Spelling & Vocabulary Enrichment [ 37 ]

37- ] Spelling & Vocabulary Enrichment .

Business In Use .

 

Products and Brands .

A-] Word combinations with ‘product’ :

                       catalog [ Br E ] 

                      

                       catalog [ Am E ]

                        mix         :  a company’s products as a group

                      portfolio

Product        ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                            line

                                   a company’s products of a particular type

                        range

                      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                      lifecycle : the stages in the life of a product and the number of

                                      people who buy it at each stage

                      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                       positioning :  how a company would like a product to be seen in

                                      elation o its other products or to competing products

                       ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                            

                       placement   :  when a company pays for its products to be seen in

                                              films and TV programs .

B-] Goods :

- ‘Goods’ can refer to the materials and components used to make products or  the products that are made . Here are some of these different types of goods : 

1-] Consumer goods that last a long time such as cars and washing machines are ‘consumer durables’ .

 

2-] 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’ .

- ‘Branding’ is creating brands and keeping them in customer’s minds through advertising , packaging etc. A brand should have a clear ‘brand identity’ so that people think of it in a particular way in relation to other brands .- A product with the retailer’s own name on it is an ‘own-brand product’ [ Br E ] or  ‘own-label product’ [ Am E ] .

- Products that are not ‘branded’ , those that do not have a ‘brand name’ are ‘generic products’ or ‘generics’ .

Price .

A-] Pricing :

The goods of our company are ‘low-priced’ . Permanently low ‘pricing’ means , it ‘charges’ low prices all the time .

- You mean ‘cheap’ : your goods are poor quality . Our goods are ‘high-priced’ , but we give customer service . A lot of our goods are ‘mid-priced’ : nor cheap and nor expensive .

- Your goods are ‘expensive’ . Customers do not need service .

- You must be selling some goods ‘at cost’ [ what you pay for them ] or ‘at a loss’ [ even less ].

- Yes . We have ‘loss leaders’ – cheap items to attract customers in . But it is all below the ‘official’ ‘list price’ or ‘recommended retail price’ .We have a policy of ‘discounting’ ; selling ‘at a discount’ to the list price .

- If he goes on ‘undercutting’ us , we cannot stay in business .

B-] Word combinations with ‘price’ :

                 

                      boom        :  a good period for sellers , when prices ae rising quickly

                     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

price      controls   :  government efforts to limit price increases

                    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                cut     :   a reduction in price

                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

               hike    :   an increase in price

                     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

               war: when competing companies reduce prices in response of each other

                     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                leader   :        a company that is first to reduce or increase prices

                     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                tag  :  a label attached to goods , showing the price ; also means ‘price’

                      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

C-] Upmarket and down-market  [ Br E ] ; Upscale and downscale [ Am E ] :

- Products , for example ‘skis’ , exist in different ‘models’ . Some are ‘basic’ , some more ‘sophisticated’ . The cheapest skis are ‘low-end’ or ‘bottom-end’ . The most expensive one are ‘high-end’ or ‘top-end’ products , designed for experienced users [ or people with a lot of money ] . The cheapest ‘entry-level’ skis are for beginners who have never bought skis before. Those in between are ‘mid-range’ . If you buy sophisticated skis to replace basic ones, you ‘trade up’ and move ‘upmarket’. If you  cheaper skis after buying more expensive ones ,you ‘trade down’ and move ‘down-market’ .

- ‘Down-market’ can show disapproval . If a publisher ‘takes’ a newspaper ‘down-market’ ,they make it more popular , but less cultural to increase sales .

D-]Mass markets and niches :

‘Mass market’ describes goods that sell in large quantities and the people who buy them . For example , family cars are a mass market product . A ‘niche’ or ‘niche market’ is a small group of buyers with special needs which may be profitable to sell to . For example , sports cars are a niche in the car industry .

Place .

A- ] Distribution: wholesalers , retailers and customers :

A distribution network .

Producers                           Distributers .                                  Distribution channel

                               wholesalers        retailers                               customers

- A ‘wholesaler’ or shop selling a particular product , such as cars is a ‘dealer’ . A ‘reseller’ sells computers . Wholesalers and retailers are ‘distributors’ . Wholesalers are sometimes disapprovingly called ‘middlemen’ .

B-] Shops :

A ‘shop’ [Br E] or ‘store’ [Am E] is where people buy things . Companies may call it a

‘retail outlet’ or ‘sale outlet’ . Here are some types of shops :

1-] Chain store : part of a group of shops , all with the same name . 2-] Convenience store: small shop in a residential area and open long hours . 3-] Deep discounter : a supermarket with very low prices .

 4-] Department store : very large shop with a wide variety of goods , usually in a town center . 

5-] Drugstore :  shop in a town center in the US which sells medicines ; you can also have coffee and meals there . 

6-] Hypermarket :  very large shop with a wide variety of goods ,usually outside a town . 

7-] Supermarket : very large shop , selling mainly food .

- In Britain , a ‘shopping center’ or ‘shopping precinct’ is purpose-built area or building in a town center with a number of shops . Outside towns , there are ‘shopping malls’ , where it is easy to park .

- ‘Franchises’ are owned by the people that run them [ franchisees ] , but they only sell the goods of one company . That company [ the franchisor] provides goods , organizes advertising and offers help and support . In return it takes a percentage of the profits of each franchisee . Many restaurants are also run like this .

C-] Direct marketing :

I work in a ‘direct marketing’ company . We organize ‘mailings’ for many different products and services . This is ‘direct mail’ , but people often call it ‘junk mail’ . We ‘target’ our mailing lists very carefully ; for example , we do not send ‘mailshots’ for garden tools to people who live in apartments . - We also do ‘telemarketing’ , selling by telephone , including ‘cold calls’ to people who have had no contact with us before . People are often rude to the workers in our ‘call centers’ when they do this .

Promotion

A-] Advertising mediums [ media ]:
1-] Classified advertisements in newspapers and magazines etc. 
2- ]Open air hoardings [Br E] / billboards [ Am E ] .
 3-] Neon signs . 4-] Display advertisements . 5-] TV commercials .
6-] Special display . 

7-] The Internet .

- ‘Product endorsements’ are when famous people recommend a product .

- A series of advertisements for a particular company or product is an ‘advertising

campaign’ .

- A person or business that ‘advertises’ is an ‘advertiser’ . An organization that designs and manages advertising campaigns is an ‘advertising agency’ .

- ‘Sponsorship’ is where companies sponsor [ pay some of the costs of ] events like concerts

and sports events .

B-] The sales force :

A company’s ‘salespeople’ [ its ‘salesmen’ and ‘saleswomen’ ] visit customers and persuade them to buy its products . Each member of this ‘salesforce’ may be responsible for a particular region : his or her ‘sales area’ or ‘sales territory’ .

- The head of the sales force is the ‘sales manager’ .

C-] Promotional activities :

- ‘Promotion’ is all the activities supporting the sale of a product , including advertising . A ‘promotion’ describes : 

1-] a ‘special offer’ such as a ‘discount’ or reduced price .

 2-] a ‘free gift’ : given with the product . 3-] a ‘free sample’ : a small amount of the product to try or taste .

 4-] ‘competitions’ with ‘prizes’ .

- Supermarkets and airlines give ‘loyalty cards’ to customers : the more you spend , the more points you get and you can exchange these points for free goods or flights .

- ‘Cross-promotion’ is where you buy one product and you are recommended to buy another product that may go with it .