Developing speaking skills

Task 35. Having read the material of the unit, how would you answer the questions:

• Now that you know types of business formation, which of them would you prefer? What advantages and disadvantages of working in each one can you think of?

• What does a company have to do to make its products famous and successful?

• If you worked as a marketing manager what duties would you have?

• What does decision-making mean to you?

• Is it difficult for you to make a decision? What is necessary for making the right decision?

• What do you personally need to make the right decision?

Task 36. Choose any of the dialogues offered below. Reproduce them with a partner. Change the roles. Single out the major ideas and be ready to report them to the group.

Dialogue 1.

A:	Hi, Mark! How is your business?
B:	Thanks, fine. Going better and better.
A:	I’m willing to start my own business. Can you give me some advice?
B:	Hmm… There’s no better way to learn about business than to start one. But we should differentiate between three main types of business formation.
A:	What are they?
B:	They are sole proprietorship, partnership and corporation.
A:	As far as I understand, a sole proprietorship is very easy to start and end.
B:	You are right! And the advantages are: being your own boss and the retention of profit. Besides, a sole proprietorship does not pay special taxes, only income tax on the profit.

Dialogue 2.

A:	It seems to me that sole proprietorship has some disadvantages.
B:	Yes, you are right. The first one is risk of losses and then goes unlimited liability and having few fringe benefits. The stunning thing is that the major advantage of a sole proprietorship, which is being its one and only owner, can simply turn into the major disadvantage.
A:	What do you mean?
B:	I mean that there is nobody to consult with or blame if anything goes wrong.

Dialogue 3.

A:	Wonderful news! I have found a partner to do my business with!
B:	Nice! You can start a partnership. This means that you will get more financial resources and management will be easier. Speaking about financing, you have to differentiate between limited partner and general partner.
A:	It seems to me I know the difference. Limited partner invests money in business, but doesn’t have any management responsibility or liability for losses while general partner has unlimited liability and is active in managing the firm.

Dialogue 4.

A:	You know, corporation is the third type of business organisation. It is a state-chartered legal organisation with authority to act, exist and have liability separate from its owners. Besides, it has some tax advantages…
B:	I understand… But corporation is a very expensive business to organise. Besides, running a corporation requires a lot of paper work. That’s definitely not for me.
A:	Well, anyway it’s up to you to decide.
B:	Thanks a lot for your consultation, Mark. I’ll take into consideration everything you said.
A:	You are welcome. And please, do call me if you have any questions in future, I’ll do my best to help you.

Task 37. Work with a partner and complete the following dialogues. Act them out.

Dialogue 1.

A:	Good afternoon! My name is Nick Brown. Last week I applied for a position of a marketing manager. I have an appointment with the human resources manager.
B:	Could you, please, wait a minute? I’ll check if Mr. Jones is free now. OK, Mr. Brown. You may come in now; Mr. Jones is waiting for you.
A:	Thank you very much.
B:	Oh, good afternoon, Mr. Brown. Please, take a seat. I really don’t have too much time, so I’ll start with the most important questions right away, if you don’t mind.
A:	………………………………………………………..........................................
B:	So, the first question is: I see from your resume, that you have worked in the sphere of marketing. What do you think about marketing activities of the most of Ukrainian companies at present?
A:	Well, ……………………………………………………………...…………….
B:	OK. And what, do you think, is the main aim of marketing? How can marketing eliminate the risk in business?
A:	……………………………………………………………………..……….......
B:	And what do you consider to be the main aim of marketing when talking about consumers’ needs?
A:	That’s simple! ……………………………………………...…………………...
B:	Well, Mr. Brown. Your theoretical knowledge seems to be really very deep. We invite you to work in our company and show us your good practical skills as well. You can start tomorrow.
A:	………………………………………………………..…………………...........
B:	Good bye! And, please, don’t be late tomorrow.

Dialogue 2.

A:	Hello, Sue. How are you doing?
B:	Hi. I’m fine, thanks. And actually I would even say that things are great! I’ve got a new job and I’m really very happy about that.
A:	Really? What are you doing?
B:	I work as a marketing manager for a large company.
A:	Hmm… Sounds really interesting. I always wanted to know more about this kind of job, but if I’m not mistaken your main task is to make a product more popular by making some advertising campaigns or something like that. Right?
B:	Well, not really. There is much more work involved except advertising. First of all, a marketing manager must ………………………………….…..
A:	I see, and what do you mean when you are talking of promotion?
B:	………………… Besides, a marketer is involved in communication with a consumer which very often helps to make the segmentation of the market.
A:	Are you trying to say that there is no single market? Is it really split into small pieces?
B:	Well, not really. Market is divided into the so-called segments according to different criteria. …………………..
A:	Hmm, does advertising campaign finally come next?
B:	More or less, yes. You can start producing advertisements, but you need to remember about product life-cycle according to which …………..…………
A:	That sounds really interesting. I never thought that job of a marketing manager involves so many duties.
B:	Well, it does, but it’s really very interesting, believe me. Unfortunately I have to go now, but if you still want to know more you can call me. I’ll be really glad to help you.
A:	Thanks. I’ll call you for sure. Bye!
B:	Bye, Nicolas! It was nice to see you!

