Market Leader Intermediate 3rd edition SB

UNIT 1 BRANDS
COl TRACK 1 (I = INTERVIEWER, Rl = RESPONDENT 1;
R2 = RESPONDENT 2)
Do you buy brands?
Rl Yes, I do. I am basically pro-brands. If you buy a branded product, it's
a guarantee that the quality is fairly good and the product is reliable.
Another rcason is you attract a bit of attention if YOli buy something
stylish, and branded products are usually stylish and have a good
design. Let's face it, most people buy brands because they want to
impress other people. 'Illey want to show that they have style and
good taste.
Do you buy brands?
R2 No - well, not actively, anyway. I don't want to give free advertising
to companies. I hate all the advertising hype around brands. And I
don't want other people to think I'm trying to impress them with lots
oflogos. And I also get fed up with seeing the same things wherever
YOll go. If you buy a suit from a famous brand, you'll sec five people
with the sal1le suit that month. It's so boring. Oh, another thing - am
J buying the genuine product or an illegal copy? Basically, I want
value for money - I won't pay inflated prices for a name, a fancy logo
and packaging. However, I do buy brands fo r my kids - especially
sports goods and trainers. It's always Nike, Adidas or Reebok.
COl TRACK 2 (I = INTERVIEWER, CC = CHRIS CLEAVER)
I What arc the qualities of a really good brand?
CC Strong brands - really, you know, brands that you would say have,
er, a real traction in the l1larketpb.ce, urn, will have a number of
important qualities. ObViously, the first is, they will have high
levels of awareness, so people will know about them and recognise
them when they see them, and that might be the physical product,
or it might be the visual identity, the design manifestation. Urn,
but obViously recognition is not enough. What needs to happen
also is that people, you know, the target customer or consumer,
needs to know a lot about that brand, so a strong brand will also
immediately communicate a set of appealing and persuasive ideas,
er, and perccptions, that enable the end user, cr, you know, thc target
audicncc, to know whether or not this is a brand for them, um, or
whether it's a brand that they, perhaps, arc not attracted to.
COl TRACK 3 (CC = CHRIS CLEAVER)
CC Brands are really useful ways of firstly conveying all that information
instantly, so - think of any brand you like, any brand that you
can imaginc, say BMW or British Airways or in any sector, :'Ind
immedintcly your head is filled with} er, a raft of important
information about what the brand does, but as much :'IS that, what
it's like and how it :'Ippeals to you and connects with you. And so
its fu nction, therefore, is to enable you to choose one thing from
another - often in markets where there is very little actual difference
betwcen} you know, the product. So a BMW - I'm surc BMW would
probably be horrified for me to say this - but, you know, a BMW is a
car like an Audi is a car like a Mercedes is a car - they've all got fo ur
whecls and :'In engine :'Ind, you know, air conditioning and all that
type of thing, but the way people feel about them, because of the
information and awarencss and perception that they have, enables
them to decide whcther or not one is better for them or right for
them or says the right things about them than another.
COl TRACK 4 (I = INTERVIEWER, CC = CHRIS CLEAVER)
I
Can you give us an example of a brand you have helped?
(( One I can think of is Nokia. Nokia is, you know, a well-known brand,
um, it's by far the biggest mobile phone manufacturer -I think it has
about a third of the market, so it's way bigger than anybody else. It's
also been, urn, in the market - it was, kind of invented the market
in a W:'ly, so fo r many people, particularly people of my gencf:ltion,
Nokia equals mobile phones. We've helped them in a couple of
important ways. Firstly, um, in a market that's changed and a brand
that's expanded hugely in terms of what it offers, we helped them
with, er, the qucstion of what is it that Nokia is about, and how docs
it relate to its customers, its broad range of customers, in ways in
which its competitors don't. So to give it that, um, clement of choice,
you know, so why I should choose a Nokia over a Motorola, um, in
:'Iddition to what it looks like :'Ind what it docs. So, what the brand
is about - um, so that on what you might call technically the master
brand.
And we've also helped thcm with, um, developing certain parts of
their offer in order to, um, react to the market and also to keep the
brand fresh. So we worked with Nokia on their N series, which is one
of their more technological phones, multimedia phones - although
they don't like to call them phones any more because they do so
much more - um, in order to satisfy, er, the needs that that emerging
customer group has, primarily younger consumers who want to be
able to do all sorts of things with their phones - or devices. Urn, but
also, in order to sharpen Nokia's brand image as a technology leader,
it was important that it had product's in, in those areas.
COl TRACK 5 (0 = DAVID. I = loy. N = NATASHA. M = MARIO)
o Joy, we know our client doesn't w:'lnt to be linked to football any
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more. It scems the club they sponsor is :'Isking for too much money.
And in any case, they're looking fo r something more exciting,
something that'll give their brand a bit more punch. Any idcas?
Well, there are several possibilities. How about ice hockey? It's an
incredibly fast, exciting sport, it's very popular in America and in a
lot of Europe an countries.
OK, that's a possibility. What do you think, Natasha? Wo uld ice
hockey be a good choice?
Mmm, I'm not so sure. It's not really an international sport, is it?
Not in the same way as baseball, for example, or ... tennis.
That's true - baseball's got a lot more international appeal, and it's
a sport that's got a good image. J don't know about tennis - I'm not
sure it would be suitable. Mario, how do you feel about this?
In my opinion, motor racing would be perfect fo r our client. It's fast,
exciting, and the TV coverage of Formula One races is excellent.
They would get a lot of exposure, it will really strengthen tlIeir image.
111at's a great idea, Mario! Why don't we get in touch with Larry
Harrington's agency and see ifhc's interested? Harrington's young,
exciting - hc'd probably jump at the chance to work with our client.
They're a perfect match. But first I must check with our client and
make sure they're happy with our choice.
COl TRACK 6 (C = CORNELIUS, 0 = DIANA, R = RUTH, T = TOM)
C OK everyone, we'll be getting a report soon from the consultants
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we've hired, European Marketing. But let's think a bit :'Ibout the
problems we may face entcring the Europcan markets. Diana, what
do you think?
\Alell, one thing's for sure, we're going to have to do a lot of
advertiSing to establish our brand, and that's going to be expensive.
And we may need to adapt a lot of our luggage fo r European
consumers - that could be very costiy, too.
Yes, but we've allowed for that in our budget. Ruth, what difficulties
do you think we'll have?
Well, we'll need to get the pricing of our products right. But
European consumers aren't as price conscious as we are back home,
so pricing may not be too much of a problem. I know fo r a fact
people in Europe will pay high prices for luxury goods if they like
the design and it gives them status. So, I think we have to develop
the Hudson brand as an exclusive 'Madc in America' product ...
that'll mean high prices and a strong message that our luggage is
high quality and great value for money.
Mmm, that makes sense to me. Tom, what do you think?
I don't agree at all. I just don't think Ruth's right. I think we
should go downmarket, sell at very competitive prices, and aim to
achieve high-volume sales. To do that, we'll need to look carefully
at our manufacturing costs. So, it's probably time we stopped
manufacturing in the US. The costs are just too high.
111al1ks, Tom, that's an interesting point of view. I think we all feel
that we need to position Hudson right in European markets. Should we go
upmarket or downmarket? "nlats an important decision we'll ha\'e to make.
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