English for Social Scientists

Grados en Ciencia Política y de la Administración, Sociología, Economía y Administración y Dirección de Empresas

UNIT 9
Lesson 9
Marketing, advertising, promotion and trade

How to work with each unit

Punctuation and language use are important components of spoken and written English. Each unit will
be divided into two parts: use of language and contents.

o In the use of language part, you will have a theory section that consists of a short reminder of
basic aspects of grammar, and a practice section with short exercises to check that you have
understood the theory. All this practice will also work as a self-evaluation section.
o The content part consists of reading and writing practice to improve your formal academic
English. This will involve reading different types of texts, linking words, expressions,
introductions, and conclusions.

LESSON 9

Marketing, advertising, promotion, and trade

General objectives

In this lesson, you will learn something about how the world of advertising and promotion works.

Specific objectives

1. Vocabulary about brands and advertising. Word partnerships.

2. The use of articles.

Margarita Goded Rambaud y Lourdes Pomposo Yáñez 1

English for Social Scientists
Grados en Ciencia Política y de la Administración, Sociología, Economía y Administración y Dirección de Empresas

UNIT 9
PART 1: USE OF LANGUAGE

Remember that the language that you are going to practice in each unit is just a review or
reminder of the general grammar that you already know but related to the topic of each lesson.

 This symbol will be used for THEORY

 This symbol will be used for PRACTICE

 The use of articles

- a/an is used:
1. before singular countable nouns:
Example: he works for an important company.
2. To introduce new information: When I arrived, I saw an important person. That person is
now my husband.
3. Before professions: My brother is an architect.
4. When the listener does not know what particular person, thing or fact we are talking
about.

- The is used:
1. When it is clear from the context what particular person, thing or fact we are talking about:
The cat outside is black
2. To speak about somebody in an official position: The President is a good person who cares
about poor people.
3. With proper names: The Alps, The Sheraton, The Beatles…

- Zero article is used:

1. We do not use the article before mass nouns used in general: Women have more problems
in getting high management responsibilities.

 Practice 1.
Write a/an, the, or Ø to complete the sentences.

1. We arrived at the airport and got _______ taxi that took us to ______ Oxford Street.
2. Take these parcels to ________Post Office and keep ______receipts you are given, please.

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English for Social Scientists
Grados en Ciencia Política y de la Administración, Sociología, Economía y Administración y Dirección de Empresas

UNIT 9
3. I picked up ______ kids from school and took them ________home while my wife was at
______ work.
4. I work in ______office in _____city center and I always have _______ problem in finding where
to park.
5. ________ teachers are normally badly paid. But ______ teachers that work here have good
salaries.

 Links for extra practice and self-evaluation.

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-articles.php
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/artikel.htm
http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=4378

 Word Partnerships.
Two or more words sometimes collocate together to form a partnership with a specific
meaning. These partnerships are very common in Business English, and there are no general
rules to explain their formation.
We can find here word partnerships related to brands and advertising and their meanings. Do
the following exercises to practice.

 PRACTICE 1

Match the following word partnerships with their meanings.

1. Brand loyalty a) the name given to a product by the company that makes it
2. Brand image b) using an existing name on another type of product
3. Brand stretching c) the ideas and beliefs people have about a brand
4. Brand awareness d) the tendency to always buy a particular brand
5. Brand name e) how familiar people are with a brand
6. Product launch f) the set of products made by a company
7. Product lifecycle g) the use of a well-known person to advertise products
8. Product range h) when products are used in films or TV programs
9. Product placement i) the introduction of a product to the market
10. Product endorsement j) the length of time people continue to buy a product

Margarita Goded Rambaud y Lourdes Pomposo Yáñez 3

English for Social Scientists
Grados en Ciencia Política y de la Administración, Sociología, Economía y Administración y Dirección de Empresas

UNIT 9

 Links for extra practice and self-evaluation.

http://www.linguarama.com/ps/sales-themed-english/word-partnerships.htm

http://www.onestopenglish.com/community/lesson-share/pdf-
content/grammar/grammar-meeting-word-partnerships-lesson-
plan/147557.article

PART 2: READING AND WRITING SKILLS

 1. INTRODUCTION: MARKETING
In popular usage, “marketing” is the promotion of products, especially advertising and
branding. However, in professional usage, the term has a wider meaning that recognizes that
marketing is customer-centered. Products are often developed to meet the desires of groups of
customers or even, in some cases, for specific customers. It is the process of communicating he
value of a product or service to customers. It is the link between a society’s material
requirements and its economic patterns response. Marketing satisfies these needs and wants
through exchange processes and building long term relationships.
There are four P’s that are the basis of Marketing: Product (goods and services that are sold),
Price (the cost to the buyer of goods and services), Promotion (informing customers about
products and persuading them to buy them) and Place (where goods and services are
available).

 READING COMPREHENSION: EXERCISE 1

BRAND WARS

Aggressive comparative advertising has now reached fever pitch; extra millions are pouring into
R&D, and the market leaders are under constant pressure to slash their prices in a cut-throat struggle
for market domination. When Philip Morris knocked 40c off a packet of Marlboro, $47-and-a-half billion
was instantly wiped off the market value of America’s top twenty cigarette manufacturers. Lesser
brands went to the wall. And that’s just one example of how fair competition within a free market has
rapidly escalated into brand war.

In spite of the efforts of the corporate heavyweights to win market share, when it comes to fast
moving consumer goods, more and more consumers are switching to the supermarkets’ own-label
products. And brand loyalty is fast becoming a thing of the past. The one unchallengeable Nescafé and
Kellogg’s are actually losing sales, as their higher price is no longer automatically associated with higher
quality. And in many supermarkets across Europe and the States own-labels now account for over fifty-
five percent of total sales. Their turnover has never been higher.
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English for Social Scientists
Grados en Ciencia Política y de la Administración, Sociología, Economía y Administración y Dirección de Empresas

UNIT 9
Brand stretching is another way in which the household names are fighting back. By putting their
familiar trademark on attractive and fashionable new products, companies can both generate additional
revenue and increase brand awareness. The high-life image suits companies like Philip Morris, for
whom, as the restrictions on tobacco ads get tougher, brand stretching is the perfect form of subliminal
advertising.

But, brand wars aside, the single biggest threat to the market remains saturation. For it seems there
are just too many products on the shelves. In the States, they call this “product clutter” and it is
currently the cause of a strong anti-consumerism movement. In fact, product proliferation and
widespread “me-tooism” mean that some stores stock seventy-five different kinds of toothbrush and
240 types of shampoo. It would take you over twenty years to try them all, assuming you even wanted
to. And that’s just got to be crazy when you think that eighty to ninety percent of new brands fail within
their first six months.

(Adapted from New Business Matters Coursebook (2004) by Powell, Martinez, & Jillet)

 Give a definition in your own words of the following expressions:

- Aggressive comparative advertising
- Consumer goods
- Fair competition
- Brand stretching
- Brand awareness
- Subliminal advertising
- Product clutter
- Market saturation

Bibliography

Armstrong, G. & Harker, M. (2009) Marketing an introduction. UK. Pearson Education.

Keller, K. (2008) Strategic Brand Management. UK. Pearson Education.

Powell, M., Martinez, R. & Jillet, R. (2004) New Business Matters Coursebook. Singapore. Thomson.

Shimp, T (2007) Advertising, Promotion & other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communication. USA.
Cengage learning.

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