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Judges will award extra points for companies which use unusual materials in the manufacture of their clothes. Originality and imagination will be particularly valued by the judges
Guidelines for presenters
1 Introduce your team. Outline the structure of your presentation.
2 Describe the product design, features and consumer benefits.
3 Describe the product's target market.
4 Mention other competing products.
5 Present your strategy for the new product. For example:
• branding, packaging, other product features (guarantee, etc.)
• pricing strategy
• distribution (What sales outlets will be used?)
• promotion (What advertising, product launch and sales promotion?)
6 Describe any ideas for television or radio commercials.
| ж Newsline magazine article on last year s competition |
| New materials The clothing industry shows great interest in new materials as these extracts from fashion magazines show. |
| Bags and Belts What does a g\r\ carry in her handbag? Well, just about everything these days and more besides. Smart girls these days get away with a 'smallish' bag by carrying a briefcase as well. You never know just what you will need before you get back to your home/office/hotel. Classic leather bags are a\ways in style - this season look out for textured leathers and mock crocodile. The more tailored the bag, the more formal. But there is more to handbag design than the classics. Adventurous designers are creating bags in all sorts of new materials: modern bags in canvas, slick space-age plastics and printed fabrics traditional bags in soft pretty fabrics, embroidery and florals. |
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| ' Clothes That Change Colour All too often, you eagerly open a clothes catalogue and find something you'd like to wear - but it's in a colour you hate. A new thread, developed for the military, will make this kind of disappointment a thing of the past. At Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor Joel Fink has developed an innovative process to combine plastic and glass. The result: a new fibre that can reflect all the light that hits it, from any direction. The new thread will be used to make military uniforms. However, it could enjoy a major commercial future in fashion. Clothing could be made from the fibre and equipped with a tiny battery pack. When you want to change your suit or dress from, say, black to red, you flick a switch and your clothes change colour. Some experts think that the fibre is 'incredibly revolutionary'. The fashion industry 'might start by using the thread in accessories, to change the colour of a bag or a hat or a scarf. For men I can see it used to make jackets and evenj>hoes.^ ____________________________________ 1 |
Your company is competing for the ICA's top prize. You believe that you have an outstanding product concept.
1Prepare your product presentation and present it to the rest of the group. Answer any questions they may have.
2When you are not making a presentation, you are a member of the judging panel.
3Decide who should get the top prize. (You may not vote for your own product concept.)
Writing
Write a press release about this year s
competition for the ICA website.
Writing file page 132.
Competition
----------------------------------------------------- N
OVERVIEWS
I i Vocabulary
—' Competition idioms
JReading
Losing competitive edge
| | | Skills , | Case study |
□ Listening Staying competitive I Language review — Modals of probability Skills Negotiating Case study Beverley Watches
1 Which of the following statements do you agree with?
a) Winning is everything.
b) It's not the winning that counts, it's the taking part.
c) We are in this world to help each other.
2 Which of the following would satisfy you?
a) Earning more than anyone else you know.
b) Earning more than most of your friends.
c) Earning enough to have a comfortable life.
3 You have just won €50,000 and need to buy a new car. Do you:
a) spend €12,000 on a reliable car that will get you from A to B?
b) spend €26,000 on a middle-range car?
c) spend the entire €50,000 on a flashy top-of-the-range car that will impress all your friends?
4 If a colleague did something very successful, would you feel:
a) pleased for them?
b) pleased for them, but a bit jealous?
c) very jealous and unhappy?
5 If you lose at something, do you:
a) forget about it immediately?
b) think about it for a while?
c) never forget?
6 How do you feel when you win? Do you:
a) boast about it and tell everyone?
b) feel good, but keep it to yourself?
c) feel sorry for the person who lost?
7 What do you want for your children? Do you want them:
a) to be happy?
b) to achieve more than you did?
c) to be the best at everything?
8 You are at the traffic lights next to another car.The lights change to 'go'. Do you:
a) let the other car go first?
b) move away slowly, without being aware of the other car?
c) try to be the first away?
9 You are waiting to check in at a crowded airline counter.There does not seem to be a system of queuing. Would you:
a) push your way to the front?
b) insist loudly that a fair system is adopted?
c) keep quiet and wait?
10 How do you feel about doing this quiz? Do you want to:
a) show you are the most competitive
person in the group?
b) show you are the least competitive person in the group?
| Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people. David Sarnoff (1891-1971), American businessman 0 Before doing the quiz below, do you think you are: a) very competitive? b) fairly competitive? c) not at all competitive? ф Answer the questions in the quiz. Then turn to page 145 to find out your score. Compare your score with a partner. |
| 2J/3 yjby |
c) find out something about yourself?
фThere are many idioms from sport used in business, particularly when talking about competition. Use the nouns from the box to complete these idioms.
game fietd ball seat horse goalposts race neck
1a level playing
2in the driving...................
3to be neck and.................
4flogging a dead................
