★英語聽力頻道為大家整理的英語聽力練習(xí)：束之高閣的寶藏 重啟舊品牌。更多閱讀請查看本站英語聽力頻道。
Schumpeter 熊彼特
Hidden gems
束之高閣的寶藏
Reviving old brands sometimes makes more sense than creating new ones
有時，重啟舊品牌比創(chuàng)造新品牌更有價值
“CASH IN THE ATTIC” is one of the jewels in the BBC's crown: “The show that turns hidden treasures into cash and viewers' dreams into reality”. The format is as addictive as it is straightforward. A camera crew turns up at an ordinary-looking house and searches the attic and other nooks and crannies for things that might have hidden value. The choicest items are sold at auction. Joy is unconfined when a ragged doll turns out to be worth a small fortune. The business world has its own version of this game: entrepreneurs rummaging in corporate attics for neglected but valuable old brands. It is thanks to such treasure-hunting that you can ride an MV Agusta motorbike, wear a Shinola watch, stuff yourself with Twinkies, wash them down with Orangina and play a Gibson guitar.
“閣樓里的寶藏”是BBC最熱門節(jié)目之一，“把束之高閣的寶貝換成錢，把觀眾的夢想變成現(xiàn)實(shí)”。節(jié)目形式不僅簡單，甚至容易上癮。一個拍攝團(tuán)隊來到一座普通的房子里，到閣樓和其他邊邊角角搜尋可能存在價值的東西。最珍貴的那部分會被拍賣。當(dāng)一個破舊的布娃娃賣出了一小筆錢時，總能帶來抑制不住的喜悅。商界也存在這樣的游戲：企業(yè)家們會從公司的閣樓里翻找被忽略的、卻仍有價值的老品牌。也正是因?yàn)檫@些尋寶活動，我們才能騎上奧古斯塔摩托車，戴 Shinola手表，吃Twinkies 奶油蛋糕吃到撐，再喝上一大罐 Orangina，玩一會兒吉布森吉他。
There are two reasons why such rummaging is so popular. The first is that companies often discard brands that contain plenty of what marketers call “equity”. In plain English, ones that people still remember fondly. Healthy brands can be sacrificed on the altars of corporate takeovers and restructurings: Brim Coffee bit the dust when a succession of mergers and acquisitions left it sharing a stable with Maxwell House; Procter & Gamble abandoned White Cloud toilet paper to focus on its Charmin brand. Or they can become orphans when their parent companies die: former household names that are currently looking for a new guardian include Hidden Magic hairspray, Climax ginger ale and Puss'n Boots cat food.
這種翻箱倒柜之所以如此盛行，原因有二。首先，公司經(jīng)常會丟棄一些充滿了營銷專家所說的“資產(chǎn)”的品牌。簡單來說，就是那些仍然存在于人們美好記憶中的品牌。好品牌有時會成為公司收購重組時的犧牲品。在一系列收購兼并之后， Brim咖啡不得不和麥斯威爾咖啡同處一室，最后一敗涂地;寶潔為了集中發(fā)展 Charmin，拋棄白云衛(wèi)生紙。有時，當(dāng)母公司破產(chǎn)，旗下品牌便成了孤兒： Hidden Magic噴發(fā)定型劑,Climax 姜汁汽水和 Puss'sn Boots貓食都曾是家喻戶曉的名字，如今全在尋找下一位東家。
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The second reason is that reviving an old brand often beats spending months and millions on creating a new one, with a lower risk of failure. If something has worked before there is a good chance that it will work again. Old brands come with ready-made logos, slogans, jingles and memories. Brim Coffee's previous owners had spent 35 years and hundreds of millions of dollars drumming the phrase “Fill it to the rim—with Brim” into American brains. Besides equity, another folkloric quality brands are said to need is “authenticity”: whereas Wally Olins, a veteran branding expert, warns creators of new brands that the worst thing they can do is to try to fake this (see article), old brands are more likely to possess it.
