Introduction

Learn about companies and markets, word combination with ‘market’ and competitors and competition.

Audio Episode

Practice Booklet (For the Entire Mini-Series)

Business English Marketing … by English Plus Podcast

Episode Transcript

welcome to the second episode of our business English marketing series. We will talk about markets and competitors. Before we do that. Let me remind you that if you want to practice what you’re learning, there is the booklet where you can get all the exercises you need, and it comes with the mini series.

[00:00:22] So it’s on our website, English plus podcast.com and you can also find it on our Patrion page. Now, last time we talked about. Buyers and sellers this time, we’ll talk about markets and competitors. We’ll talk about companies and markets. We will talk about words to talk about how company enters a market, abandoned the market, et cetera.

[00:00:40] We will talk about word combinations with market. We will talk about market growth, segment segmentation, et cetera, and we will talk about competitors and competition. So without further ado, let’s start with our second episode in our mini series about business English, marketing. Now let’s first start talking about companies and markets.

[00:00:57] Now the market for a particular product is the people, the organizations that buy it or might buy it, the buyers and sellers of goods and services in a particular place form a market. So remember when we talk about the market, we’re not talking about a place we’re not talking about a supermarket that’s part of the market.

[00:01:18] The market is not just the place. The market is the people. The organizations we’re talking about people. When we think about marketing and we talk about market in a marketing context, we’re thinking about people, we’re thinking about organizations that buy our product or service, or might buy the product or service that is a potential market, right?

[00:01:39] But here let’s focus on what a company can do to markets. We have some verbs that are very important to know, and that happens when a company, for example, enters a market, penetrates a market abandons, a market corners, a market monopolizes, the market drives another company out of a market. So we will learn these combinations because these are very important to talk about what a company does to a market.

[00:02:06] Of course, the focus here is on the verbs. And I will explain to you the difference in meaning now let’s first start about if a company enters a market, what does that mean? That means simply it starts selling there for the first time. When a company enters a market, it starts selling therefore the first time it hasn’t sold anything in that market before that’s important to understand that’s enters a market.

[00:02:29] What about if a company penetrates a market, when you talk about a company penetrating a market, that means either it starts selling or sells more and more there, it focuses its efforts on this market and it sells more and more. That means to penetrate a market. Maybe they started selling already, but they haven’t been a traded the market yet.

[00:02:50] And remember, because it’s easy to forget. When we say a company enters a market, you might have a mental image that talks about a place. It’s not a place the market. We’re talking about people. We’re talking about organizations, that’s the market. Okay. So going back to these verbs, we can say a company enters a market.

[00:03:07] We can say company penetrates a market. What about if a company abandons a market, or if a company gets out of a market or leaves a market or withdraws from a market, that means it stops selling there. It used to sell in this market, but not anymore, it stopped maybe because it’s not profitable anymore.

[00:03:26] Maybe another company drove them out of the market who knows. But we can use a couple of words or a couple of verbs and expressions to talk about. When a company stops selling in a market, we can say a company abandoned a market. We can say a company gets out of a market. We can say a company leaves a market or a company withdraws from a market.

[00:03:50] Now what about if a company dominates a market dominate? That means it is the most important company selling there in this market. So if you think about, for example, software, you can think of Microsoft, Microsoft dominates the market. It is the most important company selling there, and there’s nothing wrong about that.

[00:04:11] Some people might say this is wrong, and this is monopolizing. That’s another word. And we will talk about monopolizing a market. Now, some people might be with Microsoft. Some people might take Microsoft. I personally liked Microsoft, but it’s a matter of opinion. Some people might think, yeah, Microsoft monopolizes the market.

[00:04:28] As for me, I’m just telling you what these words mean. But anyway, so if a company dominates the market, there’s nothing wrong about that. Maybe they dominate the market because they’re very good. Like Apple, like Samsung, these companies dominate the market, but because they’re good, they offer good products.

[00:04:43] We’re not talking about illegal ways to dominate a market. That is not good, of course, but to dominate a market means this company is the most company selling in this market. What if we say a company corners on market, that means it becomes the main company selling there. It is close to dominates, but here we’re not talking about the most important company in general.

