Word combination with brand

ВСЕРОССИЙСКАЯ АКАДЕМИЯ ВНЕШНЕЙ ТОРГОВЛИ Минэкономразвития России

________________________________________________________________________________

Кафедра английского языка международного бизнеса

С.В. Аверьянова Е.Ю. Семенова

JUST BUSINESS

Part II

Учебное пособие для слушателей ВАВТ

ВСЕРОССИЙСКАЯ АКАДЕМИЯ ВНЕШНЕЙ ТОРГОВЛИ Минэкономразвития России

________________________________________________________________________________

Кафедра английского языка международного бизнеса

С.В. Аверьянова Е.Ю. Семенова

JUST BUSINESS

Part II

Учебное пособие для слушателей ВАВТ

Рекомендовано кафедрой протокол заседания от 21 мая 2014 года, № 9

Одобрено Редакционно-издательским Советом ВАВТ

УДК 811.111

ББК 81.2 Англ.

А — 197

Рецензент — Старший преподаватель кафедры английского языка МБ

Рагель С.Г.

Аверьянова С.В., Семенова Е.Ю.

А — 197 JUST BUSINESS Part II: Учебное пособие для слушателей ВАВТ/ С.В.

Аверьянова, Е.Ю. Семенова; Всероссийская академия внешней торговли Минэкономразвития России. — М.: ВАВТ, 2014. — 93 c.

Данное пособие составлено на основе учебника Powel, M., New Business

Matters, Coursebook, Thomson, 2004 и представляет собой сборник текстов и упражнений, направленных на расширение запаса деловой лексики, развитие навыков чтения, аудирования, письма и говорения. Пособие рекомендовано для использования слушателями магистратуры вечернего отделения (upper-intermediate level) международнокоммерческого факультета.

УДК 811.111

ББК 81.2 Англ.

CONTENTS

Unit 5

Brand Management

4

Unit 6

Prices and Commodities

25

Unit 7

Corporate Entertaining

51

Unit 8

Innovation

68

Tapescript

87

Resource Bank

89

3

Just Business Unit 5 Brand Management

“A product can be copied by a competitor; a brand is unique.”

Simon Mainwaring, branding consultant

LEAD –IN

A.Comment on these quotations on success. Do you agree?

1.Authentic brands don’t emerge from marketing cubicles or advertising agencies. They emanate from everything the company does… Howard Schultz, Starbucks

2.He goes by the brand, yet imagines he goes by the flavor. Mark Twain, writer

3.To me a ‘brand’ sounds evil. Steven Moffat, Scottish television writer and producer

B.A Follower of Fashion?

How important is image to you? Are you very choosy about the kind of clothes you wear, the sort of car you drive, the make of watch you have? Are you as fussy when it comes to the brand of coffee you drink or the type of breakfast cereal in your bowl?

To find out how selective and loyal a consumer you are, try the following extract from a market research questionnaire. In each section, choose the statement you prefer, a or b.

1a. Coke and Pepsi really do taste better than other colas I’ve tried.

b.One fizzy drink is pretty much the same as another to me.

2a. I wouldn’t wear a cheap watch or cheap jewellery because they’re a reflection of your personality.

b.I wear a watch to tell the time and jewellery for fun. I don’t care what they cost if they look all right.

3a. I wouldn’t be seen dead wearing one of those Mickey Mouse fake Rolexes.

b.I’d definitely wear a fake Rolex or

Omega watch if it looked just like the real thing.

5a. I’d pay a lot more for a garment with a famous label in it because quality always shows.

b.I’d never waste money on a silly label when you can get the same garment for half the price elsewhere.

6a. Cheap coffee tastes horrible. I don’t cheat myself by saving a few pence.

b.It all tastes the same after the first three cups!

7a. I usually stick to the same brand of cigarettes and I wouldn’t dream of switching.*

b.I’ll smoke anything, as long as it doesn’t taste of fresh air.*

*Non-smokers needn’t answer this question.

4a. I like my Audi, but if I could afford the same sort of Mercedes, I’d buy one of those instead.

b.For me, the most important thing is a car’s performance and economy, not its make.

Compare your answers with those of your colleagues.

4

Just Business Unit 5 Brand Management

Discuss: Do you know any products with strong brand images? What are the advantages and disadvantages of brand name products, own brands and generics? Which do you prefer to buy?

Business Brief

Read the texts about products and brands and do the exercises below.

Products and brands

Word combinations with ‘product

catalogue (BrE)

catalog (AmE)

mix

a company’s products, as a group

portfolio

line

a company’s products of a particular type

range

lifecycle

the stages in the life of a product, and the number of

product

people who buy it at each stage

positioning

how a company would like a product to be seen in

relation to its other products, or to competing products

placement

when a company pays for its products to be seen in

films and TV programmes

Goods can refer to the raw materials, materials and components used to make products, or the products that are made.

Here are some examples of these different types of goods: consumer goods that last a long time, such as cars and washing machines, are consumer durables. Consumer goods such as food products that sell quickly are fast-moving consumer goods, or FMCG.

Exercise 1 Which applies to each of these products?

microwave ovens

cotton

cars

hamburgers

soap powder

Exercise 2 Match the sentence beginnings (1-7) with the correct endings (a-g).

1

Banks are adding new types of accounts

a

product life cycles are so short that

product launches are very frequent.

2

Apple is going to simplify its product line

b

its product positioning in relation to

Psion’s existing hardware products.

