What You Can Learn From Top Marketers

By Michael Fleischner

I dont know about you, but I feel like there is a scarcity of good marketing today. What do
I mean good marketing? You know the kind of marketing that sticks with you and drives
you to take action. The only marketing that has really moved me in the last couple of years
has been from Apple. How do I know? I own 3 ipods.
You might be thinking to yourself that its more the product that drives behavior than the
marketing, and when it comes to the ipod I dont necessarily disagree. However, I would
argue that in some ways, the marketing has to be even better than it does with your run of
the mill product.
Apple has maintained a certain level of success with their marketing and now that
marketing must not only tie together with previous marketing campaigns, but convince
current customers that their current products are no longer sufficient.
It appears that this is done, not through slight of hand, but by showing you what you cant
do with your current device. By illustrating this in a manner that is contradictory to your
current satisfaction, it does make you feel like your ipod which was fine until a moment
ago has suddenly become inadequate. To me, thats really good marketing.
So what can be learned from the tens of millions that Apple spends on advertising every
year? I think the answer to that question is to work in lock step with your product
development team to showcase developments and tap the emotions of those using your
products. When I use my iTouch, I feel empowered, cool, and complete. I wouldnt have
reached that conclusion without the help of marketing to get me there.
The lesson that Ive learned is that marketing, if done correctly, helps us to define how we
feel about a product. Once you have prospects and customers attaching emotions to your
products, you develop loyal customers. The next time that youre thinking about a
marketing campaign, consider how you want your customers to feel about your product.
Manage the entire purchase decision process in order to consistently manage the experience
to reinforce or produce these desired feelings. Once youve been able to do that
successfully, your creative, marketing messages and promotions should be relatively easy
to produce. Now thats what I call good marketing.

True or False?

1. The author believes good marketing is rare nowadays?

2. Good marketing attracts customers and makes them want to buy
3. He had to buy 3 ipods to know more about Apples marketing
4. If the product is good, he thinks marketing is irrelevant
5. Excellent products require excellent marketing
6. Apple has to make people buy their newer products now
7. Apples customers are dissatisfied with the products
8. Showing people the current products limitations is a good strategy
9. Ipods become inadequate very quickly
10.The product development team and the marketing team should work
together
11.You have to communicate developments as soon as they are produced
12.Apples marketing influenced the way the author feels about his iTouch
13.Correct marketing defines the marketing departments feelings
14.Loyalty is closely related to how customers feel about a product
15.Marketing messages and promotions help you decide how you want the
customer to feel about a product

Principles, not pitchforks

Some sensible new proposals for curbing corporate greed
Jun 11th 2009 | SAN FRANCISCO | From the print edition

ALTHOUGH the debate about excessive executive pay in America has been heated, cool
heads prevailed when the time came to tackle the problem. On June 10th Tim Geithner,
America's treasury secretary, said the government would not impose fierce restrictions such
as caps on pay. Nor would it meddle in the detail of compensation packages. Instead, it
wants companies to adopt a series of broad principles on pay and it intends to make it easier
for shareholders to ensure that they do so.
This approach will infuriate pitchfork populists, who were hoping the Obama
administration would impose a regulatory straitjacket on corporate pay after an outcry
earlier this year over hefty bonuses dished out at firms rescued with taxpayers' cash. But Mr
Geithner warned that such an approach would ultimately be counterproductive. In
practice only firms that have been bailed out will face stiff restrictions on bonuses and other
forms of pay. Some will have to submit senior managers' compensation for review by a
new, government-appointed special master.
The rest of corporate America will escape such constraints, but the government still wants
firms to take a fresh look at the way they reward staff. Among other things, Mr Geithner
urged companies to avoid plans that offer big rewards for short-term risk-taking and called
for a reconsideration of golden parachutes, which can produce payouts that would make
Croesus blush for bosses ousted for poor performance. He also exhorted firms to be more
open with investors about the logic behind their decisions on pay.

Contrary to received wisdom, the process of linking pay to performance works reasonably
well in Americawitness the large number of bosses whose remuneration has plummeted
during the recession.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

no entiendo la foto
The government finally decided to impere some limites on tope executives pay
Compensation packages have to be supervised by he government in detail
Companies should adopt some general policies on pay
When tax payers money is used to rescue a company, people are happy to see that
executives get large bonuses
6. Only firms which have received government money to avoid bankruptcy will be
controlled
7. The special master will review the payment scheme
8. Managers who failed sometimes received a lot of money anyway
9. It is unnecessary to inform investors about remuneration policies
10. In some cases, justice was done and executives who failed had their salaries reduced

