The International Wine Company – Advert Analysis
An advertisement is used to persuade. The advert by ‘The International Wine Company’ to sell wine uses many persuasive and linguistic techniques. They are used for different purposes but add up together to persuade the reader to buy the product. The letter is targeted at the ordinary person over the age of eighteen because you cannot drink alcohol under that age in this country. The reason I believe that it is aimed at the average person is because it uses french words like ‘chablis’, ‘vin ordinaire’, ‘premier cru’ and ‘sommelier’. Using these words is intended to make the reader feel better about themselves and more important even though they may not know what the words mean. In England, wine for 4.99 and champagne for 11.99 is at the lower end of the market ,so isn’t likely to be of first class quality.
It would therefore be unlikely that more affluent people would be attracted to this advert. The first, and perhaps most obvious technique used to attract the reader is persuasive language. Most people would consider words such as ‘superb’ and ‘beautiful’ as standard, everyday words but with a positive feel and purpose. Other words may not be considered regular or conventional but are instantly recognisable for their positive implication, words such as ‘amazing’, ‘stupendous’ and ‘tremendously competitive’. These adjectives appear in pre-modification which sets up an expectation to the reader. Pre-modification is used to highlight the image of the product before you even know what the item is. For example, ‘six beautiful sommelier crystal glasses.’
Four positive adjectives are put in before you even know what the item is. So, even before it becomes apparent what the item actually is, you are already impressed with its attributes. Another method used to tempt the customer into buying the product is repetition. Repetition is almost compulsory in the making of a good persuasive text, as it helps significantly in getting the point into the reader’s head. The advertiser decides on important points to re-iterate ithin the text. For this particular advert it is the ‘free sommelier glasses’ that is the main repeating theme. However, same words are not just repeated over and over as this may annoy the reader and give the impression that not much thought had gone into the advertisement.
Instead the phrase is repeated in slightly different ways. For example, ‘Your six free crystal glasses are perfect…’, ‘six beautifully crafted wine glasses are the ideal way…’, ‘YOURS FREE WITH EVERY ORDER! Six beautiful sommelier crystal glasses…’ and ‘They would normally cot you 12.99 elsewhere- yet they’re yours free when you take…’ This creates a natural, more fluent text. The same idea is used with the point of ‘inexpensive wines’ trying to be emphasised. Another tool used to persuade the customer is pinpointing the enemy. It is done less directly in this advert as there were laws permitting using another companies name directly to benefit yours.
It says ‘Outstanding wine offers, together with colour brochures , to study in the comfort of your own home (we have no sales reps).’ This is implying that whereas other companies will try and intimidate you with sales reps, they leave you to make your own decision. The claim that ‘They would normally cost 12.99 elsewhere.’ is simply there to cast doubt over the value for money of other companies whilst enhancing the reputation of their own.
