How to save the business
Intermediate Level:
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Listening: Gucci - Company Tradition
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Pronunciation: /ch/
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Reading: Gucci – how to save the Business
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Grammar: Expressions of Frequency
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Functional Language Skills: Common Writing Errors
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Cultural Awareness: Business Dress Etiquette
•
Role Play: China – a New Market for Gucci
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IN TRO DUCTIO N :
Discuss these questions: What do you know about Gucci? Who are the target
customers?
LISTEN IN G 1:
Visit www.businessenglishstudy.com for the listening file.
The CEO talks about Gucci. Listen and answer these questions.
1.
How many employees does Gucci have?
2.
What is difficult to convey?
3.
What is the message?
4.
Is the brand invincible?
5.
What happened a few years ago?
PRO N UN CIATIO N - /CH/
There are 3 common ways to pronounce /ch/ in English
/ch/ as in cheese
/sh/ as in champagne
/k/ as in chemist.
•
•
•
CH is often pronounced /ch/. Words with this pronunciation usually have a
Latin origin. Examples: cheap, check, charm.
CH words with a hard /k/ pronunciation often come from the Greek language.
Many of these terms are scientific or technical in nature. Examples: chemist,
chaos, technician.
The words where CH is pronounced with a soft /sh/ sound are French in origin
e.g. chic, champagne, machete
EXERCISE: Say these words and tick the correct pronunciation box
W O RD
Chemistry
ch
sh
W O RD
k
X
ch
sh
k
Children
Chicago
Chalet
Challenge
Champagne
Christ
Character
Chocolate
Champion
Chaos
Chauffeur
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CULTURAL AWARENESS POINT: Business Dress Etiquette
Business Dress etiquette in the UK
• Men: Ties are important symbols of their school, army, university or club. For
business meetings, men normally wear dark suits and ties.
• Women: Normally wear suits, dresses or skirts and blouses.
Business Dress Etiquette in Italy
• Good style is a priority in Italy.
• Men: generally wear dark coloured, conservative business suits and a tie.
• Women wear business suits or conservative dresses.
• Elegant accessories are equally important for men and women.
Business Dress Etiquette in the USA
• Business suit and tie are appropriate in all major cities. Wear dark coloured
business suits. For an important formal meeting, wear a white shirt.
• Women wear classic clothing and classic colours of dark blue, and grey, and
give a confident and conservative appearance.
DISCUSS:
1. Is a tie important in your country or culture? W hy / why not?
2. Do you think taking your jacket off in a meeting is O K?
3. W hat about the colour of the clothes, what is the etiquette?
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Introductory questions: How often do you wear a tie? Do you ever wear
sunglasses when inside a building? Do you take a holiday in summer?
GRAMMAR PRACTICE: Expressions of Frequency
SAM PLE SEN TEN CES.
• I always buy my shoes from Gucci
• Our customers usually pay by credit card
• The sales team never works on at the weekend
FO RM : These percentages are a general indication, not exact
definitions.
100% - always
95% - almost always, nearly always
80% - usually, normally, regularly
70% - often, frequently
50% - sometimes
25% - occasionally
10% - rarely, seldom
0% - never
To be more precise the following terms can be used:
Once, twice, three times a day / week / month / year
Every hour / day / week / month / year
• We sell seven handbags a day
• They visit the shop once a month
EXERCISE: Complete the following sentences with an Expression of Frequency in
each space. NOTE: in some cases more than one option is possible.
1. The manager
checks the orders, but not
2. They
sell the products at discount, because it is a luxury brand.
3. It is important to call the sales agents
4. The small shop
5. They
8. Gucci is
day.
sells more than 100 items per day. It is very difficult.
have a meeting at 10am
6. We check the sales figures
7. I
.
morning.
a week.
fly to Milan, and
take the train. It is too far away.
in the business news.
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SPEAKING PRACTICE:
In pairs, ask and answer questions about the following situations
using the Expressions of Frequency.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Apply for jobs
Give orders to my colleagues
Read the newspapers
Check emails
Send an SMS
Buy Gucci
You decide on a question
!
