Appunti Inglese

The big pictures strategy: Marketing

Marketing is an action plan to identify potential opportunities for growth and potential threats. The factors that the company must consider during the development of a strategic plan are:

• Current sales.
• Economic forecasts.
• Competitors.
• Human and financial resources.
• Fashion and trends.
• Technology.
• Product development.

Nike's goddess

Nike was considered for a long time a masculine company. But John Hoke and the Vice President Mindy Grossman changed things: the first Nike Goddess store was established, thinking that its real power was to change minds inside the company.

• How to sell to women: Nike Goddess store had a comforting woman environment.
• How to design for women: They had to redesign the shoes and clothes to fit women’s necessities.
• How to talk to women: They shouldn’t talk to women through gender, and they had to redefine and re-energize their complete brand around a market that was taking off.

General content

The development of a strategy to increase sales to women customers. Nike wants to develop new styles and colors for women and this is changing minds inside the company.

The message

The organization of a good strategy can permit the full potential of a company to make great economic benefits.

Breaking into a new market

In the 90s Mario Moretti Polegato created a special membrane that could be used in shoes to prevent perspiration. He set up his company with few employees. Now it’s a very important company.

S.W.O.T.

SWOT analysis is a structured planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involved in a project or in a business.

• Strength: Characteristic of a business.
• Weakness: Disadvantageous position compared to others.
• Opportunities: External choices to improve performance.
• Threats: External elements that could cause problems.

Unit 4 – Pay

Because I'm worth it

CEOs and top senior executives are sometimes identified as “fat cats” because of the giant pay packages and rewards they are offered. This includes "golden parachutes" or very generous severance deals. Their salaries are negotiated by remuneration committees and voted by shareholders.

General content

Bosses are overpaid, regardless of the way in which they work.

The message

Bosses pay themselves more or less whatever they like.

A controversial court case

Cantor Fitzgerald appeared back in the news in Britain because one of his staff took him to court for breach of contract. Mr. Honkulak claimed that his boss Lee Amaitis threatened to sack him, causing him so much stress that he started to drink and take medication. Honkulak finally left the company and asked for £1 million compensation. The judge awarded Mr. Honkulak £1 million, saying that there are limits beyond which no employer should go.

Unit 5 – Development

The photo shows a forest clearing.

Prosperity or preservation?

Loans from international organizations permit governments to exploit their natural resources and to invest in construction projects and industrial facilities. Environmentalists oppose development which produces pollution and endangers the health of local people.

Gas for Peru vs green imperialism

A natural gas project from the Amazon Jungle should turn Peru from an importer to an exporter. Camisea has a huge gas reserve. Environmentalists claim that the project threatens tribes of the Amazon, rare species, and the rainforest; the export terminals would endanger the marine reserve at Paracas. But Camisea’s defenders project that it will bring huge benefits.

DBI: Inter-American Development Bank.

Unit 6 – Marketing

In the picture, we can see a yacht which symbolizes the social status of people who possess it.

Seducing the masses

The marketing mix includes the four Ps:

• Product: The features of the goods sold.
• Place: Where the product is sold.
• Price: Appropriate market price.
• Promotion: The advertising of the product.

Money can buy you love

They force people to look alike, eat alike, and be alike. In the new global economy, brands represent a huge portion of the value of the company. In the past, companies created their image using logos that represented them and indicated the quality of their products. Nowadays, consumers have more media to choose from. The new marketing approach is to develop a brand and not a product. In the past, the most important thing in commerce was the product; nowadays it is the customer. Some years ago, companies tried to convince customers to buy their products, but now companies try to inspire customers. In fact, they often appeal to emotions, so they manipulate people to buy some product brands that become a status symbol.

That little voice in your head

Marketers believe that audio technology will have a far greater effect on sales. Nowadays, social media is widely used.

Unit 7 – Outsourcing

In the picture are many migratory birds that carry people, symbolizing workers, managers, or simple employees who, for the need of the market, are forced to emigrate to developing countries where labour costs are lower.

