Shadowing Practice: Introduction to Marketing: The Marketing Mix - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Welcome to a brief review of what we call the marketing mix.

The marketing mix, also referred to as the four P's for product, place, price, as well as promotion,

is one of the fundamental components of marketing.

When businesses decide what it is that they're going to produce, how they're going to sell it, how they're going to price it,

and ultimately how they're going to communicate their product or service offerings,

what they do is they going to go through these four areas one by one.

Real briefly, obviously we have the product, the place, price, as well as the promotion.

I'll define individually what these are and what kind of purpose they have essentially.

What do companies have to consider when they're choosing one particular category over another?

Now, first off with the product, what the product refers to is the tangible product or the actual service itself.

Now, obviously service is one is tangible, products you can hold, you can pick up, they have weight.

Services typically don't.

Services usually are also both provided and consumed at the same point in time.

For example, if you were to go in and to get your car oil changed, for example, get the oil changed in your car,

your car would have to be present and you couldn't store that service for a later date.

Not only would you have to take part in the delivery of the service, but you would also at the point in time in which it's delivered, essentially.

But the product not only refers to the actual good or service, but we also talk about the packaging.

We're also referring to things like the warranty.

The brand name your company's image, as well as the service that's provided after the sale.

Now the product piece is the first component of the marketing mix, and that's by design.

The reason is it's very difficult to develop a pricing strategy

or to determine where you're going to sell the product

or ultimately how you're going to promote it unless you know what the product is.

This is why the product is the first component of the marketing mix.

to do the other remaining components of the marketing mix if you don't know what the product is.

And as we know, products are purchased for a variety of different reasons.

They mean many different things to different people.

Products can be purchased for simply the benefits, right?

We kind of assess the cost versus the benefit, the price that we're going to pay for the product compared to what are the benefits I'm going to receive,

things like convenience prestige, recognition, status are all examples of benefits.

We also have to consider what products mean to us.

There are certain products that maybe we don't necessarily care what the features and the benefits are.

We more of like them because of the fact that they mean something to us.

It symbolizes a status symbol.

Maybe certain types of luxury vehicles, maybe homes in certain zip codes may mean something to us.

is the actual features and the benefits that they provide there.

Now usually what marketers will do in this process is they'll engage in what we call product differentiation.

And what product differentiation is, is marketers will try and distinguish their product and service offerings from those their competitors.

Even if there really isn't a significant difference,

If the consumer perceives there to be a difference in products, then the marketer has essentially done their job at that particular point in time.

It does not matter if there isn't an actual difference between two different products.

Examples of companies that have successfully differentiated their products, first of which is Apple.

Apple has undoubtedly been able to differentiate their products and show

that they are more innovative and show

that possibly they just seem to work much better with one of the hardware and the software.

It seems to work together in a very kind of symbiotic relationship almost.

Products are very intuitive, very, very easy to use.

Apple to do is that allows them a little more leeway in terms of price.

You look at their particular products and if you line up an Apple product with a comparable PC type product, and if we're talking strictly laptops for example,

you can have two products that are technically the same in terms of all the different technical specifications, but the Apple product will sell for more.

And the reason that they sell for more is

because of the fact that Apple has been able to successfully prove to the market that there is a difference.

The same thing goes with countless other different types of businesses.

Starbucks, for example, has been able to differentiate their coffee as being better than most other competitors.

Now, regardless if it is better or not is a matter of personal opinion,

but they've been It's better consumed in that type of environment, so to speak.

And so because there is such great competition, marketers will look to product differentiation as a way of making their product stand out,

as a way of almost putting it on a pedestal above other products and services.

Now, also, marketers have to consider what we call place.

Place refers really to distribution.

What we're trying to do is we're trying to make sure

that our products are available when and where customers want them to be available.

So not only do we have to consider things like geography, right, location, making products available in convenient locations,

but we also have to consider what are the convenient times?

What are the times of the day?

that consumers are going to want to have our products readily available.

You also deal with the physical distribution of goods.

Ultimately, how are we going to get the products or the services that we provide ultimately to the end user?

There's a number of things that companies can do.

For example, they can engage in what we call a direct distribution strategy.

And what that involves is the company actually sells them directly to the consumer.

That might be conducive depending upon what the company is trying to achieve.

Another option is they can engage in the traditional retail model in which they partner with a particular retailer,

maybe a Walmart, Target, Best Buy, something the equivalent thereof, and they actually will sell their products through the retailer.

Now, of course, the retailer is going to increase the price somewhat when they sell them to the end user.

to increase the price for the consumer which may not be ideal but a lot of retailers, most notably Target and Walmart, have a very wide following.

So there are a lot of companies that think of

if I can get on the shelves of an actual Walmart store just

because of the sheer number of them then that's a significant market that I would have access to.

A lot of companies just simply make it their goal to get on the shelf of an actual Walmart through those stores,

the amount of sales that they do on an annual basis there.

In addition, there are other strategies.

There are export strategies.

There are independent agent strategies.

You can work with a wholesaler.

