Episode 125 B

EPISODE 125
LEVEL B1-B2

 

READING COMPREHENSION

 

Brand Awareness

A brand is the meaning behind your company’s name, logo, symbols and slogans. Having a unique and memorable brand helps you build brand awareness and create a long-term position in the marketplace. Brand awareness is a measure of how well your brand is known within its target markets.

 

First Step

Creating brand awareness is usually the first step in building advertising objectives. Before you can create a favourable impression or motivate customers to buy, they have to become aware of your brand and its meaning. Marketing messages delivered through various media are often used to communicate the brand name and important messages tied to its products. Making people aware that you exist helps drive traffic to your business and create a buzz in the market.

 

Top of Mind

Irrespective of the industry, the highest level of brand awareness is top of mind awareness. This is when customers think of you first when they need to make a purchase within your product category. It may incorporate elements of latency, i.e. when you most remember what you’ve learnt last. You can build top of mind awareness through repeated exposure and consistent delivery of a good product or service over time. This is a huge competitive advantage in the market when customers enter a buying situation and your brand immediately comes to mind first.

 

Build Equity

Equity is the value of your brand beyond your physical assets like buildings and equipment. It is sometimes believed to be the experience you are offering, rather than the product that is purchased. To develop a strong brand equity you have to develop a high level of brand awareness. The more people are aware of you and the stronger your reputation, the greater your profit potential and overall brand value. Whisper marketing in the market plays a strong role in helping your brand grow its customer base and develop loyal relationships with top customers. If there isn’t enough buzz in the market, businesses tend to have positive opinions published on blogs and other media.

 

Digital Impact

The importance of brand awareness has become increasingly significant with the evolution of the Internet and digital technology. The public is more equipped with mobile and social media tools to communicate quickly about your brand – good or bad. This means that establishing a strong reputation for good products or services, integrity in your business practices and community involvement are even more critical to long-term success.

Adapted from The Houston Chronicle’s smallbusiness.chron.com

 

Exercise 1

Find the words or expressions in the text which mean the following:

1) a way of checking the size or extent of something: __________
2) the client’s contact with your product: __________
3) the value of something, not necessarily material: __________
4) actual things a company owns: __________
5) more than: __________
6) one of a kind, unlikely to be seen elsewhere: __________
7) unlikely to be forgotten: __________
8) to adopt the elements of something: __________
9) easily brought back from memory: ___________
10)to buy: __________
11)to set something up: __________
12)of greatest importance: __________
13)being better than business rivals: __________

 

Exercise 2

Match the expressions from the two columns into logical collocations:

1) advertising              brand value
2) a favourable           position in the marketplace
3) a long-term            a buzz
4) target                      category
5) to drive                   impression
6) to create                 traffic to a business
7) a product               practices
8) consistent             delivery of …
9) overall                    markets
10)business               objectives

 

Exercise 3

Provide English equivalents of these expressions:

1) wyznacznik
2) przewaga nad konkurencją
3) ogólna wartość marki
4) zakup
5) kapitał (niekoniecznie
pieniądze)
6) docelowe rynki zbytu
7) pozytywne wrażenie
8) klientela
9) praktyki biznesowe
10)ugruntowana pozycja na rynku
11)branża, sektor
12)zawierać (również: założyć
spółkę)

Grammar corner…

If there isn’t enough buzz in the market, businesses tend to have positive opinions published on blogs and other media – how do you think they do it? Can you figure it our from the sentence? What the author has in mind is that businesses pay someone to write positive opinions about them. The structure HAVE SOMETHING DONE, one of the passive structures, is used to express precisely that. The only part of the phrase that changes is the verb „to have”. The other verbs, or the main verb, is ALWAYS in the third form.

For instance: The mechanic will be repairing my car tomorrow => I will be having my car repaired tomorrow.

So, as you can see, the verb „to have” will depend on what grammatical tense you want to use, in other words, whether you will be talking about the past, the present, or the future, simple, continuous, or perfect.

 

Exercise 4

Transform the sentences:

1) We outsourced a market research. => _____________________________
2) I will ask the legal department to check if it doesn’t violate any laws. =>_____________________________
3) Why should we hire accountants if we can pay a third party to do ouraccounting for us? => _____________________________
4) Taking on more staff will mean extending the premises. =>_____________________________
5) A construction crew is refurbishing our office as we speak. =>_____________________________
6) You’ve ruined my suit! I’ve just picked it up from the dry cleaner’s =>_____________________________
7) If it was his fault, I will ask HR to fire him right away. =>_____________________________
8) Why can’t you order someone else to do it? =>_____________________________
9) With staff cuts, people have taken on new responsibilities that the companyhad previously paid external suppliers to do. =>_____________________________
10)After work, to blow off some steam, I’m going to the hairdresser’s. =>_____________________________

 

GLOSSARY

a measure – wyznacznik
exposure – styczność klienta z marką, produktem
to incorporate – zawierać  (również: założyć spółkę)
a purchase – zakup
to establish – założyć (np. firmę), nawiązać (np. stosunki)
critical – istotny
competitive advantage – przewaga nad konkurencją
advertising objectives – cele marketingowe
a favourable impression – pozytywne wrażenie
a long-term position in the market – ugruntowana pozycja na rynku
target markets – docelowe rynki zbytu
consistent delivery – nieprzerwane pasmo sukcesów w branży
overall brand value – ogólna wartość marki na rynku
(best) business practices – najlepsze praktyki rynkowe
to outsource – korzystać z usług zewnętrznych dostawców
to violate laws – łamać / naruszać prawa
a third party – podmiot zewnętrzny
premises – siedziba, budynek firmy
to refurbish – odnowić
as we speak-  w tej chwili
to drive traffic to sth – kierować uwagę na coś
equity – kapitał
unique – jedyny w swoim rodzaju
memorable – pamiętny
a buzz – szum, zameszanie wokół produktu
staff cuts – redukcja zatrudnienia
to blow off steam – rozładować napięcie
client base – klientela

 

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