| Line | A key decision required of advertising managers is |
| whether a “hard-sell” or “soft-sell” strategy is | |
| appropriate for a specific target market. The hard-sell | |
| approach involves the use of direct, forceful | |
| (5) | claims regarding the benefits of the advertised |
| brand over competitors’ offerings. In contrast, the | |
| soft-sell approach involves the use of advertising | |
| claims that imply superiority more subtly. | |
| One positive aspect of the hard-sell approach is | |
| (10) | its use of very simple and straightforward product |
| claims presented as explicit conclusions, with little | |
| room for confusion regarding the advertiser’s | |
| message. However, some consumers may resent | |
| being told what to believe and some may distrust | |
| (15) | the message. Resentment and distrust often lead to |
| counterargumentation and to boomerang effects | |
| where consumers come to believe conclusions | |
| diametrically opposed to conclusions endorsed in | |
| advertising claims. By contrast, the risk of | |
| (20) | boomerang effects is greatly reduced with soft-sell |
| approaches. One way to implement the soft-sell | |
| approach is to provide information that implies the | |
| main conclusions the advertiser wants the | |
| consumer to draw, but leave the conclusions | |
| (25) | themselves unstated. Because consumers are |
| invited to make up their own minds, implicit | |
| conclusions reduce the risk of resentment, distrust, | |
| and counterargumentation. | |
| Recent research on consumer memory and | |
| (30) | judgment suggests another advantage of implicit |
| conclusions. Beliefs or conclusions that are self- | |
| generated are more accessible from memory than | |
| beliefs from conclusions provided explicitly by other | |
| individuals, and thus have a greater impact on | |
| (35) | judgment and decision making. Moreover, self- |
| generated beliefs are often perceived as more | |
| accurate and valid than the beliefs of others, | |
| because other individuals may be perceived as less | |
| knowledgeable, or may be perceived as | |
| (40) | manipulative or deliberately misleading. |
| Despite these advantages, implicit conclusions | |
| may not always be more effective than explicit | |
| conclusions. One risk is that some consumers may | |
| fail to draw their own conclusions and thus miss the | |
| (45) | point of the message. Inferential activity is likely |
| only when consumers are motivated and able to | |
| engage in effortful cognitive processes. Another | |
| risk is that some consumers may draw conclusions | |
| other than the one intended. Even if inferential | |
| (50) | activity is likely there is no guarantee that |
| consumers will follow the path provided by the | |
| advertiser. Finally, a third risk is that consumers | |
| may infer the intended conclusion but question the | |
| validity of their inference. |
It can be inferred from the passage that one reason an advertiser might prefer a hard-sell approach to a soft-sell approach is that
Historians have identified two dominant currents in the Russian women's movement of the late tsarist period. "Bourgeois" feminism, so called by its more radical opponents, emphasized "individualist" feminist goals such as access to education, career opportunities, and legal equality. "Socialist" feminists, by contrast, emphasized class, rather than gender, as the principal source of women's inequality and oppression, and socialist revolution, not legal reform, as the only road to emancipation and equality.
However, despite antagonism between bourgeois feminists and socialist feminists, the two movements shared certain underlying beliefs. Both regarded paid labor as the principal means by which women might attain emancipation: participation in the workplace and economic self-sufficiency, they believed, would make women socially useful and therefore deserving of equality with men. Both groups also recognized the enormous difficulties women faced when they combined paid labor with motherhood. In fact, at the First All-Russian Women's Congress in 1908, most participants advocated maternity insurance and paid maternity leave, although the intense hostility between some socialists and bourgeois feminists at the Congress made it difficult for them to recognize these areas of agreement. Finally, socialist feminists and most bourgeois feminists concurred in subordinating women's emancipation to what they considered the more important goal of liberating the entire Russian population from political oppression, economic backwardness, and social injustice.
