Products

I. Pre-text Assignments
Vocabulary 1 Exercise 1. Study the following vocabulary:
A product is any good, service, or idea that can be offered to a market to satisfy wants
or needs.
А product is:
- something natural, e.g. wood, oil, paper;
- something that is made or grown to be sold, e.g. cars, computers, clothes, dairy;
- а service, e.g. broadcasting, insurance.
- something that is the result of a process, e.g. This book is the product of many
years of hard work.
Goods are a physical product which can be delivered to a purchaser and involve
the transfer of ownership from seller to customer.
A service is a non-material activity offered as a product. The person or company
buying the service does not obtain exclusive ownership of the service, but may take
ownership of the material good, if one is produced.
Ideas (intellectual property) are any creation of the intellect that has commercial
value, but is sold or traded only as an idea, and not as a resulting service or good.
Pr`oduce (uncountable N) normally refers to agricultural products such as crops
or fruit. E.g. you can buy fresh produce at a farmer’s market.
When we speak about something that is made, we say: it is produced or
manufactured. A country or company that produces something is a producer of it.
Usually the company that manufactures something is called a maker or manufacturer
of manufactured goods.
Exercise 2. Complete the table with the words:
Verb Noun: Noun: Noun: thing
person/organizatio process/activity
n
make/manufacture maker/manufacture
produce: food (agricultural)
produce/product
produce: non-food production
provision service
 Speaking Exercise 3. Discuss the following questions.
1. What new products can you buy at the moment? Think about the following areas.
- electronic gadgets
- food and drink
- health and beauty
2. How do companies create new products?
3. What makes a product successful?
4. Do you often try new products or do you usually keep to one brand?

Listening 1 Exercise 4. Listen to an interview about the development of a range of clothing, Fat
Face, and answer the questions.
1. Where were the two friends working?
2. Why did they start making T-shirts?
3. Where did they print the T-shirts?
4. Why did they call the company Fat Face?
5. How do they describe their product?
Exercise 5. Complete the flow chart for the development of Fat Face with the words
from the list. Then listen to the interview again and check your answers.
brand the product design the product have the original idea

