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I love (14) ……… technological, using scientific knowledge (15) ……… improve people’s lives. (16) ……… technology (17)……… rice development (18) ………

a good example (19) ……… this.

We are at the (20) ……… edge of rice-growing techniques. Everything we do (21) ……… state-of-the-art, using the most advanced biological (22 know) ………

available.

6. Match the expressions (1-6) with their meanings (a-f).

1 copyright infringement

2 intellectual property

3 patent application

4 proprietary information

5 royalty payment

6 licensing agreement

a)a payment to the owner of a design, or to an author

b)an arrangement between the owner of a design and someone else, allowing them to use the design for money

с) when someone uses another's text, pictures, etc. without permission

d)when an inventor asks the authorities to officially recognize an invention as his/her property

e)designs, ideas, etc. that belong to someone

f)the law relating to designs, ideas, etc. that belong to someone

7. Three people are talking about their work in product development. Correct the mistakes in italics.

a) Market researches showed there was a real need for this service, but before offering it, we had to test it in a (b) beta copy with small groups of users over several months to eliminate all the bugs. Even so,(c) after lunch, some users said they could get into other people's accounts!

b) The more you eat, the thinner you get, and (d) the focal groups said they liked the taste, but first we had to prove to the authorities that it was (e) secure. Another problem was making it on an (f) industrial level: at first we could only make it in small quantities in the laboratory, but making it in bigger quantities was impossible.

c) At our research centre in Toulouse in France, the (g) designators develop the prototypes. People think that my job is dangerous, but there is so much (h) tasting on computer first, that all the danger has been eliminated by the time we use the product, (i) CADCAR means that the process of design and manufacture is much quicker than before.

8. Complete this talk by a marketing specialist.

A few years ago a famous car company launched a new car, based on a completely new (1)……… .They’d done years of technical research and (2)……… research with focus (3)……… and (4)……… panels and analysis of responses to questionnaires and (5)……… . Then came the (6)……… . Sales of the car were very good until a Swedish newspaper reported the results of its ‘elk test’. They found that the car had a tendency to tip over if you turned quickly to avoid an elk. This was due to a (7)……… fault in the car, so they had to (8)……… all the cars they’d sold in order to correct it.

II 1. Work in groups and make a list of features (both positive and negative) that a product could have.

positiv	negati
e	ve
feature	feature
s	s

2. Read the sentences bellow and decide which adjectives give opinions and which give facts?

a)an unusual sporty briefcase with practical nylon straps and black trim

b)an elegant light brown briefcase with brass locks

c)a stylish leather briefcase with a beautiful glass handle

d)a durable leather briefcase with brass locks

e)an Italian black leather briefcase with a long shoulder strap

opinion		facts

3. Put the words into the correct order. Try to formulate the rule that explains the order of adjectives, when we use more than one.

leather

stylish

wide

bag

black

French

big

SPEAKING

1. Work in groups. Choose a product you know well. Prepare a short presentation of it. Follow the plan below, and also give the customer profile.

	Name:	The full name of the product is …….
	Appearance:	It is ………
	User-friendliness:	It is easy to set up – all you need is …….
	Special features:	The special features include ………,
		in addition ……..
	Benefits:	The main benefit of the product is ……..

2. Comment the following mind map using theory from the Reading Book:

For example:

•Product Life Cycle – shows the stages that products go through from development to withdrawal from the market

•Product Portfolio – the range of products a company has in development or available for consumers at any one time

•Managing product portfolio is important for cash flow

VOCABULARY 2

1. Use the following terms to complete the definitions below:

brand	product
product line	product mix
line-stretching	line-filling
product elimination	convenience goods
shopping goods	speciality goods

1.A ……… is a name (or sometimes a sign, symbol or design) used to identity the goods or services of a particular manufacturer, seller or supplier, and to differentiate them from the goods or services of competitors.

2.A ……….. is defined by marketers as anything capable of satisfying a need or

want (including services such as a bank loan, a haircut, a meal in a restaurant, or a skiing holiday).

3. A ………… is a group of closely related products, which usually have the same function and are sold to the same customer groups through the same outlets.

4. A ……….. is the set of all the product lines and items offered by a company.

5…………. are cheap and simple "low involvement" products which people use regularly and buy frequently with little effort, without comparing alternatives.

6…………… are durable goods with unique characteristics that informed consumers have to go to a particular store to buy.

7…………….are ‘high involvement’ products for which consumers generally search for information, evaluate different models, and compare prices, and take time to make a selection.

8…………… is the process of withdrawing products from the market when they are no longer profitable.

9……………. means adding further items in that part of a product range which a line already covers, in order to compete in competitors’ niches, to utilize excess production capacity, and so on.

10…………. means lengthening a company's product line, either moving upmarket or down-market in order to reach new customers, to enter growing or more profitable market segments, to react to competitors' initiatives, and so on.