3

Consumers have mixed feelings about

с

it changed its product range towards

supermarkets

more expensive cars.

4

When BMW bought Rover,

d

of cigarettes in movies.

5

The new law will ban product placement

e

extending their product portfolio into

financial services.

6

Following the launch of the Series 5

f

and deliver fewer but more competitive

laptop, consumers were slow to

models.

understand

7

With this type of equipment in the US,

g

to their product mix.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

5

Just Business Unit 5 Brand Management

Brands and branding

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a «name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.» A brand can take many forms, including a name, sign, symbol, colour combination or slogan. This may be the name of the company itself: the make of the product. For products like cars, you refer to the make and model, the particular type of car, for example the Ford (make) Ka (model).

Branding is creating brands and keeping them in customers’ minds through advertising, packaging, etc. The word branding began simply as a way to tell one person’s cattle from another’s by means of a hot iron stamp. The word brand has continued to evolve to encompass identity — it affects the personality of a product, company or service. It is defined by a perception, good or bad, that your customers or prospects have about you. A brand should have a clear brand identity so that people think of it in a particular way in relation to other brands. Successful brands are companies’ most valuable assets. They add value to products. They guarantee a certain quality level. And customers believe they get extra value for money. It’s a synergy effect whereby one plus one equals three. Customers who always buy the same brand are brand loyal.

Brand awareness or brand recognition is how much people recognize a brand. The ideas people have about a brand is its brand image. The brand with the most sales in a particular market is a brand leader. Global brands have the ability to cross both geographical and cultural boundaries, building international reputations of quality.

Creating brands and brand awareness is the job of the brand manager. Brand management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product, product line, or brand. Brand managers plan, develop and direct the marketing efforts for particular brands or products. It is not uncommon for brand managers to be responsible for coordinating activities of specialists in production, sales, advertising, promotion, research and development, marketing research, purchasing, distribution, package development, and finance.

Once the brand name has been established, the makers sometimes engage in brand extension or brand stretching, which involves using the brand name on a range of products. In the case of luxury brands, companies have to be careful to avoid overexposure, which could damage the exclusive aspect of the brand image.

A product with the retailer’s own name on it is an own-brand product (BrE) or own-label product (AmE).Products that are not branded, those that do not have a brand name, are generic products or generics.

Exercise 1 Complete this marketer’s description of his work using expressions from the text above.

My name’s Tomas. I’m Portuguese, and I’ve been ………… ……….. for Woof dog food for the whole of Portugal and Spain since I left business school last summer.

The Woof ………… is owned by a big international group. The market for pet food in Portugal and Spain is growing very fast, as more and more people own dogs and cats, and we’re trying to increase ……….. ……….. of Woof through TV advertisements and boardings in the street. Research shows that people have very positive ideas about it: it has a very positive

………. ………… . But the supermarkets have their ……… ………. Dog food, usually sold cheaper than our product, which is a problem. There are even ……… ………. sold just under the name “dog food’. We have to persuade people that it’s worth paying a bit more for a ………..

product like Woof, which is far better, of course.

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Just Business Unit 5 Brand Management

Exercise 2 Match these word partnerships to their meanings.

1

brand loyalty

a

the name given to a product by the company that makes it

2

own-label product

b

using an existing name on another type of product

3

value for money

c

additional advantages produced by combining two ideas or

resources

4

brand awareness

d

the brand with the largest market share

5

brand name

e

the way in which a company controls its brands and the way

people think about them

6

generic product

f

the tendency to always buy a particular brand

7

luxury brand

g

a product that has the brand name of the shop that is selling it

8

brand image

h

a product that is sold under its own name rather than under

the name of a particular manufacturer

9

brand management

i

the ideas and beliefs people have about a brand

10

brand stretching

j

a famous brand with a long history

11

classic brand

k

the amount something is worth compared to the money that

it costs

12

synergy effect

l

a brand associated with expensive, high quality products.

13

brand leader

m

how familiar people are with a brand

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Discuss: What do the following terms mean to you? Discuss them with your colleagues.

brand loyalty

brand-awareness

brandstretching

own label products

me-tooism

subliminal advertising

lookalike products

market saturation

household name

7

Just Business Unit 5 Brand Management

Listening

Listen to the text about brand wars and answer the questions below.

1What do market leaders have to do to keep their dominating position?

2What happened when Philip Morris reduced their prices?

3What has fair market competition escalated into?

Own-Label Products

4Why are the corporate heavyweights losing sales?

5What percentage of total sales do own-labels account for?

Lookalike Coke

6What do big brands do to fight own-label products? Give examples.

7How does Sainsbury’s cola compare with Coke?

Big Brands – Big Business

8What mark-up is Omega still able to put on their products? Why?

Brandstretching

9What else do big businesses do to generate additional revenue? What examples are given?

Buyer Beware

10What is considered to be the main threat to big brands?

11How can the problem be solved?

12What percentage of clothes and footwear sold in Europe are fakes?

What losses do big companies suffer due to it?

13What should consumers beware of?

Market Saturation

14What consequences can market saturation lead to?

15How many kinds of toothbrushes and shampoo do some stores stock? How long will it take to try them all?

16How many new brands survive?

8

Just Business Unit 5 Brand Management

Reading and language

Read the text Brand Wars and do the exercises below.