第二大原因，重啟老品牌經(jīng)常好過花數(shù)月時間、砸數(shù)百萬美元來創(chuàng)造新品牌，而且失敗的可能性還更低。一樣?xùn)|西如果曾經(jīng)成功過，就極可能再一次成功。老品牌有現(xiàn)成的標(biāo)志，口號，廣告語和回憶。 Brim咖啡曾經(jīng)的老東家們花了 35年時間、投入數(shù)億美元讓“倒?jié)M杯緣為止”這句話深深烙在美國人腦海中。除了資產(chǎn)，另一個傳說中的品牌必要特質(zhì)是“正宗”。資深品牌專家威利·奧林斯警告新品牌創(chuàng)造者們，他們能做的最糟糕的事情就是裝得很“正宗”;而老品牌則更可能擁有這一特質(zhì)。
The simplest version of this strategy is for a company to revive one of its own brands. The textbook case is Volkswagen's revival of the Beetle in the 1990s. VW played on nostalgia for the 1960s, when the Beetle became the semi-official vehicle of the hippie movement, while reassuring purchasers that it was thoroughly modern: “l(fā)ess flower, more power”. A second version is for a healthy firm to take over an ailing rival's brands and breathe new life into them. BMW acquired Mini when it bought Rover in 1994, retooled the car to German standards, and made it a huge success.
實(shí)施這種策略，最簡單的方式莫過于重啟公司過去已有的品牌。一個被寫進(jìn)教科書中的案例是上世紀(jì)九十年代大眾甲殼蟲的重生。大眾打的是六十年代的復(fù)古牌，當(dāng)時它可是嬉皮運(yùn)動人士的半官方座駕，但同時它讓買家堅信這款車從內(nèi)到外都是現(xiàn)代的：“更少點(diǎn)綴，更多動力。“第二種方式，是讓一家健康的企業(yè)收購正在衰落的對手的品牌，并讓其重現(xiàn)生機(jī)。 1994年，寶馬收購路虎之后獲得 Mini品牌。重整為德國標(biāo)準(zhǔn)汽車之后， Mini大獲成功。
There are now companies that, like the BBC's antique-hunters, specialise in rooting out undervalued gems. The Himmel Group, based in Florida, buys old health and beauty brands and relaunches them with a blitz of advertising. Its successes include Ovaltine, a hot drink, Topol tooth polish and Lavoris, a mouthwash. Private-equity groups have also become enthusiastic recyclers. In 2006 the Blackstone Group and Lion Capital joined forces to buy the rights outside America to Orangina, a soft-drink brand discarded by Cadbury, and sold it three years later to Suntory of Japan, realising a 30% annual return on equity. In 2013 Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co acquired Hostess Brands for 410m, and relaunched Twinkies and Ho Hos in what it billed as “the sweetest comeback in the history of ever”. Supermarkets are also savvy purchasers, buying old brands and keeping their distinctive appearance, to justify charging a bit more than for their own-label products. Walmart did this with White Cloud nappies andtissues, for example.
和BBC的尋寶活動一樣，如今有一些公司專門挖掘那些價值被低估的寶藏。福羅里達(dá)的 Himmel集團(tuán)買下老的保健和美容品牌，通過廣告轟炸再次將它們推向市場。成功案例包括熱飲料 Ovaltine，美白牙膏Topol 和漱口水 Lavoris。同樣熱衷于回收再利用的還有私募集團(tuán)。 2006年，黑石集團(tuán)和利安資本合力買下 Orangina的海外所有權(quán)。Orangina是吉百利公司丟棄的軟飲料品牌。三年后，兩家投資公司將其賣給日本的三得利，獲得 30%的年股本回報率。2013年，阿波羅全球管理和梅特珀羅斯公司以 4.1億美元買下美國面包生產(chǎn)商 Hostess Brands，并重啟 Twinkies和Ho Hos 兩大品牌，被其稱作“最甜蜜回歸”。超市也是精明的買家，買下老品牌，保留其獨(dú)特的外觀，以便收取比自有品牌稍高一些的價格，如沃爾瑪對白云尿布和餐巾紙的處理方式。
Some striking examples of brand revival are the work of individual entrepreneurs. Shinola was once such a successful producer of shoe polish that Americans reprimanded each other with the phrase, “You can't tell shit from Shinola.” Tom Kartsotis, a college drop-out turned businessman, revived the name for a new company that produces luxury watches in Detroit and sells them for up to 975 each. The East India Company once controlled half the world's trade, commanded its own army and issued its own currency, but went out of business in 1873. Sanjiv Mehta, an Indian diamond trader, bought the brand in 2005 and applied it to a new, upmarket retail chain.