The great job migration

Outsourcing: Transferring business processes to outside suppliers and service providers. Offshoring: A new form of outsourcing where businesses relocate back-office operations overseas where labour costs are lower. One way to reduce operating costs is represented by outsourcing.

The new global shift

The reason for corporate downsizings is that one-third of the jobs in a company are done in countries where work costs less. Globalization’s next step is to reshape the global economy. It could happen in some steps:

• The first consists of the transfer of manufacturing jobs to economically developing countries.
• The second consists of simple service works avoiding highly cost countries, like processing credit card receipts and digital labour.

General content

Globalization has made available new markets and at the same time increased the competitiveness between companies. Many businesses, to save on production costs, relocate their business abroad or dismiss and reduce staff, relocating staff abroad.

The message

The globalization is shifting the global economy.

Unit 8 – Finance

The bottom line

Huge losses experienced by investors and employees due to mismanagement and irregularities in financial reporting have led to a demand for stricter corporate governance.

Europe's Enron

The Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company, and the de facto dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world. Most firms that buy in bulk get discounts from suppliers.

Unit 10 – Counterfeiting

The image shows many Winnie the Pooh's on the sidewalk collected by some people.

The globalization of deficit

Counterfeiters ignore patents, which protect intellectual property, copyright, and trademarks, by producing cheap copies or fakes of branded goods. The music industry in particular claims to be losing millions because of file-sharing systems which allow the downloading of music free of charge.

Imitating property is theft

To most people, counterfeiting means forged currency, but counterfeiters are copying an ever-widening range of products. For some time, they have been copying medicines, mobile phones, food and drink, car parts, and even tobacco. Such rights are legally covered by patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other forms of intellectual property protection. The internet has been a great help to counterfeiters, giving them detailed information about goods to copy and allowing them to link consumers and suppliers with ease. One strategy that companies use is to load their vulnerable products with anti-counterfeiting features.

Unit 11 – Markets

The image shows many products that come out of computers representing the new type of commerce: e-commerce. In this way, companies can sell directly to consumers.

The people's company

The marketplace brings together the buyers and sellers of goods and services and provides a framework for negotiation and price setting. The price at which goods and services are exchanged on a market fluctuates with supply and demand.

Going, going, gone?

The layout shows the colors of the eBay logo. eBay is the online auction site. It is used by a lot of people to buy and sell various types of goods. The text explains the threats to the developing business, how eBay became popular, and about the different things you can buy on it. The Feedback Forum is a rating system that makes it easy for buyers and sellers to grade each transaction, and positive ratings translate to more sales. The only threat that could reduce its success is the growing participation of large commercial sellers.

Unit 12 – Lobbies

In the picture, there is Bono, a singer, giving a speech to motivate people on the issue of economic debts of developing countries. This problem causes many children to die for lack of care.

Finding a voice

Organizations such as charities, pressure groups, and industry groups lobby governments or companies to get them to introduce or change policies. They can use:

• Demonstrations.
• Petitions.
• Litigations.
• Boycotts.
• Celebrities.

Of celebrities, charity, and trade

A number of organizations now recognize that trade between developed and less developed economies allows poorer countries to improve their economies, and a number of charities have also noticed that north-south trade isn’t always exploitative. A strategy used by politicians to attract voters’ attention is the use of celebrities. This tactic was used during the Jubilee 2000 campaign for debt relief, in which Bono and other celebrities persuaded a record number of people to sign a petition. To solve the problem, there are two possible ways to help the economy of developing countries:

• Fair trade: A movement which promotes fairer trading conditions for developing countries.
• Microcredit: Given to those who cannot provide the normal guarantees required by banks.

The new networked lobbies

The internet has provided an essential tool in organizing various groups of companies. Poor countries need to tear down duties and the public debt. A lot of organizations had to use violent and aggressive tactics.

Pressure groups lobbies: Organized groups that apply pressure on other groups.