BRAND WARS

Coke versus Pepsi; Nike versus Reebok; Nintendo versus Sega – the battle is on amongst the world’s top brands. Aggressive comparative advertising has now reached fever pitch; extra millions are pouring into R&D, and the market leaders are under constant pressure to slash their prices in a cutthroat struggle for market domination. When Philip Morris knocked 40c off a packet of Marlboro, $47-and-a-half billion was instantly wiped off the market value of America’s top twenty cigarette manufacturers. Lesser brands went to the wall. And that’s just one example of how fair competition within a free market has rapidly escalated into all-out brand war.

Own-label Products

Yet, in spite of the efforts of the corporate heavyweights to win market share, when it comes to fast-moving consumer goods, more and more consumers are switching to the supermarkets’ own-label products. And brand loyalty is fast becoming a thing of the past. The once unchallengeable Nescafe and Kellogg’s are actually losing sales, as their higher price is no longer automatically associated with higher quality. And in many supermarkets across Europe and the States own-labels now account for over 55% of total sales. Their turnover has never been higher.

Lookalike Coke

Of course, the big brands are not giving in without a fight. When British supermarket chain, Sainsbury’s, led the attack on Coke by launching its own similarly packaged product, it managed to secure 15% of the total UK cola market in just two months. But Coca-Cola was quick to respond. Sainsbury’s was told to change its packaging fast or Coke would cut its prices to rival supermarkets and leave Sainsbury’s hopelessly overpriced. Some people say the Sainsbury’s cola tastes as good as Coke. But they’re the ones who underestimate the power of the brand.

Big Brands — Big Business

For brand names are still the reason Omega can put a 300% mark-up on their watches, the reason Nestle spent a fortune buying Perrier, the reason investors are prepared to pay up to twelve times the book value for a company’s stock. Big brands remain big business in the City.

Brandstretching

Brandstretching is another way in which the household names are fighting back. By putting their familiar trademark on attractive and fashionable new products, companies can both generate additional revenue and increase brand-awareness, hence Pepsi Maxwear, Vergin Cola, Camel Adventure Gear clothing and even jewellery by Cadbury! The high-life image suits companies like Philip Morris, for whom, as the restrictions on tobacco ads get tougher, brandstretching is the perfect form of subliminal advertising.

Buyer Beware

So much for the high-street brands. Further upmarket, the luxury branded goods manufacturers are facing an even greater enemy of their own, namely, the pirate brands. And as the trade in lookalike products increases, companies like Ray-Ban and Reebok, Yves Saint Laurent and Armani are calling for a crackdown on the pirates. In Europe over ten percent of clothes and footwear sold are said to be fakes, costing the firms who make the real thing nearly $7 billion a year. For a fraction of the recommended retail price you can pick up fake Gucci, fake Lacoste, fake Lego, fake Disney, fake Nintendo, fake anything. But buyer beware! Your case of Moet et Chandon will probably turn out to be cider and your bottle of Calvin Klein more like industrial cleaner than perfume.

Market Saturation

But, brand wars aside, the single biggest threat to the market remains saturation. For it seems there are just too many products on the shelves. In the States they call this ‘product clutter’ and it is currently the cause of a strong anti-consumerism movement. In fact, product proliferation and widespread me-tooism mean that some Boots stores actually stock 75 different kinds of toothbrush and 240 types of shampoo. It would take you over 20 years to try them all, assuming you even wanted to! And that’s just got to be crazy when you think that 80 to 90% of new brands fail within their first six months.

9

Just Business Unit 5 Brand Management

Exercise 1 Without referring back to the article, can you remember in what context the following companies were mentioned?

1.Philip Morris / Marlboro

2.Nestle

3.Coca-Cola

4.Omega

5.Cadbury

6.Moet et Chandon

7.Calvin Klein

8.Boots

Vocabulary

Exercise 2 Look back at the article Brand Wars and find the expressions which mean:

1.reach a ridiculous level (par. 1)

2.cut drastically (par. 1)

3.fiercely competitive (par. 1)

4.take 40c off (par. 1)

5.remove or make something disappear (par.1)

6.smaller, less important (par. 1)

7.go bankrupt (par. 1)

8.become much worse or more serious (par. 1)

9.involving all the forces that are available (par. 1)

10.major companies (par. 2)

11.consumer goods that sell very quickly (par. 2)

12.impossible to defeat (par. 2)

13.total sales before costs are deducted (par. 2)

14.stop competing and accept that you can’t win (par. 3)

15.get or achieve something important (par. 3)

16.react quickly (par. 3)

17.worth less than the price that is being charged (par.3)

18.think that something is less important than it really is (par.3)

19.profit margin (par. 4)

20.pay a lot of money for (par. 4)

21.official value of an asset (par. 4)

22.a name of a product/company that is well known (par. 5)

23.receive extra income (par. 5)

24.intended for people who have a lot of money (par. 6)

25.severe measures against law-breakers (par. 6)

26.too many products in a place (par. 7)

27.a sudden increase in number or amount (par.7)

10

Just Business Unit 5 Brand Management

Exercise 3 Match each of the words in the first column with a word from the second column to make twelve word partnerships from the article. There are some alternative partnerships, but there is only one way to match all twelve.

1

aggressive

a

names

2

household

b

products

3

me-

c

advertising

4

lookalike

d

tooism

5

retail

e

goods

6

supermarket

f

market

7

branded

g

chain

8

free

h

sales

9

subliminal

i

consumerism

10

anti-

j

retail price

11

fair

k

advertising

12

recommended

l

competition

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Exercise 4 Find five nouns in the article Brand Wars which form strong word partnerships with the word market.

