Hello, everyone, and welcome to EnglishPod.
My name is Marco.
My name is Catherine, and today we have an upper intermediate level lesson about something very technical.
We're talking about marketing strategies here today.
That's right.
Today we have an upper intermediate lesson at the office.
That is the category of this lesson, and we're basically talking about marketing, a marketing plan, and a lot of technical words around this part of business.
All right.
Let's take a listen to today's dialogue, and we'll be back in just a moment to talk about what's going on.
Okay, everyone, let's begin.
I called you here today to evaluate our marketing strategy during this recession.
I wanted to reemphasize our corporate mission of aiming to give our customers the best coffee and service in a clean and welcoming atmosphere.
Several other shops have been reducing their prices for their coffees, and they are drawing in more customers.
Why aren't we doing the same thing?
I know that recent sales have been slow, but we are not going to reduce our prices to the level of our competitors.
We offer a superior product, and our focus is on long-term growth rather than short-term sales.
If we lower our prices, we run the risk of devaluing our product.
Customers don't care about coffee anymore.
They only care about price.
I disagree.
Highly discerning customers know that our coffee is far better than the coffee you buy at the other places.
Our coffee beans are artisan roasted, and we use state-of-the-art equipment to brew our coffees.
When you compare the coffees side by side, our coffee wins the taste test every time.
We have never sought to appeal to the mass market with cheap coffee drinks, and we will not do so now.
That's true.
We've certainly achieved top-of-mind awareness when it comes to the best tasting brews, and it's important to distinguish ourselves from the competitors.
I think the main question is, how can we show our appreciation to our customers?
It's the main question I would like to discuss today.
Money is tight for everyone these days, so even our most loyal customers may be reconsidering the money they pay for their morning coffee.
Since the superiority of our coffee beans is one of our core competencies, why don't we sell the beans for people to brew coffee at home?
That could definitely be a way we could expand our company, but would we be undermining the essence of the company that way?
Let's brainstorm some more ideas and do some research.
The customer always comes first, and what the customer wants, the customer gets.
Maybe it's time we started selling coffee beans.
All right, we're back.
So a very interesting dialogue.
I think this is something very common that would go on in a meeting room when the marketing department is talking about prices and how do we increase sales, etc.
So I think we had a lot of difficult words or maybe words that we didn't really understand well, so let's take a look at some of those in Language Takeaway.
So the first word on the top of our list today is recession.
Anyone looking at the news this year or last year probably knows what this word means, but let's talk about it anyway.
What is a recession?
That's right.
So the first word is talking about the recession, and basically it is a noun, all right?
And it means that people don't have enough money like before, and so consequently services are decreased, people aren't buying as much, so there is a lack of commerce going on in a country, a region, or a city, etc.
All right, so basically in economics you have these different cycles.
It's not like the economy is always the same, and so sometimes when there's not enough money, we call it a recession and we can say, hey, I don't have much money to spend right now, we are in a recession.
So that's a very common way to use the term.
That's right.
So as you said, it's an economic term and many consequences because of this lack of jobs.
It's just, as you said, a cycle.
And so apart from a recession, that's why they are brainstorming to see how they can increase sales despite the recession, they also talked about their customers and that their customers are highly discerning.
All right, so this word, discerning, comes from the verb to discern.
And it's a really important one because it means to be able to tell the difference, to understand the difference between two different things.
Okay, so let's say we have two cups of soda.
I'm very good at tasting things, so I can discern the difference between these two.
I can say one is Coca-Cola and one is Pepsi.
Okay, so to discern is to be able to tell the difference or to notice the difference between many things.
And so obviously you are a discerning person.
Or you have discerning taste.
This means that you're very good at telling when something is high quality and when it's not high quality.
Okay.
And well, talking about discerning customers who know what they want.
And so they talked about their coffee beans and it's one of their core competencies.
Okay, so this is something you might actually hear in education as well as in business.
Something is your competency if you are able to do it.
All right, so I am able to write Chinese characters.
It's one of my core competencies.
Okay, so that's something that I'm able to do.
So I consider it one of these central or important abilities.
But you always talk about competencies within the context of some area.
So my language skills.
Or in this case, at a company we're talking about making a coffee.
One of the company's core competencies is making their coffee beans.
That's something they're good at.
That's right.
And core, when we talk about core, we talk about the center.
We talk about one of the most important things.
That's right.
Okay.
And well, for the last word that we've prepared to you on Language Takeaway, we talked about them worrying that selling the coffee beans might undermine the essence of the company.
To undermine.
Okay, this is a really important verb.