фWhich of the idioms in Exercise A refer to:
a)a situation of fair competition? 1
b)being in front of the competition?
c)being at the same level as the competition?
d)being the only competitor?
e)wasting your time on a hopeless situation?
f)staying focused?
g)a change in the rules?
h)being in control?
QComplete the following with the most suitable idiom from Exercise A.
Remember to choose the correct verb form where necessary.
1It's not a level any more. As a small company it is difficult for us to compete with the big multinationals.
2They are so far ahead of their competitors in terms of new products that it
has become................................. It will be years before they face any serious
competition.
3We have left all our competitors behind. We spend a lot of money on R & D so we can stay
4The government have changed all the rules for exporters. They have so we will have to rethink our international operation.
5It's a waste of time continuing with the project. It will never work. We are
6With our market dominance in the US, we are really.....................................
7We have exactly the same market share as our nearest rival. We in terms of our profits so far this year, too.
8We really need to concentrate on what our competitors are doing. In today's market you need to at all times.
QDiscuss these questions.
1Have you ever felt you were flogging a dead horse a) at work? b) in your private life?
2Which companies are ahead of the game in your industry or the industry you would like to work in?
3How do you feel when
someone moves the goalposts?
| Competition idioms |
| 5move the...................... 6keep your eye on the 7ahead of the.................. 8a one horse.................... |
you are in the driving seat?
фDiscuss these questions. Then read the article.
1Who are the main competitors of the following companies? Coca-Cola Nike Levi Strauss Nokia Evian
| Losing competitive edge |
2What actions can a company take to compete against its rivals?
3Suggest five words or phrases which you associate with Nokia.
Nokia and the insistent ringing of competition
By John Gapper
In 1983, Nike enjoyed dominance of its industry, with a market share of more than 35 percent, having 5 crushed Adidas, its original rival. But a tiny competitor was about to knock it sideways: Reebok.
A similar situation exists 10 today with Nokia and Samsung. Although the Finnish company's share of the global market for mobile handsets is similar 15 to Nike's in athletic shoes 21 years ago, its South Korean competitor has momentum. Samsung's camera phones, with twist- 20 ing flip-up screens that allow users to take, send and display photos quickly and easily, are hot; Nokia's are not. 25 Samsung's market capitalisation exceeded that of Nokia last week as this fact became evident in the companies' first-quarter 30 results. Even more annoying for Nokia is the transfer of something intangible, yet highly valuable: market leadership. The 35 high end of the market - phones that retail for $300 or more in the US - is no longer Nokia's. Samsung makes the expensive cam- 40 era phone that a young consumer wants to have.
Nokia seems to realise how potentially serious its situation is, but two obsta-
45 cles stand in the way of Nokia regaining authority. One (product design) should be solvable, given the company's heritage. 50 The other (that Samsung is South Korean) will be harder to tackle, as other western companies are likely to find as well. 55 Design should be Nokia's strength, since it originally overtook Motorola by turning handsets into handsome and desirable 60 consumer goods, rather than bland technological objects. Yet in its recent models, Nokia appears to have forgotten the first 65 rule of modernist design - that form follows function. Instead, it has placed most emphasis on making its handsets colourful and 70 zappy, with snap-on covers.
Samsung's approach to digital communication has more substance. Its twisting flip-up screen is a neat 75 way of making the most of camera technology. The screen can even be folded outwards, so friends' photos appear when they call. 80 There is no obvious reason why Nokia should not regain its lead in design. But Samsung has another advantage, which is more 85 difficult for any European rival to counter: the willingness of young South Koreans to pay high prices for new electronic devices. 90 In terms of access to broadband and telecommunications infrastructure, Samsung happens to be sitting in one of the world's 95 most wired - and wireless - markets.
Nokia had a similar advantage in Finland in the
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1990s and exploited it to loo establish a strong presence round the world, including in Asia. But Europe has trailed Asia in high-speed mobile services. South 105 Korea has more than 5m subscribers to third-gener- ation services. That has helped Samsung to develop better designs for camera lio handsets at home before applying the lessons in Europe and the US.
One thing Samsung learnt - and Nokia did not 115 - was to make its camera handsets small. Masamichi Udagawa, co-founder of Antenna Design in New York, says he was 'shocked' 120 when he saw one of Nokia's first camera phones in Tokyo; companies such as Panasonic and Sharp were 125 already making much smaller models for Japan. 'It was a nice design, with a sliding lid, but its sheer size made it unacceptable,' 130 he says.
For consumer companies in Europe and US, Nokia's experience points to a broader challenge. Nike 135 has remained innovative by developing a range of premium-priced shoes in the US and then selling them around the world. 140 Samsung has shown that companies in Asian economies can use their own domestic markets to develop global products. 145 Of course, Japanese companies, including Sony and Toyota, have done that for several decades, blending design and technology in 150 ways unmatched by western companies. But countries such as South Korea have a demographic advantage over Japan and 155 Europe - a plentiful supply of young people. As southeast Asian economies develop, those consumers will become increasingly 160 valuable.
From the Financial Times
FINANCIAL TIMES