Skill Up! (14)

Picture this! The launch: A flop?

Download the contents and checklist for Skill Up! (14)

The secrets of marketing

Some products are known, loved and bought all over the world. What is their secret? Such products usually offer a clear advantage over all rival products on the market. Others, however, seem to sell well despite their disadvantages. And then, you have the products that are amazing on paper, but that don’t sell well at all. Marketing could be part of the answer. In this issue of Skill Up!, we present the vocabulary that you will need to talk about marketing.

Often, the first time that a company talks publicly about a new product is at a launch party. At such events, companies are careful to attract celebrities — and to offer the right kind of promotions. In Picture This! (pages 4–5), our illustrations show how such an event could look. But before the fun can start at a launch, there’s a lot of work to be done. Most companies begin with market research (pages 6–7) and then decide on the marketing mix (pages 8–9). The goal of marketing may be to capture a market (pages 12–13) or to create a premium brand (pages 14–15). In the process, marketers should never lose sight of the consumers (pages 18–19) — or social media (pages 16–17).

Finally, turn to our Small Talk section (pages 20–21) to learn expressions for talking about the strange effect marketing can have on people. If you’ve ever camped out to buy a particular book, phone or gadget, you’ll enjoy our dialogue.

The sections:

• Picture This! Use illustrations to help you to visualize the meanings of words.
• Word Bank Study key expressions and translations in our vocabulary list.
  
• False Friends Use visual memory aids for tricky translations.
  
• In Focus Memorize common word partnerships to become more fluent.
  
• Essential Idioms Learn idiomatic language through dialogues.
  
• Close Relations Focus on words and word families.
  
• Small Talk Learn common idioms and expressions for socializing.
  
• Your Profile Personalize our guide with your own example sentences.

We hope you enjoy our new guide and look forward to your comments.

Deborah Capras