Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 540, Promoting a New Product.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 540.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is called Promoting a New Product.
It's a dialogue between Soyla and Leo using vocabulary that would be associated or related to promoting or trying to sell a new business product.
Let's get started.
I haven't seen you around lately What have you been up to?
My business partners and I have been putting the final touches on our new line of energy drinks Really,
I didn't even know that you were in the beverage business.
Yeah, we've branched out into a few other areas.
We're going to start promoting the new drinks very soon.
We're working with an advertising agency and we'll start with sponsoring a couple of sporting events.
Wow!
When am I going to start seeing ads on TV?
I don't think we're going to go that route just yet.
Are you taking the new products to trade shows?
No, no trade shows for us.
We're working on product placement in some music videos and maybe a TV show or two.
That's great.
What about tie-ins with other products or with a movie?
I see those everywhere.
We're considering it.
Once we have some celebrities on board, we'll do even more.
It would be great if you could get Jeff McQuillan to endorse your products.
Everybody knows he's the greatest baseball player who ever lived.
With him plugging your energy drinks, sales will go through the roof.
Yeah, but I think we'd be shooting too high.
We might have to settle for someone a little less famous, like David Beckham or Lance Armstrong.
Our dialogue begins with Soyla saying, I haven't seen you around lately.
What have you been up to?
Meaning, what have you been doing?
Leo has a business, and the people who own the business with him are called his business partners.
They've been putting the final touches on something.
To put the final touches on something means to do the last, usually minor things that you need to finish a project, to complete the final steps of something.
You could say, I'm writing a report for my boss.
I'm almost done with it.
I just need to put a title on it and put it in a nice folder.
That would be putting the final touches on it.
Leo and his partners are putting the final touches on their new line of energy drinks.
Here, line refers to a group of related products that are sold by one company.
Coca-Cola Company has a line of products.
Soft drinks of soda pops, or simply soda, Coke, Diet Coke, etc.
Those are all part of a group of related products, or a line.
Line, however, has several different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Well, Leo and his business partners are...
Putting the final touches on the new line of energy drinks they have.
Energy drinks are drinks that give you more energy, often have a lot of caffeine in them.
College students sometimes use energy drinks when they need to study for an exam late at night, especially when they should have been studying in the past, and they wait until the last minute.
Soyla says, really?
I didn't even know that you were in the beverage business.
A beverage is a drink.
Coffee is a beverage.
Alcohol is a beverage.
Tea is a beverage.
At a restaurant.
Usually the word that you use for the things that you are going to drink or want to drink is beverage.
The waiter may ask you, would you like a beverage?
Would you like something to drink?
Leo says, yeah, we've branched out into a few other areas.
His company has branched out.
To branch out is a phrasal verb meaning to expand into different areas or fields, to grow into some sort of new operation, new kind of business.
The word branch comes from the part of the tree.
We call the parts of the tree that go out from the main section of the tree branches.
That main section is called the trunk.
Well, Leo is branching out into new areas.
He says his company is going to start promoting the new drinks very soon.
To promote a product means to tell other people about it by telling them how good it is trying to get other people interested so that they will want to buy the product.
We can use promote in a business sense for a new product or service.
We also use the word promote in a business sense to mean when someone gets a better job when they go from being vice president to president.
We say they've been promoted.
Leo says that he and his business partners are working with an advertising agency and and that they will start with sponsoring a couple of sports events.
An advertising agency is a company that specializes in helping other companies get people interested in buying their product.
They may put a commercial on the television or put an announcement in the newspaper.
That's what an advertising agency does.
Traditionally, the largest advertising agencies always had an office in New York City on one particular street called Madison Avenue.
And sometimes people will use the words or term Madison Avenue to refer to advertising companies or people involved in publicity and promotion.
Leo says that they're going to sponsor a couple of sporting events.
To sponsor means to provide money for an event or a program and you, in return get the opportunity to advertise your product or service to the people who are going to that event or program.
Many times a sporting event, a game, will be sponsored by a particular company.
So everyone who goes to the game knows that this game was in part paid for by that company.
It's a way of advertising and also a way of showing that you are interested in helping the community perhaps.
Soilet says, wow, when am I going to start seeing ads on TV?
Ad is short for advertisement.
We also would call those on television commercials.
It's the same thing.
