Products, goods, and services

A product is something that is produced or manufactured and sold,

often in large numbers.

Products are sometimes referred to as goods, for example in the

expression fast-moving consumer goods, or FMCG.

White goods are things such as washing machines and refrigerators.

Brown goods are things such as televisions and hi-fi- equipment.

However, it is unusual to talk about a good, except in specialized

contexts such as economics or business studies.

 

Translate into Russian:

                                                                           

•... the food, drinks, detergent and tobacco industries, indeed of all companies dealing in what marketers call fast-moving consumer goods.

 

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• Our poll shows significant rises in those who say they plan to buy a TV or video, though there is still little movement in the index for white goods such as fridges and freezers.

• The popularity of home entertainment will be maintained over the period, with sales of brown goods such as television and hi-fi equipment, set to increase by 35%, the report says.

 

Goods as services, and vice versa. Fill in the gaps with the words "services" and "manufacturing"

 

 

                              ………………….  MYTHS

 

     Dividing their labour and specialising, people buy goods and …………………………. from each other. Car workers eat hamburgers; hamburgerflippers watch films; film producers buy cars. All depend on each other, for each provides the others with something they want.

    None is the place where the buck starts, or stops. But their jobs

are not equal. Some activities earn more than others, broadly because

they add more value, create more wealth.

  Once, it was true that the most value was added in ………………….. No longer. Some factories add lots of value, some little. Lots of value is

added in ……………………... Nor is there a relevant distinction between

…………………… and ………………………… but it has become mush harder to distinguish it.

   Any product: a car, a semi-conductor, a shirt, is a bundle of

 different processes, some of them ……………….., some of them ………… The way that bundle is tied together has changed.

   The designer of the Morris Minor and the Mini, Alec Issigonis,

provided a service. Yet, statistically he was a manufacturer, since he

was employed as a car maker. In the 1950s and 1960s firms tended to

perform many of their own ………………. What if Issigonis had gone off to

run his own design and engineering firm? At a stroke, the proportion

of Britain's GDP in ………………………. would have fallen and that in

 ………………………….. would have risen.

  That trend, of contracting …………………….. out rather than performing them in-house, was common everywhere in the 1980s. It is one big reason why ……………………………‘s share fell.

                                          

 

                                                                     

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Product scenarios

 

 

New products are introduced or launched onto the market.

If a defect is found in a product after it is launched, it may be

recalled: customers may be asked to return the defective product

for checks.

A product that a company no longer wants to make available is

withdrawn from the market.

The equivalent nouns are shown on the left.

 

Translate into Russian:

• Dell has made its biggest product launch so far, with 18 new PCs to replace its current line.

• Rumors about the new product introductions have been pushing Compaq stock prices higher.

• The hypothesis is, that after the launch of a new product, its sales will tend to follow a pattern or cycle that features phases of introduction, growth, maturity and decline, resulting in death or withdrawal from the market.

Product combinations

 

Find combinations in the box that mean:

 

1) the products that a company has to offer, considered as a group (4 expressions)

2) the life of a product considered in terms of the phases from its development and launch to its withdrawal.

3) the way a product is designed to be perceived in relation to other products.

4) a company paying for its product to be used or seen in a film or TV programme.

 

mix       lifecycle   range   positioning   product   placement   portfolio   line

 

 

                    

                                        

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Now match the two parts of these extracts.   

 

1) Boeing is now expanding its product line with its first all-new aircraft for 12 years.

2) Mitre's product range includes soccer

3) British Aerospace said more than half its sales now come from
4) Be rearranging what each supplier cаn do on its network,

5) As product lifecycles shorten,

6) The entire multi-million dollar event has been designed to complement Pepsi Max's sporty

7) The Bond films were the first to realise the potential of product placement. 007 had more than a licence to kill.

 

a) the lifespan of some consumer electronics gadgets is now as short as six months

b) products that weren't included in its product portfolio as little as 2 years ago.

c) Nike can change its product mix almost overnight.

d) At present the company makes four models, the 737, 757, 767 and the $150 million 747.

e) And rugby balls and sports footwear.

f) The logo was a licence to print money, with spin-off merchandise ranging from James Bond pyjamas to eau-de-cologne.

g) Positioning as a low-calorie cola drink for youths wanting to "live life to the Max".

 

Cash cows and loss leaders

 

  A product or business generating a lot of profit is a money spinner.

   Technically, a cash cow is a profitable product or business with

high market share in a low-growth market, but it is also used to

mean any profitable product or business generating a steady flow of

sales revenues.