1 2 Do market research

4 Do product trials 3

5 6 Launch the product

Exercise 6. Work with a partner. Discuss why each stage in Ex.5 is important.
Example: You do product trials to find out if the public like the product.
Exercise 7. Complete the text by finishing the words.
Masai Barefoot Technology
The Swiss engineer, Karl Muller, had the 1)
‘original idea’ for MBTs ‘when he noticed that
walking in Korea with no shoes helped his back
pain. Back in Switzerland he started experimenting
with shoes that copied barefoot walking. He did
some 2) m_______ r_______. After ten years, he
completed the 3) d_______ of his first shoe, the
Schritt Masai (Masai Step), but he did many more
4) p_______ t_______ before it went on the market.
When he was satisfied, he 5) _______ the p_______
with the name of an East African tribe, the Masai,
who are well known for running barefoot through
the bush. He 6) _______ the shoes in 2000 and sold
20,000 pairs that year. Since then, Karl Muller has
sold over a million pairs of MBTs in 20 different
countries in the world.
 II Reading
Reading Exercise 8. Read the article and write down new words and be ready to discuss it:
In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might
satisfy a want or need. In retail, products are called merchandise. In manufacturing,
products are purchased as raw materials and sold as finished goods. Commodities are
usually raw materials such as metals and agricultural products, but the term can also refer
to anything widely available in the open market. 
A product can be classified as tangible or intangible. A tangible product is a
physical object that can be touched such as a building, vehicle, or gadget. Most goods are
tangible products. For example, a soccer ball is a tangible product. An intangible product
is a product that can only be perceived indirectly such as an insurance policy, car repair.
Goods are the materials and components used to make products, or the products
that are made. Raw materials are basic materials from which other things are produced.
Finished goods are products ready to be sold. Industrial goods are bought by other
companies for use in their activities and products. Consumer goods are bought by
individuals for their own use.
Consumer goods that last а long time, such as cars and washing machines, are
consumer durables. Consumer goods such as food products that sell in quickly are fast-
moving consumer goods (FMCG).
The word ‘product’ can be used in the following combinations with:
catalogue (BrE) а list of а company's products, as a group
catalog (AmE)
mix а company's products considered together and in relation to one
portfolio another
line а company's products of а particular type
product
range
lifecycle the stages in the life of а product and the number of people who
buy it at each stage
positioning how а product is seen, or how а company would like it to be seen,
in relation to its other products and/or to competing products
placement when а company pays for its products to be used or seen in films
and TV programmes
 While speaking about production we should mention that, for instance, car
production started in workshops where each car was individually hand-made. Producing
cars like this was а craft industry. It was very labor-intensive — it took а lot of work to
produce each car. Then, in 1913, Неnrу Ford had the idea of an assembly line or
production line at the Ford manufacturing plant in Detroit: а team of workers were
responsible for each part of the manufacturing process, which meant that the plant could
make cars in very large numbers — it could churn them out. “Plant” sounds more
modern than a factory or works (workshop).
Today, the same system is used in manufacturing.
The plant is highly automated: they use a lot of
machinery, with the addition of industrial
robots. The machines are expensive but very
cost-effective - they are not paid wages and they
produce а lot in relation to what they cost. These
robots are part of the CAD/CAМ system of
computer-assisted (or computer-aided) design and manufacturing.
However, many customers dislike the products
that big companies churn out, so they look for
companies or workshops which produce them
by individual orders, for example, furniture.
Such companies don’t use machinery: the
furniture is hand-made. It takes a lot of work to
produce each piece. These products are more
expensive than those manufactured on the
production lines.
The number or type of things that а company, plant, industry or country produces
is its output. Productivity is а measure of the number of things produced in relation to
the number of employees. When there is high output per employee, productivity is high.
The maximum amount that а particular company, plant or industry can produce is its
capacity. If it is actually producing this amount, it is working at full capacity.
Note! There is overcapacity, excess capacity, spare capacity or surplus
capacity if there is too much capacity in relation to what is required.
If too many things are being produced by а particular industry in relation to the
number of people who want to buy them, there is overproduction. If far too many things
are produced, there is а surplus or glut of these things. If not enough goods are being
produced, there is а shortage.
Exercise 9. Complete the sentences with words in the necessary tense forms from the table in
Ex.2. (The number in brackets indicates the number of different possible answers.)
1. Germany is a big … of legal and financial services.
2. Ethiopia is still the world's biggest coffee …, but coffee is also … in many other countries,
including new ones such as Vietnam.
3. A lot of mobile phone … (3 variants) takes place in China, but Nokia still … (3 variants) them
in Finland too, so Finland is a … (3 variants) of mobile phones.
4. Cyprus is important for tourism, but it is also emerging as a … of … of all kinds, including
banking.
5. Russia is a major oil … and also important for the … of gas.
6 With the increase in medical tourism, Greece is emerging as an important centre for the of
 healthcare services to people from other countries.
Exercise 10. Which group or groups does each of these products belong to?
Hamburgers; natural gas; cars; package tour; dishwasher; cotton; hand cream; cinema ticket; milk.
Exercise 11. Make a text about manufacturing rearranging these lines into a logical order.
a CAM and robots do some of the assembly
b assisted design and automation, productivity is increasing.
c My name's Mark Chien, and I'm director of a manufacturing
d work. Of course, we still have a large number of assembly-
e plant producing TVs in Singapore. We have two production
f line workers, so it's quite labour-
g lines working 24 hours a day. CAD/
h intensive. But with the help of computer-

Exercise 12. Choose the correct word to complete each gap.

