Внеаудиторное чтение по английскому языку. Учебное пособие

1In 1996 Oprah Winfrey, the US’s highestrated syndicated talk-show host, announced the launch of a book club… .

2Ms Winfrey would select a book and announce the title during a show, and then discuss it… .

3Their fears were supported by survey evidence that showed the percentage of Americans reading literature… .

4The remaining strategic question is whether a set of celebrity endorsements can in fact… .

5The use of this marketing tool dates back at least as far as Pope Leo XIII’s 1899 endorsement… .

6An endorsement announcement from a rival may require a company… .

51

6 The curtain opened to … the grand prize.

a) rival; b) veil; c) reveal.

7 Officials at the school say they received a bomb … at approximately 11:30 a.m.

today.

7.9Write out key expressions. Make up a plan for retelling.

7.10Be ready to retell the text in class.

8 Unit 8 The first-mover advantage myth

Whether it’s toothpaste or bleach, skin cream or detergent, the ways a gooey liquid can be engineered, packaged, purchased and applied in the daily routine of the average consumer are more varied than the average consumer has the time – or inclination – to care about. Not so Procter & Gamble.

Its research and development staff spend $2 bn a year hypothesising, experimenting, analysing and ruminating on each of those things in the name of “innovation” – a corporate mantra that P&G staff repeat with a frequency that suggests heartfelt commitment or rigorous brainwashing.

The latest offering from its laboratories resembles a jellyfish-like creature wearing a hat of orange and purple bulges. Called the Tide Pod, the new product is a dissolvable triple-chamber capsule of laundry detergent. It is concentrated, convenient, lightweight and removes the bother of measuring out your detergent, says P&G. The company is also trying hard to present it as revolutionary.

52

It told journalists invited for a preview in Ohio that the squishy Tide Pods represented the biggest “disruption” in US laundry since it introduced Tide liquid detergent in 1984. “It’s been three decades since the lives of people in the laundry room were changed in a meaningful way,” said Alex Keith, P&G’s general manager for fabric care.

The truth, however, is rather different – and not simply because single-dose capsules are already common in Europe. P&G has not even been a capsule pioneer in the US: Henkel, Sun Products and Church & Dwight all released similar products before P&G’s arrived on shelves last month.

With Tide Pods, therefore, P&G has neither broken new ground nor lived up to its innovative mission. It will not enjoy the vaunted “first-mover advantage” of lodging its brand in the minds of consumers, shaping their preferences, establishing a technological edge and securing the best space on retail shelves before anyone else.

But does that matter? The answer is probably not. In spite of P&G’s compulsion to innovate, being “first to market” is not the sure-fire path to dominance it is cracked up to be.

In 2001 the idea of first-mover advantage was challenged by the academics Peter Golder and Gerard Tellis, whose research into the history of 66 industries found that companies get limited rewards from being pioneers. In fact, it is later entrants that tend to succeed.

In Will and Vision: How Latecomers Grow to Dominate Markets, they showed that many companies believed to be pioneers in categories that they led (at least for a time) were in fact late arrivals: Kodak in cameras, Xerox in photocopiers, Apple in personal computers. “Market pioneering is neither necessary nor sufficient for long-term success,” they wrote.

Instead, so-called “fast followers” have the advantage of being able to use pioneers’ experiences to learn about consumer tastes, new designs and manufacturing techniques, and the potential size of a market. They can also learn from their mistakes.

Eric Schwartz, general manager of laundry care at Henkel in the US, echoes this view. “The first mover sometimes overcomplicates in the beginning,” he says. “At the end

53

of the day it’s not about how intricate you make a new offering. It’s about how close to what the consumer wants your offering is.”

But the myth of first-mover advantage remains firmly embedded in business. One reason is that first movers that fall by the wayside get forgotten. Another is the law, which gives first movers the right to register new patents and brands.

The belief that first is best is also buried deep in many people’s minds. “There’s tremendous romance around the idea of pioneering, breakthrough innovation,” says Patrick Barwise, emeritus professor at London Business School and co-author of Beyond the Familiar: Long-term Growth Through Customer Focus and Innovation. “It’s an extension of people’s exaggerated belief in the importance of differentiation.”