1

2

MARKET 3 4

5

Find five nouns in the article Brand Wars which form strong word partnerships with the word brand.

1

2

BRAND 3 4

5

Which 8-letter word can come before all the following words?

goods research protection profile advertising durables non-durables

Now match these word partnerships with the following definitions:

1.commercials aimed at the end-user

2.goods used shortly after purchase such as food, newspapers, etc.

3.products purchased by a member of the public

4.goods which last a long time such as cars, televisions, etc.

5.laws to defend buyers against unfair trading

6.market study of buyer behaviour patterns

7.description of a typical buyer according to age, sex, social status, etc.

11

Just Business Unit 5 Brand Management

Exercise 5 Match each word on the left with a word on the right to form ten common marketing expressions.

1

brand

a

plan

2

consumer

b

brand

3

marketing

c

offer

4

advertising

d

loyalty

5

core

e

share

6

premium

f

product

7

market

g

brands

8

price

h

campaigns

9

special

i

awareness

10

brand

j

promotions

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Use the expressions from the table above to complete the sentences that follow.

1.___________________ are important brand-building activities.

2.Marketing tactics such as ___________________ aim to boost sales quickly.

3.Because of their association with quality and status ___________________ often cost a bit more.

4.During a sale in a department store, many goods are on ___________________.

5 The danger with brand-stretching is the damage that can be done to the

___________________ if it is not successful.

6.A good ___________________ will guard the long-term interests of the brand it is promoting.

7.Launching a new ___________________ onto the market is a costly and risky business.

8.Customers who always buy the same brand of goods are showing _________________.

9.___________________ is a measure of how well-known a product is in the marketplace.

10.In some sectors, the competition between companies for __________________ is fierce.

Exercise 6 Complete each sentence with the correct form of the underlined word. In some cases, you will need to use the negative form.

advertise

6 profit

■ In our new campaign, our main

■ This line of raincoat is highly

……………………..

medium will be

………………………- we must discontinue it

television.

as soon as possible.

■ Benetton produced a series of

■ If we are serious about improving the

eye-catching ……………………..

for their

……………………… of these outlets, we

products.

should take a good look at staffing costs.

2 associate

7 promote

■ Engineering firms often work in

■ We expect all our ……………………. activities

……………………… with other companies

to cost around £2 million.

on a major contract.

■ ……………………………………. is a very

■ When there is a financial scandal,

important marketing function.

business people often try to

……………………… themselves from

those involved.

3 consume

8 rival

■ Food, clothing and household products

■ The ………………………

between

are all examples of ………………………

soft drinks companies, Coca-Cola and Pepsi

goods.

Cola, is very fierce.

■ Wine ………………………

is high

■ Otis is known all over the world as a

in France, and on the increase in other

manufacturer of lifts. Its reputation in the

European countries.

industry is ………………………

12

Just Business Unit 5 Brand Management

4 market

9 sell

■ To make money, you don’t just need a

■ Which is your best-

……………………….

good product — you also need excellent

product?

………………………Some products are very innovative, but

■ Our ………………………

force doubled

when we took over our chief competitor.

they simply aren’t ………………………

5 produce

10 value

■ Although the meeting went on for

■ Our stock is so ………………………

that

hours, it was rather

it cannot be left unguarded.

…………………………………….

■ We were most impressed by the

■ Since we introduced the new pay

consultants we hired — their advice was

structure, ……………………… has

……………………………………………..

improved enormously.

Exercise 7 A lot of the language of business and marketing is full of metaphors.

A.Group the following business expressions according to where you think the words in bold originally come from. Choose from the following: war, sport & games, water, health, flight.

1

a takeover battle

11

the company is suffering

2

a stalemate situation

12

the economy is in freefall

3

a few orders are trickling in

13

pour money into advertising

4

defend our market share

14

be an easy target

5

sales have soared

15

a strategic alliance

6

a flood of new products

16

shoot down someone’s idea

7

take a time out

17

the market has completely dried up

8

make a recovery

18

backing a winner

9

the flow of capital

19

the company is in good shape

10

the company really took off

20

playing for high stakes

B. Use the above expressions to complete the following sentences.

1.It was a ________________ — neither side in the negotiation was prepared to move an inch!

2.________________ in the 1990s when profits increased tenfold.

3.The two companies formed a ________________ to fight off the competition from Korea.

4.We’re ________________, Ladies and Gentlemen — the company itself is at risk.

5.In a _______________ it’s often the small shareholders who decide who wins.

6.Never ________________ until you’ve given them the chance to explain what it is.

7.We can’t continue to ________________ until we start seeing some sign that it’s working.

8.________________ to an all-time high and look set to stay high for the rest of the year.

9.I’m afraid ________________ — there’s simply no more demand for this kind of service.

10.Perhaps we should ________________ and meet back here in, say, ten minutes?

11.In our current financial position we would ________________ for a predator company.

12.Poor turnover is partly due to the fact that _______________ from the effects of the recession.

13.Liberalising the markets in Ecuador just led to ________________ out of the country.

13

Just Business Unit 5 Brand Management

14.In giving this new product the go-ahead, believe me, you’re really ________________ it’s sure to be a huge success.

15.________________, but, when you think that we used to sell 1,000 units a day, frankly it’s pathetic.

16.This big order from the Middle East is just what this company needed to

________________ — finally things are looking up.

17.________________ has made it impossible for us to rely on brand loyalty from our customers — there’s simply too much choice.

