BUSINESS ENGLISH 1
BUSINESS PARTNER B1+ COURSEBOOK
UNIT 1. ORGANISATION
1.1 A NEWS ORGANISATION
è VERSCHILLENDE DEPARTEMENTEN IN ‘A COMPANY’ (staat ook in woordenschat)
• Departments in a company: Finance, Human resources, Marketing, Operations, Production & Sales
• Other departments: research and development, IT, legal, logistics, customer service
1.2 INNOVATIVE ORGANISATIONS
Tall organisation: means that management is broken down into several layers,
with executives on top and normal employees on the bottom.
Flat organisation: an organizational structure with few or no levels of middle
management between staff and executives.
TALL ORGANISATION
• Lots of MGMT levels
• Major hierarchy
• More bureaucracy + slow decisionmaking
• Top-down communication
• Slow to innovate
• Many opportunities for promotion
• = typically large, complex corporations
FLAT ORGANISATION
• Few levels of middle MGMT
• Less hierarchical
• Decentralised decision-making = quicker
• Direct, open & two-way communication
• More creative & innovative
• Fewer chances for promotion
• = start-ups
1.3 MANAGING FIRST MEETINGS
What might help you make a good impression when you first meet someone?
• In a private context (friends, date)
• In a business context (new colleague, potential employer)
What do you say and do to be polite in first meetings and to build relationships?
• Show interest and curiosity: ask questions, listen
• Gift-giving types of clothing worn, place where the relationship is built (at home, at work, in a restaurant)
• In many cultures, it is impossible to do business until a relationship and a level of trust has been established
Can you think of examples of cultural difference in a professional meeting context?
• Timing/ agenda of the meeting
• Level of participation: high or low
• Dress code: casual of chic
1.4 SMALL TALK IN FIRST MEETINGS
• Small talk is a form of polite conversation which people use in first meetings and informal moments or between
discussions of more serious topics.
• When meeting in business, it is typical to ask questions about travel to the meeting place, to offer a drink, etc.
• Asking questions puts some pressure on your counterpart to answer, which may be stressful. Additionally, some
people may feel that asking too many questions, especially on personal topics, is impolite.
1
,1.5 EMAILS – ORGANISING INFORMATION
Dear Jill
Dear Sir/Madam,
GREETING/ OPENING
Good morning, Jacques
Hello/Hi George
Just a quick email to let you know ...
I’m writing to inform you that ...
REASON FOR WRITING
Further to our conversation, I confirm that ...
Thank you for your email.
ORDERING INFORMATION Firstly, Then, After, Finally, Thirdly,
Feel free to call me if you have any questions.
Hope to hear from you soon.
CONCLUDING EMAIL
I look forward to hearing from you.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
All the best,
Yours,
CLOSING
Kind regards, Regards,
Yours sincerely,
è FLAT LEADERSHIP
UNIT 2. BRANDS
2.1 THE LIFE OF LUXURY
BIG FIVE: personality traits = the five dimensions of brand personality are: (geen voorbeelden kennen)
• Sincerity: Coca Cola, Pampers
• Excitement: Nike, Axe
• Competence: Ups, Volvo, Microsoft
• Sophiscation: Apple
o Luxury, elegance, exclusive, style and attractiveness, a sense of community
o Success of its powerful brand image?
§ Luxury as a lifestyle
§ A powerful communication strategy
§ The exclusivity as selling strategy.
§ The club: being more than simple customers.
• Ruggedness: Land Rover, Levi’s
2
, WORDS AND ACTIONS PODCAST
PART 1 OF THE PODCAST:
o CHARACTERISATION + EXAMPLES
CHARACTERISATION:
® Brands are not just products we can see, like my phone or my computer. But on another level, it's actually a bundle of
associations.
® It's what values we associate, like reliability or safety or what metaphorical personality or what expectations we have.
® And of course it's not just because we interact with the brand, it's because we've all been exposed to branding, how people use
language and visuals to create these associations we have with the brands.
EXAMPLE : Volvo's, mainly in Hollywood movies
• Very reliable men and women are always shown.
• They protect their families from danger/personalities: aliens, nosy journalists, a university professor,....
• The emotions and attitudes evoked by the brand are projected onto characters, and vice versa.
• SLOGAN: " Volvo for life"
o PRODUCT PLACEMENT
® It's a form of characterization in film.
® It shows how many sometimes unconscious associations we actually have with brands.
® It's what values we associate, like reliability or safety or what metaphorical personality or what expectations we have.
® And of course it's not just because we interact with the brand, but because we've all been exposed to branding, how people use
language and visuals to create these associations we have with brands.
o SOUND SYMBOLISM
® The properties of different sounds can evoke things like size, for example.
® There are many studies that study exactly this.
® In language-related studies, this is called sound symbolism.
® In marketing, you could find this under cross-modal correspondence.