一些品牌的驚天大逆轉(zhuǎn)是由企業(yè)家們個人完成的。 Shinola曾是極成功的鞋油品牌，美國人在埋怨對方的時候甚至?xí)f：“你啥也不知道，連 Shinola都不知道!”大學(xué)輟學(xué)改做生意的 Tom Kartsotis在一家新公司重塑了Shinola品牌，這是一家底特律的奢侈表公司，手表每塊能賣到 975美元。東印度公司曾經(jīng)控制世界一半的貿(mào)易，有自己的軍隊和貨幣，卻在 1873年破產(chǎn)。2005 年，印度珠寶交易商 Sanjiv Mehta買下這一品牌，以此命名一家新開的高端零售連鎖店。
Whole lotta lolly
一大堆棒棒糖
There is no guarantee that your dead brand in the attic will turn into cash: Daimler tried to revive its Maybach luxury marque as a competitor to Rolls-Royce and Bentley, but sales were dire, and it gave up in 2013. You need to choose your brand well—there is a big difference between Shinola and, say, Enron—and manage its revival carefully. Many of the most successful exercises in reviving brands are also exercises in repositioning them. Henry Juszkiewicz revitalised Gibson Guitars because he focused on selling to ageing lawyers and doctors, who were willing to pay 20,000 to own the same type of guitar as Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, rather than struggling young musicians. He has since added brands such as Slingerland drums and Wurlitzer jukeboxes to his portfolio. Claudio Castiglioni revived his family's MV Agusta brand by repositioning a classic racing bike as a mid-market roadster.
沒人能保證，在閣樓里躺著的品牌一定能賺錢：為與勞斯萊斯和賓利抗衡，戴姆勒下力氣復(fù)興奢侈品牌梅巴赫，但業(yè)績暗淡，最終在 2013年放棄。你必須選擇一個好品牌： Shinola和，比方說安然，差別是巨大的;同時你還必須小心處理。品牌復(fù)興最成功的案例當(dāng)中，有很多對品牌進(jìn)行了重新定位。 Henry Juszkiewicz之所以能讓吉布森吉他死而復(fù)生，是因?yàn)樗麑Ｗ⒂谀觊L的律師和醫(yī)生，而不是生存都成問題的年輕音樂人，理由是前者愿意掏兩萬美元，買下和艾瑞克·克萊普頓、吉米·佩吉同一品牌的吉他。之后他又加上了 Slingerland鼓和Wurlitzer 自動唱機(jī)?？藙诘蠆W·卡斯蒂格利奧尼復(fù)興家族品牌 MV奧古斯塔，就是通過將經(jīng)典競賽自行車重新定位為中端敞篷跑車。
Such quibbles aside, rediscovering and restoring a neglected brand, tapping into consumers' fond memories of times gone by, is surely a cost-effective way of competing in a marketing landscape where start-up costs are prohibitive and the chances of failure are high. If capitalism is a system of creative destruction, in Joseph Schumpeter's famous phrase, it is a system of creative reconstruction as well.