18.In spite of media reports to the contrary ________________ and ready to break into new markets with this product.

19.We clearly need to________________ if we are to remain the market leader.

20.Inflation is running at 66%, unemployment is up nearly 30%, our trade deficit is enormous and, to be honest, ________________.

Exercise 8 Study these examples. Then choose the words from the box to complete the sentences that follow. Use your dictionary and grammar book to help you which words are both appropriate and grammatically correct in each case.

Despite the evidence of the value of brands, creating and sustaining that capital are neglected by companies.

Some consumers switch temporarily to the promoted brand, but once the promotion ends, all of them go back to the one they normally prefer.

Since price is often a signal to consumers of a product quality, a brand that is always on special offer loses its appeal.

Reason

because

as so

since therefore

consequently

Contrast

although

despite

in spite of but

however nevertheless yet

1.Brand-stretching can be very risky ……………………….. , it can also be very lucrative.

2.The value of price promotions is questionable, ………………………. most consumers switch back to their usual brand when the promotion ends.

3.Companies have to keep their shareholders happy. ……………………….., brand managers are under pressure to find ways of boosting sales.

4. ……………………… a brand may sell well in one country, it may not sell at all in another.

5.Price is a signal of quality, ………………………. consumers will often pay more for premium brands.

6.In 1991, advertising accounted for around a third of all marketing outlay,

………………………., in 1980, the picture was very different.

7. ……………………… their disappearance from the market, General Electric’s food blenders continued to rank second with consumers 20 years later!

14

Just Business Unit 5 Brand Management

Reading and Discussing: Read the text below and answer the questions after it.

Brussels throws weight behind counterfeiting drive

Under the slogan ‘Fakes cost more’, the European Union is to throw its weight behind a global anti-counterfeiting campaign. Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, is to open a counterfeiting summit attended by businesses, charities and campaign groups. He aims to highlight that the practice damages not only big European brands but also consumers and the sweatshop workers involved.

Frederick Mostert, founder of the Authentics Foundation, which organised the conference, said the perception of counterfeiting as a victimless crime had to change. He said: ‘It is about the real cost to society: it is supporting child labour, funding organised crime and terrorism. Many of the products are dangerous. Planes have crashed because of fake parts.’ Few people had grasped how counterfeiting had moved from small-scale family operations to worldwide smuggling rings, Mr Mostert said. He calculated that the business was worth $500bn (€324 bn, £248 bn) annually. ‘Anything can be copied, from a Ferrari to toothpaste. The World Health Organisation says 10 per cent of medicines in the world are fakes. That is scary.’

The Commission has proposed EU-wide minimum criminal sanctions for counterfeiters, including jail terms, for repeat offenders.

From the Financial Times

Do you think counterfeiting is a problem? Why? Why not? The slogan for the anticounterfeiting campaign is ‘Fakes cost more’. How can this be? Who do you think is affected by counterfeiting?

Discuss: For many companies successful marketing begins with the successful sales letter.

What do you generally do with the sales letters that arrive on your desk? Do you ever read them or do they tend to be filed in the wastepaper basket? Why? Explain your answer. Give your ideas on how to create a successful sales letter.

Listening

Listen to a consultant giving tips on how to write the perfect sales letter and answer the questions below.

1What happens to the majority of sales letters and why?

2Why is mass mailing still used?

3What is a reader-friendly letter like?

4What should you bear in mind when you write to Managing Directors?

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Just Business Unit 5 Brand Management

5How different should your letters be when you write to junior, senior and middle managers? Why?

6What should you do if you have several proposals to make to a customer? Why?

7How can you make your letter compulsive reading?

Reading and language

Exercise 1 Read the text below. Put a suitable preposition for each blank.

Do you ever stop to think about what happens (1) ….. your sales letters after they leave your desk? You may spend hours drafting and redrafting them. But do you give a moment’s thought to how your reader will react (2) ….. them when they arrive? If not, don’t write another word (3) ….. you do.

(4) ….. you write your next letter, put yourself in the shoes of the customer. Make it readerfriendly. The majority of sales letters get filed, lost or binned. The reader-friendly letter stands a better chance.

Rule number one: never insult your reader (5) ….. what is called a mass-mailed letter. True, mass mailing is the quickest way of reaching hundreds of potential customers. It’s also the safest way of ensuring that your letter ends (6) ….. in the bin. A short personalised letter, which gets (7) ….. the point and clearly demonstrates your knowledge of the customer’s needs, will invariably be better received.

(8) ….. a general rule, the more important the person, the shorter your letter should be. Managing Directors are deluged (9) ….. mail. They rarely have time to do more than glance (10) …… it and are unlikely to respond (11) …… your letter themselves. So (12) …… writing to MDs be brief. Junior managers, (13) ….. the other hand, are generally looking (14) ….. ideas they can pinch and present to the boss as their own. Send them long and informative letters.

According (15) ….. Mark McCormack, author of What They Don’t Teach You (16) … Harvard Business School, different levels of management are responsive (17) …… different sales approaches. Senior management is usually looking for strategic solutions (18) ….. long-term problems which fit (19) ….. with their corporate goals. Middle managers want tactical answers to departmental problems which will make their lives simpler and which they can

16

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BUSINESS
VOCABULARY IN USE

22.
PRODUCTS AND BRANDS

A

Word combinations with ‘product’


B

Goods

Goods can refer to the
materials and components used to make products, or the products that are
made.