Given the high costs and high risks involved, he believes that being the first mover is generally not a good thing if you are trying to create an entirely new product category. It has more value for an “adjacent” innovation – such as Tide Pods, a premium product built on the larger Tide brand, which accounts for about 43 per cent of detergent sales at US retailers tracked by Symphony IRI, a market research group. (P&G is projecting pod sales of $300 m over the next year.)

P&G remains keen to promote its pioneer narrative but another hole in its story is that it has sold single-dose detergents twice before: Salvo in the 1960 s and 1970 s; and Tide Rapid Action tablets from 2000 to 2002. Neither dissolved well, say rivals. This time round, it unveiled Tide Pods in March 2011 and pledged to have them in shops three months later.

But it subsequently had to delay shipments twice, thereby giving rivals time to accelerate pre-existing capsule plans or to begin drawing some up. In the past two months, Henkel of Germany has launched Purex UltraPacks in the US, Sun Products has unveiled its All Mighty Pacs, and Arm & Hammer, owned by Church & Dwight, has released Power Paks. A small Philadelphia company called Cot’n Wash has been selling its Dropps capsules since 2006.

Asked if P&G was playing catch-up, Ms Keith answered with a firm “no”. All the alternatives have single chambers, unlike the triple-barrelled Tide Pods, whose design

54

separates chemicals that are not stable if blended but produce superior cleaning, stain removal and brightening when mixed with water, says P&G.

Others, however, are unconvinced. Tide Pods are just “one of the crowd”, says Mary Marlowe Leverette, About.com’s laundry expert. “Do I think it’s innovative? No.”

But there is little downside to P&G being late. For some brands, the arrival of several similar products at the same time can even be helpful.

Michael Lyons, senior brand manager for Sun Products’ All line, says: “The number one challenge we have is educating consumers about what these are, how to use them and what they do. I’m in the mindset that the more people advertise, the quicker the uptake.”

Prof Barwise says that while it would have been better for P&G to launch Tide Pods in a less crowded market, “it’s not a big deal. They still have all the other advantages of being Procter: brand, distribution, great execution and the ability to keep improving the product”. Its marketing budget also exceeded $13b n last year.

Consumers often assume that the brand which advertises loudest hit the market first. And in the long term, victors shape the telling of history. Pampers, a P&G brand launched in 1961, is often presumed to have been the disposable nappy pioneer because of its dominant market position today. But it wasn’t, as the authors of Will and Vision recount: Chux, a Johnson & Johnson brand, was first to market in 1949. But who remembers that?

(By Barney Jopson, Financial Times)

8.1 Read the text thoroughly and be ready to arrange the following statements into the logical order of the text:

1 Market pioneering is neither necessary nor sufficient for long-term success. 2 P&G has not even been a capsule pioneer in the US.

3 For some brands, the arrival of several similar products at the same time can even be helpful.

4 The belief that first is best is also buried deep in many people’s minds.

5 P&G remains keen to promote its pioneer narrative but another hole in its story is that it has sold single-dose detergents twice before.

6 Its Procter & Gamble research and development staff spend $2bn a year hypothesising, experimenting, analysing and ruminating on each of those things in the

55

the name of “innovation”.

7 In spite of P&G’s compulsion to innovate, being “first to market” is not the surefire path to dominance it is cracked up to be.

8 Consumers often assume that the brand which advertises loudest hit the market

first.

8.2 Match the words with their definitions:

8.3 Insert the correct preposition.

1I've booked a table …… the name of Steinmann.

2She's now assistant marketing manager ….. the south east area.

3Even if you are the first ….. market you still have every other product the consumer wants to compete against.

56

4There is some point in what you say; ….. the same time we adhere to our own

opinion.

5Inflation is close ….. 7 percent.

6The contract was drawn ….. last year.

7….. the long term, alcohol causes high blood pressure.

8.4Say whether the statement is true or false. If the statement is false, give the correct variant:

1 P&G research and development staff spend $30bn a year hypothesising, experimenting, analysing and ruminating on innovation.

2 In 1991 the idea of first-mover advantage was challenged by the academics Peter Golder and Gerard Tellis.

3 Eric Schwartz is the general manager of laundry care at Henkel in the US. 4 Asked if P&G was playing catch-up, Ms Keith answered with a firm “yes”.