And you'll hear this a lot actually in TV shows and especially in dramas.
Say he's undermining my authority or he's undermining my power.
This means that someone is challenging it or someone is kind of taking it away from you.
Okay.
So what you do with undermine is to, as you said, challenge or try to take something from you very sneaky, in a sneaky way sometimes.
That's right.
So for example, if I'm the president of a country and someone is trying to take that away from me, someone is trying to be the president and trying to take down my government, he is trying to undermine my power.
Okay.
Very good.
So four key words there on Language Takeaway.
Now we're going to move on to Fluency Builder, where we prepared a lot of nice and very good phrases.
Fluency Builder.
All right.
So on Fluency Builder, why don't we start up from the beginning of the dialogue when they were talking about the prices of the coffee and that other shops have reduced their prices.
And so they're drawing in more customers.
All right.
So the key here is to draw in.
This is a phrase.
Most people will know the word to draw, you know, to make a design on a page, but to draw in has a very special meaning.
It means to attract.
Okay.
So you want to attract more customers.
You want to bring them into the shop.
So you're trying to draw them in.
So Marco, what's a good example of something that a company will do to try and draw in customers?
For example, many of you maybe have seen in fast food restaurants when they have a promotion, like you buy one hamburger and you get another one for free.
So that's maybe one of the strategies that they're trying to do to draw in customers and maybe not make money, but give people the opportunity to taste their good food.
That's right.
All right.
So the next phrase we've got here is a little bit different.
It's talking about the kind of product that they have.
They're talking about their coffee beans and they say that they're roasted and that they use state of the art equipment to brew the coffee.
So this phrase, state of the art, what does this mean?
If something is state of the art, we're usually talking about a machine and we're saying that it's the latest in technology.
It's very, very new.
It's highly advanced.
It's a very technologically advanced machine.
So for example, the new iPhone 4 is a state of the art cell phone.
That means it's the very highest that technology has to offer.
And obviously something that is state of the art is not state of the art forever because technology changes and so maybe next year there'll be a new state of the art telephone.
That's right.
So if you notice the spelling as well, we have little hyphens between each word, state of the art, because we take it as a chunk altogether, right?
That's right.
And following that, we have another phrase that is used to talk about products.
They say when you compare the coffees we have side by side, our coffee wins against our competitors.
So side by side.
Okay.
The phrase there is side by side and they're talking about comparing coffees side by side.
So I think this is pretty literal.
It's basically saying you put two coffee mugs or coffee cups together side by side and you have people taste and then you see which one they prefer.
That's right.
So you can say this when you're making comparisons.
When I look at them side by side, I think I like the pink one more than the red one.
So you are comparing.
You are literally putting them next to each other to make a choice of which one is your preference.
That's right.
Okay.
Now moving on, we have a very interesting phrase when they were talking about the company and they've achieved top of mind awareness when it comes to best tasting brews.
So this phrase, top of mind awareness, very closely related to marketing.
What are we talking about here?
Well, let's look at the individual words.
We have top, which is on top, not on bottom, mind, which is your head or your thinking and awareness, which is the way that you see things.
And so let's take a guess here and say that when I think of a category of product like coffee for example, what is the first thing that comes into my mind?
That's right.
So it's actually a very cool game that you can sometimes play with friends.
Basically just say, okay, when you think of coffee, what is the first brand that comes into your mind?
Starbucks.
Starbucks.
So that for example shows that Starbucks has put in you a certain top of mind awareness.
You associate coffee with Starbucks immediately.
You don't say Costa Coffee, you don't say Coffee Bean or any other brand, right?
No, yeah, no, definitely.
This is a way for you to really test what companies, what corporations have the most effective marketing because obviously they're the ones who make you think of this thing.
That's right.
They make tons of marketing campaigns.
That's right.
So it's actually very interesting.
So you can say top of mind or you can say top of mind awareness.
You can say Honda has great top of mind among their clients.
Or Ferrari has great top of mind among luxury vehicles.
That's right.
Okay.
And now for the last phrase, when we talked about money again, this is a very nice colloquial way of saying that you don't have a lot of money or money is very scarce right now.
All right.
So the phrase is money is tight.
All right.
So in other words, tight, you can hold something tightly or this belt is tight.
I'm gaining weight.
But in this case, money is tight.
That's a phrase we take as a chunk.
And it means like you say, Marco, I just don't have much money right now.
So money is tight right now.
Now it's interesting because you can say it.
Money is tight.
And then the subject money is tight for Bill right now.
Or you can say Bill is tight for money at the moment.