WHAT MAKES A GREAT MANAGER

by Gerard M Blair
The first steps to becoming a really great manager are simply common sense; but common
sense is not very common. This article suggests some common-sense ideas on the subject of
great management.
The major problem when you start to manage is that you do not actually think about
management issues because you do not recognize them. Put simply, things normally go
wrong not because you are stupid but only because you have never thought about it.
Management is about pausing to ask yourself the right questions so that your common
sense can provide the answers.
When you gain managerial responsibility, your first option is the easy option: do what is
expected of you. You are new at the job, so people will understand. You can learn (slowly)
by your mistakes and probably you will try to devote as much time as possible to the rest of
your work (which is what your were good at anyway). Those extra little "management"
problems are just common sense, so try to deal with them when they come up.
Your second option is far more exciting: find an empty telephone box, put on a cape and
bright-red underpants, and become a SuperManager.
When you become a manager, you gain control over your own work; not all of it, but some
of it. You can change things. You can do things differently. You actually have the authority

to make a huge impact upon the way in which your staff work. You can shape your own
work environment.
In a large company, your options may be limited by the existing corporate culture - and my
advice to you is to act like a crab: face directly into the main thrust of corporate policy, and
make changes sideways. You do not want to fight the system, but rather to work better
within it. In a small company, your options are possibly much wider (since custom is often
less rigid) and the impact that you and your team has upon the company's success is
proportionately much greater.
STARTING A REVOLUTION

The idea of starting alone, however, may be daunting to you; you may not see yourself as a
David against the Goliath of other peoples' (low) expectations. The bad news is that you
will meet resistance to change. Your salvation lies in convincing your team (who are most
effected) that what you are doing can only do them good, and in convincing everyone else
that it can do them no harm. The good news is that soon others might follow you.
There is precedent for this. For instance, when a British firm called Unipart wanted to
introduce Japanese methods (Honda's to be precise) into their Oxford plan (The Economist
- 11th April 1992 - page 89) they sent a small team to Japan to learn what exactly this
meant. On their return, they were mocked by their workmates who saw them as
management pawns. So instead they were formed into their own team and sent to work in a
corner of the plant where they applied their new knowledge in isolation. Slowly, but surely,
their example (and missionary zeal) spread through the factory and changes followed. Now
Unipart have opened a new factory and the general manger of the first factory attributes the
success to "releasing talent already on the shop floor". Of course one can always find case
studies to support any management idea, but it does exemplify the potential of a small cell
of dedicated zealots - led by you.

Tick the correct answer

1. In . You do not actually think., means that you.
a. Do not do that, in fact
b. Are not doing that now.
c. Did it before
2. The sentence so that your common sense.. expresses.
a. A contradiction
b. A purpose
c. A condition
3. In which is what you were good at., the word which refers to..

a. Your time
b. The rest of your work
c. Your mistakes
4. but rather to work better within it expresses
a. A contrast with the previous idea.
b. A consequence
c. A result
5. In the idea of starting alone, however,. , the word however expresses.
a. A condition
b. Reason
c. A contrast
6. you may not see yourself as. Expresses.
a. An ability
b. A need
c. A possibility
7. . You will meet resistance. Expresses that this is going to happen.
a. But is not very probable
b. From time to time in future
c. For sure
8. others might follow you expresses.
a. A remote possibility
b. An obligation
c. A command
9. In there is precedent for this, the word this refers to..
a. Other people following you
b. Resistance to change
c. The ideas expressed in the previous paragraph
10. In what exactly this meant, the word this refers to.
a. Japanese methods
b. The oxford plant
c. Honda
11. on their rectum means.
a. Before they left
b. When they came back
c. Before they came back
12. In so instead they were formed., the word so introduces.
a. A consequence
b. An example
c. A conclusion
13. . Spread through the factory. Means that it spread
a. To other factories
b. Within their sector
c. To all the factory
14. Now Unipart have opened a new factory means that
a. This factory is already working
b. They are opening this factory at the moment
c. This is only a project

15. In . It does exemplify..... , the auxiliary does is used.

a. To ask a question
b. But it is a mistake
c. For emphasis

PART C - VOCABULARY

CHOOSE THE CORRECT WORD

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

This company is a private-sector power provision provide provider

We are researching the developing development developed of these markets
It is important to use reliable- reliability- relying information in research
An office should be equipped equip - equipment with these statistics
Our results are not in agree- agreement- agreeing with these statistics.
The results are indicative- indicating indicated of a high degree of interest in
The company did not help us. They were not very supporting support
suppoting
8. Our planet has a lot of environment environmentalist invironmental problem
9. We want to observe the behavioural behaviourist behaviour of thes marketing
10. The results were biased. They were not objectivity - objective - objects