5 Pampers, a P&G brand launched in 1981, is often presumed to have been the disposable nappy pioneer.

8.5Answer the following questions.

1 What do Procter&Gamble research and development staff spend $2bn a year for? 2 What is “innovation” for P&G?

3 How did P&G present the squishy Tide Pods to journalists? 4 Is it a good thing to be the first mover?

5How was the idea of first-mover advantage challenged?

6What is Eric Schwartz?

7Why does the myth of first-mover advantage remain firmly embedded in business?

8Was P&G playing catch-up?

9What is little downside to P&G being late?

10Is Pampers, a P&G brand launched in 1961, the disposable nappy pioneer?

8.6 Match equivalents:

57

8.7 Finish the following sentences using the original text:

1It’s been three decades since the lives of people in the laundry room… .

2In 2001 the idea of first-mover advantage was challenged by the academics Peter Golder and Gerard Tellis, whose research into the history of 66 industries found… .

3Instead, so-called “fast followers” have the advantage of being able to use pioneers’ experiences to learn about… .

4The belief that first is best is also buried deep… .

5For some brands, the arrival of several similar products at the same time… .

6Consumers often assume that the brand which advertises loudest… .

58

8.9Write out key expressions. Make up a plan for retelling.

8.10Be ready to retell the text in class.

Unit 9 Unemployment matters more than GDP or inflation

Jobless figures are the one major economic indicator that measures people. And they demonstrate the toll in misery across Europe

There is a spectre haunting Europe – the spectre of mass unemployment. On Thursday it was announced that the eurozone's unemployment rate had risen to a record high of 10,7 % in January. That's 16,9 million people out of work across the 17-nation euro area.

Across the 27-member European Union unemployment is also topping 10% for the first time: a jaw-dropping 24,3 million jobless. The sheer size of the continent's growing army of unemployed workers is difficult to comprehend.

Spain holds the EU record, with unemployment at 23,3 %, or 5,3 million people – and rising. “This is the terrible cancer of our society,” said Rafael Zornoza Boy, the bishop of Cadiz, last week. Yet prime minister Mariano Rajoy's new (and conservative) government's pleas to give Madrid some leeway on spending cuts fell on deaf ears at Friday's EU summit of fiscal self-flagellists in Brussels. Then there is poor Greece, where EU-imposed cuts have left one in five unemployed and have driven up the suicide rate by 40 %. Austerity is, literally, killing Europeans.

59

Poll after poll shows voters across the EU care much more about the jobs deficit than they do about the budget deficit. Nonetheless, the proverbial Martian, landing in Brussels last week, would have been stunned to witness the complacency and indifference of the continent's political elites to the crisis of spiralling joblessness. EU leaders continue to fiddle – over borrowing limits, fiscal compacts, treaty changes – as their economies crash and burn. The austerity gamble hasn't paid off. Fiscal consolidation has failed to spur growth or boost employment.

Fiscal stimulus, on the other hand, works. The US has had 23 consecutive months of private-sector job growth, with 3,7 m new jobs created over the past two years thanks to Barack Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. US unemployment benefit claims are now at a four-year low.

But Europe's political and financial elites – led by austerity junkies such as “Merkozy”, the European Central Bank's Mario Draghi and, of course, our very own David Cameron – pretend not to notice. Here on the jobless side of the Atlantic, the only solution to austerity-induced unemployment, it seems, is more austerity. In Brussels, eurozone finance ministers threatened to impose swingeing fines on those member states, such as Spain and the Netherlands, that may miss their budget deficit targets. If insanity, as Albert Einstein is said to have once remarked, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then our leaders have gone mad.

The irony is that mass unemployment itself is the biggest barrier to deficit reduction. Basic economics teaches us that the best way to cut borrowing levels is to get people back to work and paying taxes. Or as John Maynard Keynes put it: “Look after unemployment and the budget will look after itself.”

But Europe's crisis isn't just about economics. Unlike GDP or inflation, unemployment is the only major economic indicator that measures real human beings, rather than growth or prices.

Having a job isn't just about earning a living or paying taxes; it's about human dignity and self-worth. The human and social costs of unemployment are welldocumented: financial hardship, emotional stress, depression, lethargy, loss of morale and status, shame, sickness and premature death. Then there is the hopelessness that often

60