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 Words in the News
INTRO 
 According to a survey by the business consultancy firm Interbrand, the multinational giant Coca Cola is losing its position as the most profitable company in the world. BBC Economics reporter Andrew Walker reported.
IN FULL 
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Coca Cola Branding

20th July 2000

Changes in the global market economy

NEWS 1 
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  In this survey Coca Cola has just held on to its top spot. Last year it was way ahead of the others. But if the trends of the last year continue, it will lose it soon. In a year its brand has lost thirteen per cent of its value, while Microsoft’s has climbed by twenty four per cent despite the distractions of a massive anti-monopoly court case in the United States. The general pattern is one of rising values for new technology brands. But internet companies are not strongly represented - they’ve not yet had time to establish a brand name and very few of them make a profit.
WORDS 
 

trends: a trend is a change or development towards something new or different

brand: a brand of a product is the version made by one particular manufacturer

anti-monopoly: a monopoly is the total control or possesion of a particular thing by only one person or group, here an anti-monopoly court case is one to assess and prevent total control

establish a brand name: the process of making a brand well-known and profitable through marketing and advertising

profit:a profit is an amount of money that you gain when you are paid more for something than it cost you

NEWS 2  AudioListen to the second part of the report
  Nonetheless, Yahoo, the internet search engine and the retailer Amazon.com managed some very strong rises in their brand values. In addition to Coca Cola a number of other so-called old economy brands lost value; for example, Kodak the photographic film maker and the sportswear supplier Nike. Interbrand’s survey looks at the future earnings potential of the companies concerned and tries to assess how much of that can be attributed to the brands they own. Interbrand says that for many companies, their brands are their single most important asset. For many businesses the estimated value of their brand is more than half their total stock market value.
WORDS  

Nonetheless: a formal way of saying in spite of what has just been said

brand values: the profitability and value of a particular version of a product

old economy brands: companys that trade in traditional products rather than the newer internet and IT firms

assess: when you assess a person, feeling, or situation, you consider them and make a judgement about them

asset: an asset is someone or something that is considered to be useful or helpful to a person or a group; the assets of a company or a person are all the things that they own

stock market: the stock market is all the organisations and the activity involved in buying and selling stocks and shares

   
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