盡管存在種種爭議，在起步費(fèi)用高昂，失敗幾率極高的當(dāng)今市場，挖掘和重塑一個被遺忘的品牌，挑起消費(fèi)者美好的回憶，絕對是一個性價比頗高的競爭手段。如果說資本主義是一個創(chuàng)造性毀滅的體系，就像約瑟夫·熊彼特的那句名言，它也是一個創(chuàng)造性重建的體系。
Schumpeter 熊彼特
Hidden gems
束之高閣的寶藏
Reviving old brands sometimes makes more sense than creating new ones
有時，重啟舊品牌比創(chuàng)造新品牌更有價值
“CASH IN THE ATTIC” is one of the jewels in the BBC's crown: “The show that turns hidden treasures into cash and viewers' dreams into reality”. The format is as addictive as it is straightforward. A camera crew turns up at an ordinary-looking house and searches the attic and other nooks and crannies for things that might have hidden value. The choicest items are sold at auction. Joy is unconfined when a ragged doll turns out to be worth a small fortune. The business world has its own version of this game: entrepreneurs rummaging in corporate attics for neglected but valuable old brands. It is thanks to such treasure-hunting that you can ride an MV Agusta motorbike, wear a Shinola watch, stuff yourself with Twinkies, wash them down with Orangina and play a Gibson guitar.
“閣樓里的寶藏”是BBC最熱門節(jié)目之一，“把束之高閣的寶貝換成錢，把觀眾的夢想變成現(xiàn)實(shí)”。節(jié)目形式不僅簡單，甚至容易上癮。一個拍攝團(tuán)隊來到一座普通的房子里，到閣樓和其他邊邊角角搜尋可能存在價值的東西。最珍貴的那部分會被拍賣。當(dāng)一個破舊的布娃娃賣出了一小筆錢時，總能帶來抑制不住的喜悅。商界也存在這樣的游戲：企業(yè)家們會從公司的閣樓里翻找被忽略的、卻仍有價值的老品牌。也正是因?yàn)檫@些尋寶活動，我們才能騎上奧古斯塔摩托車，戴 Shinola手表，吃Twinkies 奶油蛋糕吃到撐，再喝上一大罐 Orangina，玩一會兒吉布森吉他。
There are two reasons why such rummaging is so popular. The first is that companies often discard brands that contain plenty of what marketers call “equity”. In plain English, ones that people still remember fondly. Healthy brands can be sacrificed on the altars of corporate takeovers and restructurings: Brim Coffee bit the dust when a succession of mergers and acquisitions left it sharing a stable with Maxwell House; Procter & Gamble abandoned White Cloud toilet paper to focus on its Charmin brand. Or they can become orphans when their parent companies die: former household names that are currently looking for a new guardian include Hidden Magic hairspray, Climax ginger ale and Puss'n Boots cat food.
這種翻箱倒柜之所以如此盛行，原因有二。首先，公司經(jīng)常會丟棄一些充滿了營銷專家所說的“資產(chǎn)”的品牌。簡單來說，就是那些仍然存在于人們美好記憶中的品牌。好品牌有時會成為公司收購重組時的犧牲品。在一系列收購兼并之后， Brim咖啡不得不和麥斯威爾咖啡同處一室，最后一敗涂地;寶潔為了集中發(fā)展 Charmin，拋棄白云衛(wèi)生紙。有時，當(dāng)母公司破產(chǎn)，旗下品牌便成了孤兒： Hidden Magic噴發(fā)定型劑,Climax 姜汁汽水和 Puss'sn Boots貓食都曾是家喻戶曉的名字，如今全在尋找下一位東家。
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The second reason is that reviving an old brand often beats spending months and millions on creating a new one, with a lower risk of failure. If something has worked before there is a good chance that it will work again. Old brands come with ready-made logos, slogans, jingles and memories. Brim Coffee's previous owners had spent 35 years and hundreds of millions of dollars drumming the phrase “Fill it to the rim—with Brim” into American brains. Besides equity, another folkloric quality brands are said to need is “authenticity”: whereas Wally Olins, a veteran branding expert, warns creators of new brands that the worst thing they can do is to try to fake this (see article), old brands are more likely to possess it.