There are a number of different avenues that

that companies have at their disposal to ultimately aid in the distribution of their actual product.

But outside of how that's going to be sold, either a retail or a direct strategy, you also have to consider how are we going to get them there,

the means to transport the product.

There are certain benefits or advantages and disadvantages of different types of distribution.

So you talk about maybe flying products from point A to point B.

Well, that would be very fast but it's also relatively expensive.

You can do things like put it on a train, which you can track them to an extent.

It is somewhat fast, but you are restricted by the actual railroads in which way that they go.

You can transport them via truck.

That provides certain advantages relatively fast.

You can track your actual products, not as fast as flying, but a little less expensive.

Businesses all have to consider that as well because depending upon how you distribute consumer can purchase them, that is going to

indicate some type of cost and what that will do is

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that will potentially make it so

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that your products maybe you have to charge a little more to justify that increased cost there

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The next thing we have is our price.

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And price is essentially the price that a company or that a customer will pay.

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It's what a buyer or consumer must give up in order to actually obtain your particular product or product or service.

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Now, price is the most flexible of all the elements.

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The reason is you can manipulate it fairly easily.

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Companies can go in and change the price

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and then instantly have an effect at the store level or on the website or however well they're selling their particular products.

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So very flexible.

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But that doesn't mean that it necessarily should be manipulated very often.

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And one of the things that companies consider is that price is often a gauge for product quality.

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fundamental background of the product itself,

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they will typically rely on price as a way of signaling to them what is good versus what is a bad product.

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So usually, let's say for example if you go into a store and you're looking at, I don't know, maybe Blu -ray players and you don't have much of a background in Blu -ray players,

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so you're instantly looking for price and you see the Sony model is obviously probably the higher end.

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compared to other products and you think, "Well, it's not very expensive and you probably get what you pay for." So I don't want to go with that one.

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I don't necessarily want to pay as much as this other product though, this Sony product.

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Maybe I'll go with the middle of the road.

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It's priced pretty fair.

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It's going to have pretty good features and benefits incorporated into it, but at the same point in time, I'm not paying that much for it.

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So price has to be considered for that regard because if you have people that understanding about your particular product or service,

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they will usually rely on price as a gauge for certain product quality.

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There was a lot of

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concern and criticism over Apple actually dropping the price of the iPhone to $200 which they currently sell it on now.

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And there was an indication that people were going to view price synonymous with quality.

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So if Apple was going to lower the price, it would be the actual price of the product it was

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going to lose some of its luster it was going to lose some of its shine

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and the reason for that was because now it's easily attainable, right?

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$200 isn't a very significant barrier to entry versus the $500 to $600 that originally it was before.

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And so now you deal with the aspect where people think, you know what, it's easy to obtain, you see them everywhere, is it as trendy,

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is it as good as people say it is?

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that did not come to fruition, it did not come to pass so to speak, but it certainly was a concern at that particular point in time.

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And so when pricing products, not only do companies have to be aware of ultimately what it costs them to make, right, what are our expenses,

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but we also have to consider what is competition doing, particularly if we're in a very competitive industry.

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Especially if the products and services are very, very similar.

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And so there may be some constraints there that have to be dealt with.

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But ultimately, price is simply the dollar amount that buyers must provide

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or give up in order to obtain your product or service.

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And lastly, we have promotion.

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Promotion is what we use or what companies use to either inform, educate, persuade, and

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that their products and services are better or remind them about the different benefits and features of their products and services.

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This includes four common things here.

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We have what we call advertising which is paid impersonal communication typically done in a mass setting.

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It's not personal meaning that it's not specifically tailored to one which typically incorporates publicity,

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obviously being pressed that you cannot necessarily control about your particular company.

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You have no ability to control the message, to tailor the message and make it favorable to yourself.

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Also incorporates simply the public relations aspect where you can produce things like press releases and put those out to the media,

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showing all the good things that your particular company is doing so it's shown in a positive light.

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Next thing we have sales promotions which typically take the form of discounts and coupons and different things.

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Sales promotions are designed to get people to make an immediate purchase.

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They're designed to get them from the stage in

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which they're evaluating products and they maybe have settled on one or two to the point to which they're actually buying something.

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And so it's meant to bridge that gap to kind of get that person over that hump so to speak, so they actually purchase your product.

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And then lastly, we have personal selling.

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Personal selling involves salespeople, right?

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It involves kind of a one -on -one communication, very expensive.

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The oldest form of promotion, obviously, widely used back 50, 60 years ago.

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Not so much anymore, right?

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When people come and knock on our doors now, at least in the United States, a lot of people don't even answer anymore, right?

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And so personal selling has kind of gone away a little bit.

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one person's salary, they're only reaching one person.

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However, it is generally more effective because in personal selling, the salesperson can tailor the message to the person they're interacting with.

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They can get feedback, they can look at things like the nonverbal communication,

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and then make adjustments to the message as a way to kind of tailor it to that particular person.

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With advertising, when you see advertisements on the internet or you see them on the television, or on radio, it's not tailored to you.

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And also you have to deal with all the different noise that's around, right?

