Warming Ups
'The four Ps' form the basis of the 'marketing mix'. If you want to market a product successfully, you need to get this mix right.
Match the Ps (1-4) to their definitions (a-d).
1- product
Vocabulary
match each of the three word partnerships to the correct definition (a-c).
1- Market
1- the percentage of sales a company has
2- information about what customers want and need
3- a group of customers of similar age, income level and social group
2- Consumer
1- description of a typical customer
2- where and how people buy things
3- things people buy for their own use
3- product
1- introduction of a product to the market
2- length of time people continue to buy a product
3- set of products made by a company
4- sales
1- how much a company wants to sell in a period
2- how much a company thinks it will sell in a period
3- numbers showing how much a company has sold in a period
5- advertising
1- business which advises companies on advertising and makes ads
2- an amount of money available for advertising during a particular period
3- a programme of advertising activities over a period, with particular aims
• car/motorbike Mercedes • mobile phone I camera
• clothing/perfume • food/drink
• magazine/newspaper • computer I electronic goods
For each brand, think about these questions.
1 What is the product range of the brand? The range includes cars , vans and trucks.
2 Which market segment is it aimed at in your country?
3 What is a typical consumer profile for the brand? Include the following:
• age • gender • job/profession • income level • interests/hobbies
• other products the consumer might buy
Richard Turner is the European Marketing Manager for a pharmaceutical company. Listen to the first part of the interview and answer these questions.
1 What is very important when you market to doctors?
2 How much time do marketing people usually have with doctors?
3 What are 'rational' advantages?
4 What are 'emotional' advantages?
2 Marketing people are gaining from all the benefits of the Internet and new communication methods.
3- Companies are starting to look at using technology such as the iPad when presenting data to doctors.
3- Listen to the final part and put these stages in the correct order.
What can you say about the different product Lifecycles of these things?
• pharmaceutical drugs • computer software • cars • English-language textbooks
• Rubik's cubes • skateboards • football shirts of a famous team
Discuss these questions in pairs.
1 Who do you think is the biggest manufacturer of sports goods in a) Europe,
and b) China?
2 What do you know about Nike, Adidas and Li Ning?
Before you read, match these questions (1-6} to the answers (a-f).
Adidas targets the Chinese interior
by Patti Waldmeir
Adidas. Europe's biggest sports-goods maker. will open 2,500 stores and expand its sales network to I ,400 Chinese cities, in an effort to regains market share lost to foreign and domestic competitors in one of the world's most rapidly growing retail markets.
The German company is one of many consumer-goods multinationals that have recently decided to shirt their focus from near-saturated cities like Shanghai and Beijing to target smaller cities and less wealthy consumers. where they believe growth potential is higher for foreign brands.
Adidas plans to reach far into the Chinese interior to open the new stores. Initially, this will be in urban areas with as few as 500,000 people and then, by 20 15 , in cities with a population of just over 50.000, company officials said in Shanghai on Tuesday.
"'We will be in much smaller cities by 2015 ,'' said Christophe Bezu, Adidas Managing Director for Greater China. At present, the company has 5 ,600 stores in 550 cities. The product mix in smaller cities will be chosen so that the entry price for consumers would be 1 5 per cent less than in Adidas's existing shops in larger cities. he added. The company would be targeting consumers with an average disposable income of Rmb5 ,000 ($753) a month.
Herbert Hainer, Adidas Chief Executive. predicted that the strategy would allow the German group to regain the number-two market position that it recently lost to Li Ning, the Chinese sportswear manufacturer.
Li Ning, named after the Olympic gymnast who lit the flame at the opening ceremony of the 2008
Beijing Olympics , recently announced plans to take its brand upmarket to compete more directly
with foreign brands like Adidas and the market leader. Nike. Li Ning 's move up to second position could prove a key moment .
Retail analysts see it as one of the first signs in the retail field that Chinese products can rebrand themselves as not just cheap but desirable.
Li Ning has strong sales and distribution networks in the lower-tier cities that Adidas hopes to penetrate.
Mr Hainer dismissed Adidas's recent problems i n China as temporary, related to overstocking in the run-up to the Olympics. Mr Hainer predicted double-digit sales growth in China over the next five years.
Match these words and phrases (1-7) to their definitions (a-g).
Complete these sentences with some of the words/phrases from the previous Exercise .
In questions which we can answer with either yes or no, we put an auxiliary verb before the subject.
'Do you trust this market-research survey?' 'No, the sample size wasn't large enough. '
'Is the market going to crash again?' 'No, not in the near future.'
'Have you finished the marketing report?' 'Yes, I printed it out earlier. '
• To ask for more information, we use question words like what, why, where, when and how.
We put the question word before the auxiliary verb.
When do you want the sales figures?
How should we promote it?
How many are we expecting to sell?
Listen to the first part of a phone conversation between a sales director, Martin, and his manager, Fiona. Answer these questions.
1 Did they meet their sales targets?
2 How has their market share changed?
3 What were their total sales?
4 How much did they spend on shampoo advertising?