[00:05:05] We’re talking about becomes the main company selling there. It has the biggest share of selling in this market, the main company selling. So here, that means accompany corners of market. We can use this expression and now we come to the word that I just mentioned. Monopolizes. What does it mean when we say a company monopolizes a market?

[00:05:27] That means it is the only company selling there. How here the word monopolized by itself. It’s not illegal, but the important thing is how did this company monopolize the market? Are they just the only ones? Because yeah, sometimes you might find a company that is the only one that sells a service like that, or that sells a product like that.

[00:05:49] So of course they will monopolize the market. But if they do illegal things, if they force other companies out. And of course, there’s a lot to talk about when it comes to monopoly, but this is not our topic for this mini series. The main thing, if it is done legally, it is a monopoly, but it is legal, but some countries have laws against monopolies.

[00:06:10] Anyway, the word that we want to learn, if a company monopolizes a market. That means it is the only company selling there. And finally, for this combination series, we’re talking about if a company drives another company out of a market, what does that mean? That means it makes the other company leave the market, perhaps because it can no longer compete.

[00:06:31] You may be very strong and you drive everybody else out because you’re very strong. You’re competing. Maybe you have a better product. Maybe you have a better price. We will talk about those four PS in more detail in the other episodes to come. But because you’re good at one, or maybe all of those PS.

[00:06:50] Maybe that’s why other companies cannot compete with you anymore or can not compete with your company anymore. So your company drives other companies out of a market. That is what we say. That is the expression we use. So now we talked about companies and markets. Let’s talk about some more word combinations with market, but here we’re not talking about verbs.

[00:07:09] We’re talking about words or nows basically that we can use with market. So, let me start by talking about market growth. Now the growth comes naturally with a market because your main objective as a marketer is to grow your market, to grow the people and organization who will want to buy your product.

[00:07:28] That is market growth. For example, we can say there has been huge market growth in the sales of digital music with Apple in particular, seeing a massive increase in the number of people buying songs from iTunes. So that is market growth. If you think about digital music, there has been huge market growth in the past two decades.

[00:07:48] So that is the first one. And that is market growth. What about market segment? This part of the market. Now you have the market, the people and organization. But this market is not one, of course you can have different segments, different parts of this market. And you have to think about the market. Not as one, because we have different people.

[00:08:07] We have different organizations. We have different age groups, different regions. You can have different segments based on anything, male, female, et cetera. But here we have this word combination. The market segment, for example, we can say regional airlines are important customers for the Embraer E R J one 45.

[00:08:25] They are a big market segment for Embraer. So here, we’re talking about the specific market segment. We talked about market segment. We can also talk about market segmentation. That is the way the companies segment their market. They make different segments of the market. That’s the market segmentation.

[00:08:43] For example, Microsoft divides the software market into large companies, small companies. Home office users and leisure users. So here are different segments. The way Microsoft divides the software market, large companies, small companies, home office users, and leisure users. These are different segments. So this is how it does its market segmentation.

[00:09:05] That is also another word. Of course, it’s kind of the same, but market segment is one of the market. Segmentation is this process and it depends on your product or service. Nobody does the market segmentation the same way. Of course, you can follow the lead of these companies. If your company happens to sell the same kind of product, but it doesn’t have to be because it’s always different.

[00:09:24] You have to know your market well so that you can segment it the right way. You can have the right market segmentation. Now, the next combination is market share. How much do you sell? How much of this market do you sell? Do you sell to 10% of the market? Do you sell to a hundred percent of the market? Of course, nobody sells a hundred percent unless it’s an absolute monopoly.

[00:09:46] You are the only one that sells in this market. So that means a hundred percent, but usually companies have different shares in the market. Some big companies might sell 20 to 30% of the market, maybe 50, 60, who knows some other companies sell 5%, 10%, et cetera. This percentage is called the market share.

[00:10:04] For example, in the U S Japanese car makers have been gaining market share. They are selling a bigger percentage of cars sold, and us manufacturers are selling a smaller percentage. So this percentage of sales, this percentage you have from the market, Remember the market. We’re talking about the people in this example, the people who are buying cars, the people who are willing to buy cars.

