Powerful lexicon in teaching ads making up

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru

The issue of studying the powerful lexicon in the English-language advertising messages as well as its translation into native language does not lose its relevance until the trends in the global cultural and economic processes are specified by the English-language information space. English language, without exaggeration, can be considered the main language of advertising and its dynamic development. It is clear that all other languages of the planet are adjusted, adapting to local conditions, or they completely repeat means and tools of the English-language ads making up. It should be kept in mind while making up bright and catchy ads that advertising does not have cultural value, although it remains in culture and, to some extent, it becomes a part of culture.

Research papers on the language of advertising (Gee J. (1999), Goddard (2002), R. Kannan, S.Tyagi (2013), L. Karlsson (2007), V Zirka (2016) and other indicate that advertising appeals to the topic of the permanent updating and an advertising message in that way sells beauty, health, success, happiness, possession, etc., relying on a hidden mechanism of influence through powerful lexicon manifested in the form of different reason and needs.

Broadly speaking, advertisers persuade their audience to adopt attitudes to lifestyle, products and services. It is rare to find advertising that seeks to influence explicitly or directly. Less rare are advertisements in which the link to a product or service is implicit or ambiguous. Advertising has a lexicon, which may change with time, but is still stable as it was before. It is new, improved, proven, guarantee, quality and other qualifiers. David Ogilvy in his “Confessions of an Advertising Man” identifies a basic lexicon of qualifiers (15) such as: new, good, crisp, better, fresh, natural, fine, free and verbs such as: buy, give, taste, go, look, feel and use. Special registers (technical, scientific terms) may be used for appropriate products: torque, valve, hypoallergenic (in personal hygiene products), etc [9].

In the course of our lectures and practical studies on the subject of ads' making up special significant notions and terms are pointed out to be examined. They are ADVERTISEMENT, PROMOTION, TARGET, LEXIS or LEXICON, AIDA formula, influence, impact, manipulation, etc.

ADVERTISEMENT (AD, ADVERT, COMMERCIAL) is a notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event or publicizing a job vacancy. An ADVERT is an announcement in a newspaper, on television, or on a poster about something such as a product, event, or job. COMMERCIAL means involving or relating to the buying and selling of goods. A written ADVERTISEMENT is an announcement in a newspaper, on television, or on a poster about something such as a product, event, or job [10].

It should be taken into account that if someone says that an example of something is an advertisement of a thing, subject or object (in general), one identifies that it shows how good that thing is.

“TO PROMOTE” means to give publicity to (a product, organization, or venture) so as to increase sales or public awareness.

TARGET is also an important term for explaining the notion of advertising. It could be a person, an object, or a place selected as the aim of the advertising attack. A target of advertising is human emotions [10].

We point out that Advertising is: 1) a form of non-individual communication; 2) a form of information; 3) a form of selling.

As a form of information it could be spread in any legal form about company, brand, good, service etc. It brings people immediate news about products that have just come on the market. Advertising as a form of selling is a key issue of our subject. For thousands of years there have been individuals who have tried to persuade others to buy the food they have produced or the goods they have made or the services they can perform. Commercial messages have been found in the ruins of Pompeii. The first advertising agency, as the researchers point out, was started and run by V. Palmer in Philadelphia as early as in 19 century.

The objective of any advertisement is to convince people that it is their best interests to take an action the advertiser is recommending. Advertising ultimately seeks to establish what is called “mind share”. Mind share is the status a brand can achieve when it is associated with a product advertised. As an example of one of the most successful firms (companies) to have achieved this is Hoover. The name was for a very long time and is still used a synonymous with vacuum cleaner.

The Communication Media. Choosing the proper advertising media is also very important. Some commercial advertising media include: billboard, printed flyers, radio, cinema and television ads, web banners, skywriting, bus stop benches, magazines, newspapers, town criers, sides of buses, taxi cab doors, and the backs of event tickets etc.

We set a stress on advertising slogans since they could be seen or heard in the above mentioned sources. They are claimed to be, and often prove to be the most effective means of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product. Typically, they make claims about being the best quality, providing an important benefit or solution, or being most suitable for the potential customer. Advertising slogans often play a large part in the interplay between rival (competitor, opponent) companies.

To be an effective slogan should:

- state the main benefits of the product for the potential buyer;

- imply a distinction between it and other firms' products;

- make a simple, direct, concise (short and clear) statement;

- be often witty;

- have a distinct “personality” of its own;

- give a credible impression of a brand or product;

- make the consumer feel “good”, feel a desire or need;

- be hard to forget - should stick firmly to one's memory (whether one likes it or not) [1].

