剑桥雅思13Test2Passage3阅读原文翻译 Making the most of trends 潮流对 […]

剑桥雅思13Test2Passage3阅读原文翻译 Making the most of trends 潮流对商业策略的影响

剑桥雅思13阅读第二套题目第三篇文章的主题为潮流对商业策略的影响。文章一共8段，采用总分总的结构，一上来指出大多数经理人忽视潮流对消费者的影响，随后列举了一些具体的策略和案例，最后总结潮流是产品创新的机遇。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

点击查看这篇雅思阅读具体题目的答案解析与需要大家掌握的重点词汇：

剑桥雅思13Test2Passage3阅读答案解析 Making the most of trends 如何从潮流中获利

雅思阅读真题词汇 剑桥雅思13 Test 2 Passage 3 潮流对商业策略的影响

第1段

Most managers can identify the major trends of the day. But in the course of conducting research in a number of industries and working directly with companies, we have discovered that managers often fail to recognize the less obvious but profound ways these trends are influencing consumers’ aspirations, attitudes, and behaviors. This is especially true of trends that managers view as peripheral to their core markets.

大多数经理人都能够识别当下的主要潮流。但是，在对一些行业进行研究和与各种公司直接合作的过程中，我们发现经理人往往无法意识到这些潮流正在以不那么明显但却意义深远的方式影响着消费者的需求，态度和行为。这对于那些经理人认为处于他们核心市场边缘的潮流来说，尤其如此。

第2段

Many ignore trends in their innovation strategies or adopt a wait-and-see approach and let competitors take the lead. At a minimum, such responses mean missed profit opportunities. At the extreme, they can jeopardize a company by ceding to rivals the opportunity to transform the industry. The purpose of this article is twofold: to spur managers to think more expansively about how trends could engender new value propositions in their core markets, and to provide some high-level advice on how to make market research and product development personnel more adept at analyzing and exploiting trends.

许多人在他们的创新战略中忽视潮流因素，或者采用一种“等等看”的策略，结果让竞争对手拔得头筹。最低限度来讲，这些应对意味着错过盈利的机会。最严重的情况下，他们将改变整个行业的机会拱手让给竞争对手，从而危及自己的公司。这篇文章带有双重目的：刺激经理人以一种更为宽泛的方式思考潮流如何在他们的核心市场中创造新的价值增长点，以及针对如何进行市场研究并使得产品开发人员更加擅长分析和利用潮流提出一些高水平的意见。

第3段

One strategy, known as ‘infuse and augment’, is to design a product or service that retains most of the attributes and functions of existing products in the category but adds others that address the needs and desires unleashed by a major trend. A case in point is the Poppy range of handbags, which the firm Coach created in response to the economic downturn of 2008. The Coach brand had been a symbol of opulence and luxury for nearly 70 years, and the most obvious reaction to the downturn would have been to lower prices. However, that would have risked cheapening the brand’s image. Instead, they initiated a consumer-research project which revealed that customers were eager to lift themselves and the country out of tough times. Using these insights, Coach launched the lower-priced Poppy handbags, which were in vibrant colors, and looked more youthful and playful than conventional Coach products. Creating the sub-brand allowed Coach to avert an across-the-board price cut. In contrast to the many companies that responded to the recession by cutting prices, Coach saw the new consumer mindset as an opportunity for innovation and renewal.

一种被称为“渗透与扩充”的战略是设计一种产品或服务。它保留同类现存产品大部分的特征与功能，但同时添加一些其他东西来满足主流趋势所释放出来的需求与渴望。这一战略的一个案例是Poppy系列手袋。它由蔻驰公司推出以应对2008年的经济衰退。在将近70年的时间里，蔻驰品牌一直都是财富与奢侈的象征，而应对经济衰退最显而易见的反应本应是降低价格。但是，那将冒着使品牌形象贬值的风险。因此，取而代之的是，他们发起了一项消费者调查项目，发现消费者十分渴望将自己和国家带出这段艰难的时期。利用这些发现，蔻驰推出低价的Poppy手袋。它们颜色鲜艳，相比于传统的蔻驰产品看起来更加年轻化和有趣。创造这一子品牌使得蔻驰可以免于降低全线产品的价格。与许多公司通过降价来应对衰退的方式相比，蔻驰将新的消费者观念看作是创新和自我更新的机遇。

第4段

A further example of this strategy was supermarket Tesco’s response to consumers’ growing concerns about the environment. With that in mind, Tesco, one of the world’s top five retailers, introduced its Greener Living program, which demonstrates the company’s commitment to protecting the environment by involving consumers in ways that produce tangible results. For example, Tesco customers can accumulate points for such activities as reusing bags, recycling cans and printer cartridges, and buying home-insulation materials. Like points earned on regular purchases, these green points can be redeemed for cash. Tesco has not abandoned its traditional retail offerings but augmented its business with these innovations, thereby infusing its value proposition with a green streak.

