20. Corporate alliances and acquisition.

A holding or holding company is one that holds stakes (доля) in one or more subsidiaries [саб‘сидериз]. A holding company’s relationship to its subsidiaries is that of parent company, and subsidiaries’ relationship to each other is that of sister companies. A holding and its subsidiaries form a group.

A conglomerate is a group containing a lot of different companies in different business. Journalists also refer to large groups as giant [‘джаэнт - гигант].

There is a situation when some company is attempting to gain (предпринимает попытки получить) control of another company in takeover bid (предложение о поглощении). If company doesn’t want to be taken over, the bid is hostile (враждебный).

A company wishing to resist or ward off (сопротивляться, отражать) being taken over has a number of options. It may devise (разработать) plans that give existing shareholders special rights, or it may make itself less attractive to bidders by selling off a valuable part of company or holding on to an unattractive one. Actions like these are poison pills. Or it may persuade (убеждать) a friendly partner to take a stake in the company, thus preventing a complete takeover by a hostile bidder. Bidders may agree to withdraw their bid (отозвать их предложение) if paid enough money for the shares they hold in the target company. This is greenmail.

21. Advertising and promotion. Marketing ethics.

Advertising tells people about products, for example in newspapers, on television in commercials, or in the street on hoardings or billboards. Advertising is often designed and managed by advertising agencies. An advertising campaign consists of a series of advertisements, adverts or ads which are run in various media.

Another way of telling people about products is by direct marketing, using techniques like mailings, also known as mail shots: these are often referred to derisively as junk mail.

The promotion of a product may refer to any marketing effort to encourage people to buy it, including advertising. However, promotion is often used to refer specifically to marketing activities other than advertising: offers such as discounts, cut-price vouchers, free gifts(freebies), competitions, and displays or events at the point-of sale, the place in the retail outlet where the product is sold.

Discounts may be given in a sale at a particular time of year such as summer or January, often to get rid of remaining stock.

Merchandising refers to the ways goods are presented at the point of sale, and more commonly, to goods such as toys and T-shirts that are produced to promote things like films or rock-groups.

Marketing ethics is the area of applied ethics which deals with the moral principles behind the operation and regulation of marketing.

22. Brand image and brand stretching.

A brand of a product is a version of it made by one particular manufacturer.

Consumer may or may not recognize or know about a particular brand name or brand label. This knowledge, or lack of it (или отсутствие его), is measured [‘мэжад – определяется] in terms of brand recognition and brand awareness [э’вэнес – осведомленность].

And there are opportunities for extending their brand names into new areas. But it is difficult to manage successfully. If you stretch a brand too far, the elastic [элэ’стик] can snap (порваться) and the core value of name becomes devalued (обесцениваться), as some companies have found to their cost.

Brand extension has become valuable in the past five years. During the recession (спад), hard-pressed marketing directors in the food industry offered consumers more choice by adding new flavours (вкусы), taking out fat or sugar (жир и сахар), or moving from one tried and tested category, such as confectionery (кондитерка), to an allied (смежный) one such as soft drinks. It was a low-risk strategy – it avoided the huge costs of new product development and offered variation on an existing purchase.

But some companies have expanded into new and unexpected areas. Among them are tobacco companies, which – by moving into sectors such as luxury goods and clothing – keep their brand names in the mind of the public despite (несмотря на) stringent [‘стринджент – строгий] regulations on advertising.