Task 38. Role plays.

1. (1). Nowadays day-to-day business includes outsourcing certain projects, either to save time and/or money. A German high-tech company decides to outsource one of their development projects in the field of software programming. To take part in such a contract a company interested in this has to introduce itself, as well as its resources and references to the ordering party. Your task is to introduce the company, its legal form, the number and qualification of employees, references, partners, work experience in English to the ordering party.

(2). A Ukrainian company decides to put up a website, which includes the company’s history. You are hired by them to write the history of the company in English to be put on the company’s website. It should give business visitors an idea of the development of the company, as well as the current situation of the company. The history should include milestones in the business development, changes of legal form, entrance of investors to the company, rewarding contracts and references etc.

Example: Lalanet is a technology vendor that develops high-value specialised optic fibre networking products for the broadcast, film and entertainment industries with a strong emphasis on research and development.

Founded in August 2003 in Krakow, Poland, our staff currently counts fifty employees, which are mainly skilled as system developers, software engineers and broadcasting engineers.

The company is the brainchild of visionary and founder John Doe, who has been influenced by his diverse jobs during his career having worked as a camera man, a university lecturer in electronics and head of new technologies at TARTAERIs, the world leader in air traffic control technologies.

2. Work in groups of four to five people. Design an advertising campaign for your product. Use the following information for preparing your advertising campaign. Behind all effective advertising there lies a lot of careful thought and planning and much of it goes into ensuring that the advertising objectives are the right ones. If these are wrong, everything else which follows is doomed to failure.

First of all, decide which market or market segment you will be addressing. The next step you make should be to choose the marketing objectives for this market/segment. The following list will help you (select the most appropriate objectives, i.e. those that look the most promising to help your company to lead a successful advertising campaign): to establish an immediate sale; to promote the idea of a unique product; to support the sales force; to reinforce attitudes of existing customers; to open up distribution; to improve company image; to demonstrate the product capabilities; to generate inquiries; to impact information; to reassure customers; to ‘score points’ off competitors’ advertising; to enter new markets; to give reasons for buying; to create awareness; to support retailers; to convey the idea of ‘value for money’; to reach new geographical areas; to remind customers about your product; to reinforce the company image; to defend market position; to support the launch of a new product/ service; to explain new uses for product; to emphasise range and choice; to reinforce brand recognition; to inform about product availability; to educate customers; to communicate company strengths; to build customer loyalty; to say how much people like the product.

The next step would be to decide exactly what you want to communicate – your creative platform. Before doing this, however, you must switch your focus of attention to the target population you hope to influence: Who are they? What positions do they hold? What is their influence on the purchasing decision? What personality traits do they exhibit? What socioeconomic groupings do they belong to? What lifestyles do they have? How old are they? What sex are they? Are they married? And so on.

Therefore, you must assemble as much information as you can about the target population. The more you know about them, the better chances you will have for selecting the best medium for your advertising platform. The accompanying worksheet gives a list of possible advertising media. Study this list and select what would be the best choice, taking into account your objectives and the profile of the target audience. In making your choice, you will need to take four factors into account:

1. The character of the medium – the geographical coverage it gives, the types of audience it reaches, its frequency of publication or showing, its physical possibilities (such as colour, sound, movement), its power or potential to reach special groups etc.

2. The atmosphere of the medium – its ability to convey an image consistent with your objectives, e.g. hard and punchy, discreet, elegant, exclusive etc.

3. The “size” of the medium – the number of people exposed to the medium in terms of being aware of the contents. For example, a newspaper might be read by two or three members of a family, whereas a technical journal might be circulated to a large number of managers within a company. Alternatively, a poster might be passed by tens of thousands of people.

4. The comparative cost – how much will it cost to reach a specific audience?

In the following worksheet there is space to make note about these factors as you are required to keep a record of what influenced your choice of medium.

	Medium	Characteristics	Atmosphere	Sise	Comparative cost
Printed media	Local newspaper
	National newspapers
	Trade and technical press
	Magazines and periodicals
	Direct mail
	Leaflets
	Directories (Yellow Pages, buyers’ guides etc.)
Others	Television
	Posters (static)
	Transport (on trains, buses, vans etc.)
	Cinema
	Radio
	Other (specify)

Unit 5