D. Word Fields
1. Which of the words and phrases below are associated with the following: 1) a “Marketing Mix”, 2) business crimes?
Boom; copyright and trademark infringement; to set a price, a discount; biopiracy; to distribute products; to manipulate people's values and behaviour; to sell on-line; to advertise products; publicity; to maintain consumers' demand; ethics of production; guarantees; stagnation; pricing; point-of-sale placement or retailing; unemployment; sales promotion; wages and incomes rise; branding; to prolong working hours; inflation; price rise; misleading financial analysis; stability; insufficiency of goods, ageism; industrial espionage; gender discrimination.
E. Word Usage
plete: use an appropriate preposition where necessary.
of(2), to(3), with (2), about, on, into |
1. The goal … our advertising campaign is to deliver all the necessary information … our product to the end-user.
2. Ethics … production deals … a company's duties to guarantee that its products wouldn't cause any harm … the buyers.
3. This brand tells me nothing as we have never had any experience … the producer.
4. We are concerned not only … a profit but also such issues as environmental pollution and genetically modified food.
5. I am not going to manipulate … your behaviour; I am just appealing … your common sense.
6. In his business ethics our boss has never focused … the issues of age and race as a non-European over his 40's has never applied … his company.
7. There is a number of company performance actions that can influence … customers' choice.
8. Advertising and branding can convert strangers … customers.
2. Linking: match the first half of each sentence with the most appropriate second half.
1. Many industrial enterprises are against putting their information on the Internet because they are afraid of … | a) patent, copyright and trademark infringement and industrial espionage. |
2. If a company refuses to employ you for the reason that you are over 40 it is called … | b) Marketing Mix. |
3. Advertising, branding, sales promotion and Public Relations are called … | c) illegal and unethical ways of promotion. |
4. Product, price, place and promotion make up a … | d) marketing techniques. |
5. Marketing in schools, black or grey markets and false advertising are considered to be … | e) are points of special attraction to tax and other inspections. |
6. Pollution, genetically modified food, mobile phone radiation cause a lot of … | f) health problems |
7. Illegal manipulation with finance, like misleading financial analysis, facilitation payments and false accounting … | g) manipulates our values and behaviour. |
8. Very often advertising not only introduces new goods but makes … | h) ageism. |
plete: use appropriate information from the text to finish the following sentences.
1. Marketing is necessary because …
2. A “Marketing Mix” consists of…, while marketing techniques include …
3. The pluses of marketing strategies are..., while their minuses are the following: …
4. A brand and a trademark are different things: …
5. The main issues of business ethics are as follows: …
6. Illegal business manipulations result in …
4. Translate: give the English equivalents for the following word combinations.
Предугадать запросы конечного потребителя; исследование рынка; повлиять на решение покупателя; установить цену на продукт; сохранять спрос на товар; различать продукт по бренду; манипулировать сознанием и поведением; загрязнение окружающей среды; наносить вред здоровью; торговая марка; ложный финансовый анализ; права и обязанности работодателя и сотрудника; расовая, половая и религиозная дискриминация.
5. Translate the following sentences into English.
1. Повлиять на решение покупателя при помощи правильно организованной маркетинговой стратегии было верным решением: продажи могли бы возрасти. Но как вы могли разместить рекламу, не исследовав рынок и не предугадав запросы конечного потребителя?
2. Не имеет смысла дополнительно рекламировать наш товар. На протяжении многих лет на него сохраняется спрос. Поскольку компания специализируется на долгосрочной продукции и дает гарантии качества своей продукции, нам ничего не остается, как искать покупателей среди людей, которые еще не знакомы с нашим товаром.
3. Некоторые компании пытаются заставить покупателя узнавать свою продукцию по бренду, внешне напоминающему известные мировые торговые марки. Они также хорошо владеют маркетинговыми стратегиями и технологиями и манипулируют сознанием и поведением покупателей. Их производства часто загрязняют окружающую среду, что наносит вред здоровью людей.
