BEC剑桥英语高级真题3 Test 1 Part 2

How effective is your marketing? 你的营销有多有效

Gone are the days when companies had departments full of staff whose role nobody understood. **0. Today we are all accountable and have to be able to demonstrate the value of our contribution to our businesses. **And rightly so. But when it comes to marketing, what is effectiveness, how do you measure it, and why is its measurements so important？

那种公司有一些充满了没人理解的部门人员角色已经一去不复返了。今天我们都有具体的职责，并且有能力证明我们自身在组织中的价值。理当如此。但是当我们提到市场营销，他的有效性是什么，如何衡量，并且为什么他的衡量是如此的重要？

Business are starting to recognise the key marketing questions. Are we providing the right products for the right people at the right price? Are our brands better than those of our competitors? **D Addressing such issues should mean that profits take care of themselves. **That's because marketing is not the fluffy stuff that can be axed when the going gets tough- it is the essence of business. So if marketing is important, it follows that it pays to know if yours is working.

公司正在开始认识到这些关键的市场营销问题。 我们是否提供了合适的产品合适的价格给合适的人？ 我们的品牌是优于我们的竞争对手吗？处理好这些问题就意味着能够保证足够的利润。那是因为市场营销并不是在变得困难时可以被消减的蓬松的东西，而是商业的本质。因此如果市场营销是重要的，那就需要知道您的市场营销是否有效。

The first stage in the process is understanding your current position. How successful is your brand today? What is your market share? You should equip yourself with some sound facts and figures on which to base your conclusions. A Having done that, next comes establishing what it is that marketing activities should be achieving. It could be simply to boost sales. You may want to reinforce your leadership in a market or trounce a competitive brand. Influencing future profitability, possibly by building, a short-term brand share, may be a priority. A clear objective is essential.

了解市场营销是否有效的第一步是认识你现有的位置。你今天的品牌有多成功？你的市场份额有多少？你应该掌握一些可靠的事实和数据作为你结论的依据。完成之后，下一步将确定营销活动应该实现的目标。 这可能非常容易增加销售量 。你可能想要加强你在市场中的领导地位，或者是打败一个竞争品牌。影响未来的盈利能力可能需要通过建立短期的市场份额，这是优先需要做的。一个明确的目标必不可少。

But how do you know if your marketing is achieving your goals？Good strategies are not necessarily linked to production or sales figures. Their success is not just related to how many boxes leave the factory. Effectiveness may not be tangible . It may be financial, it may not. "The brand" is an intangible asset, but it is now seen as an important one. Quantifying the value of an intangible asset is a difficult, but not impossible, task.

但是你怎么知道你的市场营销是否达到你的目标。好的战略不是必须和生产或是销售数据密切相关. 他们的成功不仅关系到多少货物发出工厂。有效性可能不是有形的.可能在财务上体现，也可能不是。品牌是一个无形资产，但是现在品牌被看作是一种重要的因素。量化一个无形资产的价值是一项艰巨的任务，但并非是一个不可能完成的任务。

It is also necessary to evaluate both long-term effectiveness and the short-term outcomes of any campaign. 12. Concerning the latter, it may be tempting to be seduced by efforts that yield quick results and satisfy investor pressure for immediate returns. But the care of brand is a marathon, not a sprint, and it is important not to lose sight of the long-term consequences.
对一项营销活动评估长期的有效性和短期结果也非常必要。关注后者（及短期的收益），可能会被迅速产生结果并满足投资者要求立即回报的压力的努力所诱惑。但是关注品牌是一场马拉松，而不是短跑，重要的是不要忽视长期结果。

Choosing the right measurement tools to evaluate a campaign is another important issue. 13 These should be precise and based on empirical data. The accuracy they thus ensure should be consistent over time and correspond to the wider objectives of the business. Ultimately, marketing must deliver profit.

选择一个好的评估工具评估一项营销活动是另外一个问题。这些应该是精确的的并且基于经验数据。因此，他们确保的精确性应该与时间保持一致，并且与业务更广泛的目标相对应。最终，营销必须能带来利润。

The essential debate should no longer be about the importance of marketing, but what we should do to measure its effectiveness, and what measures will ensure survival. **14. This shift in focus will be taken as read by the most successful businesses ** But to others it is likely to be a controversial issue- and one which can produce responses leading to widely different directions for their enterprises.

重要的争论应该不在是关于市场营销的重要性， 但是我们应该做的是衡量其有效性，以及采取什么样的措施能确保生存.** 这种重心的转移将被那些最成功的企业所采用** .但是对于其他公司，这有可能是一个有争议的问题，而且这一个问题可能会引起人们的反应，从而未他们企业带来截然不同的方向。