Upper-Intermediate By Adrian Wallwork, Keith Harding Дополнительнительные материалы
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The Way The Brain Buys Retailers are making breakthroughs in understanding their customers’ minds. Here is what they know about you It may have occurred to you, when you stroll down a supermarket indistinguishable from every other supermarket you have ever been into, to wonder why they are all the same. The answer is more sinister than depressing. It is not because the companies that operate them lack imagination. It is because they are all versed in the science of persuading people to buy things—a science that, thanks to technological advances, is beginning to unlock the secrets of the consumer’s mind. In the Sainsbury’s it takes a while for the mind to get into a shopping mode. This is why the area immediately inside the entrance of a supermarket is known as the “decompression zone”. People need to slow down and take stock of the surroundings, even if they are regulars. In sales terms this area is a bit of a loss, so it tends to be used more for promotion. Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, famously employs “greeters” at the entrance to its stores. Whether or not they boost sales, a friendly welcome is said to cut shoplifting. It is harder to steal from nice people. Immediately to the left in Sainsbury’s is another familiar sight: a “chill zone” for browsing magazines, books and DVDs, tempting impromptu purchases and slowing customers down. But those on a serious mission will keep walking ahead—and the first thing they come to is the fresh fruit and vegetables section. For shoppers, this makes no sense. But psychology is at work here: selecting good wholesome fresh food is an uplifting way to start shopping, and it makes people feel less guilty about reaching for the stodgy stuff later on. Shoppers already know that everyday items, like milk, are invariably placed towards the back of a store to provide more opportunity to tempt customers. This is why pharmacies are generally at the rear, even in “convenience” stores. Having walked to the end of the fruit and vegetable aisle, shoppers arrive at counters of prepared food, the fishmonger, the butcher and the deli. Then there is the in-store bakery, which can be smelt before it is seen. Even small supermarkets now use in-store bakeries. Mostly these bake pre-prepared items and frozen dough, and they have boomed even though central bakeries that deliver to a number of stores are much more efficient. They do it for the smell of freshly baked bread, which makes people hungry and thus encourages people to buy not just bread but also other food, including frozen stuff. Most of the information that shoppers are bombarded with is visual: labels, price stickers and advertising. People tell market researchers and “focus groups” that they make rational decisions about what to buy, considering things like price, selection or convenience. But subconscious forces, involving emotion and memories, are clearly also at work. Retailers and producers talk a lot about the “moment of truth”. This is not a philosophical notion, but the point when people standing in the aisle decide what to buy and reach to get it. The Basingstoke store illustrates some of the ways used to get shoppers’ hands to wobble in the direction of a particular product. At the instant coffee selection, for example, branded products from the big producers are arranged at eye-level while cheaper ones are lower down, along with the supermarket’s own-label products. Often head offices will send out elaborate plans of where everything has to be placed; Albertsons, a big American supermarket chain, calls these a “plan-a-gram”. Spot-checks are carried out to make sure instructions are followed to the letter. The reason for this strictness is that big retailers demand “slotting fees” to put suppliers’ goods on their shelves, and these vary according to which positions are considered to be prime space. While many stores reckon eye-level is the top spot, some think a little higher is better. Others charge more for goods placed on “end caps”—displays at the end of the aisles, which they reckon to have the greatest visibility. To be on the right-hand-side of an eye-level selection is often considered the very best place, because most people are right-handed and most people’s eyes drift rightwards. Some supermarkets reserve that for their own-label “premium” goods. Technology will also begin to identify customers’ emotions. Dr Sharma’s software has the potential to analyse expressions, like smiles and grimaces, which are hard to fake. Something that provides a similar result might one day be worn on your head. Researchers believe it is possible to correlate brain patterns with changes in electrical activity in the brain, which can be measured with electroencephalography (EEG) using electrodes placed on the scalp. Small EEG machines are already available, especially for computer gamers, which fit on the head. The notion of shoppers