2. Now translate the highlighted expressions in these definitions into your own language.

READING

1. a) What is ‘product life cycle’? What stages does it have? What happens with a product during each stage?

b) Read the text and check your ideas.

Product Life Cycles

The sales of most products change over time, in a recognizable pattern which contains distinct periods or stages. The standard life cycle includes introduction, growth, maturity and decline stages.

The introduction stage, following a product’s launch, generally involves slow growth. Only a few innovative people will buy it. There are probably no profits at this stage because of the heavy advertising, distribution and sales promotions expenses involved in introducing a product onto the market. Consumers must be made aware of the product’s existence and persuaded to buy it. Some producers will apply a market-skimming strategy, setting a high price in order to recover development costs. Others will employ a marketpenetration strategy, selling the product at as Low a price as possible in order to attain a large market share. There is always a trade-off between high current profit and high market share.

During the growth period, ‘early adopters’ join the ‘innovators’ who were responsible for the first sales, so that sales rise quickly, producing profits. This generally enables the producer to benefit from economies of scale. Competitors will probably enter the market, usually making it necessary to reduce prices, but the competition will increase the market’s awareness and speed up the adoption process.

When the majority of potential buyers have tried or accepted a product, the market is saturated, and the product reaches its maturity stage. Sales will stabilize at the replacement purchase rate, or will only increase if the population

increases. The marketing manager has to turn consumers' brand preference into brand loyalty.

Most products available at any given time are in the maturity stage of the life cycle. This stage may last many years, and contain many ups and downs due to the use of a succession of marketing strategies and tactics. Product managers can attempt to convert non-users, search for new markets and market segments to enter, or try to stimulate increased usage by existing users. Alternatively they can attempt to improve product quality and to add new features, sizes or models' or simply to introduce periodic stylistic modifications. They can also modify the other elements of the marketing mix, and cut prices' increase advertising, undertake aggressive sales promotions' seek new distribution channels' and so on, although here additional sales generally come at the cost of reduced profits.

A product enters the decline period when it begins to be replaced by new ones, due to advances in technology, or to changes in fashions and tastes. When a product has clearly entered its decline stage, some manufacturers will abandon it in order to invest their resources in more profitable or innovative products. When some competitors choose to withdraw from a market those who remain will obviously gain a temporary increase in sales as customers switch to their product.

Not all products have this typical life cycle. Some have an immediate rapid growth rather than a slow introductory stage. Others never achieve the desired sales, and go straight from introduction to maturity, although of course this should have been discovered during test marketing before a full-scale launch. Fads and gimmicks - for example, toys people buy once and once only to stick on car windows - have distinct life cycles, both rising and declining very quickly.

2. Read the text, and then decide whether the statements are true (T) or false (F).

1.The introduction stage of a new product is not usually profitable.

2.During the introduction stage, marketers are trying to create brand preference.

3.A producer seeking maximum profits will apply a market-penetration

4.The entry of competitors onto the market will make more consumer aware of the product and stimulate them to try it.

5.At the maturity stage, producers begin to benefit from scale.

6.The maturity stage is generally the longest.

7.Once the maturity stage is reached, marketers concentrate on finding new customers.

8.A product enters the decline stage when it begins to become obsolete.

9.A product can experience temporary sales increases during its decline stage.

10.Gimmicks and fads have a particularly long life cycle.

Product innovations

READING

1. Discuss these questions. Then read the article.

1 Do you think it is better to innovate or imitate products and services? 2 Can you name any companies which were a) innovators? b) imitators?

Why the Last Shall Be First

By John Kay

Have you heard of Berkey or Ampex? Gablinger or Chux? Perhaps you should have, because each occu-5 pies an important place in the history of product innovation. Berkey produced the first hand-held electronic calculators, Ampex the first video recorders. Gablinger developed low-alcohol lager and Chux sold the first disposable nappies.

Or perhaps you should not, because none of these companies made a commercial success of their innovations. Today the calculators we use are probably made by Casio, our video recorder comes from Matsushita, our lowalcohol beer is Miller Lite, our nappies are made by Proctor & Gamble.

In each of these markets the innovator was swept away.

Xerox looks like an exception to this sorry catalogue. The company was first into the photocopier market and, even if its dominance was ultimately challenged by Canon, it remains a large and successful company today. But Xerox was also a pioneer in fax machines and personal computers. Each of these eventually proved to be a success, but not for Xerox Corporation.

As we all know, it was Apple that developed the personal computer market. But Apple’s leadership quickly disappeared when IBM came on the scene. Apple then jumped ahead by introducing the graphical user interface. Its windows and mice brought personal computing within the reach of everyone. But it is Microsoft that does this now.

