Composition Exercise-16

Read the following passage :

 1.         A strong brand name has positive and negative effect on sales. A strong brand brings reassurance to customers by providing a perception of performance and quality. A brand image cannot be built overnight; it takes a lot of effort and investment. However, once a brand name has been established, it can command a premium price owing to the valuable psychological intangibles associated with its name.

 2.         The positive effect of a strong brand name benefits a company in higher sales turnover because a customer goes to the shop and demands for a product by its brand name. The name of Maruti 800 will stand for it, so will be the name of Nokia.

 3.         However, sometimes a strong brand image can become quite generic or a general term for a particular item; as it happened with Dalda which is recognised more for any vegetable oil, or Colgate which is associated with any toothpaste. Go to a shop and ask for Dalda, and the shopkeeper will hand over vegetable oil of any brand, and you will be quite happy with it.

 4.         Some brand names can become so strong as to forget what it stands for, for example, Walkman is understood by a personal radio/stereo in stead of it representing a brand.

 5.         So, the marketing people have to be careful enough to derive maximum positive effect and curtail any negative impact.

  

1. Answer the following questions :

 (a)What does a strong brand do to customers?

 (b)What is the positive effect of a strong brand name?

 (c)What is the negative effect of a strong brand name?

 (d)Give some advice to the marketing people :

 2.Find words from the passage which mean the following :

 (a) lasting one night (paragraph 1) : ...........................

 (b) buyer (paragraph 2) : ..........................

 (c) satisfied (paragraph 3) : ............................

 (d) to avail (paragraph 5) : ..........................

Answer : 1. (a) A strong brand brings reassurance to customers by providing a perception of performance and quality.

(b) The positive effect of a strong brand name benefits a company in higher sales turnover.

(c) The negative effect of a strong brand name is that it can become quite generic.

(d) The market people should be careful enough to derive maximum positive effect and curtail any negative impact.

2. (a)overnight, (b) customer, (c) happy, (d). derive.