So you can you can switch it up depending on where you put the subject towards the end or in the beginning.
That's right.
So usually you hear the phrase money is tight right now or money is really tight, just kind of on its own.
And it's a way to say, yeah, I don't have much cash.
That's right.
Okay.
So we've taken a look at a lot of words and phrases here.
Let's listen to our dialogue again.
And we'll be back to talk a little bit more.
Okay, everyone, let's begin.
I called you here today to evaluate our marketing strategy during this recession.
I wanted to reemphasize our corporate mission of aiming to give our customers the best coffee and service in a clean and welcoming atmosphere.
Several other shops have been reducing their prices for their coffees, and they are drawing in more customers.
Why aren't we doing the same thing?
I know that recent sales have been slow, but we are not going to reduce our prices to the level of our competitors.
We offer a superior product and our focus is on long term growth rather than short term sales.
If we lower our prices, we run the risk of devaluing our product.
Customers don't care about coffee anymore.
They only care about price.
I disagree.
Highly discerning customers know that our coffee is far better than the coffee you buy at the other places.
Our coffee beans are artisan roasted and we use state of the art equipment to brew our coffees.
When you compare the coffees side by side, our coffee wins the taste test every time.
We have never sought to appeal to the mass market with cheap coffee drinks, and we will not do so now.
That's true.
We've certainly achieved top of mind awareness when it comes to the best tasting brews, and it's important to distinguish ourselves from the competitors.
I think the main question is, how can we show our appreciation to our customers?
That's the main question I would like to discuss today.
Money is tight for everyone these days, so even our most loyal customers may be reconsidering the money they pay for their morning coffee.
Since the security of our coffee beans is one of our core competencies, why don't we sell the beans for people to brew coffee at home?
That could definitely be a way we could expand our company, but would we be undermining the essence of the company that way?
Let's brainstorm some more ideas and do some research.
The customer always comes first, and what the customer wants, the customer gets.
Maybe it's time we started selling coffee beans.
All right, so going back to top of mind awareness, let's test what brands are in your head.
For example, when you think of a luxury sports car, what do you think?
Ferrari.
Ferrari.
You mentioned it before.
Or Lamborghini.
Or Lamborghini, but you said Ferrari first.
Yes.
When you think of a brand of cigarettes, what do you think?
Camel.
Camel?
Okay.
It's found very commonly in other places.
They have it in Europe.
It's very popular in Europe.
Oh, really?
Yep.
Okay.
What about when you think of computers, what do you think?
For some reason, IBM.
IBM.
Even though you don't own an IBM.
I don't, but I grew up around the IBM revolution.
Okay.
See, this is interesting.
So, actually, it doesn't always work that way that because you have a brand in your mind, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will purchase it in the future if you have the power to, but at least you are aware of the brand and you recognize it, and the chances are that you will buy it.
That's right, and you're going to be familiar with it when you read about it or when people talk about it.
For example, I own a Mac computer, Apple, but when I think of computers, I just think of IBM because we used to say, remember, IBM compatible.
Nah, that's right, IBM compatible.
Because before it was usually just Mac.
Everything was for Mac.
Mac or IBM, and then all of a sudden it's PC or Mac.
Right, right.
Actually, that's interesting though because if probably if I say, what do you think of when you think of what brand comes to mind when you think of MP3 players?
Apple, the iPod, right?
You probably think iPod.
That's probably one of the most famous ones, but maybe if you ask somebody about 10 years ago, when you think about a music player, what do you think about?
Sony, the Sony Walkman.
The Sony Walkman, right?
Or the Sony Discman.
That's right, had both.
It was like I had a Walkman, it was bright yellow.
So this is really interesting.
This is the way that you see more or less.
You can start to realize what brands are in your mind and maybe unconsciously, you may not even be a smoker, but maybe some sort of cigarette brand will be in your mind.
Or maybe you don't even really like sports cars, but you will have a sports car brand in your mind.
I'm very curious to hear what you guys have to say because obviously the brands that we're aware of are dependent on where we come from and the marketing campaigns in our home countries and also our age.
I was a teenager when I had the Sony Discman, so that made an impact on me.
But let's throw that out to you guys.
Let us know what you think of when we say luxury cars or MP3 players or computers.
Or maybe even basic things like detergents.
For example, if you ask somebody in the United States, they might say Tide.
But if you ask somebody in South America, they might say, I don't know, Omo.
It's some type of brand.
So this is also very interesting to see what your local brands have been doing.
That's right.
So let us know what you're thinking.
We're on EnglishPod.com.
We hope to see you there.
All right, bye.
Bye.
Bye.