Warm-up
Marketing & Describing Products
Marketing & Describing Products
After this lesson you'll be able to...
- Use key marketing and product vocabulary
- Describe a product by its features and benefits
- Use who, which, that, where and whose in relative clauses
- Explain what makes a product stand out from its competitors
Get to know each other (3 minutes)
- What is a product or service you really like? Why?
- Which brand do you trust the most?
- Have you ever bought something because of an advert?
- How would you describe your company's product in one sentence?
Say it out loud
Practise a one-sentence description. → It's an app that helps small teams plan their work in minutes.
Fact worth knowing
Vocabulary
Marketing vocabulary
Useful product phrases
| It's a product that helps teams save time. | Це продукт, який допомагає командам економити час. |
| It's designed for people who work from home. | Він розрахований на тих, хто працює вдома. |
| What makes us different is… | Наша відмінність у тому, що… |
| The feature that customers love most is… | Функція, яка найбільше подобається клієнтам, — це… |
| Our target audience is… | Наша цільова аудиторія — це… |
| It stands out because… | Він вирізняється тим, що… |
| Our main competitor, which is based in Berlin, … | Наш головний конкурент, який базується в Берліні, … |
| This is the team whose idea won the award. | Це команда, чия ідея виграла нагороду. |
Try out the new words
Describe the target audience of a product you know. → The target audience is people who …
Say what makes a product stand out. → It stands out because it is …
Which word is it?
Fill in the missing word
Choose the correct word
Translate the phrase
Write each phrase in English.
Grammar
Relative clauses: who, which, that, where, whose
| who | for people: a customer who loves our product. |
| which | for things: an app which saves time. |
| that | for people or things in a defining clause: a product that solves a problem. / the manager that I met. |
| where | for places: the city where we launched. |
| whose | possession: a company whose sales grew by 30%. |
| Defining clause | tells us which one; no commas; that is possible: The software that we use is cheap. |
| Non-defining clause | adds extra information; commas; no "that": Our main competitor, which is based in Berlin, is growing fast. |
| Leaving out the pronoun | You can leave it out when it is the object: The product (that) we launched is selling well. You cannot leave it out when it is the subject: a product that helps people (NOT "a product helps people"). |
Choose the correct pronoun
Fill in the pronoun
Defining or non-defining?
Join the sentences
Join the two sentences using the word in brackets.
Correcting mistakes
Each sentence has one mistake. Write the correct sentence.
Put the words in order
Put the words in the right order and write the full sentence.
Say it about your own work
Describe your company's product or service with a relative clause. → We make / offer … that / which helps people …
Reading
Read: a product description
Meet Planly — the app that plans your week for you.
Planly is a scheduling app which helps small teams organise their work in minutes. It was created by Olha Berezka, a former project manager who spent years looking for a tool that was simple enough for everyone to use. Her team, whose offices are in Kyiv and Warsaw, built the first prototype in six weeks.
What makes Planly different? Our main competitor, which is based in Berlin, offers dozens of features that most people never use. Planly has only five, but they are the ones that customers love most: a calendar that updates itself, one-click reminders, a clear team view, simple reports and a user-friendly mobile app. The benefit is simple — people who use Planly save about three hours a week.
Our target audience is small businesses and freelancers who don't have time for complicated software. We launched in Poland and Ukraine, the two markets where we already have loyal customers, and we are planning a campaign for Germany next spring.
True or false?
Planly was created by a former project manager.
The first prototype took a year to build.
Planly has more features than its main competitor.
Planly's target audience is large corporations.
The company has loyal customers in Poland and Ukraine.
A campaign in Germany is planned for next spring.
Answer the questions
Who created Planly, and why?
What makes Planly different from its competitor?
What is the main benefit for users?
Where did the company launch?
Find the relative clauses
Write the relative clause from the text.
Fill in from the text
Feature or benefit?
Your own opinion
- Is "fewer features" a good unique selling point? Why or why not?
- Would you use Planly? What would you want to know first?
