English Listening Course: Meeting Reports, Market Research, and Consumer Behavior Analysis

This lesson continues our look at reporting in meetings and specifically at stating and noting dollar amounts in money-related terms. We'll also examine vocabulary related to frequency, which is how often we do something. Before we begin, here is some vocabulary related to marketing. It's often confusing to distinguish between words like consumer, customer, and client. So let's look at each one. A consumer is anyone who buys or uses a product or service. The verb form is consume, but it's not as common as buy or use. A client is someone who uses or pays for a professional service, such as at an accounting firm or lawyer's office. A customer is someone who buys a product or service from a business, for example, Starbucks and Costco have many customers. The word user is now quite common due to technology. For example, are you a Mac or a Windows user? We also use it in the expression user-friendly when discussing customer experience.

Companies try to reach certain types of consumers, their target market. For example, a toy company sells games. Its target market is families with children. To learn more about these target markets, companies conduct market research. One common word used in market research is likely. It indicates the probability and is followed by two plus a verb, as in: How likely are consumers to buy from our company? They are likely to want big cars. Men are more likely to say that. Teenagers are the most likely to buy soda. Business groups and surveys are common ways to gather information about consumers. A focus group is a face-to-face meeting with people who give their opinions on something. It's an effective way for a company to identify which product or service features are important to consumers.

Surveys are sets of questions designed to learn about consumer preferences and buying behavior. For example, do you prefer milk chocolate or dark chocolate? How often do you buy candy? There are many ways to conduct a survey: face-to-face, online, by mail, or by telephone. We ask the focus group six questions. We survey 300 people to obtain more information about their buying habits. The marketing team conducted a survey of 300 people. In lesson one, you heard about plans for a survey that Rinear Chocolates wants to conduct. There is a list of some information they might include. Listen as they survey two consumers. Which topic did they not ask about?