What is marketing?

Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or user. Simply to produce a product is not enough: the product must be transported, stored, priced, advertised, and sold before the satisfaction of human needs and wants is accomplished. Marketing activities range from the initial conception and design of the product to its ultimate sale, and account for about half the cost of the product. Marketing is the whole process of having the right product, at the right time, in the right place, calling attention to it and thereby bringing a mutual benefit to customer and vendor. Customers benefit by having what they want, when and where they want it. Vendors benefit by making a profit. The greater the benefits customers perceive, the more frequently they will trade with the businesses that provide them. You are engaging in marketing when you:

• design or develop a product or service

• transport and store goods

• provide a variety of choice

• buy in large volumes and sell them by item

• install, service, repair, instruct

• update and improve.

Marketing is the four Ps:

The product, the place, the price and the promotion. But most of all, marketing is research: finding out who the customers are and what they need.

Successful vendors never forget that benefit lies in the customer’s perception, not in the vendor’s. Marketing is asking the question, “Who will by my product or service?”

Although many critics claim that the cost of marketing is too high, an analysis of the marketing functions does not bear these criticisms out. Rather than think of the cost of marketing, one should consider the value added through marketing. Marketing becomes too costly only when its cost exceeds the value it adds.

Variant 3

I. Перепишите предложения, выпишите глагол-сказуемое, укажите его временную форму, лицо и число. Переведите предложение письменно.

1. We were still discussing this question at this time yesterday.

2. She looked through her notes before the seminar.

3. What shall we do if she is late?

II. Перепишите предложения, выпишите глагол-сказуемое, укажите залог и временную форму, напишите инфинитив сказуемого. Переведите предложения письменно.

1. When I called dinner was being made.

2. The book will have been sold by the end of the week.

3. Two good films were made last year.

4. Tver is located not far from Moscow.

III. Перепишите предложения, переведите письменно, обращая внимание на модальные глаголы и их эквиваленты.

1. You needn’t worry about it.

2. I couldn’t go to the theatre yesterday because I was busy.

3. You must leave the room at once.

IV. Выпишите из предложения инфинитив, причастие, герундий и укажите, чем они являются в предложении (подлежащее, составная часть сказуемого, определение, дополнение, обстоятельство). Переведите предложения письменно.

1. He left the room without waiting for a reply.

2. We decided to spend the summer in the Crimea.

3. The large building being built in our street is a new school.

V. Прочитайте, перепишите и письменно переведите текст.