- How would you promote Planly in Germany?
Practice
Picture the product
Audience → Features → Benefits → What makes it different. A good pitch answers all four.
Match the phrase to its function
Put the words in order
Put the words in the right order and write the full sentence.
Fill in the missing phrase
Describe it with a relative clause
Describe the thing or person in one sentence.
Translate into English
Write each sentence in English. Several answers are possible.
A marketing fact
Speaking — Sell the Idea
How to use this section
Your tutor plays a client, an investor or a colleague. React in real time — describe a product, explain who it is for, say what makes it different and handle an objection. Use relative clauses to sound natural and clear.
A one-sentence description
Task: describe a real product (yours or one you know) in one sentence using a relative clause.
Starter: "It's a … that helps people … to …"
Describing your target audience
Investor: "Who is this product for?"
Starter: "Our target audience is small businesses that don't have time for complicated software, and freelancers who need to plan their week quickly."
Features and benefits
Task: name three features and explain the benefit of each.
Starter: "It has a calendar that updates itself, which means you never forget a meeting."
Standing out from competitors
Client: "Why should I choose you and not your competitor?"
Starter: "What makes us different is simplicity. Our main competitor, which offers dozens of features, is powerful but complicated. Ours takes five minutes to learn."
Answering an objection
Client: "It looks good, but it's more expensive than I expected."
Starter: "I understand. Customers who start with the basic plan save about three hours a week, so it pays for itself in a month."
Announcing a launch
Task: announce the launch of a product to your team in 30 seconds.
Starter: "I'm excited to tell you that we're launching our new app on 1 September. It's the product that we've been working on for a year."
Pitching in 60 seconds
Task: give a 60-second pitch: the problem, the product, the audience, what makes it different, and a call to action.
Full pitch meeting — no stopping
Deliver a full pitch to your tutor, then answer two tough questions about price and competitors — entirely in English, without switching to Ukrainian.
Let's talk — reflection
- Which relative clause did you use most naturally?
- Was it easy to separate features from benefits?
- What is one phrase you will use in your next real pitch?
Cool down
Now I can...
- Use key marketing and product vocabulary
- Describe a product by its features and benefits
- Use who, which, that, where and whose in relative clauses
- Explain what makes a product stand out from its competitors
Quick self-check
When do we use "whose"?
Can you use "that" in a non-defining clause?
What is the difference between a feature and a benefit?
One more thing before you go
Tell your tutor the product you would most like to pitch. → I would like to pitch … because …
Homework
- Do the exercises below and press Check in each one. Green = correct. Red shows what was expected.
- Do the writing and speaking tasks and tick them when they are done.
- Write your name and press Copy my result, then send the text to your tutor.
Words to remember
| a target audience | цільова аудиторія |
| a brand | бренд |
| a feature | функція, характеристика |
| a benefit | вигода для клієнта |
| a unique selling point | унікальна торгова пропозиція |
| market share | частка ринку |
| a competitor | конкурент |
| a campaign | кампанія |
| to launch | запускати (продукт) |
| a prototype | прототип |
| user-friendly | зручний у користуванні |
| cutting-edge | найсучасніший |
| a loyal customer | лояльний клієнт |
| a pricing strategy | цінова стратегія |
| to promote | просувати |
| to stand out | вирізнятися |
Fill in the missing word
Choose the correct pronoun
Join the sentences
Join the two sentences using the word in brackets.
Correct the mistake
Each sentence has one mistake. Write the correct sentence.
Translate the phrase
Write each phrase in English. Several answers are possible.
Write it yourself
Write a short product description (6–8 sentences) for a real or imaginary product. Include the target audience, two features, one benefit and at least four relative clauses.
Practise out loud
Say your description aloud as a 60-second pitch. Record it and listen to the pronoun choices.
Read aloud
Read the Planly description from the Reading section aloud twice before the next lesson.
- 8.7 I wrote a product description (6–8 sentences)
- 8.8 I recorded a 60-second pitch
- 8.9 I read the Planly description aloud twice