Thomas:So, as you can see, there are a lot of factors to consider. We must convince consumers to spend more of their disposable income on our products. (湯瑪斯: 所以各位都知道,要考慮的因素很多。我們必須說服消費者把更多的可支配所得花在我們的產品上。)
Sandra:If we look at the market trends over the past several years, there seems to be a definite pattern: people want more value for their money. It's not rocket science. (珊卓: 假如我們看看過去幾年來的市場趨勢,似乎有個明確的模式:大家都希望自己花的錢能更有價值。這並不難理解。)
Dennis:Right. I think the way to break out of this low market demand is to give customers more features and functions without significantly increasing price. (丹尼斯: 沒錯。我想突破這個疲弱不振的市場需求的辦法就是,在不大幅漲價的情況下,提供顧客更多的特色與功用。)
Sandra:I think if we can offer a product with many more features, we could produce an item that is in demand. (珊卓: 我認為假如我們所推出的產品能增加許多特殊功能,我們就能創造出銷路好的商品。)
Veronica:Well, cameras on cell phones are already becoming fairly common. Many people have responded well to camera-phones. (維若妮卡: 嗯,具照相功能的手機已經變得相當普遍。有不少人對照相手機的反應都很好。)
Dennis:True. That market was booming for a while, especially when the camera cell phones first came on the market. Sales have slowed down a bit since then, though. (丹尼斯: 的確。那個市場走強了好一陣子,尤其是照相手機剛上市的時候。不過之後銷售量就減緩了。)
Sandra:What we need to do is to offer a cell phone with a multitude of features. I think a phone with a camera, a PDA, an MP3 player, and an AM/FM radio has lots of market potential. (珊卓: 我們應該採取的做法是,推出具有眾多特殊功能的手機。我認為融合相機、PDA 、MP3 播放機以及調幅與調頻收音機的手機有很大的市場潛力。)
Dennis:Hey, don't forget the latest technology: videophone. I know it's still in the early stages, but that could really set a trend. People will come to expect a videophone, and will be disappointed if a model doesn't have video capability that allows them to see the person they are talking to. (丹尼斯: 嘿,別忘了最新的科技:視訊電話。我知道它還在初期階段,但它很可能會引起風潮。大家會對視訊電話有所期待,所以要是一款手機缺乏可以讓他們看到通話對象的視訊功能,他們就會覺得失望。)
Sandra:That's what I call a win-win situation! (珊卓: 那就是我所謂的雙贏局面!)
必通詞彙與句型
Sth. is (really) in demand. 某物銷路(十分)好。
The market is (booming/slowing) . 市場正在(走強╱走弱)。
Sth/sb. have lots of potential in.... 某物╱某人在⋯⋯有很大的潛力。
ex: Remember it can take years to build a good reputation, but it only takes seconds to lose it. (要記得,建立良好的信譽可能需要花上多年的時間,但是失去它只需要幾秒鐘。)
ex: Everybody said that it was impossible, but we made it anyway. (每個人都說那是不可能的,但是我們還是做到了。)
還有這樣的表現方式
ex: The competition in the cosmetics market was very fierce last year. Our sales revenue, however, has increased due to our sophisticated designs and low prices.
(去年化妝品市場的競爭非常激烈。然而,由於成熟的設計與低價,我們的營業收入有所成長。)
ex: We implemented many regulations to keep our costs down last year. On the contrary, our costs have gone up slightly because workers were not used to these new regulations. (去年我們為了維持低成本實施了許多規定。相反地,我們的成本卻因為員工們不習慣這些新規定而略為增加。)