Here are some examples of
these different types of goods:

Consumer goods that last a
long time, such as cars and washing machines, are consumer durables.
Consumer goods such as food products that sell quickly are fast-moving
consumer goods, or FMCG.


C

Brands and branding

A brand is a name a company
gives to its products so they can be easily recognized. This may be the
name of the company itself; the make of the product. For products like
cars, you refer to the make and model, the particular type of car, for
example, the Ford (make) Ka (model).

Brand awareness or brand
recognition is how much people recognize a brand. The ideas people have
about a brand is its brand image. Many companies have a brand manager.


EXERCISES

22.1

Match the sentence beginnings (1-7) with the correct endings (a-g).
The sentences all contain expressions from A opposite.

1

Banks are adding new types
of accounts

a

product life cycles are so
short that product launches are very frequent.

2

Apple is going to simplify
its product line

b

its product positioning in
relation to Psion’s existing hardware products.



22.2

Look at the
words in B opposite. Which applies to each of these products?

1. microwave
ovens

2. cotton

3. cars

4. hamburgers

5. soap
powder

22.3

Complete this
marketer’s description of his work using expressions from C opposite.

My name’s
Tomas. I’m Portuguese, and I’ve been (1)___________ ___________ for Woof
dog food for the whole of Portugal and Spain since I left business school
last summer.



ANSWER KEY

Introduction

Learn about word combination with ‘product’, goods, brands and branding.

Audio Episode

Practice Booklet (For the Entire Mini-Series)

Business English Marketing … by English Plus Podcast

Episode Transcript

welcome to a new episode from our mini series about business English marketing. Now this episode is going to focus on products and brands. Remember I told you in the earlier episodes of our mini series, that we will talk in more details about the marketing myths. And this is our first stop products and brands.

[00:00:25] Remember the four piece we talked about in the earlier episode, product price, place, promotion product. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. And we will talk about brands and branding. Just before we start. Let me remind you that if you want to practice the things we’re learning, you can use the booklet, the practice booklet that I’ve provided with the mini series.

[00:00:43] You can find it on our website, English plus podcast.com or you can find it on our Patrion page. So that being said, let’s start right away and let’s start with some word combinations with product. Now we have the word product catalog. I catalog by the way, is spelled in two different ways in British English and American English, because you might find them sometimes spelled C a T a L O G U E.

[00:01:07] And sometimes you might find it spelled C a T a L O G. That’s it well with the UAE at the end, that’s the British English spelling with the G only catalog C a T a L O G. That’s the American English spelling, but it doesn’t matter. It has the same meaning when we talk about a product catalog, what does that mean?

[00:01:26] That means a list of companies, products, as simple as that, a list of the company’s products is the product catalog. So that is what we call the list of the company’s product. What do we call a company’s products considered together? And in relation to one another, what do we call that? We call that the product mix or the product portfolio.

[00:01:46] So again, the product mix or the product portfolio, that’s a company’s products considered together. And in relation to one another. What do we call a company’s products of a particular type? That’s what we call the product line or product range. So product line or product range, that’s a company’s product of a particular type.

[00:02:09] What about product lifecycle? When we say the product life cycle, we hear that, especially in marketing, what does that mean? That means the stages in the life of a product. And the number of people who buy it at each stage, that’s the product life cycle. What about product positioning? That is how a product is seen or how a company would like it to be seen in relation to its other products and or two competing products.

[00:02:36] So product positioning and the final combination is product placement. What does that mean? Product placement? That is when a company pays for its products to be used or seen in films and TV programs. That’s product placement. So before we move on and talk about goods, let’s talk about those words that we use with product.

[00:02:57] We said product catalog, product mix, or portfolio. We said product line or range, the product life cycle, the product positioning and the product placement. When you want to plan and think about the product, the first P that is in the four pillars of marketing, you have to think about all these things.

[00:03:16] Maybe some of them are not as important as other things. Maybe the product mix is not as important as its life cycle, depending on your product, but you have to consider all of these things. Now let’s continue on and talk about goods. What are goods? And is it any different from product? Well, it’s not, but goods is a special word that we use to talk about.

[00:03:36] Specific kinds of products. Now goods are the materials and components used to make products or the products that are made. We call them goods. Raw materials are basic materials from which other things are made. So we have goods that might be the finished product or finished goods, or might be raw materials.

[00:03:55] But if you want to focus on one or the other, you can say finished goods, and these are the products ready to be sold. And you can say raw materials. And these are the basic materials from which other things are made. Now, what about other words we can use with goods? We have industrial goods, industrial goods are bought by other companies for use in their activities and products.

[00:04:18] These are industrial goods companies buying from companies to make other products. These are industrial goods, and that is different from when we say consumer goods, consumer goods are bought by individuals for their own use. So here, if companies buy from other companies to integrate in their own products or to make new products from those things they buy from other companies, we call these industrial goods.

[00:04:43] But when we talk about individual use, like when you buy a TV or a cell phone, et cetera, that is consumer goods. Now consumer goods that lasts a long time, such as cars and washing machines are called consumer durables. So remember this word, consumer durables, not like things that you buy and use for a couple of times and then throw away, or maybe just you use it once.

[00:05:07] No, these are things that you used for a long time. We call them consumer durables, consumer goods, such as food products that sell in large quantities are fast moving consumer goods. So here we have two different types of consumer goods. We have consumer durables, those things that you buy and keep for a long time like cars, washing machines, and even cell phones and things you buy consume quickly.