[00:10:29] So that is your market. What about the share of us manufacturers? It’s getting smaller. They are getting a smaller percentage while Japanese car makers have been gaining market share. And one final combination is market leader. When we talk about the most important company in the market, and here, we’re not just talking about domination or monopoly, we’re talking about maybe, yeah.

[00:10:51] It includes domination and monopoly when we say market leader, but this is the company that sets the example for other companies to follow. For example, Tesco is the biggest supermarket chain in the UK and is therefore the market leader. But remember the market leader? Yes, of course it has to do with how much you sell.

[00:11:07] That’s the basic thing. And because of that, people try to do the same things you do because they want to sell the same way. But anyway, sometimes market leader are not just the people who sell the most. Well, mostly they are the people who sell the most, but anyway, these are the people who give the example for others to follow.

[00:11:25] So that is what we want to say about the combinations of words with markets. Now let’s talk quickly about competitors and competition. Before we finished the second episode of our business, English marketing, miniseries companies, or products in the same market, our competitors, or rivals. If you happen to be in the same market, if you are trying to sell to the same people or to the same companies, which is the same market, that means your competitors or rivals competitors compete with each other to sell more, be more successful, et cetera.

[00:11:57] And there are completely legitimate ways to compete. Of course, there are illegal ways to compete, but competition is not illegal. Obviously you have to compete with other companies. If you’re the only company, maybe you wouldn’t care to improve your product, maybe you wouldn’t care about lowering your prices.

[00:12:14] So competition, a healthy competition between companies is good for customers because usually you get lower prices and better quality. But remember the words our competitors or rivals, and the verb is compete. Competitors, compete with each other to sell more or be more successful. Now the most important companies in a particular market are often referred to, especially by journalists as key players.

[00:12:38] Well, it’s kind of like market leader. When we talk about the biggest dog in the market. Well, don’t use this dog in the market, but sometimes he will do that. Well, that means the key player. And usually the key players have the biggest market share. Competition is used to talk about the activity of trying to sell more, be more successful, et cetera.

[00:12:57] So that is, we call it competition. Competitor is the person or the company obviously compete is the verb. Competition is the now that is used to talk about activity or trying to sell more, be more successful, et cetera. When competition is strong, you can say that it is intense, stiff. Fears or tough. We can say intense competition.

[00:13:18] We can say stiff competition, fierce competition, or tough competition. If competition isn’t strong, it may be described as low key, low key competition means that there’s not a lot of competition in the market. And some people might choose specific markets. Remember, again, I know that I said that a thousand times, but because it’s easy to forget or it’s easy to confuse the word market with a place market.

[00:13:44] We’re talking about the people and the organizations we’re trying to sell our products or services to that’s the market. So sometimes you might choose an easier market. If you want to launch a new product, you might start with easy markets just to test this product out. And then you go to this place where there is tough competition.

[00:14:05] Maybe I’m not saying that it’s a good thing to do. I’m just saying some companies do it, or maybe because you don’t have a lot of money as you’re starting out. So you start with low key competition. You start with markets that have low key competition to have a better chance of success. And then you can go to bigger markets and compete with key players.

[00:14:24] Maybe again, I’m not saying that this is the best way to go or not. That is just a strategy. You can use this strategy, or if you have the next best thing coming up, you might just go head on with the key players who knows. So, but here, remember we talking about competition that can be intense, stiff, fierce, or tough, or it can be low key if there’s not a lot of strong competition in the market that you’re trying to sell your products and services to.

[00:14:48] Now the competition, we first do all the products, businesses, et cetera, competing in a particular situation, seen as a group. That’s what we call the competition. All right. So competition, as I just told you can be used to talk about the activity of trying to sell more. That is competition. But when we say the competition that refers to all the products, the businesses competing in a particular situation seen as a group that is you against the competition.

[00:15:16] That is not the competition itself, right? Competition itself. That’s what we said. It’s the activity of trying sell more. With that being said, I hope that you’ve learned some useful things in this episode. Remember, if you want to practice what you’re learning, you can use the special section for the second episode of the business English marketing mini series in the booklet provided with the miniseries. [00:15:35] You can find the booklet on our website, English plus podcast.com or on our Patrion page, both exclusively for our patrons. With that being said, this is Danny. I would like to thank you very much for listening to another episode from this miniseries. And I will see you in the next episode.