4. Патенты и торговые марки известных производителей используются нечестными производителями с целью сбыта своей продукции на так называемых «серых рынках». Поэтому контроль над Интернетом в РБ направлен как на предупреждение он-лайн преступности, так и защиту интеллектуальной собственности, включая авторское право.
IV. Reading
A. Reading for the Main Idea
Read the text to understand the main idea of it and try the following tasks.
1. Choose the statement that best summarises the main idea of the text.
1. Marketing is oriented towards promotion of goods and services, but its techniques are not always honest.
2. Marketing manipulates human values and behaviour and results in business crimes.
3. Marketing studies business ethics.
2. Answer the following questions.
1. According to the text, what is marketing? What are its main strategies?
2. What does a “Marketing Mix” consist of?
3. What are the main marketing strategies?
4. What issues does business ethics include?
B. Reading for Details
Read the text again to better understand details and try the following tasks.
1. Understanding Expressions: give the best explanation for each of these phrases used in the text.
Marketing strategies; marketing practice; supporting elements; “Marketing Mix”; retailing; end-user's needs and wants; point-of-sale placement or retailing; publicity; personal selling; to govern the communication medium.
2. According to the text, mark these statements T (true) or F (false).
1. Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as a paid form of public presentation and expressive promotion of ideas aimed at masses.
2. Marketing practice tends to be seen only as a creative industry, which includes advertising, distribution and selling.
3. Marketing Mix contains 4 “P”- elements: product, price, place and promotion.
4. The product aspects of marketing deal with setting a price for a product.
5. A brand is a name or symbol which makes an association with a product in customers' minds.
6. Marketing always seeks to manipulate our values and behaviour in a dishonest way.
7. Ethics of production deals with price discrimination, anti-competitive practices, pyramid scheme.
8. Relations between the employer and the employee are regulated by the ethics of human resource management.
3. Give the best definition for each of these economic terms.
Advertising, marketing, warranties, guarantees, pricing, branding, sales promotion, intellectual property, a trademark, industrial espionage, company's performance, a grey market, price discrimination, anticompetitive practice, patents.
4. Choose the variant that best explains the idea of the sentence below.
Marketing may seek to manipulate our values and behaviour. To some extent the society regards this as acceptable, but where is the ethical line to be drawn?
a) The society does not accept any manipulations with its citizens' values and behaviour.
b) The society accepts manipulations with its citizens' values and behaviour up to certain limits.
c) Any manipulations with human values and behaviour are acceptable.
5. Give profound answers to the following questions.
1. What is marketing? What is its objective? Its role and practice?
2. What is a “Marketing Mix”?
3. Why is the society concerned with business ethics?
4. What is branding?
5. What is trademark infringement?
6. Practise reading §5 and §6. Translate them into Russian. Give a short summary of the passage.
C. How the text is organised
1. What do these words refer to in the text?
1) you (§ 1); 2) others (§ 1); 3) it (§ 2); 4) this (§ 5); 5) that (§ 5).
3. Find the paragraphs of the text dealing with the following concepts.
1) 4 P's; 2) intellectual property; 3) PRM; 4) marketing techniques; 5) PR ethics; 5) Marketing Mix; 6) placement and promotion; 7) marketing practice; 8) business ethics.
V. Speaking
A. Discussion
Work in pairs or small groups. Discuss your answers to the following questions.
1. Is it necessary to promote every product manufactured by a company? What is an efficient promotion?
2. What is meant by advertising techniques? Are you easily influenced by advertising?
B. Giving your opinion
Give your opinion on the following questions.
1. What marketing strategies do you find the most efficient for selling a) a book of a young author; b) a new kind of yoghurt; c) a large amount of shampoo, d) TV-sets made by domestic producers, d) new software; e)a hairdresser's services. Explain your choice.