1. Ford's CEO Mark Fields wants to streamline the company's product … (positioning /portfolio/
lifecycle) so more cars and trucks are produced in fewer plants.
2. There needs to be a tough cost-control policy throughout the different stages of the product …
(lifecycle/ catalogue / mix) in order to keep costs down.
3. Unlike traditional product … (placement /line / mix), under which companies provided goods
at no cost in exchange for the exposure, TV advertisers will pay a lot of money for their products
to get worked into the actual storyline.
4. The firm must define its markets, position ranges of brands and identify gaps which offer
opportunities for expansion or new product … (mix / positioning /line).
5. At this food shop, the product … (lifecycle / positioning / mix) includes local produce as well
as nuts shipped from California, wine from France and olive oil from Italy.
6. The new product … (range / lines / placement) are Mr Ballmer's answer to the most difficult
questions about Microsoft's future: Where will it find new growth as the Windows and Office
businesses continue to mature?
Exercise 13. Match the headlines (1-4), with extracts of the articles they relate to (a-d).

a) The plant’s capacity is 3,000 computers a week, and it's producing 3,000. That's the
good news ...
b) There has been too much construction in the city centre, and now there is a lot of office space
standing empty ...
c) Rainfall has been below average in this part of Africa for the past five years. Not enough food
has been grown and now there are food ...
d) Ryanair is running more flights with fewer pilots and staff. That was the message from
Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary to shareholders yesterday ...

Listening 2
 III Language at work /Past simple
Exercise 14. Look at pictures 1-4 and match the inventors with inventions a-d.

a 1961 Contact lenses c 1991 World Wide Web

b 1973 Mobile phones d 1996 Hotmail
Then listen to the beginning of a radio programme about inventors and check your answers.
Exercise 15. Listen to the second part of the radio programme and answer the questions.
1. What did Sabeer study in California?
2. Where did he get his first job?
3. Who did he meet there?
4. Why did Saber tell Jack to hang up his cell phone?
5. Why did they call the service ‘Hotmail’?
6. How much did their first sponsor invest in their idea?
7. When did they launch Hotmail?
8 How much did Microsoft pay for Hotmail?
Exercise 16. Complete the text about Tim Berners-Lee using the past simple form of the verbs
Writing in brackets.
The Man Behind The World Wide Web
Tim Berners-Lee 1) ______ (be born) in London, England on 8 June 1955. He 2) ______
(study) physics at Oxford University, where he 3) ______ (build) his first computer. He
4) _____ (have) several jobs before he 5) ______ (become) an independent consultant.
During this time he 6) ______ (spend) six months in Geneva, Switzerland, where he
7) ______ (write) his first program for storing information. He 8) ______ (call) the
program ‘Enquire’, but he 9) ______ (not publish) it. In 1990 he 10) ______ (start) work
on the World Wide Web project, which first 11) ______ (appear) on the Internet in 1991.
In 1994 Tim 12) ______ (set up) the World Wide Web Consortium at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. Today he is the Director of this Consortium, which coordinates
web development worldwide.

Exercise 17. Complete the text with the past simple form of the verbs in brackets.
Last week I 1) was (be) very busy. On Monday morning our biggest customer 2) ______ (visit)
our factory. I 3) ______ (meet) her at the airport at 7.00 in the morning and 4) ______ (take) her
to the plant. In the afternoon we 5) ______ (have) a meeting which 6) ______ (not finish) late,
and she 7) ______ (want) to see a show afterwards.
On Tuesday I 8) ______ (fly) to Berlin for a conference. In the afternoon I 9) ______ (make) a
presentation which 10) ______ (not go) very well. The next day I 11) ______ (go) to Stuttgart to
meet a supplier. On Thursday we 12) ______ (interview) candidates for the new sales jobs, but
we 13) ______ (not find) anybody suitable. In the evening I 14) (play) squash in the company
tournament, but, unfortunately, I 15) ______ (not win). On Friday I 16) ______ (reply) to all my
emails and 17) ______ (write) a proposal for an Austrian company. In the afternoon I 18) ______
(attend) a planning meeting which 19) ______ (end) very late in the evening. I 20) ______ (not
get) home until midnight.
Exercise 18. Complete the questions looking at answers.
Example: What time did they arrive? - They arrived at 9 o'clock.
1. Where ___________________?
We had lunch in the staff canteen.
2. Who ___________________ at the conference?
I saw our colleagues from the Buenos Aires office.
3. Why ___________________ the meeting?
The manager left the meeting because he had phone call.
4. Which hotel ___________________at?
‘They stayed at the Hilton.
5. When ___________________ the company?
She joined the company last year.
6. How long ___________________ with the visitors?
I spent all day with them.