Traditionally 5 main functions of advertising are marked out by the scholars concerning this phenomenon: 1) informative; 2) economic; 3) social; 4) marketing - mechanisms of a good promotion. Full satisfaction of customers' consumption; 5) communicative - advertising ties advertisers and customers through different informational channels. The 6th function, to our mind, should obviously be added - that is impact/ manipulation of the customer's consciousness.

Thus, Influence, Impact, Manipulation, Pressure are important synonymous words (for ads) concerning the 6th mentioned function. Direct influence is impact, pressure. Indirect influence is manipulation. Manipulation is the impact on the unconscious parts of the human psyche with a view to controlling it. The main difference between manipulation and free behavior is that under the influence of a manipulator (a motivator) a person starts doing what he did not intend.

The term “manipulation” is often used with the word- combination “customers' consciousness”. Direct impact or direct influence of external force upon human consciousness causes contradiction or spirit of contradiction. Nobody wants to be a person under influence, impact of his consciousness. Thus, advertisers use various hidden tricks in the verbal ads with the help of lexicon (simple words) just to show a customer that his choice is made by him himself and not under influence of advertising.

Impact is the active influence of the subject on the object, not necessarily explicit or with feedback. Any action aimed at the object in order to influence it, cause a change.

The AIDA formula in advertising is needed to be explained, since it was firstly used in psychology, where it is regarded as a model of consumer behavior that describes the sequence of events leading to the decision to purchase: “acquaintance-interest- need-action”. Thus, we consider this formula to be a formula of advertising impact on the audience: A - stands for attract attention; I - generate/arose interest; D - cause a desire to take advantage of the advertising offer; A - encourage buying. AIDA - is formed in accordance with the first letters of the English words “attention”, “interest”, “desire”, “action”.

Now we have come to the advertisement itself, through which an advertiser influences or manipulates the consciousness of customers. There could be arisen a couple of questions.

How to make up/create an advert that will work?

What are the manipulative qualifiers OR POWERFUL LEXICON that influence the customers' behavior?

The answer is this is the language we use every day. Since advertising is the mirror of our life, it promotes everything we use or/and anybody who intends (wants) to be promoted. They are the words or word combinations: nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns.

Our own investigation and the results on ads making up according to the AIDA formula show that ADJECTIVES take the first place in the native-ads' making up. Their role is to attract attention of the audience. So words like good=better=the best, new, innovative, cheap, beautiful, incomparable, unbelievable etc. are indispensable.

Nouns - benefit, sales, action, discount, health etc. stand the next in the ads creation row as well as verbs: open, see, buy, come etc. and pronouns - you, your. The ads researchers also recommend using emotional words while composing ads: love, baby, friend, darling etc.

Below are some words from the POWERFUL LEXICON used in the English language and especially in making up of ads.

Usually I shortly comment some of them for the students to include them in their own made up ads: new, guarantee, introducing, important, benefit, etc.

New - haven't heard about it before, never seen before, exciting! I am one of those people who buy into this word. New is really exciting to many people.

Guarantee - this one takes out the fear factor. It makes it much easier to make a decision to buy.

Health - is said to be especially powerful when it applies to a product or solution. And I suppose some customer segments are highly preoccupied with health.

Results - I suppose this to be powerful because everyone wants results.

Proven - when selling anything the word proven is a powerful one. It gives reassurance. Most people do not want to be the guinea pig. Using the word proven in your ads is proven to be effective.

Safety - we want love, but also safety. I am personally not convinced that this word is very powerful in many circumstances, but do understand how it is hugely relevant for certain categories of products and services; healthcare for example.

Save - save or saving is an all time classic. And I think this one will work years after I have gone to my maker [9].

There are 2 stages in the course of our study. In the first stage students analyze manipulative qualifiers, as a preparation for the making up of a short bilingual “ads” by themselves. In the next stage of this creative work students are asked to compose their own ads according to the given model, like: “we'll double your money back/we'll refund your money doubled”; “Cheaper (!) than you can find it”; “If you do not run the test, we guarantee a refund”; “If a detergent powder it is PERSIL”.

We note that advertising, lexicon and manipulation are inseparable. I ask students not to forget that oversaturation of the manipulative lexicon and very often repetition of such words sometimes makes most advertising texts being weaken and tiresome, obsession and unpleasant. This was confirmed by observations on the perception of this type of adverts.

Our findings on the modern English advertising products, performing a model in national advertising, showed that they (the texts), usually consist of a title, advertising phrases or SLOGANS and “a body” of the text, but conditionally these ads include two blocks of information: attractive-manipulative and informative-manipulative.