2. What issues of business ethics do you find a) the most - b) the least typical of this country?
3. Should business be socially responsible?
C. Role play
Introducing a New Product
Prepare for a role play. Read the situation and the roles, and follow the procedure.
The situation
A company which produces cosmetics is to promote a new line (creams, shampoos, lotions, after-shaves etc) but it has not been clinically tested.
The roles
1. Moderator (Production Manager). You run the flow of the meeting by setting the problem and giving the floor to the participants and organising a discussion. You may express your personal opinion as well.
2. The Boss. You are encouraging the management to hide the true information from the customers ensuring them that the product is not going to do any harm to people's health. Think of the arguments proving your point of view.
3. Marketing Manager. The only risks you worry about are profit risks. You have already made up a plan of promotion campaign. Deliver it to the audience.
4. Managing Director. You are quite loyal to your boss, but at the same time you do not want to tell lies to the consumers. You find it more honest to warn the consumer that the product has not been clinically tested.
5. Chief Technologist. You are scientifically literal, but you have little experimental experience. The new product is one of your first inventions. In theory, you suggest that the product is not going to do any harm. Prove why you think so.
6. Consultant, Doctor of Medicine. You are totally against letting the new product enter the market without clinical testing. Say what consequences it may cause to people's health (if not immediately, then in the future) and appeal to social responsibility of the company.
7. Chief Engineer. You explain to the audience that the process of manufacturing the new product is less energy consuming, the new package is made of ecologically recyclable materials etc (think of other advantages), and so in the end it is going to do more good than harm.
8. Expert in Chemistry. You say that while interacting with sun light, air and water the new product quickly and easily turns into absolutely safe chemical components, but in this connection you doubt its cosmetic effectiveness.
9. Secretary. You have been using the new cosmetics for a week and you are very satisfied. You are sure it is safe and effective (prove it).
10. Currier. You have washed your dog with the new shampoo, and now it seems to be losing its hair. Besides, it has changed the colouring. So you are not sure that the product is safe.
11. Shareholders (the rest of the audience). Listen to the speakers, put questions to them and express your own opinion.
The procedure
1. The moderator opens the meeting.
2. The participants in turn take the floor and make their reports, saying their opinion of what should be done with the new product.
3. The moderator organizes the exchange of views and opinions.
4. The moderator organizes the voting to decide which decision to make.
5. The moderator closes the meeting.
After the role play the moderator evaluates the participants’ reports. The moderator's performance is evaluated by the group.
VI. Writing
Write an essay on one of the following topics.
1. My views on social responsibility of business. Can marketing strategies be fully honest? Advertising: helping to choose or manipulating human values?
2. Business ethics in the Republic of Belarus.
Unit 6 Production Costs
I. Anticipating the Issue
Discuss your answers to the following questions.
1. Do you know what production costs mean?
2. Can you illustrate the concept of production costs on the examples of an enterprise, a shop, a farm?
3. What factors of production compose production costs?
II. Background Reading
Read the following text. Focus on the meaning of the boldfaced words. Determine whether what you anticipated coincides with the information of the text.
Production Costs
1. The goal of any business is to earn as much profit as possible. Profit is the money that businesses get from selling their products, once the money it costs to make those products has been subtracted. Businesses use several measures of costs to make sure that they are operating efficiently.
2. The cost that a business has to pay even if a factory is unused and output is zero is called fixed cost. Fixed cost includes such things as interest payments on debts, rents, and taxes. It also includes depreciation, which is a measurement of the decreasing value of capital goods, such as machinery, as they are used over and over again. Total fixed cost is called overhead.
3. Variable costs are production costs that change when the level of production changes. For example, labour costs change when workers work overtime or are laid off. Other examples include gasoline for delivery trucks and packaging supplies. Another example of a variable cost is the cost of the electric power to run machines. If the machines are not running, there is no cost for electricity. But when the machines are being used, the business has to pay for the electricity to run them. The sum of all fixed costs and variable costs is the total cost.