  A loss leader is a product sold unprofitably in order to attract

 customers who will then, it is hoped, be persuaded to buy profitable

 ones.

 

Translate into Russian:

 

• Imperial is the classic Hanson cash-cow: a mature business, tied to British markets with low investment needs, retrenched by Hanson to a few lucrative brands pumping money to Hanson head office.

 

 

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• In Britain, where the trade promotion system is not as complicated as in America, supermarkets sometimes sell top brands below cost as loss leaders, thereby angering manufacturers.

  

LOSS LEADER PACKAGE HOLIDAYS. Read this article about

loss leader selling techniques and re-arrange the sections into a logical

order

 

 

                TRAVEL AGENTS WARNED OVER ADVERTS

 

a) Many late-booking holiday makers are being wooed into travel agencies by cut-price offers then given a hard sell to encourage them to book more expensive packages

 

b) "The problem is getting people through the doors. You can offer them a fortnight in Majorca for $69, then once they are inside, you point out all the drawbacks, such as that the hotels cannot be guaranteed, and sell them as many add-ons as possible,"

 

c) Local authority trading standards officers have contacted А ВТ А after complaints that travel agents have left offers in windows long after all holidays have been sold. Travel agents have been told to ensure that their advertising is fair and accurate.

 

d) Mike Grindrod, president of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA), said that to sell off thousands of unsold package holidays, travel agents were advertising loss leaders in their windows and then using trained staff to persuade holidaymakers to spend far more.

 

e) The loss leaders, however, are still appearing in shop windows. At Thomas Cook in High Holborn, central London, a 14-night Athens package, including hotel accommodation, was being offered for $269. "You won't know what hotel you're staying in until you arrive," the assistant said. "It may be better to look at Skiathos for $349 or Rhodes for $319." The ruse is clearly working, as many operators report that most August holidays have been sold with little discounting...

 

 

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Brand image

                                           

A brand of a product is a version of it made by one particular

manufacturer.

Consumers may or may not recognise or know about a particular

brand name or brand label. This knowledge, or lack of it, is measured in terms of brand recognition and brand awareness.

A product sold by a retailer under the retailer's name rather than

the manufacturer's is an own-brand product or own-label product.

Products that are not branded, not sold under a brand name, are

generic products or generics. This applies especially to pharmaceutical drugs.  

 

Translate into Russian:

 

• Marketing programs are designed to enhance brand awareness and establish favorable, strong and unique brand associations in memory so that consumers purchase the product or service.

• Lever Brothers also advertises the micro system for two of their brands, Radion and Surf, and then there are the many own-brand products of major supermarkets.

•...a loss of public confidence in so-called generics — low-cost copies of brandname drugs whose patents have expired

Pricing

 

One of a company's concerns is, of course, deciding the price of its products in relation to each other and to competing products. This is known as pricing.

A product may be seen as expensive or cheap, but "expensive" may imply "too expensive" and "cheap" is often used to show disapproval of poor quality. A way of getting round this is to say that something is high-priced or low-priced.

Similarly, things may be mid-priced.

 

Translate into Russian:

 

• In formulating its pricing strategy for the Macintosh, Apple faced a
classic management dilemma.

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• The introduction of the lower-price d Cadillac Cimaron model is thought to have led to declines in image and sales for the entire Cadillac division.

• L’Оreal spends 4.9% of sales on R&D and has become good at transferring the benefits of research for its prestige brands, like Niosome, a
high-priced cream based on liposome technology, to its middle-market
but high-volume Plenitude brand.

The war for sales

 

 

A product may have an "official" list price, but this price may in. practice rarely be charged because of discounting by sellers who offer a lower price by giving a discount.

When prices are reduced, there are price cuts. When a business sells a product at a lower price than its competitors, it undercuts them.

Companies responding to each other's price cuts by repeatedly cutting prices engage in price wars.

When a foreign company is believed to be selling products at less than what it costs to make them, or at less than the price it charges ' in its home market, it is accused of dumping.

 

 

Translate into Russian:

 

• The American Communist party had sent Ho Chi Mihn a wrist watch, a good "Jules Jurgensen". Back in America, I asked a jeweller about this brand. He said, "It's the kind of thing you see in a catalogue. You know: $795 list price. Discount price $395. This week only $259."

• British Midland launched a new business class on March 28th with fares that undercut its rivals' prices by as much as 40%.

• The Commerce Department, upholding trade complaints filed by American Telephone and Telegraph, issued preliminary rulings that

 manufacturers of business telephone systems in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are " dumping " their products in the, US. Dumping is selling in the US at prices below the cost of production at the

homemarket prices.                                                           

 

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ТЕХ Т

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