majority of instances, such advertising seeks to reinforce existing attitudes by explaining how the product is appropriate to the potential users ' existing needs or lifestyle. Some advertising, particularly that of a promotional nature, will attempt to persuade the customer to make a purchase now, rather than delay it until some later time. The advertising will convey a sense of urgency, often by placing some form of time constraint on the offer being made. This is particularly the case with 'sale ' advertising. Potential customers are notified of the sale dates and reminded that they can only obtain the particular 'bargains ' at that time. Similarly, retailers will make 'time-limited ' offers which impose restrictions as to when customers can take advantage of the offer price. A key role of advertising is to bring about the building

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