2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION
2.1 BRANDS: What do you think of these brands? Give them a score from 1 (terrible) to 10 (excellent) in relation to their logo, their product and their advertising:
BRAND: LOGO / PRODUCT / ADVERTISING
- McDonalds
- Nokia
- BBC
- Ferrari
- Chanel
2.2 EXPRESS YOUR OPINION:
- I strongly believe Google is the most useful website on the Internet.
- I strongly believe there are other, more useful websites than Google.
2.3 RIVALS: Which of these rivals are best?
- Google / Microsoft
- BBC /CNN
- Coca Cola / Pepsi Cola
- Master Card / Visa
- Ford / Toyota
- Nintendo / Sony
- Gucci / Chanel
- British English / American English
2.4 BRANDS DISCUSSION: Here are some questions you can try asking yourself before you come to our discussion on Wednesday:
a) What did you think when you read the headline?
b) What springs to mind when you hear the term 'search engine'?
c) What do you think about Google?
d) How important is Google in your life?
e) What are your favourite brands?
f) Do you always try to buy or use top brands?
g) How important is a company´s name in making it successful?
h) Do you think it´s important for international brands to sound English?
i) What do you think Google does to promote its brand name?
j) Do you think a brand can become powerful globally if it uses non-English characters in its logo (Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, etc)?
k) Are there any company names or logos you think are stupid?
l) What do you think as "EOI Almeria Conversation Club" as a name?
m) Why is a brand name important to survive tough economic times?
n) Why do you think brand value has increased, even in a recession?
o) If you were to start a company, what brand name would you decide on?
p) Do you think technology companies will always be the most powerful?
q) What do you think of the use of "Google" as a verb?
r) Would you use other company names as verbs? (Try some)
PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:
THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.
SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.
THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT.
FINAL TASK:
HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO AND THIS WAY YOU WILL COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU MUST IMPROVE WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 17, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions.
Choose one of the following topics:
1. Write a letter to Google´s head of branding. Give him / her some ideas on what he/she could do to add more value to the brand.
2. "If an item of clothing is more expensive than another it´s because it´s better quality, that´s why brands are necessary: to distinguish the good from the bad". Express your opinion.
In this occasion I am not going to be very original. As everybody know, many of the clothing brands are very expensive not because their quality but the high standard of living you look when you wear them.
ReplyDeleteGood examples of this are those piece of clothes in which are written, in big characters or hundred of times, the name of the brand, because it is more important to make know the rest of the people what you are wearing than the quality or design of the items.
It could not be different in this consumer society.
PS. I want to dedicate a few words to Adolfo because I feel a bit sorry about the way in which some of us treated him last week. I only want to tell him that I really admire the way he speak, think and feel, maybe, sometimes he speaks a lot but nobody is perfect and in my opinion this is very wee fault in comparison with all the virtues that he has.
When we buy goods, we want value for our money. The proportion between this to aspects of every product or service we can pay for is very important: we always want a well-balanced rate between them: “ Customers always want that car they just can’t afford, the next one in the price list… ” Said an experienced car dealer.
ReplyDeleteIt means that buyers seek not only a piece of clothing or a car, in order to wear it, to drive it every day from home to their workplace. They want to say something about themselves to the rest of society. The brand is there to make this communication process more effective and easy to understand and follow by the people.
When we choose a branded article, we buy its values too: only ten percent of the Nike consumers are daily sport practitioners, but all of them love the comfort and well-designed forms of Nike clothing. And the key: Nike is not only ergonomic apparel for sports; it’s the power of self-support and personal playfulness. You know: “Just do it”.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A BRAND.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, we must define what is a brand. A brand is not just a name, it is more than this. A brand is composed by the name, colors, forms, words, etc.
One of the items that can be used to value the importance of a brand is publicity. The whole of the companies around the world need adds to make their products or services famous, and so to improve their business earning such money as possible. Normally, they pay for adds and give presents like T-shirts, pens, etc, that are made in order to advertise their products using people for it. However, the most important brands like, Coca Cola, Disney, etc. become such important that people buy T-shirts, boxes, notebooks, pens, etc that are made to advertise them. So the situation is just the opposite, we pay for making publicity to them. This is one of the symbols of the importance of a brand.
On the other hand, another important item to value the importance of a brand is the number of forgeries we can find at street markets. We can affirm that a brand is important if it is forged. The more a brand is forged, the more important is