听力小Tips: 这是一篇CNN记者对Adidas现任CEO赫尔伯特海纳的采访。访谈围绕Adidas的品牌运作、金融危机的影响以及Adidas对2010年世界杯的赞助这三个方面进行。要提高口语水平,打通听力是非常必要的。一来是反复听发音准确的原声材料,进行模仿练习,熟悉英语的语流;再来是通过听带有口音的材料发现口语发音的误区,进行辨音纠正练习。这则材料会给大家的听力理解带来一定的难度,因为海纳是一名德国人,所以他的英语带有德国口音。大家听的时候注意好好辨认。访谈结束会有一段录音材料,是我们特地请外教把海纳的话重新录了一遍,以帮助大家更好地进行区分。
发音：美式发音 语速：180词/分钟 使用方法：泛听+复述
Hostess: Where does your business make its money, obviously you have 1)tangible aspects such as selling T-shirts, but the intangible such as the brand association with, say, the World Cup. Uh, how lucrative is that for you? Where do you make your money?
Herbert Hainer: When with the sponsorship like that, you have two different aspects, you have the tangible and the intangible aspect as you have mentioned already. Of course we can already count (on) how many shirts we have sold during the World Cup 2006 in Germany.
Hostess: How many was it?
Herbert Hainer: It was over three million 2)replica jerseys from all the teams which were competing, and our brand name, it was 1.5 million just alone from the German Team. We sold over or nearly 15 million balls with the Teamgeist design which was a special design for the World Cup 2006. But this is a tangible 3)asset. But on the other hand, you have so many millions and millions of 4)spectators, TV viewers who are seeing your brand 5)permanently, and then going afterwards into stores and buying your brand. Of course this we can not measure and count. But overall, I think that these investments and as I’ve said before when you see the performance of our company, then this is really worthwhile, and we do not 6)calculate it and name it as a cost, it is an investment into the future of our company.
Hostess: How has global financial crisis affected your business?
Herbert Hainer: We can not escape the financial crisis as well, but I’m absolutely convinced that our industry is by far not as affected as some other industry like the car industry, 7)etcetera.
Hostess: Why?
Herbert Hainer: I do believe that there is a big desire in the community for people that they wanna be fit, they wanna stay in shape and they wanna do sport. This is point No.1. Point No.2, our products are not that expensive, so we are talking about 50 to 100 Euro, and these products are 8)affordable to a wide variety of people.
Hostess: In terms of sponsorship, are you getting the returns now that you expected when you signed up for these deals years ago?
Herbert Hainer: Definitely. Because when you look to(at) the last(past) 10 years and the development and the performance of our company, then you’ll have seen that we have permanently grown our business. And we went from one record year to the other, and this is because we are investing in the future of our business. And an investment into a World Cup is not just for one year whether there is a financial crisis or not. This is a long-term investment in the brand building, and into the performance of our future. And therefore, I’m absolutely convinced I would write this cheque again.
Hostess: Could you write that cheque in the current economic climate?
Herbert Hainer: Definitely. I mean we are a very healthy company as you well know. We have a very healthy balance sheet, we are producing a lot of cash, we are very profitable. So, yeah, we are definitely in the position to write this cheque again.
主持人:你们公司的盈利来源于哪里?很明显,你拥有有形资产,如衣服的销售。此外,还有无形资产,如品牌联合(战略),比方说世界杯。嗯,这些是如何使你获利的?你是靠什么赚钱的?
赫尔伯特·海纳:讲到商业赞助,通常会涉及两个方面,正如你上面所提到的,一个是有形资产,另一个是无形资产。当然了,我们已经计算出在2006年德国世界杯期间我们共卖出了多少球衣。
主持人:多少?
赫尔伯特·海纳:我们共售出了超过300万套印有我们商标的所有参赛队伍的球迷版球衣,其中单是德国队球衣就售出了150万件。我们售出了超过或是接近1500万只采用了“团队之星”设计的2006世界杯指定用球。这些都属于有形资产。但另一方面,会有上百、上千万现场观众以及电视机前的观众不断地看到你的品牌,于是他们过后会到商店里去买你的产品。当然这方面的数据我们是无法估计和计算的。但总的来说,我认为这些投资,还有我前面提到的你所看到的我们公司的表现,都显示出这么做是非常值得的,而我们不会去估算,也不会将其视为一种成本,它算是对我们公司未来的一种投资。
主持人:全球金融危机给你们带来怎样的影响?
赫尔伯特·海纳:我们当然也无法逃过金融危机的冲击,但我绝对相信到目前为止我们的行业并未遭受像其他某些行业所遭受的重创,如汽车行业,等等。
主持人:为什么?
赫尔伯特·海纳:我认为在社会上人们有一个强烈的愿望,就是他们想拥有健康的体魄,保持健美的身材,他们想运动。这是第一点。第二点,我们的产品并不是很贵,一般是50到100欧元,这样的价格是绝大部分人负担得起的。
主持人:关于赞助,现在你是否已经得到你几年前所签订那些交易时所预期的利益?
赫尔伯特·海纳:这是一定的。因为当你回顾过去10年我们公司的发展和表现,你会看到我们的公司在不断地扩展我们的业务。我们创造了一个又一个最佳畅销年度,而这正是因为我们一直在投资我们的未来。不管是否发生金融危机,对于世界杯的投资并不是只关乎一年的事情。这是对于品牌建设和公司未来远景的长期投资。因此,我坚信我会再次签下这张支票(指赞助世界杯)。
主持人:在当前的经济形势下你也会签了这张支票?
赫尔伯特·海纳:肯定会。我是说正如你所知道的,我们是一个运行良好的公司。我们的资产负债表状况非常好,我们有创造价值,是一家盈利颇丰的企业。所以,是的,我们是绝对可以再次成为世界杯的赞助商。