這是：商務英語考試（BUSINESS ENGLISH CERTIFICATE簡稱BEC）的真題，指的是劍橋商務英語資格考試。
A manufacturer of sportsshoes starts selling consumer electronics. A soft drink lends its name to arange of urban clothing. What’s going on? In simpler times, you knew where youwere with brands. One brand name meant good-quality sports shoes, another a softdrink. No confusion. Today, however, big companies try to redefine brands asnot so much a product, more a way of life, and stretch them into new areas. Inthe early years of the consumer society, a brand name on a box simplyidentified what was inside. People were looking for products that would improvetheir quality of life, and chose brads most likely to achieve that purpose. Butas people in industrialized nations became more affluent and fulfilled theirbasic needs, brands acquired other attributes. The functionality of the productwas still important, but people also started using brands to say somethingabout themselves, for example, choosing a brand of cosmetics which wouldsuggest that they were sophisticated jet-setters.
Now, we have entered athird age of branding, in which so many companies are making roughly the sameproduct at roughly the same price that functionality rarely succeeds as a pointof differentiation. Instead, companies are trying to make their brands standout by emphasizing their emotional aspects, hoping consumers will identify withthe set of values the brand represents.
壹個運動鞋制造商開始銷售消費電子產品。軟飲料借名義給壹個範圍的城市的服裝。發生什麽事了?在簡單的時代,妳知道那些品牌。品牌意味著高質量的運動鞋,另壹個是飲料。沒有混亂。然而,今天,大公司試圖重新定義品牌不是壹個產品,壹種生活方式,延伸到新的領域。消費社會的初期,壹個品牌在壹個盒子只是確認裏面是什麽。人們正在尋找產品,提高他們的生活質量,並選擇釘牢最有可能實現這壹目的。但隨著工業化國家的人們變得更加富裕,滿足他們的基本需求,品牌收購了其他屬性。產品的功能仍然是重要的,但是人們也開始使用品牌說說自己,例如,選擇壹個品牌的化妝品,建議他們先進的噴氣式飛機。
現在,我們已經進入了第三個品牌的時代,在很多公司正在以大致相同的價格大致相同的產品,功能很少成功的分化。相反,公司正試圖使他們的品牌脫穎而出通過強調他們的情感方面,希望消費者認同品牌代表的壹組值。
One disadvantage of aproduct-based brand is that if the product goes out of fashion, the brand goeswith it. This is a serious concern for manufacturers of breakfast cereals, whoare struggling to counter weak demand for the products that bear their names.So far, their marketing efforts seem to be having little effect. The advantagefor emotional brands is that companies can transfer their brand strength into otherareas, increasing revenues and reducing their exposure to the lifespan of asingle product.
The elasticity of brandsseems to be related to their position on a spectrum ranging from those rootedin solid, tangible assets to those with highly intangible, emotional qualities.At the one end, you have train companies that tend to associate themselves withinfrastructure and their ability to get you from A to B, and at the other endwould be a leisure brand that positions itself on dreams and making people havefun. It is the latter which has the maximum potential for stretch.
壹個基於產品品牌的壹個缺點是,如果產品過時,品牌會隨著增長。這是壹個嚴重的關心早餐麥片制造商,他們正努力應對產品的需求疲軟,他們的名字。到目前為止,他們的營銷努力似乎沒有什麽影響。情感品牌的優勢,公司可以自己的品牌力量轉移到其他領域,增加收入和減少暴露於壹個產品的壽命。
彈性品牌似乎是與他們的立場在光譜從那些根植於固體、有形資產與無形,情感品質。在壹端,火車公司傾向於將自己與基礎設施和能力讓妳從A到B,和在另壹端是壹個休閑品牌,職位本身的夢想和讓人們獲得樂趣。它是後者的最大潛力。
But even emotionalbrands have a limit to their elasticity. The merchandise has to be consistentwith the brand promise. Just to sell merchandise with your logo on it is ashort-term, mistaken idea. From this viewpoint, the decision to move fromsports shoes into consumer electronic makes sense. Most items in the range,such as the two way radio for hikers, are sports-focused, even though theproducts may be adopted as fashion accessories, and the sports shoe customerswill probably snap them up.
但即使情感品牌限制他們的彈性。商品必須與品牌承諾壹致。只是要賣商品與您的標誌是壹個短期的,錯誤的想法。從這個角度來看,決定從運動鞋到消費電子是有意義的。大多數項目範圍,比如徒步旅行者的雙向無線電,sports-focused,即使產品可能被采用為時尚配飾,和運動鞋的客戶可能會搶購。
When the move was madeform soft drinks into clothing, however, it left the branding consultants cold.It was a difficult mental leap into clothing from the drink so closelyassociated with that particular brand name. On the other hand, the emotional attributesthat youngsters seem to find appealing in the drink, like its heritage andglobal appeal, are fashionable at the moment, and in fact response to theclothes with the same name has been overwhelming. Maybe this just shows that aninspired move –and by all accounts a snap decision– sometimes pays off againstthe odds, leaving the manufacturer laughing all the way to the bank.
當飲料是由形式進入服裝,然而,它離開了品牌顧問冷。這是壹個困難的精神進入服裝從喝所以與特定品牌密切相關。另壹方面,年輕人的情感屬性似乎找到有吸引力的飲料,喜歡它的遺產和全球吸引力,當下的時髦話題,事實上對具有相同名稱的衣服是壓倒性的。也許這只是表明壹個啟發的舉動——據說提前決定——有時回報,克服重重困難,使制造商笑到銀行。
1. What led to a change in attitudes to brands?
A. the influence of consumers on each other
B. the personal circumstances of consumers
C. more sophisticated marketing
D. greater choice of products
2. According to the writer, an attribute of thethird age of branding is that __________.
A. competing products may serve their purpose equallywell.
B. the range of products available is too large forall to survive.
C. consumers are becoming confused about theproducts available.
D. price has become a key factor in consumers’choice of products.
3. The writer mentions manufacturers of breakfastcereals to illustrate how __________.
A. competition can have an impact on a product.
B. a brand can lose its popularity despite a strongmarket for the product.
C. advertising can affect sales of a product.
D. changes in the popularity of products can causedifficulties.
4. The writer argues that the stretch from sportsshoes into consumer electronics is likely to be successful because _________.
A. existing customers have demanded the newproducts.
B. they will be sold in the same outlets.
C. the new lines will expand the manufacturer’s market.
D. there is a connection in the way that the goodscan be used.
5. The writer argues that the stretch from softdrinks into clothing ________.
A. was a gamble which succeeded.
B. built on the popularity of certain types ofclothing.
C. showed the value of careful planning.
D. created production problems for themanufacturer.
BADDA
妳的題目中有這題：
6 The writer refers to railways to show that brands like this
A do not recognise the value of stretching.
B suffer from having an unattractive image.
C are unlikely to lend themselves to stretching.
D are notoriously difficult to advertise.
A
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