[00:05:33] And it’s over like food products, for example. And usually they sell in large quantities. These are called fast moving consumer goods, or you can use the FMCG aggravation FMCG for fast moving consumer goods. So these are the goods. We talked about word combinations with products. We talked about goods, the different types of goods, the goods, the raw materials, finished goods, industrial goods, consumer goods, consumer durables, and fast moving consumer goods.

[00:06:01] Now let’s move on and talk about brands and branding. Now to have a product is not enough. You need to have a brand, a company gives a brand or a brand name to its products so that they can be easily recognized. They may be the name of the company itself. In this case, you can talk about the make. Of the product, the make of the product, that’s the company itself, for example, LG, Sony, or Apple.

[00:06:26] These are the names of the company. That’s the make. But for many other products you can refer to the make and model. So we have the make, which is the name of the company usually. And the model, like when we say Ford focus, the car Ford is the make focus is the model. And. Talking about this, you can think about old cars.

[00:06:45] We have the make of the car, the company that made the car and the model of the car, the special name given to this type of cars. Now the Sony video, for example, or the Canon EOS the Sony via the Sony is the, make the word. Sony is the main vial is the model Canon EOS. We’re talking about cameras here again.

[00:07:04] Cannon is the make. EOS is the model that some brand names become names for the whole product category. For example, Hoover for vacuum cleaners. Now, if you think of vacuum cleaners, you think of Hoover, but Hoover is a brand name is just a company. It’s not every single company that makes vacuum cleaners.

[00:07:22] That word is vacuum cleaner, but a lot of people refer to vacuum cleaners as Hoover, even if the make is not Hoover. So you see sometimes brand is very important, very strong. Some brand names become names for the whole product category. And here we come to the concept of brand awareness or brand recognition.

[00:07:42] What do we mean by brand awareness or brand recognition? That’s the degree to which people know a particular brand. All the ideas that people have about a particular brand are its brand image. So here, the brand image are all the ideas people have about your product and how well they know that is the brand awareness or brand recognition.

[00:08:02] So at the beginning of your company’s life, you might work a lot on this part. You might work a lot on raising your brand awareness because not a lot of people know about your brand yet, but maybe they will very soon. So you need to focus on this part. It’s not always just making the perfect product.

[00:08:22] Yeah. Making the perfect product is great. But if nobody knows about this perfect product, nobody is aware of this perfect product. And even if you sell this perfect product, but people do not have a clear idea about your brand because you yourself don’t know that yet you need to work on your brand. The very first thing before launching, before even thinking about designing the product, your great product might sell.

[00:08:47] In the short run, but your brand is going to sell in the long run. When people start to trust your brand, they’re going to buy almost anything you sell. And that’s a fact when you think about brand names like Apple, I mean, people, especially people who like Apple products, they’re just addicted to Apple.

[00:09:04] They would buy anything. Apple makes, even if they start making blender mixers. For example, if a blender mixers make is Apple, people will buy it. I’m not saying this is a good idea, of course, but what I’m saying is that people trust. This brand. So that’s why brand awareness brand recognition is very important.

[00:09:21] Working on your brand image is very important. And for some big companies like that, they have a brand manager, a person, or maybe even a team which have a brand manager who is in charge of the marketing of goods or services with a particular brand, a brand manager. A person who is just there to Polish the brand image and to raise awareness, to raise brand awareness all the time to help people know, recognize this brand wherever they see it.

[00:09:49] And here, we’re not just talking about the specifications of your product. We’re talking about everything. We’re talking about, the design, the color, the font, the words, the slogans, everything that is part of your brand. And the most important thing about branding is consistency. You need to be consistent when you want to think of a brand.

[00:10:07] Everything has to be consistent. I need to just take one quick look, wherever I see your product. I need to know that you make this product, whoever you are. Think of all the famous brands out there. You just look at something, you know, that’s Google, Oh, that’s Facebook sometimes just from the color, because there are people who are working hard on creating this consistent brand.

[00:10:28] And of course, they’re working on raising brand awareness and polishing this brand image in the minds of people in the minds of your market. Remember the market is the people when someone talks about branding, what does that mean? Branding is creating brands and keeping them in customers’ minds, through advertising product and package design, and so on.

[00:10:48] And here, remember, as I said, all of these things have to be like one package, one big package, one thing, advertising, product, package, design, they all have to be in tune. They cannot be different things. People who work on these things. They need to talk to each other all the time, because consistency is the most important thing.

[00:11:07] Anyway, a brand should have a clear brand identity so that people think of it in a particular, hopefully positive way in relation to other brands. Now, that being said, we’re not saying that every single product in the market is branded. Some products are not branded the products that do not have a manufacturer’s brand name on them.

[00:11:26] We have products like that and we call these generic products or generics. So we have generic products or generics. These are the products that are not branded, and there is some use for these products because they may be cheaper. Think about the medications. For example, when you talk about medications.

[00:11:44] Yes, we have a lot of brands. We have a lot of big pharmaceutical companies that creates certain brands, but we have generics as well. We have generic medication, which is a lot cheaper and for a lot of kinds of medications for daily use that might be necessary, you know, because brands cost money and that is going to increase the pricing of the product.

[00:12:03] Generics are definitely cheaper. Now we also have a third type. What about a product sold by a retailer with its own name rather than the name of its manufacturer? You can see that in supermarkets all the time. That is what we call an own brand product or an own label, product, or store brand. Now, let me tell you here in British English, they call it own brand product in American English.

