You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
Large businesses have big budgets for marketing and promotion and, as a result, people gravitate towards buying their products. What problems does this cause? What could be done to encourage people to buy local products?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
You should write at least 250 words.
Sample Answer:
Big corporations and international brands spend a large sum of money on marketing and advertising. Consequently, people tend to buy their products while small local businesses fail to reach potential customers. This can lead to some serious problems; such as the closure of local businesses, unemployment and the monopoly in the market. There are a few steps that can be adopted to address this issue and motivate people to buy local products.
Naturally, consumers prefer to buy products that were consciously and unconsciously promulgated to their minds by large brands. Due to this, many local businesses, even with their quality products, cannot attract customers. The dominance of international brands thus ruins local business entities. As a consequence, many small local companies run out of business, and it can make thousands of people unemployed. Moreover, creative and deceptive advertisements and marketing policies of big players create a monopoly in the market which traps many consumers in believing that bigger brands mean prestige and quality. For instance, the dominance of international clothing and fashion brands had swept away many local businesses in many Asian countries, including mine, and money spent on advertisement played a big role here.
To encourage people to purchase local products, some measures should be taken into account. The government should strictly monitor and ban any deceptive and illusory advertisements from the mass media. Besides, people should compare product quality before purchasing from shops, and the shop owners should be encouraged to shelf local products along with the branded products. Furthermore, authorities should rate and review any product and disclose it to the public. Finally, local product manufacturers should be financially supported by the banks and the government as they are helpful for the economic progress of a country.
To conclude, the absolute dominance of large businesses can have many negative effects that can damage the market and economy of a country. A solution to this problem is systematising local markets and creating a closely integrated system that can have an effective outcome.
[Written by – Eldar]