In their advertising, businesses nowadays usually emphasise that their products are new in some way. Why is this? Do you think it is a positive or negative development?
Sample Response
In their advertising, businesses today often promote the idea that their products offer something newthere is something new in their products. I believe they do this because it can help them outperformbeat their competitors. This should be seen as a positive development because new features addressnew features are there to respond to consumers’ new needs.
By advertising innovations they have createdadvertising something new they have created, brands can increase their chances of staying ahead of their competitors. No matter what product a company sells, there are always hundreds, if not thousands, of similar productsones on the market that consumers can choose from. If the company does not inform consumers through its marketing that the product is innovative in some way, it will just be one of the many on the marketout there, rather than one that is different and grabs consumers’ attention. For example, in an iPhone commercial, Apple effectively conveysdelivers the message that the latest version of iOS allows users to disable cross-app tracking. This new feature that no other smartphone offerswhich no other smartphone has can definitely help Apple attract new buyers becausesince nowadays people are becoming more and more concerned about their online privacy.
I think this is a positive development because consumers have new needs that new products can satisfynew requirements that need new products to satisfy them. For example, with all the digital devices at their fingertips, people nowadays are more eager to limit their screen time than they were a decade agowant to limit their screen time more than they did a decade ago. Noticing this change, Amazon has launched a screenless fitness band called the Amazon Halo. This screenless feature is something existing fitness trackers such as Apple Watches and Fitbits cannot offer.
In conclusion, emphasizing the noveltynewness of their products in advertising is an effective way for brands to stand out from the competition. This is a positive development because new features can meet customers’ new needs.
Why this response received Band 8.0
This is a focused and fluent response that answers both questions clearly and supports its claims with concrete commercial examples. The main limitation is conceptual: the positive-development argument sometimes treats advertising newness as identical to creating genuinely useful innovations, so the evaluation of the advertising practice itself is less searching. Distinguishing promotional emphasis from actual product improvement and considering a possible consumer effect would make the judgement more persuasive.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both questions receive clear answers, and the competition and consumer-needs arguments are relevant and well supported.
Evaluate the emphasis used in advertising more directly instead of assuming that promoted newness always represents useful innovation.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is easy to follow, with purposeful paragraphing, clear progression, and well-controlled cohesive links.
Make the logical bridge between the advertising practice and its claimed positive effects more explicit in the third paragraph.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied, precise, and natural across the discussion of competition, marketing, technology, and consumer needs.
Reduce repetition of new and newness by using more context-specific terms for innovation, features, and promotional claims.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex and simple structures are combined flexibly, and the response is almost entirely error-free.
Refine punctuation around embedded relative clauses to make sentence boundaries consistently precise.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
In their advertising, businesses nowadays usually emphasise that their products are new in some way. Why is this? Do you think it is a positive or negative development?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.