There are several hyponyms (words with a meaning included in the meaning of another, more general word, e.g. house – building) used in English to describe different ‘kinds’ of merchandising, such as: retailing, resale, wholesale, sale, telemarketing, telecommerce, etc.
1) Here are some other expressions connected with merchandising. Test your knowledge (or ‘lucky- guess’ skills) and match them with their meaning on the right:
a) dutch auction
b) bail and switch
c) syndication
d) private treaty
e) dumping
f) capitalization
1 selling an article or cartoon for publication in many magazines or newspapers at the same time
2 a sale of property at a price agreed on by the seller and buyer without an intervening agency
3 a deceptive way of selling that involves advertising a product at a very low price in order to attract customers who are then persuaded to switch to a more expensive product
4 the sale of capital stock
5 a method of selling in which the price is reduced until a buyer is found
6 selling goods abroad at a price below that charged in the domestic market
(Key: a5, b3, c1, d2, e6, f4)
2) There are some useful compound nouns related to the topic of merchandising and marketing in the following exercise. Choose only one option in order to build the compound noun.
Do your best and try not to’ sneak peek’ into the key at the bottom:
1. The _____ price of an item is the price it cost to make.
a) production b) sales c) cost d) margin e) buying
2. The _____ before date on food or drink is the day or month before which it should be consumed.
a) buy b) best c) eat d) have e) consume
3. If something is sold in an _____ pack, it contains a larger amount of the goods for a lower price.
a) economy b) economist c) economics d) economise e) economize
4. If someone uses or tries the _____ sell, they try to sell something by being very forceful.
a) soft b) force c) easy d) aggressive e) hard
5. A _____ market is an outside market selling old or used goods at low prices.
a) second hand b) boot c) flea d) fly e) sales
6. A cash _____ in a shop is the place where you can pay for the things you buy in a shop. (UK)
a) box b) counter c) table d) desk e) cashier
7. A _____’s market is when there are more goods for sale than there are people to buy them.
a) consumer b) client c) merchant d) seller e) buyer
8. Market _____ is the proportion of the total market which one company controls.
a) pie b) stock c) share d) percent e) part
(Key: 1a, 2b, 3a, 4e, 5c, 6d, 7e, 8c)
3) Compound nouns may cause certain confusion, thus it is a good idea to revise them from time to time. Here you have a chance to do so by putting in the missing words. There are some extra words you do not need to use:
sensitive chain mix dressing forward knight leader market down niche loyalty point register seller analyst shelf soft
a) A market ___________is a company that sells more of a particular product than others.
b) Brand _____________is the tendency to buy the same named product.
c) A _________ market is a small area of trade within the economy involving specialised products.
d) A unique selling _________ is a feature of a product which will persuade people to buy it.
e) If a market is price-_________, buyers look for the best deal they can get, comparing prices.
f) The _________ price is the price of a product that most companies charge in a free market.
g) If someone uses _________sell, they try to sell something by being gently persuasive.
h) A market __________is someone who has specialist knowledge of a specific market.
i) A cash ________ is a machine in a shop or other business that records sales and into which money is put.
j) A ________ payment is an amount of money which is only part of the total cost.
k) A _________ store is one of a group of shops which belong to a single company and sells similar goods.
l) A _________’s market is a market where there are more buyers than suppliers.
m) The marketing ________ is the combination of selling factors that a company can influence such as price and place.
n) The __________ life of a product is the length of time it can be kept in a shop before it becomes too old to be sold.
Key: a) leader, b) loyalty, c) niche, d) point, e) sensitive, f) market, g) soft, h) analyst, i) register, j) down, k) chain, l) seller, m) mix, n) shelf
