Business News 09 – Reebok Launches Ad Campaign

Today we’re introducing our first Business English News podcast for intermediate listeners. This will now be a regular show with new episodes each month. Most of the time, we’ll cover a similar topic to the current Advanced Business News podcast but the articles and vocabulary will be simplified to make them more suitable for intermediate learners.

The topic today is marketing and, in particular, Reebok’s new advertising campaign and slogan.

Key Vocabulary:
1. to launch – to release a new product
2. Ad campaign – a campaign is an organized series of activities and Ad is short for advertising.
3. to motivate – to get people interested in something
4. take a swipe at something – take a hit at something or to make fun of something.
5. slogan – a short memorable phrase used to promote a product.
6. strategy – a plan or approach intended to achieve a major aim or goal.
7. compete – to try and win a game or to gain an advantage over somebody.
8. competitors – other companies that Reebok is competing against.
9. purportedly – to claim to do or say something.
10. ties to something – connections.
11. celebrity endorser – a famous person who publicly promotes a product.

This weekend we will also release an enhanced MP4 version of this podcast with text and pictures.

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Business News 08 – Celebrities Losing Marketing Appeal

Today we have a Business English News story on a recent study by several universities that looks into the ”˜selling power’ or influence – of celebrities. Celebrity is another word for famous person, such as a movie or sports star.

The vocabulary we discuss in this podcast expands on the marketing terms we covered in Video Vocab 04.

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Business News 07 – India’s Economic Growth

Today’s Business English News podcast comes from an article on the recent positive statements by the CEO of Infosys on the future of India’s economy.

India’s economy has long been overshadowed by the rapid rise of China and SE Asia. More recently though, attention has started to turn to India, who’s strong economic growth and skilled workforce have spurred interest. Many economists are now predicting steady growth at 8% per year with India set to become a 1 trillion dollar economy by 2008.

We use this article to look at some of the English words and expressions you can use to talk about economic trends and human resources.

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Business News 06 – Offshoring

This Business English News podcast examines the topic of offshoring jobs. “Offshoring” means to move part of a company’s operations (usually supporting functions such as finance or HR) to another country – literally “off shore.” Another commonly used term related to this topic is “outsourcing” – this means to use a different company to handle some supporting tasks. The key difference is that outsourcing doesn’t necessarily mean the work is done in a different country.

The topic of offshoring, or outsourcing work overseas, is certainly a popular one these days, and many people in Western Europe and North America are quite concerned that this practice will lead to less job opportunities in their countries. However, our story details a report from a well know management consultancy that concludes these concerns may be exaggerated or “overblown.”

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Business News 05 – Virtual Meetings

How do you conduct your meetings? Face-to-face, on the phone, by videoconference or maybe even using VOIP/Skype? Well, now there is a new way – virtual meetings, or meetings where participants are represented by computer generated characters.

Listen to how IBM is using the virtual world of a website called Second Life as the next best thing to in person corporate meetings. After listening to the article, we’ll highlight some of the new vocabulary and provide definitions and further examples.

PDF Transcript: Study Notes

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