Track 20

Unit 4

Business

The art of marketing in a global culture

Page 33

Build your vocabulary

1. People’s ideas about what is cool, fashionable and desirable are starting to converge. Today, everybody seems to want the same products no matter where in the world they live.

2. Today’s sophisticated technology enables business to be done at speeds and across distances not possible fifty years ago.

3. Instead of selling their entire product line in every country they do business in, most companies sell only some of their products in any one country.

4. Increased sales are almost guaranteed when marketing campaigns use celebrities. Companies pay these individuals large sums of money because they know they’ll get it back through sales.

5. Many major cities around the world are becoming increasingly homogenous. For instance, people dress the same, listen to similar music, admire the same sports heroes, and use similar technology.

6. Marketing campaigns have to be sensitive to ideological differences between cultures. Companies know, for example, that a culture’s politics and social values can affect how people respond to a product.

7. Most of what we know about products, people, and places we learn through the media via stories, advertisements and photographs.

8. Today, environmentally conscious leaders and businesses are trying to promote the idea that greener is “cooler”. As a result, things like fuel-efficient cars and solar-powered houses are gaining popularity.

9. When a product has universal appeal, it often becomes a global success. The appeal of Coca-Cola, for example, crosses all cultural and class barriers.

10. Although it is often said that “an image is worth a thousand words”, advertisements frequently use verbal messages to sell their products.