第二大原因，重啟老品牌經(jīng)常好過花數(shù)月時間、砸數(shù)百萬美元來創(chuàng)造新品牌，而且失敗的可能性還更低。一樣?xùn)|西如果曾經(jīng)成功過，就極可能再一次成功。老品牌有現(xiàn)成的標(biāo)志，口號，廣告語和回憶。 Brim咖啡曾經(jīng)的老東家們花了 35年時間、投入數(shù)億美元讓“倒?jié)M杯緣為止”這句話深深烙在美國人腦海中。除了資產(chǎn)，另一個傳說中的品牌必要特質(zhì)是“正宗”。資深品牌專家威利·奧林斯警告新品牌創(chuàng)造者們，他們能做的最糟糕的事情就是裝得很“正宗”;而老品牌則更可能擁有這一特質(zhì)。
The simplest version of this strategy is for a company to revive one of its own brands. The textbook case is Volkswagen's revival of the Beetle in the 1990s. VW played on nostalgia for the 1960s, when the Beetle became the semi-official vehicle of the hippie movement, while reassuring purchasers that it was thoroughly modern: “l(fā)ess flower, more power”. A second version is for a healthy firm to take over an ailing rival's brands and breathe new life into them. BMW acquired Mini when it bought Rover in 1994, retooled the car to German standards, and made it a huge success.
實(shí)施這種策略，最簡單的方式莫過于重啟公司過去已有的品牌。一個被寫進(jìn)教科書中的案例是上世紀(jì)九十年代大眾甲殼蟲的重生。大眾打的是六十年代的復(fù)古牌，當(dāng)時它可是嬉皮運(yùn)動人士的半官方座駕，但同時它讓買家堅信這款車從內(nèi)到外都是現(xiàn)代的：“更少點(diǎn)綴，更多動力。“第二種方式，是讓一家健康的企業(yè)收購正在衰落的對手的品牌，并讓其重現(xiàn)生機(jī)。 1994年，寶馬收購路虎之后獲得 Mini品牌。重整為德國標(biāo)準(zhǔn)汽車之后， Mini大獲成功。
There are now companies that, like the BBC's antique-hunters, specialise in rooting out undervalued gems. The Himmel Group, based in Florida, buys old health and beauty brands and relaunches them with a blitz of advertising. Its successes include Ovaltine, a hot drink, Topol tooth polish and Lavoris, a mouthwash. Private-equity groups have also become enthusiastic recyclers. In 2006 the Blackstone Group and Lion Capital joined forces to buy the rights outside America to Orangina, a soft-drink brand discarded by Cadbury, and sold it three years later to Suntory of Japan, realising a 30% annual return on equity. In 2013 Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co acquired Hostess Brands for 410m, and relaunched Twinkies and Ho Hos in what it billed as “the sweetest comeback in the history of ever”. Supermarkets are also savvy purchasers, buying old brands and keeping their distinctive appearance, to justify charging a bit more than for their own-label products. Walmart did this with White Cloud nappies andtissues, for example.
和BBC的尋寶活動一樣，如今有一些公司專門挖掘那些價值被低估的寶藏。福羅里達(dá)的 Himmel集團(tuán)買下老的保健和美容品牌，通過廣告轟炸再次將它們推向市場。成功案例包括熱飲料 Ovaltine，美白牙膏Topol 和漱口水 Lavoris。同樣熱衷于回收再利用的還有私募集團(tuán)。 2006年，黑石集團(tuán)和利安資本合力買下 Orangina的海外所有權(quán)。Orangina是吉百利公司丟棄的軟飲料品牌。三年后，兩家投資公司將其賣給日本的三得利，獲得 30%的年股本回報率。2013年，阿波羅全球管理和梅特珀羅斯公司以 4.1億美元買下美國面包生產(chǎn)商 Hostess Brands，并重啟 Twinkies和Ho Hos 兩大品牌，被其稱作“最甜蜜回歸”。超市也是精明的買家，買下老品牌，保留其獨(dú)特的外觀，以便收取比自有品牌稍高一些的價格，如沃爾瑪對白云尿布和餐巾紙的處理方式。
Some striking examples of brand revival are the work of individual entrepreneurs. Shinola was once such a successful producer of shoe polish that Americans reprimanded each other with the phrase, “You can't tell shit from Shinola.” Tom Kartsotis, a college drop-out turned businessman, revived the name for a new company that produces luxury watches in Detroit and sells them for up to 975 each. The East India Company once controlled half the world's trade, commanded its own army and issued its own currency, but went out of business in 1873. Sanjiv Mehta, an Indian diamond trader, bought the brand in 2005 and applied it to a new, upmarket retail chain.