BUSINESS VOCABULARY: Selected expressions
EXERCISE: Choose the best explanation for each expression. You will
see them in the Reading Exercise that follows.
1. Be a hit
a. A big success b. A disaster c. A problem
2. Bring in
a. Employ to do a specific job b. Permit c. Dismiss
3. Dilute
a. Make weaker b. Make stronger c. Sell
4. Stretch
a. Pull in opposite directions b. Sell c. Demand
SPEAKING PRACTICE:
•
Can you think of a product that has been a big hit? Why was it a big hit?
•
Can you think of a brand that has been diluted? What happened?
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READING
EXERCISE: Fill in the gaps with a suitable expression of frequency.
rarely - sometimes - never - nearly always - normally - always
Gucci Is Back
Gucci does not really sell shoes and handbags. Gucci sells image. However, the
Gucci label has not
been associated with high quality.
The company grew through the 1970s, but in the 1980s and ‘90s there were internal
family disputes and Gucci went into decline. To make things worse, there were
thousands of fake copies of its products on the market diluting the brand.
This
impacts on the image, stretching the reputation of the
company, and
leads to disaster.
Gucci needed help and brought in Tom Ford as its creative director. He took
responsibility for the company’s image and demanded control of everything,
including its brand protection.
Owners
give so much control to a new director, but Gucci realized that
their brand needed a radical change to survive, and agreed to his vision. It is a risk
that
fails.
Ford changed the image into a sexier, more exclusive fashion label with famous
customers like Beyonce and David Beckham. The plan was a big hit and the
company has
been more profitable. In 2013, Gucci was valued at $12
billion.
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FUNCTIONAL LANGUAGE SKILLS: Common Writing Errors
EXERCISE: Find the common errors in each of these sentences.
e.g. I am afraid their is no time (there)
1. Its not in this office, its in a different location.
2. The affect was positive.
3. Their coming to the meeting
4. Everything accept the handbags.
5. I have being very busy lately.
LISTENING 2:
Visit www.businessenglishstudy.com for the listening file
You will hear the 2nd part of the recording where the spokesperson talks about
Gucci’s turnaround. Listen and answer the questions.
1.
What do you truly have to do?
2.
What is the best vehicle for communication?
3.
How many people walk through the stores every year?
4.
The consumers in Shanghai and Beijing are …
5.
What is the culture like in China and India?
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ROLE-PLAY EXERCISE: China, a new market
Form 2 groups.
G roup 1 is the Directors of Gucci.
G roup 2 is the Creative Design Team
•
The Directors want products to focus on Chinese market
•
Creative Design Team disagrees.
Prepare reasons why and why not, and an alternative to help G ucci in
China. Think about brand protection, customer preference and the
value of luxury name.
Try to make the role-play as authentic as possible.
N O TE: While talking you should practice the grammar, vocabulary and
pronunciation you have learnt in this module.
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Audio-scripts
G ucci – Intermediate Level - Listening 1
Patrizio di Marco, President and CEO of Gucci speaks about his vision.
As far as myself and my personal challenge, well my personal, most important
challenge with the company like Gucci is that it’s such a large company that
sometimes it’s difficult to convey to every single one of our 7,000 and plus
employees the message. And the message is fundamentaly we have to be
absolutely proud of who we are, where we come from because we have so much
to give still, and we have so much good at what we are doing. You have to make
sure that everyone feels this at the same time.
I think that sometimes if you look at brands, some brand could be somewhat
invincible, and I think that Gucci is one of those brands. If you think of how many
lives, how many tradgedies, how many different stories this brand has lived, and
the fact that this brand is still one of the most important luxury brands in the world.
It has grown over the years. A few years ago two very important people at this
company left and the brand was supposed to go, you know, basically disappear in
a nano-second and that wasn’t the case.
Listening 2
If you’re a brand like Gucci, if you’re a brand this iconic, if you’re a brand with
this kind of history the only thing you have truly to do is to communicate all this to
the consumer throughout any possible way. And I think that the best
communication vehicle we have is the stores. We have more than 60 million
people walking into our stores every single year and if we convey properly the
message through our products and most importantly through our store people and
we actually explain what’s behind every product there’s no need of thinking that
we need to adapt here or there to this or that market.