[00:12:27] They call it own label, product, or store brand. And you can find that all the time, specially in your nearest supermarket, if you go there, especially if the supermarket is big, they buy products from companies and they put their own label on it. So that’s what we call own label, product, or store brand. Now, with that being said, that’ll be all about products and branding.

[00:12:47] For this episode, let me remind you again. If you want to practice what you’re learning here, you can use the part dedicated for this episode in the booklet, the PDF booklet that I’ve included with the mini series, both on our website, English plus podcast.com and on our Patreon page, that being said, this is your host, Danny. [00:13:03] I would like to thank you very much for listening to another episode in business English marketing series. I will see you in the other episodes.

<a href="https://englishpluspodcast.com/author/dannyballanowner/" target="_self">Danny Ballan</a>

Author

Danny is a podcaster, teacher, and writer. He worked in educational technology for over a decade. He creates daily podcasts, online courses, educational videos, educational games, and he also writes poetry, novels and music.

тавро, сорт, клеймо, качество, головня, клеймить, позорить, выжигать клеймо

существительное

- головня, головешка
- выжженное клеймо; тавро
- фабричная марка; фабричное клеймо
- клеймо (орудие для клеймения)
- ист. выжженное клеймо у преступника
- клеймо, печать позора

the brand of villainy — печать злодейства /подлости/

- сорт, качество, марка

good brand of flour — хороший сорт муки
good ordinary brand — обычный коммерческий сорт

- поэт. факел
- поэт. меч
- ржавчинный или головнёвый гриб
- головня вонючая (Tilletia tritici)

a brand from /out of/ the fire /the burning/ — а) человек, спасённый от грозящей ему опасности /от верной гибели/; б) человек, спасённый от позора или греха

глагол

- выжигать; ставить клеймо
- оставлять отпечаток в памяти

it is branded on my mind — это запечатлелось в моей памяти

- выделять, накладывать отпечаток

her hairstyle brands her as old fashioned — эта причёска делает её старомодной

- клеймить

to brand with infamy — позорить
to brand smb. as a liar [a coward, a thief] — заклеймить кого-л. как лжеца [труса, вора]

Мои примеры

Словосочетания

products which lack a strong brand image — продукты, которым не хватает раскрученного рекламного образа  
a new brand of soup mixes — новая марка смесей для супа  
corporate brand — корпоративный бренд  
umbrella brand — зонтичный бренд  
brand image — имидж торговой марки  
unorthodox brand of humour — своеобразное чувство юмора  
to wear the brand of a traitor — носить клеймо предателя  
brand label — ярлык производителя  
brand category — сорт изделия  
brand extension — расширение границ использования марки; расширение брэнда; расширение марки  
brand from the fire — человек, спасённый от грозящей ему опасности  
brand-new — не бывший в употреблении; совершенно новый; новёхонький  

Примеры с переводом

She was branded a loose woman.

Её заклеймили «распущенной».

They no longer brand their cattle.

Они больше не клеймят свой скот.

He owned a chain of restaurants branded under his own name.

Ему принадлежала сеть ресторанов, названная его собственной фамилией.

I am able to recall every word of this, it is branded into my mind.

Я помню каждое слово из той речи, так она врезалась мне в память.

The store sells a variety of shoe brands.

В магазине продаётся множество обувных брендов.

Jake arrived in his brand new (=completely new) car.

Джейк приехал на своей новенькой (т.е. совершенно новой) машине.

I don’t like his brand of humor.

Мне не нравится его чувство юмора.

ещё 13 примеров свернуть

Примеры, ожидающие перевода

Each cow was branded with the ranch’s logo.

DJ Dominic purveys a unique brand of music.

He’s developed his own brand of merchandise.

Для того чтобы добавить вариант перевода, кликните по иконке , напротив примера.

Возможные однокоренные слова

brandish  — размахивать, махать, потрясать оружием
brandy  — бренди, коньяк
brander  — клеймовщик, маркировщик, рашпер, жарить на рашпере, на огне
brandied  — пропитанный или приправленный бренди, смешанный с бренди, пропитанный бренди

Формы слова

verb
I/you/we/they: brand
he/she/it: brands
ing ф. (present participle): branding
2-я ф. (past tense): branded
3-я ф. (past participle): branded

noun
ед. ч.(singular): brand
мн. ч.(plural): brands

Anna stárková

Presentation concept :

            1. what is a brand ? 
            2. branding
            3. WORD COMBINATION WITH ‘BRAND’
            4. brand values
            5. activity 

1. What is a brand

            • TO BRAND a product
            • TO DIFFERENTIATE a product
            • BRAND NAME
            • TRADEMARK

 


2. BRANDING

              • BRANDING
              • BRAND MANAGER
              • aspects of a brand:
                  • the BRAND IMAGE
                  • the BRAND ESSENCE
                  • the BRAND PROMISE
                  • the BRAND VISION

3. WORD COMBINATIONS WITH

BRAND

              • a PREMIUM BRAND
              • an ECONOMY BRAND
              • an OWN BRAND
              • a BRAND LEATHER
              • a NO BRAND
              • the FLAGSHIP BRAND / STORE
              • CO-BRANDING

4. BRAND VALUES

          • Trust me.
              • trustworthiness
              • fairness
          • I am good for you.
              • costumer satisfaction 
          • I make you feel good.
              • pleasure, passion, inspiration
          • I am your contemporary.
              • traditional brands
              • modern brands

activity

‘show them that you care’

ANTHR . cz

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