Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,228, Designing a Product Line.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,228.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit ESLpodcom and take a look at our ESL podcast store, which has additional courses in business and daily English.
In this episode, we're going to listen to a dialogue between Thomas and Celeste about designing things to sell.
Let's get started.
What do you think of my creations?
These are interesting.
They're part of my new product line to be sold under my own label.
Really Yeah, I'm jumping in with both feet.
Everybody advised me to get my feet wet by licensing a collection, but I don't want to sell under someone else's brand.
I thought you started all this by doing custom work.
I did, but I'm ready to produce an entire line I've designed according to my vision, not work to a client's specs.
I can understand that.
Will you be selling to trade or retail customers?
I plan to have showrooms in every major city.
See?
This is a sample of our product catalog.
I see.
Your products look high-end, but they're intended for the mass market.
That's right.
Do you want to take home a sample?
Um, I guess so.
I'd never consider using anything like that.
Once you sit on a designer toilet seat, you'll never go back.
Thomas begins our dialogue by asking Celeste, what do you think of my creations?
Your creations, C-R-E-A-T-I-O-N.
S are things that you create, that is, things that you make.
Celeste says, these are interesting?
Notice she asks this almost as a question because she's not really sure what to say about them.
Sometimes when we don't want to criticize someone...
When we don't like something, we may use an expression like, well, that's interesting.
Thomas says that his creations are part of his new product line to be sold under his own label.
A product line is a group of related things or products that are sold by a certain company.
They may be things that are all related to I don't.
A product line could include clothing that is related.
A set of shirts or dresses might be part of a product line.
We're not sure what Thomas' product line is, but we know that he's going to sell it under his own label.
L-A-B-E-L.
To be sold under means it will be sold with the name of a certain label.
A label is a part of the packaging of a product that indicates what company has made the product.
It's used here more generally to mean brand, B-R-A-N-D.
Your brand is the name that you use for selling certain kinds of products, certain kinds of things.
A big company may have several brands, several things that it sells under different names.
For example, the Coca-Cola company has different brands that it sells.
One of the brands is, of course, Coca-Cola.
But there are other brands, other kinds of things that it sells, other drinks that use different names.
Brands such as Fanta or Minute Maid orange juice.
They're made by the same company, but they are different brands.
Thomas is going to be selling his product line or group of products under his own brand or label.
Celeste is surprised by this.
She says, really?
Thomas replies, yeah, meaning yes.
I'm jumping in with both feet, he says.
The expression to jump in with both feet means to begin to do something completely and immediately, without waiting.
If you're jumping in with both feet, you're going to commit 100 of your energy to do whatever it is you're doing.
You're not going to go slowly or only commit part of your energy and money.
You're going to do it fully and immediately.
Thomas says Everybody advised me to get my feet wet by licensing a collection, but I don't want to sell under someone else's brand.
The expression to get your feet wet is somewhat of the opposite of to jump in with both feet.
To get your feet wet means to move slowly without risking too much.
You can think of going to a swimming pool If you don't want to get wet all right away.
You might just put your feet in the water.
You're getting your feet wet.
And then when you're ready, you'll get the rest of your body wet.
Then perhaps you will jump in with both feet.
Thomas says that people told him, advised him to get his feet wet by licensing a L-I-C-E-N-S-E.
Something is to give someone permission to sell what you have made, which often includes the right to make something and sell it to someone else.
A collection is similar to a product line.
It's a group of products.
Some people told Thomas that he should license his collection.
He should give his products to another person and have them make it and sell it.
He wouldn't make as much money that way, of course. but it would be less risky.
It would not involve him as much and therefore, if things didn't work out well, he wouldn't lose a lot of money.
However, Thomas says he doesn't want to sell under someone else's brand.
Celeste says, I thought you started all this by doing custom work.
Custom C-U-S-T-O-M means customized or designed to meet needs one particular client or customer's needs.
If you buy a suit from a store and put it on, take it home and wear it, you're not buying a custom suit.
That suit is That jacket and pair of pants wasn't made for you.
But if you go to someone who makes suits and measures them to your particular body to make sure that it fits you perfectly, then you would be getting a custom-made suit.
