Managing director
The Board of Directors
Sector
Production
Director
Research and Development
Director
Market Research
Regional departments with Regional managers responsible for company’s activities on certain geographical territories.
VI Comprehension
VI. Comprehension
Exercise 13. Listen to a short dialogue.
Look at the structural chart of the company discussed in the
conversation. Fill in the missing information.
Identify which information in the chart was not mentioned in the
conversation you heard.
management issues – проблеми управління
Dialogue 1.
A: Well, my mission is to let you know about the structure of our company. What would you like to know?
B: I’m primarily interested in the management issues. Will you tell me first of all who runs the company?
A: No one personally does. The highest executive body is the Board of Directors. But day-to-day running of everything is the responsibility of the Managing Director. He is accountable to the Board.
B: And who is the Board accountable to?
A: To shareholders. Every year the Chairperson who presides over the Board makes a report at an annual shareholders’ meetings.
B: But let’s return to the Managing Director. What managers and departments assist him in his job?
A: Well ,our company has 5 executive departments accountable to the Managing Director: the Production Department, the Research and Development Department, the Finance Department, the Marketing Department and the Human Resources Department. Besides, he controls the work of the Regional Departments and Regional Managers.
B: And how many Regional Departments have you got?
A: Five: North, South, East, West and Central.
B: What are the functions of the Human Resources Department and the Research and Development Department? The functions of the other departments are clear to me.
A: As to the Human Resources Department, it takes care of the personnel, its recruitment, and training. The R&D Department works on developing new products.
B: Does your company have any subsidiaries?
A: Yes, three: one in Canada, one in Australia, and one in Greece.
B: Thank you very much. You’ve helped me a lot.
A: You are very welcome.
In
charge of manufacturing the goods
Production Department
That the company sells
The meeting of shareholders – elects the Chairperson and votes the most important issues
VII. Reading and Comprehension
Exercise 14. Look through the text B ( 8 min.).
Text B
Marketing is the determination of the customer’s needs and wants, the development of goods and services to satisfy those needs and wants, and the delivery of those goods and services to the customer at a convenient time and place. Marketing activities really begin with understanding the customer.
For a firm to prepare an effective marketing strategy, it must first define its markets. In a broad sense we can speak of consumer markets, industrial markets, and international markets. Consumer markets consist of individuals and households that purchase goods and services for their own use. Industrial markets are composed of firms that buy goods for resale and firms or institutions that buy goods and services to use in performing their operations. These goods include raw materials, fabricated materials, equipment, tools, office supplies. International markets are buyers of goods and services from other countries. The available natural resources and the status of economic development in a particular country or geographical region determine the dimension of the market for international products.
To be most effective, marketing managers need to understand the characteristics of the markets they are trying to serve. Market characteristics include population, age, income, and regional patterns that affect marketing strategies. The major factor determining consumer demand is the number and type of people with purchasing power to buy a given product or service. This factor is important to a manager who should ask the question: “ Are there enough potential customers to justify my doing into business here? ”
Other important demographic characteristics are family status and education. Different age groups have different consumption pattern, and marketing managers form their marketing strategies accordingly. For example, young children need baby food, toys, and clothing. School – aged children purchase clothing, sport equipment, records and CDs, cosmetics, and used cars.
The most important source of consumer purchasing power is personal income. Regional differences in income, tastes, buying habits are also to be taken into account.
No business can satisfy all the customers. Most marketing managers therefore try to attract the part of the market that matches their product or service. This is called target market – the specific group of customers towards which a firm directs its marketing efforts. The way marketers find out information about their target market’s characteristics is through marketing research, the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of data about problems related to the marketing of goods and services.
Once a target market has been defined and a thorough marketing research has been conducted, it’s the job of marketing managers to work out marketing strategy: overall plan for developing the marketing process to reach a firm’s objectives. Usually marketing strategy revolves around product, pricing, promotion, and placement of goods and services – the four P’s of a marketing mix.
Notes:
target market – цільовий ринок
purchasing power – купівельна здатність
office supplies – канцелярські товари
consumption pattern – структура споживання
Exercise 15. Explain what you understand about the following:
a). types of markets;
b). main components of market characteristics;
c). meaning of a target market;
d). functions of a marketing manager;
Exercise 16. Summarize the main idea of the text in one sentence.