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If you're listening to an advertisement in the car on the radio, then you have to deal with, well, you're probably distracted because you're probably trying to drive,

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There are different things going on, right?

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You're thinking about what you have to do for the day, you're thinking about work if you're traveling to work, you're thinking about an argument that you got in with your spouse before you left for work.

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Those are things that you're considering all the while you're canceling out the message that's being communicated via radio.

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With personal selling, it's much more effective because you essentially have the person's undivided attention, but it is.

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more expensive.

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Thank you.

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I'm not sure.

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Now one of the things

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that you want to highlight here with regards to the marketing mix is

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that all of these individual components need to work together.

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as a way of complementing one another.

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And the reason they need to is you do not want to send mixed signals, right?

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If your product is a luxury type product, okay, it's got a great design,

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very expensive to manufacture, you obviously want the packaging to reflect that.

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You want the packaging to be reflecting of this is a very, very high quality product.

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So you want to spend money on the packaging.

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You would want to price it in a way that complements this being a quality priced middle of the road.

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You don't want it priced on the low end.

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You want it priced on the higher end because that will signal to people that it is a quality product.

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In terms of how you distribute it, you want to be careful for how you distribute your product.

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You don't want to attach or sell your product in areas

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or with retailers that don't have the same brand as you do, that aren't communicating the same message.

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I will give you an example of this with Apple related to them selling the iPhone in Walmart.

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There was a lot of criticism of this at this point in time as well

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because once again you deal with the image.

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that Apple is trying to convey with that type of product?

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And then is that the same as the image that a Walmart is conveying?

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And the argument at least among investors was

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that we are selling a product that's designed to be not necessarily a luxury good, but it is a higher end product.

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It's designed for people who are technologically savvy, even though it is very easy to use, mind you, but designed for the technologically savvy and the more trendy,

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more upbeat consumer, And that's just not characteristic of the average, typical Walmart consumer.

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And so there might be a little bit of a disconnect there, which could be an issue.

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The same thing with promotion.

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If you deal with products like high -end purses, handbags, and different things like that,

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perfumes, you typically don't see them advertised a whole lot, right?

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You usually see them advertised.

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in things like fashion magazines, high -end fashion magazines, mind you, because they're trying to be consistent with ultimately what their brand is,

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what they're trying to communicate.

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It wouldn't make sense for companies like Coach

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and Louis Vuitton to advertise their actual products in a more basic consumer magazine, right?

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Because once again, that's not their market.

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That's not who they're targeting.

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as certain periodicals and certain magazines.

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They want to be synonymous with luxury and with status and those different things,

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which is why they will kind of line up with those higher end fashion type magazines.

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So it's very important not only to consider each

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and every one of the areas but also to consider how they interact with one another.

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Are we sending mixed signals to the market by changing certain things?

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rate, status, and success, but it's priced very, very low.

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Those are things that should be looked at on an individual basis in order to determine

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if we have any opportunities there to bridge those particular gaps.

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Why practice speaking with this video?

Practicing speaking with the video "Introduction to Marketing: The Marketing Mix" provides a fantastic opportunity to enhance your English language skills in a specific business context. By engaging with this content, you not only learn about the fundamental concepts of marketing but also focus on improving your speaking abilities through effective learning techniques. The video outlines critical elements like the product, price, place, and promotion, offering insights that are valuable for professions related to marketing and business. Using a method such as the shadowing technique allows you to mimic the speaker's fluency, rhythm, and intonation, which will significantly improve your pronunciation and overall speaking skills.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Throughout the video, several key structures can be observed that are instrumental in the context of discussing marketing concepts:

"What the product refers to is..." - This structure emphasizes definition, a useful way to introduce new vocabulary in English.
"We also talk about..." - This phrase smoothly transitions between ideas, ideal for learners to connect thoughts when discussing topics.
"Even if there really isn't a significant difference..." - Here, the conditional clause showcases how to express hypothetical situations, an important grammatical structure.
"To do the other remaining components..." - This phrase utilizes a gerund ("to do"), which is often used in more formal or academic English.

Incorporating these structures into your speech will not only enhance your grammatical accuracy but also provide you with the confidence to articulate complex ideas.

Common Pronunciation Traps

While listening to the video, you may encounter several tricky words and phrases that could be challenging to pronounce properly:

"Differentiation" - Make sure to emphasize the correct syllables to avoid sounding unclear.
"Tangible" and "Intangible" - These terms may require practice, especially in distinguishing the 'g' and 't' sounds.
"Perceives" - Notice the silent 'p' and the stress on the second syllable to make it sound natural.
"Service" - The soft 'c' can be tricky; practice to ensure it is not pronounced too harshly.

To tackle these pronunciation challenges, consider using a shadow speech approach: listen closely, repeat, and record your attempts. This practice will significantly aid your English language acquisition and ensure you communicate more effectively in professional settings.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	are purchased · can be purchased · be sold
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has been · they've been · have settled
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	advertising which is · people who are

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Introduction to Marketing: The Marketing Mix - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?