EXAMPLE: 'O sound' in 'Volvo' - > change to an 'i', such as 'Volvi'
• With this, people quickly think of a small car, not a family car.
o MALUMA TAKETE EFFECT
® The Maluma takete effect goes all the way back to the 1930s.
® It was a way of looking at how sounds and words can evoke sensations
o 'Spiky' is called 'takete'
o 'Bendy' is called 'maluma'
o IMPACT OF LANGUAGE ON ADVERTISING
® Luxury brands: brands with names that evoke strangeness give an exclusive appeal
EXAMPLE: companies that invent a word for a product that has a different meaning in another language.
• Ford Pinto: not a great success in Brazil => means: 'masculinity of the male driver is threatened'
• Carlsberg: it would be associated with weakness so several adjustments happened to the slogan
1: "Probably the best beer in the world"
2: "This calls for a Carlsberg"
3: "Probably the best beer in the world"
3
, PART 2 OF THE PODCAST
o INTERCULTURAL ADVERTISING
® People didn't understand the advertising, there were references to things people didn't know, previous texts.
EXAMPLE: Around the time the Berlin Wall fell, West German brands began to advertise in the East.
• People didn't understand the advertising
• There were references to things people didn't know
o LINGUISTIC FETISH
® It is linked to "Marx's idea" of commodity fetish.
® it is not about saying something, communicating something directly => but communicating something symbolically.
EXAMPLE: AUDI SLOGAN: "Vorsprung durch Technik"
• German is used in English advertising
o CREATING BRAND PERSONALITY
® Jennifer Aaker in 1997
® 5 dimensions
® This allows companies to create their identity or personality
o Including sincerity
o Excitement
o Competence
o sophistication
o Ruggedness
EXAMPLE: Guinness (Irish beer brand): they're trying to diversify a bit in terms of brand personality.
PART 3 OF THE PODCAST
o BRAND PERSONIFICATION
- In the podcast, they talk mainly about the example of the Volkswagen Kombi
o THE VOLKSWAGEN EXAMPLE
EXAMPLE: the discontinuation of 'the Volkswagen Kombi'
® It's about a product saying goodbye to its customers
® An old lady reminiscing about her life
® She also introduces characters connected in some way to the 'Volkswagen kombi'
North face: karakter van een avontuurlijke ontdekkingsreiziger
Coca cola: merk geassocieerd met vreugde, geluk en verfrissing
Nike: karakter van een sportman.
4
BUSINESS PARTNER B1+ COURSEBOOK
UNIT 1. ORGANISATION
1.1 A NEWS ORGANISATION
è VERSCHILLENDE DEPARTEMENTEN IN ‘A COMPANY’ (staat ook in woordenschat)
• Departments in a company: Finance, Human resources, Marketing, Operations, Production & Sales
• Other departments: research and development, IT, legal, logistics, customer service
1.2 INNOVATIVE ORGANISATIONS
Tall organisation: means that management is broken down into several layers,
with executives on top and normal employees on the bottom.
Flat organisation: an organizational structure with few or no levels of middle
management between staff and executives.
TALL ORGANISATION
• Lots of MGMT levels
• Major hierarchy
• More bureaucracy + slow decisionmaking
• Top-down communication
• Slow to innovate
• Many opportunities for promotion
• = typically large, complex corporations
FLAT ORGANISATION
• Few levels of middle MGMT
• Less hierarchical
• Decentralised decision-making = quicker
• Direct, open & two-way communication
• More creative & innovative
• Fewer chances for promotion
• = start-ups
1.3 MANAGING FIRST MEETINGS
What might help you make a good impression when you first meet someone?
• In a private context (friends, date)
• In a business context (new colleague, potential employer)
What do you say and do to be polite in first meetings and to build relationships?
• Show interest and curiosity: ask questions, listen
• Gift-giving types of clothing worn, place where the relationship is built (at home, at work, in a restaurant)
• In many cultures, it is impossible to do business until a relationship and a level of trust has been established
Can you think of examples of cultural difference in a professional meeting context?
• Timing/ agenda of the meeting
• Level of participation: high or low
• Dress code: casual of chic
1.4 SMALL TALK IN FIRST MEETINGS
• Small talk is a form of polite conversation which people use in first meetings and informal moments or between
discussions of more serious topics.
• When meeting in business, it is typical to ask questions about travel to the meeting place, to offer a drink, etc.
• Asking questions puts some pressure on your counterpart to answer, which may be stressful. Additionally, some
people may feel that asking too many questions, especially on personal topics, is impolite.
1
,1.5 EMAILS – ORGANISING INFORMATION
Dear Jill
Dear Sir/Madam,
GREETING/ OPENING
Good morning, Jacques
Hello/Hi George
Just a quick email to let you know ...
I’m writing to inform you that ...
REASON FOR WRITING
Further to our conversation, I confirm that ...