The business world is not kind to pioneers. Even if you know how a market will develop, timing is a matter of luck or of quite exceptional skill. There are two closely related lessons. One is that being first is not often very important. The other is that innovation is rarely a source of competitive advantage on its own. Individuals and small companies can make a great deal of money out of good new ideas. The success of large established corporations – Matsushita, Philip Morris, IBM or General Electric is generally based on other things: their depth of technical expertise, their marketing skills. And time and again these characteristics enable them to develop the innovative concept far more effectively than the innovators themselves.

This is not to say that there is no role in business for the great innovator. After all, General Electric was built on the extraordinary creativity of Thomas

Edison’s mind, the Ford motor company on the abilities of its eponymous founder. The imagination of Walt Disney created a company that is still with 100 out parallel or rival. Perhaps Akio Morita of Sony occupies a similar place in the annals of modern business.

From the Financial Times

2. Make notes about the first four paragraphs of the article. Use the following headings:

Innovator Developer Product

3.Answer these questions about the article.

1 What is the main point made by the writer?

2 Several well-known companies are mentioned. What reasons are given for their success?

3 What is the connection between Disney, Ford, General Electric and Sony? 4 Look at the cartoon. What innovation does the word it refer to?

4.Use words from each box to make word partnerships from the article. For example, personal computers.

commercial competitive technical established marketing

skills expertise success advantage computers corporation

5. Read about the real inventions and innovations below. What is your opinion of each one? Give your reasons.

1 The laser shaver, by Frenchman Eugene Politzer, gets rid of stubble by burning rather than cutting.

2 The self-extinguishing cigarette, by Danish inventor Kaj Jensen, has a container of water buried near the filter tip.

3 The petless leash, invented by two scientists from Illinois, can mew or bark — depending on whether you want a non-existent cat or dog.

4 Glow-in-the-dark toothpaste was invented in America as a road safety aid.

5 Ice cubes that crackle louder according to the strength of your drink have been developed in Japan.

6 Economy Class passengers could be carried in pressurised containers in the holds of jets, says a Washington design firm.

7 Chocolate shock absorbers can reduce the effects of a vehicle travelling over bumpy surfaces because the chocolate becomes a gel when electrified, say Michigan scientists.

8 A collapsible coffin which can be carried on the bus has been designed by an inventor in Zimbabwe.

Quality control

VOCABULARY

1. Use the words in the box to complete the flow chart.

identified	modified	failed	relaunched
durability	recalled	reliability	tested	launched

ADEFECTIVEPRODUCT

We .........1 the product two years ago. We have a policy of zero defects so we were surprised when, shortly after the launch, we received complaints about the

………2 and ………3 of this product. Because of market feedback, we ……….4 the product so that any faults could be investigated. At the same time, we withdrew it from sale. After extensive tests, our engineers ………5 a fault. As a result, they were able to correct the fault and we ………6 the product. We ………

7 the product under controlled conditions. Finally, we ………8 the redesigned product in the market. Unfortunately, it ………9 due to lack of consumer confidence caused by bad publicity.

2. Complete the sentences below with words and phrases from the box.

consumer satisfaction questionnaire	compensation	monitoring
routine checks	guarantee	inspection
minimum standards	after-sales service	faults

Quality control

Quality control involves checking for _______ before selling goods.

We are always ______ the quality of our products.

The quality control department found several faults during one of their ______ . We use a number of ______ to measure quality.

During the ______ a number of serious production flaws were found.

Customer service

We measure how happy our customers are with an annual ______ . We ensure that the machines are well-maintained by offering ______ . We provide our customers with a ______ lasting 10 years.

If there is a faulty product, we usually offer customers ______ .

3. Think of a product or service that you have complained about. Tell your partner what the problem was and whether it was solved.

READING

1.Before you read the article, answer these questions.

1 How can manufacturers guarantee product quality?

2 Which companies make the best domestic appliances (fridges, cookers, etc.)?

2.Read the article and match the headings to the correct paragraphs.

a)Company strategy

b)Focus on detailed testing

c)High costs: increased reliability

d)Industry admiration for top quality

e)Innovation in working practices

f)Looking to the future

g)Loyalty for product that lasts

Miele Focuses on Old-fashioned Quality

By Pete Marsh

1 ………………….

At a time when life has rarely been tougher for manufacturers in the developed world, Miele’s strategy for survival is to break almost all the rules. The German company, a global leader in high-quality domestic appliances such as washing machines and vacuum cleaners, is renowned for its high manufacturing standards and its refusal to move down-market and compete on price.

2 …………………

Miele bases nearly all its manufacturing in high-cost Germany and is selfsufficient to a high degree. Rather than outsource to low-cost suppliers, it makes 4 million electric motors a year (enough for all its products) in its own plant near Cologne. Keeping the manufacturing base in the company's own plant is, Miele