VII. Market Structure

Task 1. Read and translate the text.

A market can be defined as any form of contact between buyers and sellers for the purpose of buying and selling goods and services. Markets can be local, national and international. Markets always have two sides: the demand side and the supply side.

The supply side is represented by sellers and the goods and services they wish to sell. Now we can see that buyers, means of payment, sellers, goods and services are the four main elements of the market.

The demand side of the market is composed of buyers wishing to acquire goods and services. Consumers use different means of payment, e.g. cash (paper money and coins), checks, credit cards, and etc. The demand for a product is not only influenced by price. All individual may be influenced by their personal tastes, the size of income, advertising, the cost and availability of credit.

Consumers have a wide choice in how they spend their income, and there is a large quantity and many different types of goods and services that the consumer can buy. One difficulty that confronts a firm is to decide what to produce. Satisfying the wants and needs of consumers is very important in any business. Some things, such as food, are essential. Food is an example of a single-use consumer good. Most people, having satisfied their needs, wish to satisfy their wants by the purchase of items such as cars, TVs, microwave ovens and compact disc players. Тhey are sometimes called consumer durable products. They also may pur­chase services such as dry-cleaning, haircuts, trips to the cin­ema and meals out.

Тoday, a successful company is one, which tries to discov­er what the consumer wants and then makes that product and sells it at a profit. Such firms are market-oriented. They are in complete contrast to a prod­uct-oriented firm, which first produces a product and then tries to sell it.

Market research involves studying the market to find out what the customer really wants. There are two main sources of information:

1. Primary information which is not already available. To collect this informa­tion a firm has to question consumers directly about their tastes and preferences. This method is also called field research.

2. Secondary information is information that is already available to the firm. It can come from a variety of sources, such as government statistics, business and trade publica­tions. Collecting information this way is called desk research.

Vocabulary:

demand – спрос

supply – предложение

to acquire – приобретать

cash – наличные

to influence – влиять

taste – вкус

availability – наличие, доступность

to offer – предлагать

single-use consumer goods – товары одноразового использования

consumer durable products – потребительские товары длительного пользования

(to) pur­chase – покупка, покупать

preference – предпочтение

research – исследование

Task 2. Answer the questions

1. What is a market?

2. What can you say about a market structure?

3. Can you give any examples of single-use consumer goods and consumer durable products?

4. What consumer durable products and services do you usually buy?

5. What are you influenced by while choosing a certain good or service?

6. What is the difference between market- and product-oriented firms?

7. What are the two main sources of collecting information in the market?

Task 3. Complete the dialogues

A: As far as I understand market is not a simple thing, is it?

B: ………………………………………...

A: So, what types of products are usually offered by sellers?

B: ………………………………………...

A: I see, but how a firm can get to know about what to produce and sell?

B: ………………………………………...

A: Thank you very much.

B: …………………………………………

Task 4. Try to build up the consumer profiles of the students and teachers of your University. Use the information below and don’t forget to mention the goods and services your company can offer to these groups of consumers.

Identifying the tastes and preferences of consumers is not simple because there are many different types of consumers with different tastes. Firms normally try to build up a con­sumer profile, i.e. the age, sex, occupation and location of its consumers.