Markets and competitors
Markets The tnnrket is booming. (= doing very well)
There are three basic areas of business.
• B2C (the business-to-consumer market: food
retailing/ consumer electronics, etc.)
• B2B (the business-to-business market: making parts
for the auto industry I consultancy, etc.)
B2C (the business to government market: defence
and aerospace/big infrastructure projects, etc.) .
There are many other ways that a company can define
its market.
• The type of product (eg the mobile phon e market,
the property market, the stock market).
• A particular place (eg the German market).
• A particular group of people (eg teenage girls who
like fashion, single professionals who like going out
with their friends, families with young children).
Usually a company will have different products aimed
at different sections /segments of the market. For
example, to target different income levels a company
might offer an economy model, a standard model and
an executive model.
In the world of finance there are several specific
markets: the stock market, the bond market, the foreign
exchange market, the commodity market, and others.
In finance a rising market is called a bull market, and a
falling market is called a bear market.
Here is a list of adjectives that are often used with the
word 'market'.
.
boonzing I expanding I gro1.ving, co111petitive, declining,
do111estic, existing, foreign, free, global I international I
worldwide, healthy, huge, nu1in, n1nss, niche/specialist,
potential, profitable, protected, sluggish, total, wide
1 Read the text for general understanding.
2 Read it again and underline the words you don't know.
Check their meaning.
16
It's n huge ntarket. (= very big)
It's a niche market. (=sma ll and specialized)
'fhe 11u1rket is sluggish at the 1110111e11t. (= slo>v)
We say . ..
n product is on the 111nrkel
•
n co111pnny is in lite 111nrkel
there can be a rnnrket fo r n particular product
you hope to increase your share of the market
the total rnnrket is worth €80 111illio11 a year
Competitors
•
Other companies who have similar products to yours
are competitors. Competitors can be bigger or s maller
. .
1n variou s \.\ ays:
1
Revenue(= money from sales).
Market share.
Number of employees.
Sales and distribution network.
The largest company is the market leader, but it is
not always clear who this is. For example there may
be a different leader for different product lines or in
different markets.
Here are some adjectives often used vvith the vvords
'competitor', 'competition' and 'competitive'.
closest I direct / 111ai11 I111ajor I nearest competitor
fair, fierce I strong I tough, hen/thy, open competition
extrernely I highly I fiercely competitive
Tlte iPhorze is our direct competitor.
There is fierce competition, but it's healthy for the
1nnrket because consumers benefit.
Retail banking is highly competitive.
We say ...
co111pete against another co111pany
win nn order agains t the co111petitio11
be in competition with other co111pnnies
there is cornpetition among/between con1panies
face co111petition from other co111pa11ies
conzpete for a rnarket
to succeed in business you need n competitive edge/
competitive advantage (= so1nething that you do
better than other com panies in the same market)
3 Highlight words you know passively, but don' t use
actively. Choose some to write sentences of your own.
4 Check pronunciation at macmillandictionary.com
 6 MARKETS AND COMPETITORS
Exercises

6.1 Underline the correct word in italics. 6.4 Complete each sentence with one of these words:
1 Our biggest market is the France I French market. competitor, competition, competitive, competitiveness.
2 We're a 828 I 82C company We sell specialist 1 We have a patent on this technology. It gives us a very
equipment to the telecommunicat ions industry. important . .. ___ advantage.
3 The price of oil was around $23 a barrel in 2001 and 2 The long-term of our economy depends
2002 . Today th e figure is over $100. There's no doubt on t raining and innovation.
that oil is in a long-term bear I bull market. 3 Another brand of cola isn't a good idea - there would be
4 We publish e-magazines for various mass I niche very strong __ ·-____ from Coke and Pepsi .
markets such as stamp collecting and extreme sports. 4 Our closest _ _ . ·- has improved their
5 The Latin American pharmaceuticals market is worth I distribut ion network and is winning market share.
values $50 billion a year.
6.5 Complete the report extract written by the
6 We have been in I on t he market for over 20 years.
Marketing Director of a large supermarket chain. Use
7 This product has been in I on the market since April.
the words in the box.
8 It's a small company but we're growing fast. We hope
.-• ··--- ....
to increase our part I share of the market to around leader line price position
10°/o within the next three years. research trend decline entered
9 Panasonic, Samsung and Sony are direct competitors/ take over withdraw from
- - · - - · - - - - - ------· - . --- ----- ·-·-··
~

concurrents in the HDTV market.

10 The airline industry is high I highly competitive. We've spent the last month doing extensive market
11 We were in competition from I with six ot her l ·--·--· -··-·····- - talking to customers in-store and
companies, but we gave the best presentation to their asking them how we can improve our service. This
management team and won the contract. research shows that customers want two things: first,
12 In our market we front I face a lot of competition f rom more ready-made food, and second, better quality
low-cost producers in Asia. organic food.
In relation to the first point, we know that the
6.2 Match a word describing a market on the left with
market for ready-made food is growing rapidly. It
a word with a similar meaning in the middle and their
already accounts for 8% of our total sales, up from
opposite on the right. 5% just three years ago. This 2 is likely
1 domestic open declining to continue, as the pressures of work mean that
2 existing expanding foreign people have less and less time to cook meals for
3 free current mass themselves. This doesn't mean that sales of fresh
4 growing home potential fruit and vegetables will disappear; it just means that
5 huge specialist protected they are likely to slowly 3 _ _ _ __
6 niche enormous small This leads to the second point: organic food. We
4 this market about ten years ago, and
6.3 Complete the sentences with a word from the for a time sales were very strong. It even looked as
left or right column in Exercise 6.2. Ignore the middle if organic food would 5 . the fruit and
column. vegetable market. However sales peaked and have now
1 In the next few decades nanotechnology is going to open fallen to low levels.
up .. huge new markets in the areas of med icine, The problem is that organic food is expensive - its
electronics and energy production a_ .. . . . . . will always be significantly higher than
2 We have to pay a lot of import duties to sell goods in non-organic. This doesn't fit well with' our market
7
their country, and t heir own domestic companies get a . . ··-······ . as a value-for-money supermarket with

lot of government help. It's a very ----·- market lower prices than our competitors. Given the low
over there. · levels of sales, one option would be to 8 . _ _ _ __
3 Why waste resources trying to enter new markets? Our the organic food market completely. However,
market is very big, and we need to I think this would be a mistake. We are the market
establish our brand name at home firs t. 9 -·-···· .. ..... and we can't simply stop selling this

4 In the old days we used to talk about the ' product 10 _____ -· ..... . This matter needs further
market' - that means your products are aimed at discussion.
everyone. These days it's different - we have d ifferent
products for different sectors. See page 146 for some discussion topics.
5 In my business there's very little interference or regulation
from governments. It's a . . . _ . . . _ market!

Markets, products and customers 17