A commercial would only be on the TV or the radio.
An ad could be on TV, radio, or in a magazine or newspaper.
Leo says I don't think we're going to go that route just yet.
To go that route means to do that particular thing.
To take a specific direction with your actions.
So you could say I was thinking about going and getting my master's degree, but I decided not to go that route.
I decided not to do that or those series of things.
Here Leo is saying that they are not going to be putting commercials or ads on the television.
Soiler then asks, are you taking the new products to trade shows?
A trade show is a large event, usually held in a big auditorium or hotel, where companies that have similar products get together, typically once a year, to show their new products and their new services.
The word trade here simply refers to the business, the particular business.
So you could have a trade show for dentists where all the companies that make products for dentists would get together so that other companies or dentists themselves could go and look and see what there was to buy.
Leo says, no, no trade shows for us, meaning we're not going to any trade shows.
We're working on product placement in some music videos and maybe a TV show or two.
Product placement is when a company tries to get its product to as part of a movie, TV show or other types of entertainment.
So you could be watching a TV show and somebody's drinking a can of Coca-Cola.
Well, Coca-Cola probably paid the makers of that TV program to put their product in that TV program.
This happens a lot in American television and in American movies.
That's called product placement.
Soyla says, that's great.
What about tie-ins with other products or with a movie?
I see those everywhere.
A tie-in is a connection between two or more things, especially when you are trying to sell something related to a movie or a TV show.
So you could have a famous movie such as Star Wars, and one of the tie-ins could be little dolls, a little doll of Chewbacca, for example.
That would be a tie-in to the movie.
It is related to the movie.
Leo says, we're considering tie-ins.
We're working on a couple of endorsement deals right now.
Once we have some celebrities on board, we'll do even more.
An endorsement is when a famous person says that they like this product or service and they use that person's name and his picture or part of a video to promote that product.
Usually these are famous sports stars, such as the golfer Tiger Woods, or entertainment stars that endorse or say they like this product.
And that, of course, gets other people interested in the product.
At least that's the idea.
Leo says once they have some celebrities, famous people on board, we'll do even more.
On board here means agreeing to participate in something.
Soyla says it would be great if you could get Jeff McQuillan to endorse your products.
Everybody knows he's the greatest baseball player who ever lived.
With him plugging your energy drinks, sales will go through the roof.
Soyla is suggesting that a very famous baseball player, whose name is the same as mine, could endorse this product, these energy drinks.
She says, with him plugging your energy drinks, sales will go through the roof.
To plug means to promote, to endorse, to say that you use this product and you like it.
When we say sales will go through the roof, we mean that they will go to a very high amount and usually go up very quickly.
So if Jeff McQuillan was plugging the product, they would sell a lot of the product very quickly.
Leo says, yeah, but I think we'd be shooting too high.
We might have to settle for someone a little less famous, like David Beckham or Lance Armstrong.
To shoot too high means to try to do something that is too difficult or something that is too out of reach, too advanced, perhaps.
So they're saying here that Jeff McQuillan probably would not want to endorse or plug anything.
He's too famous.
So they will have to settle for someone less famous.
To settle for means to accept something that isn't your first choice.
You really wanted to have this, but you'll settle for something a little less, something that was your third or fourth choice, for example.
Settle has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at the learning guide for some additional explanations.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Really?
I didn't even know that you were in the beverage business.
Yeah, we've branched out into a few other areas.
We're going to start promoting the new drinks very soon.
We're working with an advertising agency and we'll start with sponsoring a couple of sporting events.
Wow.
When am I going to start seeing your ads on TV?
I don't think we're going to go that route just yet.
Are you taking the new products to trade shows?
No, no trade shows for us.
We're working on product placement and some music videos and maybe a TV show or two.
That's great.
What about tie-ins with other products or with a movie?
I see those everywhere.
We're considering it.
We're working on a couple of endorsement deals right now.
Once we have some celebrities on board, we'll do even more.
It would be great if you could get Jeff McQuillan to endorse your products.
Everybody knows he's the greatest baseball player who ever lived.
With him plugging your energy drinks, sales will go through the roof.
Yeah, but I think we'd be shooting too high.
We might have to settle for someone a little less famous, like David Beckham or Lance Armstrong.
The script for this episode was written by Dr. Lucy Say.
Don't settle for less.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
