Ex.1. List some of your favourite brands. Then answer these questions.
1. Are they international or national brands?
2. What image and qualities does each one have? Use the following words and phrases to help you.
value for money
durable
fashionable
top of the range
stylish
well-made
reliable
timeless
cool
luxurious
inexpensive
sexy
3. Why do people buy brands?
4. Why do you think some people dislike brands?
5. How loyal are you to the brands you have chosen?
Ex.2. Listen to what these people say about brands. What reasons does each person give for liking or disliking brands?
Ex.3. Speak about your reasons for buying or not buying brands.
Ex.4. Answer the questions given below.
1. What is a brand?
2. Why do we need brands?
Now listen to a small interview to check if you were right.
Ex.5. Think of the answers to the following questions. Then read the text below to check if you were right.
1. What is branding?
2. Why are brand names important?
3. What can the sources of brand names be?
The key objective of branding is to create a relationship of trust.
The name is the most important element of a successful brand. Packaging changes, advertising changes, products even change but brand names never change.
Where do great brand names come from? All different sources, they may come from family names or perhaps the inventor?s favourite colour or animal or sometimes the names are just completely made up. For example, McDonald?s is a family name, Adidas was created from the inventors name Adi Dassler, Volvo means ?to roll? in Latin and KODAK was completely made up by the inventor George Eastman because he thought it was unusual and different.
Ex.6. Can you guess where the following brand names came from? Match the brands in the box with the correct text below.
b) This was the fifth perfume made by the same company.
c) Named after the Greek Goddess of Victory.
d) Originally a Japanese family name Toyoda. The inventors changed one letter to make it easier to pronounce overseas.
e) Named after an African Gazelle.
f) The family names of two men, one a motor enthusiast and the other an engineering genius.
Ex.7. Match these word partnerships to their meanings.
B
R
A
N
D
1. loyalty
a) the name given to a product by the company that makes it
2. image
b) using an existing name or another type of product
3. stretching
c) the ideas and beliefs people have about a brand
4. awareness
d) the tendency to always buy a particular brand
5. name
e) how familiar people are with a brand
P
R
O
D
U
C
T
1. launch
f) the set of products made by a company
2. lifecycle
g) the use of a well-known person to advertise products
3. range
h) when products are used in films or tv programmes
4. placement
i) the introduction of a product to the market
5. endorsement
j) the length of time people continue to buy a product
Ex.8. Complete these sentences with word partnerships from Ex.4.
B
R
A
N
D
1. The creation of Virgin Cola, Virgin Air, Virgin Rail and Virgin Bride is an example of ? ? .
2. Consumers who always buy Levi?s when they need a new pair of jeans are showing ? ? .
3. Not enough people recognise our logo; we need to spend a lot more on raising ? ? .
P
R
O
D
U
C
T
1. David Beckham advertising Vodafone is an example of ? ? .
2. A ? ? consists of introduction, growth, maturity and decline.
3. The use of BMW cars and Nokia phones in James Bond films are examples of ? ? .
Ex.9. Listen to the first part of the interview with Sandra Greaves, a consultant at Wolff-Olins, a leading international London-based consultancy, and complete these extracts.
1. Brands are all about ?.
2. You know what a brand is ?, what it ?, what it?s going to ?.
3. You actually trust it to ? ? ? ? again.
4. One thing about brands is they add ? and ? and ?, as well as giving you the power to ? things.
Ex.10. Listen to the second part of the interview and tick the points below which Sandra makes.
1. People are very loyal to successful brands.
2. Even successful brands are seen as just a product or a service.
3. Apple was popular because it wasn?t a big corporation.
4. Apple customers felt that the Mac was an easy product to use.
Ex.11. Listen to the examples Sandra gives of how Wolff-Olins helped a company with its branding and answer these questions.
1. What was the company?
2. What is its business sector?
3. What advice did they receive?
Ex.12. Read the text. Find, please, all the word partnerships with the word ?brand? in the text and define them in your own words.
BRANDS. BRANDING.
A brand can be a name, a term or a symbol. It is used to differentiate a product from competitors? products.
The brand name of a product is the name the manufacturer gives it and under which it is sold.
The main aim of producers is to create brand popularity, so that most of people would recognize the product among the competitors? products.
Branding refers to the image or impression that a company creates for its products, usually through advertising. The image or impression that people have of a particular brand of products is called the brand image.
Consumers may or may not recognize a particular brand name. This knowledge, or lack of it, is measured in terms of brand recognition and brand awareness. Brand recognition is when a person knows what a product is or knows something about it as soon as they see it or hear its name. Brand awareness is how much people know about a particular brand, and the ideas they have about it. Advertising campaigns are launched to enhance brand awareness, that's why sometimes brand costs more than the whole company. Brand awareness helps people to find the necessary size, quantity, taste, especially, when they are in another country.
Brand names, first of all, should be eye-catching. All brand names are registered and protected by law; no one else can produce the same product under such brand name. It's a very hard to create a new brand name so some companies use brand stretching. They use a leader-brand to launch a new product in a new category.
Consumers rely on and pay for reputations.The brands guarantee a certain level of quality. Brands should add value to the products. Customers who buy brand name products must believe they get extra value for money. They are buying the added assurance that the brand name company will take the necessary measures to protect its reputation for quality. Thus, brand loyalty is born. Brand loyalty is the way some people always buy a particular brand of a product, and are not likely to start buying a different brand.
There are different types of brands. There are what we refer to as stand alone brands or individual brands, for example Ariel or Marlboro cigarettes. There?s also the corporate branding, or family brands such as Marks and Spencer or Levis.
ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY
add v
advertising hype
be familiar with
be pro-brand
brand awareness
brand image
brand loyalty
brand name
brand popularity
brand recognition
brand stretching
branded product
branding n
competitor n
cool adj
corporate branding
differentiate v sth from sth
durable adj
eye-catching adj
family brand
fancy logo
fashionable adj
fed up adj
genuine product
guarantee v, n
identify v with
illegal copy
impress v
individual brand
inexpensive adj
inflated price
international/national brands
leader-brand n
luxurious adj
packaging n
pay v for sth
product endorsement
product launch
product lifecycle
product placement
product range
protect v
recognise v
reliable adj
rely v on
sexy adj
stand alone brand
stylish adj
timeless adj
top of the range
trust v, n
value for money
well-made adj
ISSUES TO DISCUSS
1. What image and qualities should brands have?
2. Why do people buy brands?
3. Why do you think some people dislike brands?
4. How loyal are you to the brands you have chosen?
5. What is a brand and why do we need brands?
6. What is branding?
7. Why are brand names important? Name three different sources of brand names.
8. Speak about the main notions for brands. (brand loyalty, brand image, brand stretching, brand awareness, brand popularity, brand recognition).
9. Speak about types of brands (stand alone brands or individual brands, the corporate branding or family brands).