这一战略的另一个例子是Tesco超市面对消费者越来越关心环境所做出的应对。了解到这一情况后，Tesco，世界五大零售商之一，推出了它的“绿色生活项目”，通过一些让消费者参与其中并产生实际效果的方式，展示该公司对环境保护的承诺。例如，Tesco的顾客可以通过反复使用购物袋，回收易拉罐和打印机墨盒，购买家居隔热材料等活动来积分。跟日常购物行为所获取的积分一样，这些绿色积分可以兑换现金。Tesco并没有放弃其传统的零售服务，而是利用这些创新扩充了自己的业务，并凭此在它的价值定位中注入了一抹环保色彩。

第5段

A more radical strategy is ‘combine and transcend’. This entails combining aspects of the product’s existing value proposition with attributes addressing changes arising from a trend, to create a novel experience – one that may land the company in an entirely new market space. At first glance, spending resources to incorporate elements of a seemingly irrelevant trend into one’s core offerings sounds like it’s hardly worthwhile. But consider Nike’s move to integrate the digital revolution into its reputation for high-performance athletic footwear. In 2006, they teamed up with technology company Apple to launch Nike+, a digital sports kit comprising a sensor that attaches to the running shoe and a wireless receiver that connects to the user’s iPod. By combining Nike’s original value proposition for amateur athletes with one for digital consumers, the Nike+ sports kit and web interface moved the company from a focus on athletic apparel to a new plane of engagement with its customers.

一种更为激进的战略是“融合与超越”。这涉及将产品现存的价值定位与针对潮流中所产生变化的新特征结合在一起，从而创造出新奇的体验。这可能将公司文章来自老烤鸭雅思带入全新的市场领域。乍看起来，耗费资源将看似不相关的潮流元素融入一家公司的核心产品好像不太值得。但想想耐克的举动。它将数字革命融入到自己高性能运动鞋的声誉之中。2006年，他们与科技公司苹果合作推出了耐克+，一款数码运动设备，包括一个附加在跑鞋上的传感器和一个连接到用户iPod的无线接收装置。通过结合耐克原本针对业余运动爱好者的价值定位与针对数码消费者的价值定位，耐克+运动设备与网络界面将该公司从专注运动服饰带向了一个吸引消费者的新平台。

第6段

A third approach, known as ‘counteract and reaffirm’, involves developing products or services that stress the values traditionally associated with the category in ways that allow consumers to oppose – or at least temporarily escape from – the aspects of trends they view as undesirable. A product that accomplished this is the ME2, a video game created by Canada’s iToys. By reaffirming the toy category’s association with physical play, the ME2 counteracted some of the widely perceived negative impacts of digital gaming devices. Like other handheld games, the device featured a host of exciting interactive games, a full-color LCD screen, and advanced 3D graphics. What set it apart was that it incorporated the traditional physical component of children’s play: it contained a pedometer, which tracked and awarded points for physical activity (walking, running, biking, skateboarding, climbing stairs). The child could use the points to enhance various virtual skills needed for the video game. The ME2, introduced in mid- 2008, catered to kids’ huge desire to play video games while countering the negatives, such as associations with lack of exercise and obesity.

第三种策略被称为“抵制与重申”，即以一种允许消费者反对，或者至少暂时逃离潮流中他们所不喜欢方面的方式，开发产品与服务来强调传统上与该类别联系在一起的价值体系。实现这一策略的一个产品是ME2，一款由加拿大iToys公司所推出的电子游戏。通过重申玩具品类与体育锻炼之间的联系，ME2得以抵制一些大众普遍认可的数码游戏设备的负面影响。正如其他手持游戏一样，该设备配备全色彩液晶显示屏和先进的立体画面，以一系列令人兴奋的互动游戏为特征。与众不同的地方在于，它结合了儿童游戏的传统运动因素，内置计步器，可以记录体育活动（徒步，跑步，骑行，滑板和爬楼梯）并奖励积分。孩子可以使用积分来强化游戏所需要的各种虚拟技能。2008年年中推出的ME2既照顾到孩子玩游戏的巨大渴望，也抵制了一些负面看法，例如游戏与缺乏运动和肥胖之间的联系。

第7段

Once you have gained perspective on how trend-related changes in consumer opinions and behaviors impact on your category, you can determine which of our three innovation strategies to pursue. When your category’s basic value proposition continues to be meaningful for consumers influenced by the trend, the infuse-and-augment strategy will allow you to reinvigorate the category. If analysis reveals an increasing disparity between your category and consumers’ new focus, your innovations need to transcend the category to integrate the two worlds. Finally, if aspects of the category clash with undesired outcomes of a trend, such as associations with unhealthy lifestyles, there is an opportunity to counteract those changes by reaffirming the core values of your category.

一旦你了解到消费者观念和行为方面与潮流相关的变化如何影响你的产品序列，那么你就可以决定采用我们三项创新策略中的哪一项。当你的产品的基本价值定位对受到潮流影响的消费者仍有意义时，“渗透与扩充”战略可以使产品复兴。如果分析显示，你的产品和消费者新的关注点之间的分歧越来越大，那么创新就需要超越该品类来融合两个不同的世界。最后，如果产品的某些方面正好与潮流中令人不悦的地方相冲突，比如与不健康的生活方式发生了关联，那么有机会通过重申品类的核心价值来抵制这些变化。

第8段

Trends – technological, economic, environmental, social, or political – that affect how people perceive the world around them and shape what they expect from products and services present firms with unique opportunities for growth.

那些影响人们如何看待周围世界，并塑造他们对产品和服务具体期待的潮流-无论是技术的、经济的、环境的、社会的、还是政治的-都为公司提供增长的独特机遇。

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