4. Businesses find that marginal cost is the most useful measure of cost. It is the extra cost of producing one additional unit of output. For example, if the addition of one worker yields a marginal product of 7 units and increases variable costs by $90, each additional unit of output has a marginal cost of $12.86, or $90 divided by 7. In this way, the marginal cost per unit can be found for each additional worker. As a result, a firm knows the cost of producing each new unit of output as variable costs rise.
5. Inputs affect production because different inputs have different costs, and inputs can be combined in different ways. For example, a gas station is likely to have large fixed costs, such as the cost of the lot and taxes. The variable costs are probably small, such as employee wages and the cost of electricity. Because of this, the owner might be able to keep the gas station open 24 hours a day for a fairly low cost. Since the variable costs are small, they may be covered by the profits of the extra sales.
6. Fixed and variable costs affect the way a business chooses to operate. For this reason, many stores are doing business on the Internet. Businesses engaged in e-commerce – an electronic business conducted over the Internet – reduce their fixed costs in many ways. They do not have to rent a building for their store(s) or hold inventory. For a fraction of a physical store’s cost, a virtual store can show their products, make transactions, and reach more markets.
7. When a business knows its total costs, it can determine how many goods and services it must produce for its total costs to equal its total revenue. This is called the break-even point. Most firms, however, want to earn a profit.
8. Businesses use two key measures to find the level of production that will generate the greatest profit – total revenue and marginal revenue. Total revenue is the total amount a firm earns. Put simply, total revenue is equal to the number of units sold multiplied by the average price per unit. For example, if 148 units of total output are sold for $15 each, total revenue is $2,220. Marginal revenue is the more important measure. It is the extra revenue from the sale of one additional unit of output. Businesses find their marginal revenue by dividing the change in total revenue by the marginal product.
9. Marginal analysis is a way to make an informed decision by comparing the extra costs of doing something to the benefits gained from it. Marginal analysis helps in finding the break-even point – the total product the business needs to sell in order to cover its costs. For businesses, this means gradually adding variable inputs (for example, workers) and then comparing the extra benefit (marginal revenue) to the extra cost (marginal cost). As long as marginal cost is less than marginal revenue, the business can continue to increase its variable inputs. Eventually, marginal cost and marginal revenue are equal, and the profit-maximizing quantity of input is reached. This means the firm has reached its greatest total profit. If marginal cost exceeds marginal revenue, profits will begin to fall.
III. Vocabulary Reinforcement
A. Vocabulary
Match the words with their definitions.
total, adj. | producing at a rate that barely covers production costs |
marginal, adj. | a decrease in price or value |
subtract, v | the sum of all fixed costs and variable costs |
break-even point, n | the gross income returned by an investment |
revenue, n | the final amount; everything taken together |
depreciation, n | the point at which revenue equals costs |
overhead, n | having lost the job |
laid-off, adj | to make an arithmetic operation in which the difference between two numbers is calculated |
B. Word Families
Complete the chart.
Verb | Adjective | Noun |
subtract | ||
margin | ||
fix | ||
sale | ||
analysis | ||
produced | ||
pay | ||
beneficial | ||
profit |
C. Word Groups
1. Match the words having similar meanings.
gain | employee |
benefit | earn |
operate | quantity |
decrease | profit |
worker | reduce |
amount | run |
2. Match the words having opposite meanings.
increase | output |
input | variable |
subtract | cost |
fixed | fall |
rise | decrease |
revenue | add |
E. Word Fields
Which of the cost items offered below are: 1)fixed costs, 2) variable costs?
Raw material to be processed; energy; personnel; amortisation of capital goods; plant space (if rented); plant space (if in ownership); advertising; R&D (research and development).
E. Word Usage
plete: use an appropriate preposition where necessary.
of (5), for (2), since, on, by(2), to, per, as |
1. … a result, a firm knows the cost … producing each new unit … output as variable costs rise.
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