一些品牌的驚天大逆轉(zhuǎn)是由企業(yè)家們個人完成的。 Shinola曾是極成功的鞋油品牌，美國人在埋怨對方的時候甚至?xí)f：“你啥也不知道，連 Shinola都不知道!”大學(xué)輟學(xué)改做生意的 Tom Kartsotis在一家新公司重塑了Shinola品牌，這是一家底特律的奢侈表公司，手表每塊能賣到 975美元。東印度公司曾經(jīng)控制世界一半的貿(mào)易，有自己的軍隊和貨幣，卻在 1873年破產(chǎn)。2005 年，印度珠寶交易商 Sanjiv Mehta買下這一品牌，以此命名一家新開的高端零售連鎖店。
Whole lotta lolly
一大堆棒棒糖
There is no guarantee that your dead brand in the attic will turn into cash: Daimler tried to revive its Maybach luxury marque as a competitor to Rolls-Royce and Bentley, but sales were dire, and it gave up in 2013. You need to choose your brand well—there is a big difference between Shinola and, say, Enron—and manage its revival carefully. Many of the most successful exercises in reviving brands are also exercises in repositioning them. Henry Juszkiewicz revitalised Gibson Guitars because he focused on selling to ageing lawyers and doctors, who were willing to pay 20,000 to own the same type of guitar as Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, rather than struggling young musicians. He has since added brands such as Slingerland drums and Wurlitzer jukeboxes to his portfolio. Claudio Castiglioni revived his family's MV Agusta brand by repositioning a classic racing bike as a mid-market roadster.
沒人能保證，在閣樓里躺著的品牌一定能賺錢：為與勞斯萊斯和賓利抗衡，戴姆勒下力氣復(fù)興奢侈品牌梅巴赫，但業(yè)績暗淡，最終在 2013年放棄。你必須選擇一個好品牌： Shinola和，比方說安然，差別是巨大的;同時你還必須小心處理。品牌復(fù)興最成功的案例當(dāng)中，有很多對品牌進(jìn)行了重新定位。 Henry Juszkiewicz之所以能讓吉布森吉他死而復(fù)生，是因?yàn)樗麑Ｗ⒂谀觊L的律師和醫(yī)生，而不是生存都成問題的年輕音樂人，理由是前者愿意掏兩萬美元，買下和艾瑞克·克萊普頓、吉米·佩吉同一品牌的吉他。之后他又加上了 Slingerland鼓和Wurlitzer 自動唱機(jī)?？藙诘蠆W·卡斯蒂格利奧尼復(fù)興家族品牌 MV奧古斯塔，就是通過將經(jīng)典競賽自行車重新定位為中端敞篷跑車。
Such quibbles aside, rediscovering and restoring a neglected brand, tapping into consumers' fond memories of times gone by, is surely a cost-effective way of competing in a marketing landscape where start-up costs are prohibitive and the chances of failure are high. If capitalism is a system of creative destruction, in Joseph Schumpeter's famous phrase, it is a system of creative reconstruction as well.
盡管存在種種爭議，在起步費(fèi)用高昂，失敗幾率極高的當(dāng)今市場，挖掘和重塑一個被遺忘的品牌，挑起消費(fèi)者美好的回憶，絕對是一個性價比頗高的競爭手段。如果說資本主義是一個創(chuàng)造性毀滅的體系，就像約瑟夫·熊彼特的那句名言，它也是一個創(chuàng)造性重建的體系。