Unit-2-Brands.doc

Unit 2 Brands
Warmer
--background information (questions for discussion)
brand?
marketing?
marketing department?
--Working in small groups, get SS to think of up to five brands for each product category.
--Invite comments and encourage discussion about the above questions.
Brand
l A brand can be a name, a term or symbol. It is used to differentiate a product from competitor’s products. The brands guarantee a certain quality level. Brands should add value to products. It’s a synergy effect whereby one plus one equals three. But customers must believe they get extra value for money.
Marketing
l Marketing is an important part of the business school curriculum. Marketing courses usually begin with the credo of the marketing orientation, the idea that success and profitability are attained through identification and satisfaction of customer needs. The market orientation implies that marketing is not just a set of activities, but an attitude that should permeate the entire company. In this view, marketing is not just about a company selling what it makes, but about knowing what it should make in the first place.
Marketing Department
l A team of brand managers or products managers who are responsible for promoting the company’s products in one country or group of countries.
l The actual activity of getting sales outlets to order products may be dealt with by sales department and its sales force.
l Products team: usually do research, development and selling.
Marketing
l Marketing can be approached in terms of the four classic Ps—product, price, place, promotion. Selling the right product, at the right price, through the right channels, with the right support and communications.
Questions relate mainly to consumer marketing (bring them in mind)
l The company’s product range? (top-end or upmarket, or mid-range and bottom or downmarket)
l Does it have an entry-level product for people buying the type of product for the first time?
l Are new products often launched?
l What are some of the features of buying behavior?
l What are the different customer groups or segments?
l How are products positioned in relation to competitors’ products? And who are the important competitors in the market, the key players?
l What is the company’s policy on prices: how does it set its prices? What is the make-up for distributors? What sort of profit margins are there for the company?
l Are there discounts to distributors and consumers?
l Are there price war between competitors?
Questions for consumer marketing
l How are products distributed to reach the outlets?
l Who is involved in the distribution channels?
l What is the relationship between wholesalers, distributors, resellers and retailers?
l What are the relationship between them? And who has the upper hand?
l How are products promoted?
l Is there a sales force? If so, how is it organised?
l Is there any advertising and/ or direct mail?
l Who carried it out?
l Is packaging important?
l Who designs it?

Overview
Tell SS that they will be studying language associated with marketing and brands.
--Read the overview section.
--Make up an agenda for the lessons.

Quotation
l “The most distinctive skill of professional marketers is their ability to create, maintain, protect and enhance brands.”
---P. Kotler, American marketing guru
---Understand the meaning
---Ask SS whether they agree with or disagree with the quotation

Starting up --discussion
l Task A :This section gives the Ss an opportunity to discuss the theme of the unit, and provide speaking practice.
--Ask SS, working individually, to make a list of their five favorite brands. Ask them to think about the brands they have on them (clothes, pens, watches, mobil-phone, spectacles, etc.) and other products (food and drink, cars, computers, etc.)
--Ask SS to think individually about their answers to the questions in the book.
--When they finished, ask a few pairs or group to report back to the class on their discussion.
l Task B:
--Ask SS into small groups to discuss this question. Ask them to list as many answers and they can
--Check the answers with the whole class
Advantages for the manufacturer:
1. Instantly recognisable
2. Being able to associate specific qualities with brand (e.g. value for money, safety, prestige)
3. The possibility of launching related products under the same (established) brand Greater customer loyalty
Advantages for the consumer:
1. A reliable product—you know what you’re getting for your money
2. High prestige brands give you an opportunity to enhance your standing

l Task C:
--Ask SS, in small groups, to decide which is the world’s top brand and to rank them all from one to ten.
--When SS have finished, refer them to the answers in their books P 156.

Vocabulary: brand management
l Task A:
--Dictate the words: awareness, classic, image, leader, loyalty, luxury, manager, stretching.
--Match the words.
--Get SS to do the exercise individually, comparing their answers in pairs as they finish.
1 luxury brand, 2 brand manager, 3 brand leader, 4 classic brand, 5 brand image, 6 brand loyalty, 7 brand stretching, 8 brand awareness

l Task B:
--SS do the exercise individually, then compare.
1. Classic brand, 2 brand awareness, 3 brand image, 4 luxury brand

Listening:
l This listening comes from an authentic interview with a marketing specialist. The exercises focus on predication and listen for information.
l Part 1
--Working individually, Ss complete as many of the gaps as they.
--SS compare their answers in pair.
--SS listen to part 1, play the recording twice and go through the answers with the whole class
1 name, 2 differentiate, 3 competitors’ , 4 quality, 5 synergy, 6 money