Thomas began working by doing custom work for individual people.
Thomas says I did meaning.
Yes, I did do that, but I'm ready to produce an entire line, a complete product line I've designed according to my vision, not work to a client's specs.
Thomas has designed or created something with particular characteristics, an entire product line.
He's done this, he says, according to his vision, V-I-S-I-O-N.
Your vision is your image of what something should look like, your vision. creative inspiration.
Thomas has designed this product line according to his vision, not according to his client's specs.
Client is another word for customer, someone who buys what you make or uses you for a.
The word specs S-P-E-C-S refers to the requirements or detailed information for something.
Specs is short for specifications, the particular details about how something should be made or done.
Celeste says I can understand that meaning.
She can understand Thomas wanting to work according to his own vision.
She says, will you be selling to trade or retail customers?
Trade, T-R-A-D-E, customers are other companies who will sell what you make.
Retail, R-E-T-A-I-L, are customers who buy directly from you.
So if you make say, coffee cups and you want to sell them, you could sell them to a store or which would then sell them to individual people.
That would be an example of a trade customer.
The store is your customer.
A retail customer would be someone who bought the cups directly from you, from your store or perhaps nowadays, online.
Thomas says he's going to sell to retail customers.
He explains A showroom.
S-H-O-W-R-O-O-M is a large room or building where people can come and see the things that you have made.
You are showing them the things you have made, so they will then, of course, buy them.
A major city is a large city.
Thomas says he's going to have showrooms in every major city.
He continues, See, this is a sample of our product catalog.
A catalog.
C-A-T-A-L-O-G it can also be spelled C-A-T-A-L-O-G-U-E is basically a book that shows people photographs of the things that you are selling.
Celeste says, I see.
Your products look high-end.
High, H-I-G-H, hyphen, end, E-N-D, means very expensive or of a very high quality.
Celeste says that Thomas' products look high-end in the photographs, but they're intended for the mass market, intended for means.
They are meant to be sold to The mass M-A-S-S market.
M-A-R-K-E-T is the average consumer or the average buyer.
The mass market refers to perhaps the majority of people in a certain area who might buy something.
Normally, things that are intended for the mass market are of a lower price and often of a lower quality.
Thomas however, says that's right meaning.
Yes, my products look high-end, they have the appearance of being high-end, but they're intended for the average person, the mass market.
He asks if Celeste wants to take home a sample of his product.
Celeste says, We use that expression, I guess so, when we're not very sure of our answer.
She says, We're not sure exactly what...
Thomas is giving her, but Celeste says she had never considered using something like his product.
Thomas then tells us what his product is.
He says once you sit on a designer toilet seat, you'll never go back.
A toilet seat.
S-E-A-T is what you sit on in the bathroom to do what you normally do in a bathroom use the toilet.
A designer toilet seat would be a special toilet seat that is made perhaps of a higher quality or has some sort of special look to it.
Thomas says once you sit on a designer toilet seat, you'll never go back.
That expression you'll never go back means you will never use a regular toilet seat again.
In this example,
You'll never go back means, more generally, you'll never use what you used to use before, because now you've experienced this new, wonderful thing.
I'm not sure if I'd recommend buying a designer toilet seat, but I would recommend listening to our dialogue one more time, this time at a native rate of speech.
What do you think of my creations?
These are... interesting?
They're part of my new product line to be sold under my own label.
Really?
Yeah, I'm jumping in with both feet.
Everybody advised me to get my feet wet by licensing a collection, but I don't want to sell under someone else's brand.
I thought you started all this by doing custom work.
I did, but I'm ready to produce an entire line I've designed according to my vision, not work to a client's specs.
I can understand that.
Will you be selling to trade or retail customers?
Retail.
I plan to have showrooms in every major city.
See?
This is a sample of our product catalog.
I see.
Your products look high-end, but they're intended for the mass market.
That's right.
Do you want to take home a sample?
Um, I guess so.
I've never considered using anything like that.
Once you sit on a designer toilet seat, you'll never go back.
All of our dialogues are custom-made for you by our wonderful scriptwriter, a designer of beautiful things, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