wearing brain-scanning hats would be ridiculous if it were not so alarming. Privacy groups are already concerned about the rise of electronic surveillance that records what people do, let alone what they might be thinking. When Dr Sharma asks shoppers what they think about his video-monitoring he says most people do not mind. But what if psychological selling is done stealthily? That way lies grave perils. It is the anger not of privacy groups that retailers should fear, but of customers at being manipulated from behind the scenes. There have been backlashes before: “The Hidden Persuaders” by Vance Packard, an American journalist, caused a sensation when it was first published in 1957 by revealing physiological techniques used by advertisers, including subliminal messages. It is what got Dr Spangenberg interested in the subject. He thinks shopping science has limits. “I don’t think you are going to be able to make someone buy a car or a computer that they don’t need,” he says. “But you might persuade them to choose one model instead of another. And importantly, they wouldn’t know it.” But if they did realise psychological methods were being used to influence their choice, “the counteraction can be so huge it can put someone off buying anything at all,” he adds. Which is probably why at the end of this shopping trip there is not much in the trolley. At least the temptations at the checkout are easy to avoid: a few celebrity magazines and bags of sweets at the eye-level of children. But that will change too. Barry Salzman, the chief executive of YCD Multimedia in New York, has big plans for the area around a cash till. He is using digital video screens displaying ads that relate to what someone is buying and which can also be linked with facial-recognition software to refine the displays according to the customer’s age or sex. His system is already being used in Aroma Espresso Bars in America to present, say, an advert for a chocolate croissant to someone buying only a cappuccino. The science of shopping is a marvellously sophisticated business; the practice is still a little more primitive. UNIT 7 Creativity Topical Vocabulary
Task 1. Translate the following sentences into Russian.
Task 2. Translate the following sentences into English. 1)Питер изо всех сил старался решить эту проблему, но он никак не мог с ней справиться без помощи своих друзей. 2)В приложении к настоящему письму вы найдете раздаточный материал, который вам необходимо будет распечатать и принести в класс. 3)Я не люблю неожиданно встречать дальних знакомых, при встрече приходится поддерживать светскую беседу, которая кажется мне очень скучной. 4)«Какие билеты вы бы хотели купить: места у окна или у прохода?» 5)Эта идея пришла мне в голову внезапно, но я не мог сформулировать ее и поэтому выглядел очень странно. 6)Не бойтесь побеспокоить профессора своими вопросами! Он всегда поощряет ваше желание узнать больше. 7)Когда этот отдел компании перерасходовал запланированный бюджет на текущий год, то всем работникам пришлось объясняться перед директором в письменной форме. 8)«Не беспокойся! Ты соответствуешь всем критериям найма на эту должность. Все должно пройти гладко!» 9)Для своего спокойствия, он решил позвонить ей и убедиться, что с ней все в порядке. 10)Когда мероприятие пошло не так, как надо, организаторы начали нервно переглядываться. 11)«Ваш творческий вклад всегда высоко ценится,-сказал Генеральный Директор компании,- поэтому вы получаете повышение по службе!» 12)Американская авиакомпания пообещала выплатить компенсации всем своим пассажирам, чьи рейсы были отменены в этот день. 13)В последнее время магазины и супермаркеты города нередко выставляют ценники на товар, которые не отражают действительности: либо цена не та указана, либо информация о товаре намеренно скрыта. 14)Ручную кладь запрещено оставлять в проходе самолета. 15)Издание ссылается на группу ученых, исследователей окружающей среды и историков. 16)Все необходимые документы вы найдете в приложении к настоящему письму. 17)«Прости, что я задержался! Дело в том, что я не хотел приходить к тебе в гости с пустыми руками». 18)Когда она принялась за дело, то поняла, что ей придется вдаваться в подробности, которых никто никогда не знал. 19)Последней каплей, переполнившей чашу терпения президента футбольного клуба, стало поражение команды в чемпионате мира, который состоялся в ЮАР. Task 3. Match the words with their synonyms and make up sentences with them.
10)handout j. to scrutinize Task 4. Match the following phrasal verbs with their meanings. Learn them. Make up 5 sentences of your own using the collocations given below. GO 1. go after somebody a. to leave a place, especially in order to do smth 2.go along with smb b. to pass 3.go at smb c. to begin to do something 4.go by d. to agree with somebody/something 5.go for somebody e. to chase or follow somebody 6.go on f. to happen 7.go off g. to attack somebody 8.go ahead h.to put a lot of effort into something, so that you get or achieve something |
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