Jackie: Welcome to bbclearningenglish.com and another chance to hear Insight Plus, a series first broadcast in 2001 that looks at the language of issues you hear about in the news. Today’s topic is Big Brands, companies which see the entire world as their market. Brands whose advertising, popularity, look and feel are in many respects the same from one country to another. The presenter is Lyse Doucet. Lyse: More and more, large Western and in particular American companies are spreading their goods to the four corners of the earth in search of new markets and, of course, bigger profits. In recent months, the advance of these multinationals has hit the headlines. Global brands are the topic of today’s Insight Plus - your guide to the language and issues you hear every day in the news. Clip I’m wearing a Converse coat, Ralph Lauren shirt and Nike underneath it, Nike t-shirt ….I'm wearing a GAP sweater but I think it's not as big of a deal because I bought it in the States where I'm from and I think if you bought it here it'd be giving in more towards buying the brand just because it's American or it's not something that started here ……… Today I'm wearing Nike trainers and I've got a Converse sweater on and my trousers are from GAP Lyse: To explore this continuing rise of big brands across the globe, let's take a look at a report by Rahul Sarnaik. It was broadcast on the BBC World Service programme, Insight. Here’s the first extract. Clip “Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, General Electric and Ford” According to a survey based on their brand value, they're the world's top five corporate names - and they're all from the USA. The number one brand-name, Coca-Cola, was valued in June 1999 at more than eighty-billion dollars. Is it true that these brands are penetrating deeper into more and more markets around the world? Lyse: A brand like the ones we heard - McDonalds, Coca Cola, Microsoft - is more than a label, or the name of a product or company. A brand represents a set of values that the company wants the consumer to associate with its products. These values go beyond the need for quality or durability. For example, some companies try and appeal to the youth market and its sense of adventure, whereas others target older consumers who may be more interested in luxury, comfort and prestige. We heard in the report that the biggest brands worldwide are the ones with the highest international brand value. Brand value is becoming increasingly important. It’s about how well regarded a brand is by the consumer or the buyer. It’s measured by looking at the status of the brand in a market and whether people remain loyal - whether they continue to buy the product. The report asks “Is it true that these brands are penetrating deeper into more and more markets around the world?” In other words, are the big American names trying to establish themselves in more countries? Well let’s find out as we listen to more of this report. Clip Is it true that these brands are penetrating deeper into more and more markets around the world? Yes, according to Richard Robinson, of the London-based business analysts Datamonitor: Richard Robinson - Data Monitor If you think about what's happened over the last 10 years or so there's been a massive globalisation of the media. The result of that has been that brand values and consumer values around the world have homogenised to a certain degree. And that's really played into the hands of a lot of the big Western multi-national companies. ... Группа Learning English. Продолжение текста: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/webcast/scripts/insight/tae_insight_01_080724.pdf