Thank you for your email.
ORDERING INFORMATION Firstly, Then, After, Finally, Thirdly,
Feel free to call me if you have any questions.
Hope to hear from you soon.
CONCLUDING EMAIL
I look forward to hearing from you.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
All the best,
Yours,
CLOSING
Kind regards, Regards,
Yours sincerely,
è FLAT LEADERSHIP
UNIT 2. BRANDS
2.1 THE LIFE OF LUXURY
BIG FIVE: personality traits = the five dimensions of brand personality are: (geen voorbeelden kennen)
• Sincerity: Coca Cola, Pampers
• Excitement: Nike, Axe
• Competence: Ups, Volvo, Microsoft
• Sophiscation: Apple
o Luxury, elegance, exclusive, style and attractiveness, a sense of community
o Success of its powerful brand image?
§ Luxury as a lifestyle
§ A powerful communication strategy
§ The exclusivity as selling strategy.
§ The club: being more than simple customers.
• Ruggedness: Land Rover, Levi’s
2
, WORDS AND ACTIONS PODCAST
PART 1 OF THE PODCAST:
o CHARACTERISATION + EXAMPLES
CHARACTERISATION:
® Brands are not just products we can see, like my phone or my computer. But on another level, it's actually a bundle of
associations.
® It's what values we associate, like reliability or safety or what metaphorical personality or what expectations we have.
® And of course it's not just because we interact with the brand, it's because we've all been exposed to branding, how people use
language and visuals to create these associations we have with the brands.
EXAMPLE : Volvo's, mainly in Hollywood movies
• Very reliable men and women are always shown.
• They protect their families from danger/personalities: aliens, nosy journalists, a university professor,....
• The emotions and attitudes evoked by the brand are projected onto characters, and vice versa.
• SLOGAN: " Volvo for life"
o PRODUCT PLACEMENT
® It's a form of characterization in film.
® It shows how many sometimes unconscious associations we actually have with brands.
® It's what values we associate, like reliability or safety or what metaphorical personality or what expectations we have.
® And of course it's not just because we interact with the brand, but because we've all been exposed to branding, how people use
language and visuals to create these associations we have with brands.
o SOUND SYMBOLISM
® The properties of different sounds can evoke things like size, for example.
® There are many studies that study exactly this.
® In language-related studies, this is called sound symbolism.
® In marketing, you could find this under cross-modal correspondence.
EXAMPLE: 'O sound' in 'Volvo' - > change to an 'i', such as 'Volvi'
• With this, people quickly think of a small car, not a family car.
o MALUMA TAKETE EFFECT
® The Maluma takete effect goes all the way back to the 1930s.
® It was a way of looking at how sounds and words can evoke sensations
o 'Spiky' is called 'takete'
o 'Bendy' is called 'maluma'
o IMPACT OF LANGUAGE ON ADVERTISING
® Luxury brands: brands with names that evoke strangeness give an exclusive appeal
EXAMPLE: companies that invent a word for a product that has a different meaning in another language.
• Ford Pinto: not a great success in Brazil => means: 'masculinity of the male driver is threatened'
• Carlsberg: it would be associated with weakness so several adjustments happened to the slogan
1: "Probably the best beer in the world"
2: "This calls for a Carlsberg"
3: "Probably the best beer in the world"
3
, PART 2 OF THE PODCAST
o INTERCULTURAL ADVERTISING
® People didn't understand the advertising, there were references to things people didn't know, previous texts.
EXAMPLE: Around the time the Berlin Wall fell, West German brands began to advertise in the East.
• People didn't understand the advertising
• There were references to things people didn't know
o LINGUISTIC FETISH
® It is linked to "Marx's idea" of commodity fetish.
® it is not about saying something, communicating something directly => but communicating something symbolically.
EXAMPLE: AUDI SLOGAN: "Vorsprung durch Technik"
• German is used in English advertising
o CREATING BRAND PERSONALITY
® Jennifer Aaker in 1997
® 5 dimensions
® This allows companies to create their identity or personality
o Including sincerity
o Excitement
o Competence
o sophistication
o Ruggedness
EXAMPLE: Guinness (Irish beer brand): they're trying to diversify a bit in terms of brand personality.
PART 3 OF THE PODCAST
o BRAND PERSONIFICATION
- In the podcast, they talk mainly about the example of the Volkswagen Kombi
o THE VOLKSWAGEN EXAMPLE
EXAMPLE: the discontinuation of 'the Volkswagen Kombi'
® It's about a product saying goodbye to its customers
® An old lady reminiscing about her life
® She also introduces characters connected in some way to the 'Volkswagen kombi'
North face: karakter van een avontuurlijke ontdekkingsreiziger
Coca cola: merk geassocieerd met vreugde, geluk en verfrissing
Nike: karakter van een sportman.
4