This time I propose to take the ad model “we'll double your money back” (we'll refund the money twice) for observation. The illustrative example of the American advertising of Hannaford Brand coffee given below preserves a structure, as well as punctuation:

Hannaford

Double money back

Quality guarantee

This product carries our commitment to quality and value. It is a pledge we've kept for over a century. If you're not completely satisfied, let us know and we'll double your money back.

We consider the structure of the text is a dialogue. In the space of this advertising text, both units can be regarded as implementing the same motivation: psychological appeal to the buyer - return double money and the promise of quality assurance as an important component of the mentality. Product quality (pledge- certification for over a century) is not only a statement of a fact, but also an appeal to return money (twice) in case if the product did not satisfy the taste of the consumer.

The first block oftext intended to draw the consumer's attention to the product itself, and is a persuasive speech genre. The text itself (its body) is a concentrated form, it embodies the idea of all advertising - its distillation using a direct verbal - call to action (“<...> We will return money twice as much”). Here, invisibly the main idea is presented: that is there are several reasons to give preference to this product. Motivation to action is done through persuasion and argumentation: “you don't just buy a product, but the product of high quality - quality and value - which we support already for over a century, and certainly in the case of not satisfying with the product, we'll refund money doubly”.

Appeal and reasoning are contained exactly in the closing stages of the advert text: “once decided to buy our product, do not be afraid or hesitate, we give you our guarantee - money doubly - so don't waste your time, come on, buy!”.

The conviction comes through evaluation of the predicate “our commitment to quality and value”, which should reassure the consumer that this product is your need. Here the beneficiary uses a mixed type of reasoning, the appeal to the mind of the consumer and to his feelings. The culmination serves as the idea: “Let us know”- we'll double your money back in case you are not satisfied with our product, and it is the guarantee of our product. Here the game takes place: competitors and the company Hannaford. This original promotional move (step) is intended to consolidate in the mind of the consumer's confidence in the rightness of the choice, a positive image of the product, its quality.

Conclusion. In the conclusion it should be said that advertising borrows and adapts models, structures, linguistic forms, from texts of all kinds. Ambiguity, irony and allusion, puns, alliteration, assonance, rhyme and all kinds of wordplay are powerful techniques in advertising, but advertising text should be reached to its customer in plain language without puns, literary allusions and obscurities [9].

Advertising often makes use of short texts whether in print or broadcast media where every word has to work hard. It is very common for the copywriter to use words that belong to some other special lexicon, as if to establish a close relation with the target audience.

It should be added also that in presenting the emotional component of advertising all sorts of appeals to human needs play an important role, translating them into motivation to purchase. Emotional arguments appeal to the feelings and sensations of the target consumer, and emotionally created advert calls live reaction from readers. In my mind the main motives (reasons) (and needs) are the following [1]: 1) health: safety, convenience, comfort, freedom of action, etc.; 2) economic interests: benefit, advantage, wealth, career, guarantees, etc.; 3) family and its wellbeing: reputation, authority, prestige, power, indisputable values (honor, nobility, tradition), self-respect; 4) rest: desires, dreams, miracles, entertainment, games, competitions; 5) truth and justice: duty, morality, truth, generosity, compassion, etc.

References

advertising vocabulary message

1. Zirka V. Manipulyativnyye igry v reklame : lingvisticheskiy aspekt. Moscow : Knizhnyy dom “LIBROKOM”. 2016. 256 s.

2. Gee J.P An introduction to Discourse Analysis. Theory and method : Routeledge publishing. New York, 1999.

3. Goddard A. The Language of Advertising. Taylor and Francis. 2002.

4. Kannan R., Tyagi S. Use of language in advertisements. English for Specific Purposes. 2013. Issue 37. Vol. 13.

5. Karlsson L. Advertising Theories and Models. University of Halmstad, Faculty of Economics and Technology, Strategic Marketing. Halmstad, 2007.

6. Krompton A. Masterskaya reklamnogo teksta. Moscow: Izdatelskiy Dom “Dovgan”. 1998.

7. Lundmark C. Metaphor and Creativity in British Magazine Advertising. Lulea University of Technology, Department of Language and Culture. 2005.

8. Ogilvy D. Ogilvy on advertising. Moscow: Izdatelstvo Eksmo, 2006.

9. Ogilvy D. Confession of an Advertising Man. Notes made by Jonatan Richardson at Considered Words. 2016. URL: http://www.scribd.com (Publisher: Southbank Publishing; ISBN-10: 190491537X)

10. Oxford Dictionary. URL: https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/

Размещено на Allbest.ru