X. Join the halves.

On the left of the page there are the first halves of sentences. On the right there are second halves of the sentences, though not in the saint' order. Pair the halves and then write your own list of the completed sentences.

1. The first objective of marketing ...	a) has caused massive restructur­ing of many American indus­tries and businesses, and the trend continues.
2. Since the organization obvious­ly can't satisfy all consumer	b) provides important input for de­signing marketing strategies. needs,...
3. Today American firms are spending millions of dollars in both advertising and court cases	c) to distinguish between phy­sical products and intangible ones
4. Outstanding marketing com­panies conduct consumer re­search, focus groups ...	d) it must concentrate its efforts on certain needs of a specific group of potential customers.
5. The intensity of competition in both domestic and global mar­kets ...	e) is critical to the success of every organization — whether large or small, for-profit or non­profit, domestic or global.
6. Understanding customer needs, wants and demands in detail...	f) their perceptions of the value that various products and ser­vices deliver.
7. Marketers often use the expres­sions «goods» and «services» ...	g) is discovering the needs of pro­spective consumers.
8. Consumers make buying choices based on ...	h) to protect their important brand names.
9. Exchange allows a society ...	i) the abundance of products that line the store shelves in your nearby shopping mall.
10. Some people think that only large business organizations op­erating in highly developed eco­nomies use marketing, but sound marketing...	j) the principle of division of labor, where each person specializes in producing something, receives payment, and buys needed things with this money.
11. Modem economies operate on ...	k) to produce much more than it would with any alternative sys­tem.
12. You see the results of market­ing in ...	1) to learn about and understand their customers' needs, wants and demands.

XI. Translate the following text and summarize it in about 50 words:

Is microsoft a marketer?

Bill Gates was only technically a dropout when he left Harvard Uni­versity in his second year. He left because, together with Paul Allen, he had developed the software language for the first personal computer, the Altair. Some of the experts at Intel, who produced the 8080 microchip for the Altair, said it was impossible to develop BASIC language for it, but Microsoft Basic was written in eight weeks, without even the benefit of an Altair computer for reference. Indeed Gates and Allen only saw a working Altair for the first time when Microsoft Word was (successfully) run on it, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In a turbulent industry with over 75,000 competitors worldwide, and for two difficult decades, Microsoft has consistently grown sales and profits at a dramatic rate. It overtook IBM in market capitalization after only seventeen years in business.

Why has Microsoft been so successful? Here are some reasons:

- The company has a clear and easily understood vision — «Mi­crosoft software on every desktop PC.»

- It hires a very specific type of person with strong technical back ground, high intelligence, a drive to succeed and ability to handle pressure.

- It has a distinctive management style, built around informality, speed, hard challenges and stock options — directed towards making better products quickly and winning.

- Microsoft always wants to be ahead of competition in every way. It competes both in the market-place and the law courts. The drive to win is very strong.

- The company invests heavily in its vision of the future. R & D costs are 14 per cent of sales, sales/marketing investment is 32 percent, while cost of goods is only 15 per cent of sales.

- Deal-making has always been a strength. The agreement of IBM, to use MS-DOS as the operating system in its PCs, established MS-DOS as the industry standard and enabled Microsoft to build dominance in this critical strategic area.

- Microsoft takes controlled risks and places high priority on speed to market-place.