Talking about China, you know China is very much diverse as a market. You have
much more sophisticated cities like Shanghai, Beijing and so forth, where definitely
consumers are beyond the aspirational phase. Definitely the second, third forth
gear cities, and we’re talking about cities anyway with a couple of million people
as population, are still somewhat in the aspirational phase. But the culture that you
find in China or India, or these countries, is so deeply rooted and the appreciation
of beauty and the appreciation of heritage and craftsmanship is so much there that
it’s just a matter of time.
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LESSO N PLAN – G ucci – Intermediate
Key objective – to practise Business English fluency
IN TRO DUCTIO N : Ask the students what they know about Gucci.
Teacher (T) – Students (SS) 5 mins
LISTEN IN G 1: Next tell students they are going to hear a spokesman talking
about Gucci. They need to answer the questions at the end. Play the listening and
ask students the questions. (T) – (SS) 10 mins
PRO N UN CIATIO N : Ask the students to pronounce the /ch/ words and decide
which sound they represent. (T) – (SS) 5 mins
CULTURAL AW AREN ESS PO IN T: – read the text and discuss the cultural
differences. (SS) – (T) 10 mins
G RAM M AR
Go through the Expressions of Frequency, and do the exercise that follows. Ask
students to read the questions and answers out loud. (S) – (T) 10 mins
SPEAKIN G PRACTICE: Students discuss Frequency in pairs. (SS) – (SS) 5 mins
BUSIN ESS VO CABULARY – Ask the students the lead in questions and go
through the exercise about Business Expressions Engage the students in the
Speaking Practice that follows. Encourage use the grammar and the functional
vocabulary. (S) – (T) 15 mins
READIN G : Find out if the students the lead in question. Go through the reading
and gap fill exercise. (S) – (T) 10 mins
W RITIN G ERRO RS: Students need to correct the common writing error. Explain
the problem to the students. (T) – (SS) 5 mins
LISTEN IN G 2: Tell students they are going to hear the 2nd part of the listening.
Play the listening and students answer the questions (SS) – (T) 10 mins
RO LE PLAY: Go through the instructions and begin the role-play. Make sure they
practice the grammar and vocabulary learnt in the lesson and to try and use the
case study material in their argument. Get the other students to discuss and offer
feedback. (SS) – (SS) 20 mins
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EXERCISE ANSWERS
LISTENING 1:
1. 7,000 plus
2. The message
3. Fundamentaly we have to be absolutely proud of who we are, where we come from because we
have so much to give still, and we have so much good at what we are doing
4. Yes, he thinks it is.
5. Two very important people at this company left and the brand was supposed to go, you know,
basically disappear in a nano-second and that wasn’t the case.
PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE
WORD
ch
sh
chemistry
x
Chicago
challenge
x
x
Christ
Chocolate
Chaos
k
x
x
WORD
ch
children
x
chalet
x
champagne
x
character
champion
x
sh
chauffeur
k
x
x
x
GRAMMAR EXERCISE 1
1. The manager usually checks the orders, but not always.
2. They never sell the products at discount, because it is a luxury brand.
3. It is important to call the sales agents every day.
4. The small shop rarely sells more than 100 items per day. It is very difficult.
5. They normally have a meeting at 10am every morning.
6. We check the sales figures once a week.
7. I always fly to Milan, and never take the train. It is too far away.
8. Gucci is often in the business news.
READING EXERCISE:
Help us to improve the quality.
always
If you notice any mistakes in this
nearly always - normally
module please report the error to:
rarely – sometimes
[email protected]
never
BUSINESS VOCABULARY
1. A big success 2. Employed to do a specific job 3. Make weaker 4. Pull in opposite directions
COMMON WRITING ERRORS:
1. It’s not in this office; it’s in a different location.
2. The effect was positive.
3. They’re coming to the meeting
4. Everything except the handbags.
5. I have been very busy lately.
LISTENING 2:
1. Communicate to the consumer throughout any possible way
2. The stores
3. 60million
4. Beyond the aspirational phase
5. Deeply rooted and the appreciation of beauty and the appreciation of heritage and
craftsmanship is so much there that it’s just a matter of time.
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