Advertising

AUDIO

Bob: OK, as you all know,

our new management training programmes

aren’t selling

as well as we’d been hoping.

I realise that the economic climate

isn’t too favourable,

but I still expect sales

to be higher than they are.

So,

the question is,

what shall we do?

Are there any ways

we could support our current sales

and telemarketing activities?

John: Well,

perhaps we could try increasing

our newspaper

advertising expenditure?

Maybe that’ll work?

Bob: I’m not sure about that.

Advertising in newspapers

doesn’t work that well

for the type of business-to-business service

that we provide.

We’ve already tried

placing ads

in the business sections

of several local papers

and

it hasn’t been very productive.

Marta: I have a suggestion.

We’ve never tried

advertising on the radio

or on local television.

Maybe we could try that?

Bob: I’m afraid

that’s out of the question.

Advertising on television and radio

is hugely expensive

and it would be

highly unproductive for us.

We don’t have the budget for anyway.

Marta: OK,

but we could try

one of the local radio news stations.

A lot of their listeners

are business people.

We could buy a slot

during a local business news broadcast

that’s appropriate

for our line of work.

That might work.

Bob: Hmm ...

I guess we could try that.

John: What about putting a full-page ad

in that new HR trade journal,

HR Ideas?

Bob: Oh, yes.

Good idea!

But I’m not sure

about a full-page though.

We could start with something smaller

and see what sort of impact it has.

Any other ideas?

Marta: Why don’t we focus more

on PR activities?

The consultancy firm

I worked for

a few years ago

hired a PR firm

and they managed to generate

a lot of useful publicity.

I remember

we had potential customers

calling us all the time.

I think I still have a few contacts

within the company.

Bob: That sounds very interesting.

Do you remember

what sort of fees they charged?

Marta: It wasn’t too expensive as I remember.

I’ll try to find out

and get back to you on that

later today.

Bob: Great.

So John,

you contact HR Ideas

and get some information on their prices

for different-sized ads.

Marta,

if you could also contact

the local radio stations

and email me some details,

that would be great.

We’ll schedule another meeting

to discuss the next step.

Questions

1. (first man) What is the problem about their management training programmes?

2. What kind of solution does the second man recommend in order to support sales?

4. What does the first man think about advertising in newspapers?

5. What does the woman suggest?

6. What does the first man think about her suggestion?

7. What does the the first man think about putting a full-page ad in the HR trade journal?

8. What kind of firm does the woman recommend?

Conversation questions

• · Do you buy products because of advertising?

• · Do you find advertising persuasive?

• · Should advertisers be allowed to advertise to children?

• · Should alcohol or tobacco companies be allowed to advertise? Why or why not?

• · What do you think of celebrity endorsements?

• · What kind of advertisements attract your attention?

• · Why is it necessary to advertise?

• · Do you think advertising should be allowed to interrupt TV or radio programs? What are the alternatives?

• · Can you remember an advertising campaign that caught your attention?

• · What are the different methods of advertising?

• · What is the most popular way of advertising?

Do you think that the Internet and cable/satellite TV have become more important than national TV for advertising products?