Part 2:
--SS listen to part 2. Play the recording twice. Then get them compare their answers in pairs.
--Go through the answers with the whole class.
l Part 3
--Work in pairs, ask Ss to guess what might be missing from the summary.
--SS listen to part 3 and check their predications
Customers want:
1. New brands
2. Choice
3. Different products
Customers like to:
1. Rely on the quality levels guaranteed by the company.
2. Trust products.
3. Identify with brands

Reading: fashion piracy
l This article, adapted from the Financial Times, looks at Calvin Klein’s attempts to deal with counterfeit products. The comprehension exercises develop reading for information.
l Task A:
--Put SS into pairs or small group to discuss the questions.
--Go through the questions briefly with the whole class.
l Task B
--Get SS to read the title of text and guess what the text is about.
--Get SS to list the words that they think may appear in the text—e.g. design clothes, illegal, copy etc.
--Get SS to work through task B and go through the answers with the whole class.
1 c), 2 d), 3 e), 4 f), 5 g), 6 a), 7 i), 8 b), 9 j), 10 h)

l Task C
--SS look through the article to find the answers to the three questions.
--check the answers with the whole class.
1. T-shirts, jeans & baseball caps.
2. Because Calvin Klein has become a more well-known brand, and is therefore more profitable to copy.
3.By establishing a network of employees and external specialists

l Task D
--Get SS to read the three further questions before re-reading the article.
--check the answers with whole class.
1. It took a passive approach.
2. Because of the increase in counterfeiting and because it reduces the company’s sales and damages tis brand image.
3. It has expanded its business outside N. America, increased spending on advertising and signed licensing deals with partners for whole regions rather individual countries, the previous practice

Language review: Past simple and present perfect
l SS at this level will normally have covered this point in class several times but it can still cause problems.
--Revise and practise the tense rules and uses, get the Ss to do the exercises individually.
--Go through the answers with the whole class.
1 launched, 2 increased, 3 have fallen, 4 have copied, 5 has become, 6 orgainsed, 7 have found, 8 have seized, 9 contacted, 10 informed, 11 have had, 12 have lost.

Discussion: Three promotions
l This discussion provides fluency practice and a change of pace.
--Divide the class into three groups: McDonald’s, Pepsi and Irish Tourist Board
--Brief go through the questions together (teacher’s book P21)
Skills: Taking part in meetings
SS build up a profile of a company, speculate about what may be causing it to lose sales and brainstorm possible solutions.
l Task A
--suppose you are working for a marketing agency representing a well-known chain of book shops. Go to the questionnaire below, inventing the information to build a client profile.
l Task B
--Ask a representative to give a two-minute presentation of their client profile.

Case study: Caferoma
l This case study concerns a company losing market share. SS discuss possible solutions and make a decision.
--Ask SS which brands of coffee they drink. If they always buy the same brand or if they change from time to time.
--Get SS to discuss what the pictures say about Caferoma’s image, target, marker, etc.
Brand
Caferoma
Owned by
Pan European Food and Drink
Image
Exclusive, ltalian style, coffee for gourmets
pricing
high
Product characteristic
Strong full-bodied flovour, slightly bitter taste

l Problems
--Ask SS to look at the pie charts and decide what problems Caferoma has (25% fall in the market share).
--Get them to read the problems section and find out why.
l Possible solutions
--Ask SS to read through possible solutions.
--Set up the situation. Ss are members of PEFD’s marketing team in Europe, attending an informal meeting to discuss Caferoma’s problems and come up with a solution.
--When SS finish, get groups to report back to the rest of the class on their solutions

Internet resources:
l Hoover's Directory offers a brief overview of Calvin Klein with links to recent articles. (
l Check out the Coca-Cola site, which has information about Coca-Cola's core brands plus its other world-wide brands. Also check out the page which has a brief history of its brands. (http://www.coca-
l Fast Company,( )an online business magazine, is an excellent source of information on the new economy and workplace. For an interesting article on brand qualities, ( check out an interview with Scott Bedbury, Vice President of Marketing at Starbucks Coffee Company, entitled 'What great brands do - an eight point programme for creating great brands.' At the same site you can also read an article on Di-Ann Eisnor, who has succeeded in marketing digital brands in the physical world.
l The Harvard Business Review archive is also a valuable source of more academic articles on aspects of brand management.