Listening Listening Comprehension I The Story of the Swatch

Ex. 1. Before listening to the story about the success of the Swatch, go through the list of the words below and make sure you know them.

to wind up

face

hands

computerized production line

to be saturated with

unrepairable watch

upmarket timepiece

strap

quarts watches

luxury watch manufactures

to be welded into

Ex. 2. Listen to the story. Decide whether these statements are true or false.

1. Swiss luxury watch manufacturers were doing badly in the 1980s.

2. Electronic digital watches were invented in Switzerland.

3. The first digital watches were manufactured in the Far East.

4. According to market research consumers preferred analogue watches.

5. ETA developed the technology to make quartz analogue watches.

6. ETA’s new product would be easy to repair.

7. Swatches would be fashion item, not timepieces.

8. In 1985 ETA spent $ 30 million on advertising in the USA.

9. ETA promoted Swatches by sponsoring sports.

10. There were many kinds of Swatches: some even tasted of strawberries.

11. It wasn’t possible for customers to buy a Swatch at a discount.

12. ETA didn’t produce as many Swatches as customers wanted.

Ex. 3. Listen to the story again and answer the following questions:

1. What led to the trouble the Swiss watch industry was in?

2. Where were electronic quarts watches first manufactured and sold?

3. What did the Swiss market research show?

4. What technology was developed by ETA?

5. What was the market at a time saturated with?

6. What risk did the ETA take?

7. What part of society did they target?

8. Was it a short- or long-term profit maximizer and why?

9. Was it a mass production item?

10. Was it a drawback that they were unrepairable?

Ex. 4. In pairs or groups of 3 discuss the reasons which led to the success of the Swatch?

Listening Comprehension II

Ex. 1. Listen to the Steve Moody, the manager of the Marks&Spencer Store in Cambridge, giving a hypothetical example of a marketing failure – a product that reaches the shops but fails to sell.

Say what is the example of a product that fails to sell.

Ex. 2. Listen to the recording again and answer the following questions:

1. What does Steve Moody say is the role of Marks & Spenser’s head office?

2. In these circumstances, whose fault would it be that the product failed?

3. What had not been done properly, before the product was delivered to the stores?

4. Who would be the only people in the company that would be able to find out what is wrong?

5. What action could Marks &Spencer take?

6. How does Steve Moody describe the relationship between head office and the individual stores?

Ex. 3. In Steve Moody's hypothetical example, it seems as if there has been a market research failure. Before launching the product, the store did not have enough information about the potential market and customers' tastes and opinions.

Suppose that you were part of the marketing team responsible for the following product concepts:

1 a new line of swimwear, to be sold by a chain of department stores

2 Fresh Fries

3 a new range of expensive hi-fi equipment

4 a new English dictionary for foreign learners

What market research would you do before developing the products? What specific information would you need? 'Where could you get it?

In each case, which of the following sources of information do you think would be most useful, and why?

• Focus group interviews, in which several members of the target market are invited (and paid a small fee) to meet and discuss the product concept

• Internal research: analysing data already available in the company's accounts and sales departments, which keep records of sales, orders, inventory size, and so on

• Printed sources of secondary data, including business newspapers, magazines and trade journals, competitors' annual reports, official government statistics, and reports published by private market research agencies

• Questionnaire research, by telephone, mail, or personal interviewing

• The company's own sales staff

• Other sources