Глава II. Профессиональные и деловые тексты и задания.

UNIT I Marketing

1. History of marketing

1.1. Words to remember:

retailers	продавец в розницу
meet the consumer's needs	удовлетворять спрос
latent need	скрытый спрос
installation	монтаж
maintenance	эксплуатация

1.2. Read the text.

There was a time when companies had never heard of marketing. Selling their products only depended upon the success of their salespeople or retailers. It was only in the 1950s that the idea of marketing started circulating.

But at the beginning of the 20th century L. L. Bean, the founder of the special Bean boot which met the consumer's needs because it had the comfort of leather and the waterproof quality of rubber, already had a clear vision of what marketing could be. He sent potential customers catalogues containing messages he had written himself, including the following:

"I do not consider a sale complete until the goods are worn out and the customer is still satisfied". "We will thank anyone to return goods that are not perfectly satisfactory". "Above all things we wish to avoid having a dissatisfied customer".

Some managers immediately thought that L. L. Bean was mad because that meant that companies had to trust their customers before customers could trust them. But trusting the customer is the very essence of marketing. Marketing is the sum of all activities which are focused on the customer.

The concept that the consumer must be satisfied is clear to everybody but it is not always easy for companies to put it into practice. In fact, poor service, low quality products and rude salespeople are still widely found today and create frustration in the customer.

The Japanese companies are for sure those who have already succeeded in meeting the consumer's needs. Professor Peter Senge of the University of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management stated: "Japanese firms' view of serving the customer has evolved. In the early years of total quality, the focus was on fitness to standard, making a product reliable so that it would do what its designers intended it to do and what the firm told its consumers it would do. Then came a focus on fitness to need, understanding better what the consumer wanted and then providing products that met those needs.

Today companies try to understand and meet the 'latent need' of the customer - what customers might truly value but have never experienced or would never think to ask for".

This is called marketing imagination. Good marketing is not only listening to the customer or selling good products but it is also the creation of something new for the customer.

1.3. Answer the questions:

1. Who was L.L. Bean? And why is he important?

2. What is the real essence of marketing?

3. Is it easy for companies to apply the concept of marketing?

4. What is worth mentioning about the Japanese companies?

5. What is "marketing imagination"?

6. Define the phrases "fitness to need" and "fitness to standard".

7. What is called marketing imagination?

8. Is a sale complete when the goods are sold or when the goods are worn out and the customer is still satisfied?