Ex. V. Translate into English.
data (), , , , , . , , , 䳿.
, ᑺ () ᑺ (, , , 䳿). ֳ , , , , , , . , , , , , .
, , , . , , . , . , , . , , .
Ex. VI. Discuss whether the following sentences are true or false:
1. Information is processed data collected from various unusual sources.
2. Business decisions are made on the basis of raw facts.
3. Inaccurate data will always be rejected by an information system.
4. Managers complain that half the information they receive is irrelevant.
5. Accuracy and completeness are very important for market-intelligence information.
Part II
Ex. I. Think and answer the following questions:
1. How would you define marketing?
2. What does marketing deal with?
Ex. II. Read the text:
Defining Marketing
The following text will introduce you to the topic of marketing. Defining marketing presents a problem: which definition you get depends on who you ask. The text below discusses the definitions of marketing offered by economists and marketers. If you ask an economist to define marketing, he or she will undoubtedly give you an answer that speaks of the process of exchange and of the utilities that buyers receive from sellers in this exchange process. Marketing deals with the motivations and actions of people who make exchanges, that is, buyers and sellers. An exchange is a transaction between two or more people, groups, or organizations in which each party gives up something of value and receives something of value. The presumption in any exchange is that all parties receive something whose value equals or is greater than the value of what they give up. The buyer usually receives a product or service; the seller usually receives money (see Fig.1).
A product is anything an organization offers for exchange that satisfies a consumer need. In marketing terms, a product may be a tangible good (a car or a coat), an intangible benefit in the form of a service (dry cleaning or fire insurance), or even an idea that offers some benefit (to stop smoking). In many cases, a product may be perceived by both parties in the exchange as a combination of a good, a service, and an idea. For example, if you have the money to exchange for a Mercedes-Benz, the product you buy is a physical good (car), a service (the warranty), and an idea (an image of luxury and success). For an exchange to succeed, it must lead to utility for the consumer.
|
|
|
Fig. 1. The exchange process.
Three scholars have had a particularly strong influence on contemporary marketing: Peter Drucker, Theodore Levitt, and Thomas Peters.
Drucker believes that successful organizations devote themselves to identifying and offering products that satisfy the wants and needs of consumers. He concludes that a business has only two fundamental activities: innovation and marketing. Through innovation, companies continuously replace products with new products that better satisfy customers needs. The function of marketing is to identify these changing needs so that innovative products can be developed to meet them. In Druckers view marketing is the central dimension of the entire business: It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final results, that is, from the customers point of view.
Theodore Levitt of Harvard University wrote an article, Marketing Myopia, that became a classic statement of modern marketing philosophy. Businesses, Levitt said, suffer from myopia when they fail to ask themselves the question, What business are we in? Levitt sounded a warning of the dangers of managers keeping their attention on the products they make rather than on the needs of the customers who are satisfied by those products.
Defining a business in terms of the product made and sold is an easy answer. But, in his view, the more appropriate answer to the question lies in whatever needs of the customer are satisfied or in the service provided to the customer.
Thomas J. Peters was the co-author of what many think are the two most important management books of the 1980s, In Search of Excellence and A Passion for Excellence. These books show that close attention to the needs of customers makes excellent organizations excellent. Both books report on extensive research into what distinguishes excellent companies from ordinary ones; a key factor identified in the research is how different companies treat their customers: In the private or public sector, in big business or small, we observe that there are only two ways to create and sustain superior performance over the long period. First, take exceptional care of your customers via superior service and superior quality. Secondly, constantly innovate. Thats it. There are no alternatives in achieving long-term superior performance, or sustaining strategic competitive advantage, as the business strategists call it.
Peters insists that firms that take care of customers and innovate constantly win competitive battles, hold leading shares of the markets in which they compete, and produce top financial returns for their stockholders.
Active Words and Phrases:
| utility | ; ; | consumer | |
| warranty | , | satisfy customers needs | |
| value | insurance | ||
| benefit | ; | myopia | , |
| tangible | identify | ||
| transaction | () | warning | |
| commitment | (); | performance | ; (); |
| intangible | give up | ||
| perceive | , | in marketing terms | |
| be satisfied with (by) | in many cases | ||
| exchange of goods | have influence on | ||
| succeed | keep attention | ||
| luxury | sustain |
Ex. III. Answer the following questions:
|
|
|
1. How does an economist define marketing?
2. What is an exchange?
3. What does any exchange presume?
4. How can you define a product?
5. What is the necessary condition for a successful exchange?
6. What has Peter Drucker emphasized in his writings on marketing?
7. What are Theodore Levitt's views on marketing?
8. What makes excellent organizations excellent according to Thomas Peters?
Ex. IV. Look through the text again and find words that correspond to the following definitions:
1 - the act of changing one thing for another (paragraph 1);
2 - a business deal (paragraph 2);
3 - the importance or usefulness of something (paragraph 2);
4 - an act of thinking that something must be true (paragraph 2);
5 - a written promise that a company will fix or replace something if it breaks after you have bought it (paragraph 3);
6 - someone who buys or uses goods or services (paragraph 3);
7 - to feel happy or pleased because you have achieved something or got what you wanted (paragraph 6).
Ex. V. Complete the gaps using the necessary words from the box:
profit, staff, attention, customer, managers, satisfaction, served, commitment, successful, marketing, headquarters
1. Thomas J. Watson, Sr., founded IBM, one of the most companies in the world and as its president during the early decades of the 20th century.
2. He built IBMs success on the principle of customer
3. He insisted that everyone in the company pay to customers needs.
4. The philosophy of business assumes that an organization can best survive, prosper and by identifying and satisfying the needs of its customers.
5. Sears is a well-known company which has dramatized its to this philosophy in an unusual way.
6. During the meetings at Sears in Chicago an empty chair sits in a conference room.
7. Painted on the Chair are the words, The .
8. This symbolic presence reminds all Sears who their real boss is.
