Advertising Encourages Consumers to Buy in Quantity Rather Than Promoting Quality – IELTS Writing task 2

Advertising encourages consumers to buy in quantity rather than promoting quality. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Outline

Essay Type

Opinion essay

Introduction

Sentence 1:  Paraphrase the topic in a sentence or two. 

Sentence 2: Give your opinion –  I support the fact that advertising is more about quantity than quality.

Body

Paragraph 1: One way in which advertisements persuade consumers to buy more is by giving discounts and offers. The consumers do not reflect on the hidden conditions and end up buying more than necessary.

Paragraph 2: Another method of attracting customers is to offer gifts or coupons which urge consumers to visit the store repeatedly and buy more goods without checking the quality.

Conclusion 

Sum up and restate your opinion.

Sample Essay

Many people opine that advertisement is a powerful medium of promoting quality, while others argue that it has become an unnecessary evil for producers to make more money. I agree with the fact that it boosts the number of sales of a product while compromising the quality.  

The first method in which advertisements motivate customers to buy more than they need is to offer discounts and other offers. It makes people feel that they have got a groundbreaking deal. As a result, they buy the product in bulk without checking the quality. For example, at the end of a season, the promotional banner read 80% discount in large fonts while the remaining portion of the deal, “On selected items,” was printed in much smaller fonts. Many customers came to the shop to avail of this offer and ended up buying clothes at a higher price as the discount was available on outdated and defective clothes. As a result, most of the customers had to buy those worn clothes or something from the expensive collection. In this way, many companies offer sales or special offers to attract people who either buy things at higher prices or buy things in larger amounts. Either way, it adds to the profit of the company.

The second most common way is to offer attractive gifts and prizes in the form of lottery or scratch cards. Most of us have the same attitude when it comes to gifts – we love them. So, the companies use this to their advantage as they offer gifts to lure us into buying more or what is unnecessary for us. For example, when one buys certain goods from a shop, the shopkeepers will offer scratch cards to win gifts or coupons with a validity that one can use only in their next purchase or fill up a form to participate in a lottery to win a foreign trip or other costly prizes. This leads the customer to visit the shop multiple times and buy more things. Sometimes, the customers have to buy from limited, low-quality stocks, things that they do not need, in order to use the coupons. In this way, the companies sell more goods in exchange for small gift items as no one wins the ‘special prize’.

However, it is not feasible for us to know of every product that comes into the market. In such situations, advertisements aid us in choosing the products according to our choice.  But, even in such cases, they mention only the advantages and ignore the problems, if any.

To sum up, I would like to say that although advertisements inform us of different items of use in the market, their real aim is to allure the customers to buy more items rather than buying items of good quality. But, the responsibility also lies on the customers who should be aware of such tricks and not be misguided by the free gifts.

Vocabulary

• Opine

Meaning: to express opinions 
Eg: The teachers opine that the class of ‘87 was one of the best they have ever had.

• Compromising

Meaning:  to give up something that you want in order to reach an agreement
Eg: He has a compromising nature and so many people take advantage of him.

• Groundbreaking

Meaning: original and important; showing a new way of doing or thinking about things
Eg: Einstein made some groundbreaking discoveries. 

• Bulk

Meaning: large, or in a large amount of something
Eg: After a long time the salesgirl sold a bulk of items today.

• Font

Meaning: a set of printed letters, numbers, and other symbols of the same style
Eg: Please use a larger font that is visible to the audience from a distance.

• Outdated

Meaning: old-fashioned which is no longer in use
Eg: The workers protested against the outdated machinery installed in the factory.

• Misguided

Meaning: led by wrong or inappropriate motives or ideals
Eg: He was misguided by his friend.

• Allure

Meaning: to attract or influence by offering what seems to be a benefit or pleasure
Eg: The bright toys and sparkling dresses always allure my niece.

• Banner:

Meaning: a long strip of cloth with something written on it
Eg: The banner on the roadside was torn during the storm. 

• Irrelevant

Meaning: not related to what is being discussed or considered and therefore not important
Eg: “Do not use words that are irrelevant to the present discussion”. 

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